Goodbye to Berlin: The Landauers - Quotes

What does this part of the book make very clear?
The changing attitude in Germany towards the Jews.

Examples:
- "Look at all the big department stores: Wertheim, K.D.W., Landauers'. Who owns them? Filthy thieving Jews!" (As said by Frl. Mayr).
- "...purchasers were forcibly disgraced with a rubber ink stamp on the forehead and cheek." (purchasers = people who bought at Jewish department stores; Nazis had set up a 'guard' in front of them.)
- Natalia says: "I know how things are in Germany today. And suddenly it can be that my father lose all."
- "Anyone's heart is liable to fail if it gets a bullet inside it. Concentration camps," said the fat man, lighting a cigar, "they get them in there, make them sign things and then their heart fails."
- "You can't believe all you hear and that's a fact."

Christopher is still a 'camera', but cannot really ignore the changes in society anymore.

Examples:
- the first paragraph of the 'chapter' shows the situation from a 'camera'-point of view.
- "You observe," said Bernard.

Bernard Landauer

- It is suggested that Bernard is gay, too: "I never got on well with other boys."
- He confides in Christopher in a way he doesn''t confide in anyone else.
- He invites Christopher to come to China with him, but Christopher first thinks it's a joke.
- At the end of the story, Bernard is dead. "There's a lot of heart failure in Germany these days." This might suggest he committed suicide - or he has been killed by the Nazis. (See above.)

The planning until Christmas

The last leg of 2012, ladies and gentlemen!

 

Week	Date	Lesson
49	03/12 04/12 05/12 07/12	1) Frost/Nixon 2) Discuss exam text test 3) Work on Comp Comm/Written Task 4) “A Berlin Diary” (2)
50	10/12 11/12 12/12 14/12	1) Frost/Nixon 2) Work on Written Tasks (have your basic ideas ready!) 3) Comparative Commentary (dossiertoets 100 min.) 4) Persepolis: context; stylistic devices in pictures!
51	17/12 18/12 19/12	1) Persepolis 2) Christmas lesson 3) Work on Written Tasks

Persepolis: rise of the graphic novel

Judging from this article in The Guardian, it seems like we have picked the right moment to start reading a graphic novel. The IBO can be considered avant-garde for having put one on their official literature list some years ago!

Goodbye to Berlin: the Nowaks

Select five quotes from this part of the book that say something relevant about the context of the story; in other words: quotes that could be useful in a critical response or essay!

From the IB Guide: considering essay questions

The IB guide provides us with several questions that can be used for class discussion or consideration of themes that may be addressed in the actual essay questions.

Try to relate these to the works studied in Part 3 of the course.

• How can we explain the continued interest in a particular work in different contexts and at different times?

• What do you think of the assertion that the meaning of a text is fixed and does not change over time?

• If beauty is a relative term, how do one or more of the works you have studied explore this idea?

• How valid is the assertion that literature is a voice for the oppressed?

• To what extent do male and female literary characters accurately reflect the role of men and women in society?

• To what purpose do authors sometimes choose not to follow a chronological sequence of events in their literary works?

• Do works of literary merit both reflect the spirit of the time and challenge it?

• Which social groups are omitted from a text, and what might this reflect about its production?

 

• How does a particular concept, such as childhood, change in the way it is represented in the texts you have studied?

 

• How is our critical perspective on literary texts affected by cultural practices?

 

• To what extent is the critical approach taken to the analysis of a text itself influenced by specific cultural practices?

Studying Persepolis

On Friday 14 December you are able to present ideas for a Written Task or Essay based on your reading of Persepolis.

We study this book in Part 3 of the course: Literature in context. And context not only refers to the time and place in which the book was written (and drawn), but also to its form - which is, in case of Persepolis, very different from the other books we have studied.

Use the following sources to come up with your ideas (some may lead you to other posts on this blog.)

Essay matters
Questions to consider

The visual language of comics

In the same way that linguistic devices contribute to the meaning of the text do visual devices create meaning in graphic novels. Comic book artists Scott McCloud has written a rather fabulous book - graphic novel, actually - on the visual language of comic books: Understanding Comics.

The entire book can be viewed here. (And very likely there will soon be a class copy as well.)
I recommend that you study at least p. 2-59.

Also, check out McCloud's talk about the same topic at TED.com (a site which cannot be recommended highly enough!)

The same text used in a different context

Persepolis vividly depicts the changes and revolutions in Iran in the late 1970s. When the current Iranian president,  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was re-elected in 2009 a flurry of protests spread across the country. With author Marjane Satrapi's permission, Iranian-born artists Payman and Sina (artists' names) wrote new text for original frames from Persepolis - very effectively updating the frames to 30 years later and sadly showing that not that much has changed since in Iran.

A perfect example of literature in context, if you ask me!

Download Persepolis 2.0 (from my dropbox).

Rhetoric: Obama's 2012 victory speech

The video

The full text

Guardian assistant editor Michael White comments on the speech - very useful for your IB-work!