Canterbury Tales Transmedia Remix

Geoffrey Chaucer incorporated several themes into his Canterbury Tales work; the two most exemplary include the imperfection of prevalent, courtly love and standards of society the characters must achieve for acceptance. Courtly love is omnipresent through this framed narration of varying interpreters of this journey society explores and the many routes one takes to become satisfied with the socially accepted “norm.” The narrators explore the series of paths one takes to be accepted by society’s standards of marriage which exists in Canterbury Tales as a legal, obligation to loyal companionship rather than the voluntary union from both individuals who share a passionate romance. The irony in all of this is society created these standards in hopes of accomplishing happiness on this journey through life. In the end, it appears that the knight who wins society’s acceptance, loses the goal of life and every short story; to live happily ever after.

This picture represents the beauty of creating an individual journey and how there will be a light, an opportunity that will lead to happiness. 

           Courtly love and its flaws to a “happily ever after”

-arranged marriage between Emelye and the knight who wins social acceptance by winning the battle

-fighting for love physically instead of emotionally winning Emelye’s heart resulting in her desire to want to be single and independent

-Palamon wins the battle, but is thrown off his horse and dies resembling the flaw of gaining happiness by following society’s standards to acceptance.

I chose this picture from The Wedding Planner because Jennifer Lopez is having a marriage, prearranged by her father. You can tell that she is unhappy which demonstrates courtly love may have been traditional and up to par with society’s standards/”social norm,” but it doesn’t live to the individual’s happiness.

Standards of Society:

-Money defines an individual’s worth in the story rather than one’s soul.

-The importance of individuality shown by the varying stories told in hopes to impress.

-The characters are trying to become unique by being accepted in society when being unique is following an individual path versus everyone else’s.

-social ladder and popularity defining one’s worth and happiness

I chose the movie Easy A because it resembles how following your own path in life and going outside of society’s acceptance can ultimately lead you to your soul mate, helping to create your individual happily ever after.

                Canterbury Tales explores the strengths and flaws through characterization in their journey to find their individual happily ever after. In the end, it is clear that society’s idol is doomed to fail because individuality cannot be achieved by following the standards of social acceptance. Love cannot be called forth by trumping death, but by trumping one’s heart. As we explore human nature in Canterbury Tales, we learn the ironic truth to be told; happiness comes from the individual, not society.

The Point of Canterbury Tales is...

Geoffrey Chaucer incorporated several themes into his Canterbury Tales work; the most exemplary of all being the imperfection of prevalent, courtly love as well and social acceptance.

GREEN EGGS & HAMLET

a) All that I know about Hamlet is that he is a well known writer from back in the day and that's about it. His works, I'm guessing are pretty traditional and might be full of puns and traditional, old English.
b) I know that Shakespeare is a famous writer whose most famous works include Julius Ceasar and Romeo and Juliet. I really don't know that much about Shakespeare, but I know he uses old English and that his works are often humorous and they use a lot of literary devices which calls for the reader to review his works several times to understand the literal meaning.
c) So many students involuntarily frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare" because his works, although admirable, are hard to understand due to his use of old English and complicated syntax and diction. Today, students like short, fast pace, modern styles of writing that are straight forward and easier to understand and relate to whereas Shakespeare brings his audience back to hundreds of years ago which forces us, indolent students, to use our creativity to image life that seems so foreign and relate these ancient characters to ourselves and their actions to our daily lives.
d) We can make this learning experience of Shakespearean plays more interesting and fun by learning interactively through skits and maybe that will help us to create a more modern approach to this ancient, traditional work of literature. By taking steps to help relate and understand the culture of the Shakespearean time period, it will grow more of a connection to Shakespeare's characters and build a greater respect and connection to his literature. It's always more fun when the reader can relate to fictional characters.

Character Study (III)

Today is Saturday and something miraculous happened. After I wrote my last homesick letter, I fell asleep and was woken up by my roommate’s brother. He asked where his sister went and I couldn't speak of course due to my limitation of dancing and the fact that he looked like Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend. He must have thought I was paralyzed, which I was from not dancing, and so he pitied me with a cookie. I shook my head in rejection to the cookie. I refuse to participate in the “Freshman Fifteen” that seems popular for most students. I found out he was a teacher’s assistant/ demonstrator for one of the dance professors at UCLA.

 “Well,” he began, “I was just hoping to give my sister some dance posters to hang up for the show that’s coming up.” I was in heaven. Finally, someone who loved dance! I was absolutely speechless and I began to cry. He looked at me with confusion and handed me a ticket saying, “I don’t know if you’re interested, but sometimes dance has a way of curing everything. Sometimes I hurt because I dance, other times I dance because I’m hurt, but either way, dance fixes it all.” He handed me a ticket to the dance show. This was an opportunity of a lifetime. The ticket showed her name, the greatest choreographer in all of America, Sonya Tayeh! My eyes doubled and I looked up like he was the Savior of Dance. “Want to come with me?” he asked. I nodded my head and smiled. “Alright so I’ll pick you up at five. Sonya needs help with casting her next show so there will be an audition for the spring performance, yeah?” I nodded my head with a smile once again and he departed.

I became overwhelmed. Not only was I invited to a show that is presenting  Sonya Tayeh’s art and voice, but an audition that could change my life forever. This was an opportunity to gain my voice back that I once had back home at Hancock. I was determined to make it happen; however, the few remained. “First,” I thought, “I need to get out of bed. Then, I need to gain back my physical endurance and physical coordination. Finally, I need to choreograph a dance for the audition and have the guts to perform in front of the global icon of dance, Sonya Tayeh.”