REVIEW for TEST 8th April 2017

The Literature questions on your next test will be based on:

1) The Norman conquest and King William I
2) Reign of Henry II and the most important aspects of his time
3) The Magna Carta and the first Parliament
4) The Black Death
5) Abstract made concrete
6) Medival Drama

19 - THE ENGLISH BALLAD

Read about the history of the ballad, watch video and for a class project prepare a video on the ballad "Lord Randall"

THE MEDIEVAL BALLAD:  "Lord Randall"

Watch video and then prepare a video on "Lord Randall":

The medieval ballad

The ballad is composed of four-line stanzas. There is repetition, no moral aim, rapid flashes, mixture of dialogue and narration with real and supernatural characters. The main themes are: the supernatural, war, love and family tragedies.

The most famous medieval ballad is by an anonymous author called “Edward”. It talks about a man who kills his father and wants to exile to sea. His mother asks him what he will do with his property and he answers her with a curse sending her to hell.

Medieval ballads were orally transmitted through the ages. They are short, anonymous narrative poems or songs set to music and they would change from country to country. They are simple in form and language, made up of quatrains with a repeated refrain in order to be easily remembered.

Ballads usually tell a particular story of some tragic event (a murder or death) and includes supernatural elements. Some are based on well-known legendary figures (like Robin Hood) or real historical events.

Summary - Lord Randal - Anonymous

Lord Randal is an anonymous medieval ballad based on Scottish traditions and it began to be diffused in the Middle Ages. It is said to have analogues in German and Italian. It was set to music because it was meant to be sung rather than read and also to increase its poetic quality. It is simple in language and structure.

It is made up of 10 quatrains with a rhyme scheme abab. It is an equally-divided, direct question-and-answer dialogue between a mother and her son. The setting is Lord Randal’s home. It is divided into two parts.

The first part contains the first 5 stanzas and it is about a mother who asks her son where he has been and what he has done. He answers that he has been in the greenwood to meet his true-love. Through this first part, there is the repeated refrain in the last part of the first three lines and the whole fourth line.

In the second part, there is a turning point in the 6^th stanza, in which the mother discovers that her son has been poisoned by his true-love. The second part is a sort of will in which the mother asks her son what he will leave to her, his sister, his brother and his true-love. He answers he will leave his mother 24 cattle; he will leave his sister silver and gold; he will leave his brother his lands; and finally, he will leave his true-love hell and fire. In this part, there is the repeated refrain in the last part of the first three lines and the whole fourth line.

 The most important aspect is not the death of Lord Randal, but his tragic story with the magical and mysterious atmosphere surrounding his pending death.

18 - 6-word stories

THE BEST 6-word stories:

Fabiana:  "More texts, I want to die."

Rita:  "One guy, 2 diamonds, 3 cops."

Anna:  "A ballerina, pink pointes, on stage."

Carola:  "An island, two people, a letter."

Teresa:  "Beautiful day: my friends, special picnic."

Marianna:  "Screech...child's ball bouncing, bouncing...."

17 - YOUR TRAVEL LOG

Go to blog to find out more on school trips:

http://albertininolatravels.blogspot.it/

16 - Alternanza Scuola Lavoro website

Go to your "Alternanza Scuola-lavoro" website to find out more on translations done in class:


http://aslalbertininola.blogspot.it/

15 - Medieval Drama: Miracle Plays vs. Morality Plays

The medieval drama

Miracle plays were performed on pageants and acted in English. The actors were member of the guilds and the main themes were Biblical scenes and characters.

Morality plays contain invented plots. There is the personification of vices and virtues of that time and the characters are not Biblical. Here it is important the psychological interpretation of the character.

“The Book of Counts” is a play that talks about the story of Everyman, a merchant who is summoned by Death and finds out that everything he has loved during his life will not help him on his journey to the grave. However, he is not ready to go and asks for more time before appearing before God.

Interludes are short stories that combine serious and comic elements where the characters use masks.

SYLLABUS of academic year 2016 - 2017

TEMATICHE  DISCIPLINARI

Theme: The Arts – Music, the Theatre and the Cinema

ARGOMENTI	TEMPI
GRAMMAR REVISION Past Perfect Simple/ Past Perfect Continuous Periodo ipotetico Present perfect Simple /Present Perfect Continuous Modal verbs : might / may  /could / be able to Passivo	Settembre Ottobre
The Anglo-Saxon period First invasions: Iberians, Celts, and  Romans The Danes, the Vikings; The Anglo-Saxons; Alfred the Great and Anglo-Saxon culture; Anglo-Saxon literature; Pagan epic poetry “Beowulf”. The development of the English language.   The origins of literature Various genres: drama , poetry and prose. Ballads: “Robin Hood” and metrical romances   The Middle Age The Norman Conquest; Feudalism in England; The Plantagenets; The houses of Lancaster and York and the end of an age.  Medieval literature Geoffrey Chaucer: “The Canterbury Tales”; Medieval drama: Miracle and Morality Plays	Novembre Dicembre Gennaio Febbraio  Marzo
The Renaissance The Tudor period; The Elizabethan Age; English Humanism; Elizabethan sonnets: Sir Philip Sidney & Edmund Spenser ; Drama in the Elizabethan Age; Christopher Marlowe: “Doctor Faustus”; William Shakespeare: life and works Shakespeare’s sonnet: “Shall I compare thee” and “Romeo & Juliet”	Aprile Maggio