IB Literature Online Portolio
Throughout this school year, my IB English class has involved the study of a variety of works.
The first works that we studied were those of Mary Oliver. In all honesty, I found these works a little difficult to get into and appreciate, though I believe much of this was due to it being the beginning of the school year. I did, however, quickly catch on to how to swiftly and efficiently annotate poetry. This annotation itself is what helped me most and gave me the tools to deeply understand and evaluate poetry in general.
The second work that was used for this course was For The Time Being by Annie Dillard. This work was easily one of the most complex, adult, and philosophical ones that I have studied in my school career. Pastiche helped a great deal in giving a more thorough understanding of her writing style, and the IOP helped my delve deep into a specific aspect of a multi-faceted and engaging work. This work was very easy for me to involve myself with, as it was very appealing and very well written. Also I have to thank this work for giving me a crash course in annotating literature. Annotation was essential for its multitude of plot threads and innumerable meanings threaded through it.
The third, and final work of part four, was Zora Neale Hurston's classic Harlem Renaissance novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Admittedly, this work held little of my interest and I found the phonetic dialogue to be challenging, and the characters to be problematic. However, this was the work that greatly helped me in learning to appreciate an author's choices even if I did not like the work itself. Reading various literary criticisms, especially the one regarding the novel's connection to myth, helped deepen my understanding and appreciation, as it led me to the realization that novels can be interpreted differently when viewed under different critical lenses. Along with that, it opened my eyes to an era that is quite important to America but is rarely talked about.
The works studied in part one felt easier for me in some ways, but that is entirely due to the skills I picked up through analyzing the works in part four.
We began part one by reading a work written by Yukio Mishima, The Sound of Waves. Easily, it is the most positive and in certain ways traditional work that we read this year. It was a love story, written to incorporate many of Mishima's views about the Westernization of Japanese culture. Reading this work with the knowledge that it had been translated from its original language and the connotations that might have prepared me for the very evident translation difficulties found in a later work, the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska. Reading Mishima's novel was eye opening in that it was a clear cut example of how the work is influenced by the personal views of the author and the cultural environment it comes from, something that was useful to realize when we read Miss Julie. This was particularly apparent due to my IO on The Sound of Waves, which involved researching traditional Japanese culture and the personal views of Yukio Mishima very heavily.
August Strindberg's play Miss Julie, the second work, was another that had been heavily influenced by the views of the author and the cultural issues during the time it was written. A snapshot of late 1800s misogyny, it was a controversial piece that sparked many discussions in class. It helped with learning the aspects of plays as opposed to poems and novels, and was a good work to reveal intentional but subtle use of symbolism. It was also intriguing in that it gave us the ability to not only read the work, but to view how it translated into an actual performance. Writing the journals was a good experience for me, as my ability to do so improved greatly and it served as a nice way to deeply examine a short work. It had heavy social connotations, being entirely about the roles of gender and class, and provided a clear view of how naturalism and the life experiences of Strindberg shaped his works.
The third, final works we analyzed were the poems of Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish poet. Reminiscent of For The Time Being, the poems tended to be dark and have a lot of commentary on the human condition and various life experiences. It became clear that my ability to appreciate and annotate poetry had grown immensely over the year. I could do deep analysis that addressed many aspects of poetry when we approached these particular works. I quite enjoyed them, in honesty. Speaking with a poetry major and discussing these poems in class lent a lot to my appreciation and understanding of these deceptively simple appearing works.
This year held ups and downs, in class and outside of it. Thankfully, I have grown in both. There were many works I enjoyed; Szymborska's, Mishima's, and Dillard's, namely. Annie Dillard's For The Time Being was arguably the most influential though. It handled so much dark subject matter with gallows humor and a heavy sarcasm, and touched on huge aspects. I had never read I work like it before. It resonated with me. Perhaps it was the detached tone or the lack of fear of controversial statements. It helped me when I was going through a difficult time, which is humorous I suppose, in retrospect, because it was a very dark work if viewed through many lenses. As a scholar, it helped me grasp the idea of deep meaning being within a work, and that in certain times annotation would be necessary. Her imagery and style is admirable, and I appreciate her work greatly. I hope to read more of her works in my spare time.
Szymborska's works did for poetry what For The Time Being did for literature, in my mind. It was dark, enjoyable, and wonderfully deep. I know that “Advertisement” will stick with me for a long time due to a lot of personal resonance, and I'm looking to purchase of book of her other poems. My appreciation for poems skyrocketed due to her works.
As a final, passing note, I'd like to add a bit about my appreciation for The Sound of Waves. While it served as an amazing window into the immaturity of my class, I found it to be a wonderful novel. The descriptions were beautiful and more akin to poetry than prose, and the positive and predictable plot with little conflict was a nice contrast against the darker works. For me to appreciate such a simplistic love story with no tragedy involved, it has to be a particularly well done work. The heavy connections to Yukio Mishima's views on Westernization were an added bonus, and I enjoy finding the social climates that birthed works I enjoy.
I have grown very much over this past year as both reader, scholar, and human being.
The first works that we studied were those of Mary Oliver. In all honesty, I found these works a little difficult to get into and appreciate, though I believe much of this was due to it being the beginning of the school year. I did, however, quickly catch on to how to swiftly and efficiently annotate poetry. This annotation itself is what helped me most and gave me the tools to deeply understand and evaluate poetry in general.
The second work that was used for this course was For The Time Being by Annie Dillard. This work was easily one of the most complex, adult, and philosophical ones that I have studied in my school career. Pastiche helped a great deal in giving a more thorough understanding of her writing style, and the IOP helped my delve deep into a specific aspect of a multi-faceted and engaging work. This work was very easy for me to involve myself with, as it was very appealing and very well written. Also I have to thank this work for giving me a crash course in annotating literature. Annotation was essential for its multitude of plot threads and innumerable meanings threaded through it.
The third, and final work of part four, was Zora Neale Hurston's classic Harlem Renaissance novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Admittedly, this work held little of my interest and I found the phonetic dialogue to be challenging, and the characters to be problematic. However, this was the work that greatly helped me in learning to appreciate an author's choices even if I did not like the work itself. Reading various literary criticisms, especially the one regarding the novel's connection to myth, helped deepen my understanding and appreciation, as it led me to the realization that novels can be interpreted differently when viewed under different critical lenses. Along with that, it opened my eyes to an era that is quite important to America but is rarely talked about.
The works studied in part one felt easier for me in some ways, but that is entirely due to the skills I picked up through analyzing the works in part four.
We began part one by reading a work written by Yukio Mishima, The Sound of Waves. Easily, it is the most positive and in certain ways traditional work that we read this year. It was a love story, written to incorporate many of Mishima's views about the Westernization of Japanese culture. Reading this work with the knowledge that it had been translated from its original language and the connotations that might have prepared me for the very evident translation difficulties found in a later work, the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska. Reading Mishima's novel was eye opening in that it was a clear cut example of how the work is influenced by the personal views of the author and the cultural environment it comes from, something that was useful to realize when we read Miss Julie. This was particularly apparent due to my IO on The Sound of Waves, which involved researching traditional Japanese culture and the personal views of Yukio Mishima very heavily.
August Strindberg's play Miss Julie, the second work, was another that had been heavily influenced by the views of the author and the cultural issues during the time it was written. A snapshot of late 1800s misogyny, it was a controversial piece that sparked many discussions in class. It helped with learning the aspects of plays as opposed to poems and novels, and was a good work to reveal intentional but subtle use of symbolism. It was also intriguing in that it gave us the ability to not only read the work, but to view how it translated into an actual performance. Writing the journals was a good experience for me, as my ability to do so improved greatly and it served as a nice way to deeply examine a short work. It had heavy social connotations, being entirely about the roles of gender and class, and provided a clear view of how naturalism and the life experiences of Strindberg shaped his works.
The third, final works we analyzed were the poems of Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish poet. Reminiscent of For The Time Being, the poems tended to be dark and have a lot of commentary on the human condition and various life experiences. It became clear that my ability to appreciate and annotate poetry had grown immensely over the year. I could do deep analysis that addressed many aspects of poetry when we approached these particular works. I quite enjoyed them, in honesty. Speaking with a poetry major and discussing these poems in class lent a lot to my appreciation and understanding of these deceptively simple appearing works.
This year held ups and downs, in class and outside of it. Thankfully, I have grown in both. There were many works I enjoyed; Szymborska's, Mishima's, and Dillard's, namely. Annie Dillard's For The Time Being was arguably the most influential though. It handled so much dark subject matter with gallows humor and a heavy sarcasm, and touched on huge aspects. I had never read I work like it before. It resonated with me. Perhaps it was the detached tone or the lack of fear of controversial statements. It helped me when I was going through a difficult time, which is humorous I suppose, in retrospect, because it was a very dark work if viewed through many lenses. As a scholar, it helped me grasp the idea of deep meaning being within a work, and that in certain times annotation would be necessary. Her imagery and style is admirable, and I appreciate her work greatly. I hope to read more of her works in my spare time.
Szymborska's works did for poetry what For The Time Being did for literature, in my mind. It was dark, enjoyable, and wonderfully deep. I know that “Advertisement” will stick with me for a long time due to a lot of personal resonance, and I'm looking to purchase of book of her other poems. My appreciation for poems skyrocketed due to her works.
As a final, passing note, I'd like to add a bit about my appreciation for The Sound of Waves. While it served as an amazing window into the immaturity of my class, I found it to be a wonderful novel. The descriptions were beautiful and more akin to poetry than prose, and the positive and predictable plot with little conflict was a nice contrast against the darker works. For me to appreciate such a simplistic love story with no tragedy involved, it has to be a particularly well done work. The heavy connections to Yukio Mishima's views on Westernization were an added bonus, and I enjoy finding the social climates that birthed works I enjoy.
I have grown very much over this past year as both reader, scholar, and human being.