The concept of revenge is one of the oldest themes of literature and in some way or another has been a part of the oral tradition of humanity since time immemorial. Because of this I think it is important to explore it as a theme within our reading. I want to use this unit to cause my students to explore what revenge means to them, how they see it in older texts, (like the merchant of Venice) how those ideas have evolved in modern texts (like Oscar wao). I will also look at some traditional oral stories that follow the concept of revenge in order to show (Native American revenge stories)
From exploring revenge I hope to expand to the concept of justice which is my greater goal for the unit. There isn't much my students can do with revenge in today's society but with a concept of justice in their minds they might be able to make positive changes about the world around them. This change get's at the core of what I want my students to be able to do at the end of the unit. I want my students to take the texts that we are reading, the media that we are consuming and make something of it. Take it and change the world around them. I'm thinking I might ask them to write a letter to their congressperson, president or even something as small as the principle of the school with the intention of making their case for a change within whichever environment the recipient of their letter might have power.
Some of the texts that I am looking at incorporating is The Brief Wonderous life of Oscar Wao, The Merchant of Venice, and The revengers tragedy. I would also like to look at a couple of films like Judge Dredd and 12 angry men. From these texts and films I hope to form a narrative and really explore what it means to seek revenge, whether or not revenge and justice equal each other, if not how they are different, and what we can do with a concept of justice to make a change in the world.
From exploring revenge I hope to expand to the concept of justice which is my greater goal for the unit. There isn't much my students can do with revenge in today's society but with a concept of justice in their minds they might be able to make positive changes about the world around them. This change get's at the core of what I want my students to be able to do at the end of the unit. I want my students to take the texts that we are reading, the media that we are consuming and make something of it. Take it and change the world around them. I'm thinking I might ask them to write a letter to their congressperson, president or even something as small as the principle of the school with the intention of making their case for a change within whichever environment the recipient of their letter might have power.
Some of the texts that I am looking at incorporating is The Brief Wonderous life of Oscar Wao, The Merchant of Venice, and The revengers tragedy. I would also like to look at a couple of films like Judge Dredd and 12 angry men. From these texts and films I hope to form a narrative and really explore what it means to seek revenge, whether or not revenge and justice equal each other, if not how they are different, and what we can do with a concept of justice to make a change in the world.
This kind of a unit has limitless possibilities! You could talk about folklore, myths both old and new(ish), and the allotment for creativity is massive. I think this type of unit will offer you great chances to encourage creative writing and to engage the issue of speaking/talking as a major role of English, when typically we may think of simply reading and writing. Creative writing was always something I craved more in high school, and with this topic/theme, you have a wide open door to allow students to (perhaps for the first real time) engage in some authentic creative writing, like coming up with a story they will tell the class as part of an oral tradition, or to create a myth centered around revenge! I really like what you have started here (Josh? I think this is Josh, if not, my bad "person I didn't give credit to"!) and I will keep these kind of untapped topics/ideas/themes in mind when structuring my unit.
ReplyDeleteI think this will be pretty cool! Chris is right, there are a lot of different texts you can pull from to make this lesson really great. I also love the idea of bringing in Oscar Wao, just because that was a pretty great book.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're already thinking about writing activities along with what you'll be reading. I became so overwhelmed with my rush of ideas, I barely even considered it all yet!
Great job!
Josh,
ReplyDeleteOne thing that's great, I feel, about using conceptual framings to create units is that we start from questions, rather than from conclusions. While I take the point that revenge can be read as a dominant thread or conceit in literature, I wonder more if it works within a larger conversation (here, I'm trying to nudge you toward working with a conceptual framing, rather that a pre-defined theme) of what justice is. It seems pretty natural, say, that a conversation that seeks to define justice would somehow come around to the fact that *politically* sanctioned justice doesn't allow for revenge. Which makes revenge, as a topic, all the more interesting!
All of your texts make complete sense within moving toward this framing, and I already said something in class about making sure that they're texts that are appropriate for the students you're currently working with. I can also easily see how your work with comic books and super heroes would easily fall into a unit like this, especially in terms of analyzing how various imagined worlds (here, the Beach article might be helpful for you to revisit) affect the ways in which can "see" and understand the ways in which social mores are negotiated in our own.
I also wonder about complicating the notion of "justice" by taking into account another terms that's often the reason that revenge, and the motives that often drive it, has merit in such conversations--"liberty." This might be useful for looking more carefully at the very Western, "white" ways in which notions of justice and liberty get defined in iconic texts (like comic books), and aligns well with the central conflicts in *Merchant* and *Oscar Wao.*
Exciting start! I look forward to seeing more.
sarah