Title of the class: Contemporary British Literature
Age of students: 19-20 years old (4th
year of study)
General Topic: Contemporary British
Literature: changes the novels underwent
Topic of the class: Peter Ackroyd “The
House of Doctor Dee”
Type of the class: seminar
Goals of the class:
- To discuss the most important events that took place in the life of Peter Ackroyd.
- To highlight the main topics of the works by Peter Ackroyd.
- To make an analysis of “The House of Doctor Dee” by Peter Ackroyd.
- To compare two different worlds that Peter Ackroyd created in “The House of Doctor Dee”.
Course of the lesson:
1The class starts with
the presentation made by one of the students about the life and main works of
Peter Ackroyd. Than the students watch a.
short video (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17790481)
and discuss what additional information they have heard.
2.
The students come up to
the discussion of the novel itself. They are to:
·
state the main symbols
described in the novel
·
discuss what traits of characters
Matthew and Dr. Dee possess
·
compare the way of
describing Matthew and Dr. Dee that P. Ackroyd used (pay attention to the difference
between the prints used by the author)
·
show the structure of
the novel (pay attention to the titles of the chapters)
3.
After discussing all
that is stated earlier the students have up to 10 minutes to create an entry in
their web-logs that should contain the information about two characters (Matthew
and Dr. Dee). The entry should be like this
Matthew
Dr. Dee
Intuition History Reason
NO personal past House wide range of
interests
NOT interested in
reading Knowledge
Lonely
feeling
Father
London
(in the middle the
students should write what they think both characters possess)
4.
After creating their
entries the students are to make conclusions on what they have discussed during
the seminar. The following issues should be mentioned:
·
The topic of creating a
homunculus
·
The changes in the
surroundings (the house and what was around it earlier and what is around it “now”)
·
The idea of the
investigations as one of the ways to underline the similarity between the
characters (Matthew and Dr. Dee).
5.
Home assignment for the
students is to write a 2-page essay on the topic “Two men but one destiny” in which
they have to confirm or deny the idea of Matthew being a “son=homunculus” for
Dr. Dee. They need to post it in their web-logs 3 days before the next seminar.
Furthermore the students are to make comments on the entries of their groupmates
(at least 3 comments).
