I know you guys might not have read the entire summary of Ovid's text, but I encourage you to so you can have some background as to what I'm talking about right now.
The Metamorphoses' theme is one major reason to teach this text to our modern audiences today. They may not be able to envision what it would be like for Icarus to fly too close to the sun, but they can understand the consequences. The Metamorphoses teaches us about transformation, which all of our students are going through as they live in our modern worlds. Things change so fast for them; one minute they're in high school and the next they're ready for college. The Metamorphoses can provide some context and understanding of how to go through their own transformation. By reading these stories of transformation, students can begin to acclimate themselves to the transformations in their own lives and gain some sense of context.
After reading these myths, it is the hope that students will be able to interpret the myths they have read and notice the resemblance between them and their lives. Ovid's text is a masterpiece, but one that has no chronology. Ovid's text seems to bounce back and forth, but it mirrors the instability of the world we live in where chaos threatens to swallow the universal order. Stories refuse to start in the beginning, often telling about a protagonist who has misbehaved in some way. One story may morph into another story all together (frame narrative) where there are tragic elements scattered about. The text itself attempts break form and structure which we have been accustomed to. This resembles our lives and the world today. Think about globalization. It is spreading like wildfire and affecting almost every person in the world. That's BILLIONS of people. These tales, after reading them, can be used along with the strategies I've discussed before (making connections, visualizing, questioning) to make sense of the world we live in.
This following video is a pretty interesting discussion of Ovid and The Metamorphoses. Click it!
Pretty good, right? I thought so, too. So that's The Metamorphoses in a nutshell.
Schedule for this week is a little wacky, but I'll be discussing Beowulf. It should be pretty similar to the schedule I had before, but I'm going on a mini-vacation Thursday and I'm working another basketball camp this week, so we will see how everything works out. Whatever happens, you will get the full experience of Beowulf.
Later this evening I'll post some background on the epic which I know will get you guys excited about what's in store for this week.
Cassy
No comments:
Post a Comment