“Anagram: (Greek ‘writing back or anew’) The letters of a word or phrase are transposed to form a new word. For instance, the word ‘Stanhope’ can be turned into the word ‘phaetons.’ A common feature of crosswords. Samuel Butler’s title Erewhon is an anagram of ‘nowhere.'”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
There are several places along the continuum of English Language Arts instruction, I would think, where this Cultural Literacy worksheet on allusion could come in handy.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“A village explainer, excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not.”
Gertrude Stein, in Dictionary of Biographical Quotation 1978
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities, poetry
“…do you not know that there is not perhaps one page in Milton’s Paradise Lost in which he has not borrowed his imagry [sic] from the scriptures? I allow and rejoice that Christ only appealed to the understanding and affections; but I affirm that after reading Isaiah, of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Homer and Virgil are disgustingly tame to me and Milton himself barely tolerable.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Letters 1796
“I could never read ten lines together without stumbling over some Pedantry that tipped me at once out of Paradise, or even Hell, into the schoolroom, worse than either.”
Edward Fitzgerald, Letters, 1876
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities, poetry
Given the stunning decline in introspection and the pursuit of virtue in American culture, I wonder if anyone anywhere needs or wants this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Aesop’s Fables . If so, there it is.
Also, if you want to teach Aesop’s Fables, there are several lesson plans posted on this blog: just use Aesop’s Fables as a search term on the home page and you’ll find them.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Several students in the school in which I serve expressed interest in the literature of the Jazz Age and Gatsby in particular, so here is a short reading on The Great Gatsby along with the vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet that attends it.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“After reading some of Poe’s stories one feels a kind of shock to one’s modesty. We require some kind of spiritual ablution to cleanse our minds of his disgusting images.”
Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library 1874
“A verbal poet merely; empty of thought, empty of sympathy, empty of love for any real thing…he was not human and manly.”
John Burroughs, The Dial 1893
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities, poetry
“Double Entendre (noun): A provocative ambiguity in an expression, especially a humorous or risqué connotation in a word or phrase; double meaning. British: double-entente.
‘The editor was also often on the edge of panic about suspected double entendre, and after thirty-one years I recall his concern about an Arno drawing of one of his elderly gentlemen of the old school dancing with a warmly clinging young lady and saying, ‘Good God, woman, think of the social structure!’ Ross was really afraid that “social structure” could be interpreted to mean a certain distressing sexual phenomenon of human anatomy.’ James Thurber, The Years with Ross”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, poetry
“A science-fiction novel (1968, from his own screenplay) by Arthur C. Clarke (b. 1917). While the novel demonstrates Clarke’s ability to extrapolate from known data, it also represents a philosophical quest for the meaning of life and an investigation into the evolutionary process. 2010: Odyssey Two (1982) is a sequel; it was followed by 3001: the Final Odyssey (1997). The film version (1968), directed by Stanley Kubrick, was a masterly blend of technical wizardry and obscure symbolism, criticized by some for its tedium but praised by others for its moments of striking imagery. The music was by various composers, but most memorable of all was the ‘Sunrise’ opening of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896). The film acquired a cult status as a vision of the technological future, even if space exploration had not advanced nearly as far in reality by 2001. It inspired a sequel (1984) directed by Peter Hyams under the title 2010, but fans of the original movie were not impressed and gave it the alternative title Ten Past Eight.
David Bowie’s song ‘A Space Oddity‘ plays none too subtly on Clarke’s title.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, film/television/photography, music
“Mr. Percy’s prose needs oil and a good checkup.”
The New Yorker
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities
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