Critical Essay: Stage 3

Does the success of the Copyleft/Free Culture movement involve a return to a pre-modern, or at least pre-copyright, creative environment?





Copyright and copyleft are generally considered to be the polar opposites of each other and thus their true meanings and purposes are often misconstrued. Contrary to popular opinion, copyleft is not quite the exact opposite of copyright; in fact copyleft may even include some aspects of copyright in its stance. The intention of copyright is to foster creativity; the intentions of copyleft/free culture are to foster both creativity and improvement. Therefore the success of the Copyleft/Free Culture movement can be viewed as the middle ground between copyright and pre-copyright. They do not necessarily mean an absolute return to a pre-copyright, or even pre-modern creative environment because they do not involve the outright absence of copyright altogether; rather they both involve some surrendering of some but not all copyright laws, essentially by placing emphasis on fostering both the creativity and improvement of products. A return to pre-modern/pre-copyright laws would mean the absence of copyright, that is, the works remain strictly in the public domain without any form of protection and free access to all.


The United States Copyright law, which will be the focal point of this discussion, was established in the 18th century with the intention to balance public interest with individual rights, in other words, the public’s rights to access knowledge should not be limited by the individual author’s right to restrict access. Another definition of copyright went further to include that copyright, among other species of intellectual property, enable creators to earn money from their works while generating new art, knowledge and information from the public, while at the same time offering protection to the original author. The conclusion we arrive at therefore, that encompasses these two explanations, is that copyright, although it offers protection to the author, was in essence aimed at fostering greater creativity and to ensure that the public has a greater variety of creative works available to use, learn from and consume and therefore facilitate the advancement and spread of knowledge. To quote the 18th Century language of the United States’ Constitution, the purpose of copyright was to “Promote the progress of Science”. In fact, the first United States copyright law was entitled “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning”. Copyright protects an author’s expression, but not his/her ideas.


Copyleft, on the other hand, is a form of licensing that uses existing copyright law to ensure a work remains freely available. The main difference between copyright and copyleft is that while copyright law can be used by an author to prohibit others from reproducing, adapting or distributing copies of his/her work, with copyleft, an author gives people the permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute his/her work under the condition that any resulting copies or adaptations are also free to be modified, that is, they are bound by the same licensing agreement. What people fail to understand about copyleft is that it is not a “free-for-all” circumstance. Copyleft does allow the author to impose some restrictions on his/her work. Indeed we can see that without existing copyright laws, copyleft would not have grounds to exist. Similar to Copyleft, Free Culture was designed with these specific goals in mind – reforming copyright, trademark and patent law in the public interest, ensuring that new creators are not suppressed by the original authors, making important information available to the public and the delegation of creativity.


Copyleft/Free Culture and copyright were both designed with the principal purpose of encouraging and developing ideas based on others’ ideas. The main difference is that copyright does not protect ideas, it merely protects the expression of the ideas, that is it protects the works themselves, while copyleft allows the works themselves to be modified and distributed with conditions. Copyleft fosters greater improvement, as well as creativity because not only do you already have a foundation on which to base your work, you are also able to apply your ideas directly onto the source; copyright, although it does foster creativity, does not allow access to the original work and thus makes it harder to improve a product because although the ideas would not necessarily be original, the works would have to be significantly distinct to qualify as an original. Throughout history it can be seen that improving others’ ideas is often more successful in the creation of something more useful and functional than if one were to start over from scratch every time.


We have seen the differences between copyright and copyleft but it is imperative to note the similarities between them as well. This is why although they are distinguishable, especially due to the deliberate play on the names and symbols that represent them (see Fig.1 below), the major significance is that for all intents and purposes, copyleft could not exist without copyright. The limitations that exist for copyleft are, as previously stated, based on copyright laws and are in place to ensure that uncooperative people do not take advantage of the freer software- they ensure that self-interested people do not abuse the nature of the copyleft regime, but in fact make sure that it remains exactly as it is and fulfills the purpose for which it was created.



Fig.1 - Copyright (red) vs. Copyleft (black)

An example of this would be Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wrote the Tales as a satire of a cross section of English society of the day, using such sources as Bocaccio’s The Decameron and John Gower’s Confessio Amantis. Some of the tales in the Canterbury Tales, it can be seen, are uncannily similar to their source material; Chaucer did not merely use the other authors’ ideas but also their expressions, that is he essentially took the stories themselves and manipulated them for his purposes to create his Tales.


For example, in The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s tale is quite akin to Gower’s Tale of Constance, which is also in itself quite similar to Nicholas Trevet’s story of Constance of Rome in his Les Cronicles – the characters, the overall plot and themes are more or less the same. Similarly too with The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale in the Tales and Gower’s Tale of Florent, the plot and characters are more or less the same, save for a few modifications. Although each author’s purpose for their respective tales is different, Chaucer uses these, among others, to compile a humorous but political critique of his society, without giving credit to the sources that he uses. In modern times, this would be a direct violation of the copyright law in terms of parody versus satire; however since the Tales were written a long time before copyright law was first ever established and thus Chaucer’s works would not be subject to it, his works were allowed and were published as his own. This is just one example of works published in a pre-copyright era, that is, works that remained in the public domain, free for all to use, and from our aforementioned definition of copyleft/free culture, this is not what either of the two stands for.


In conclusion, it is only human to want to be recognized and appreciated for what you have produced. Copyright was instituted with the purpose of fostering greater creativity while not giving up this recognition. However, materialism has impeded the progress of creativity and the advancement of information and people misuse the original purpose of copyright for simply mercenary purposes. In addition to this, it is often harder to create something practical without basing it off of something else. Copyleft/free culture would not be as successful if it were not for pre-existing copyright laws as they ensure that people do not take advantage of others’ ideas while fostering creativity as well as improvement of a product. The success of the copyleft/free culture can therefore be seen as a step towards the reformation of copyright law, not as the absence of copyright altogether. They are not complete return to pre-modern or pre-copyright days, but are the middle ground between the two.




Works Cited

GNU Operating System. Free Software Foundation, Inc. 1996-2010. http://www.gnu.org/

Litman, Jessica, Kay Murray, and. Christine Steiner. “What Every Artist Should Know About Copyright and Trademark Law.” So What . . . About Copyright? What Artists Need to Know About Copyright and Trademarks. Ed. David Bollier et al. Public Knowledge, 2005. 11-47. http://www.crt.louisiana.gov/culturalassets//images/howto/so-what-about-copyright.pdf

Public Domain Sherpa. “Public Domain or Copyrighted? Here’s How To Tell.” 2005. Web. March 19th 2010.


Stanford University Library and Academic Information Resources. “Copyright and Fair Use”. October 2007. Web. March 19th 2010.


The United Stated Copyright Office. “Copyright Basics.” Circular 1: 1-3. July, 2008. United States Library of Congress. Print. March 19th 2010.
< http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf>

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. "Copyleft.” Wikipedia. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

Critical essay: Stage 2

This is not my entire essay but I'm roughly halfway through and the other half I compiled my points and elaborated on them so you will have an idea of where I am heading with this. I still need to touch up some.


Copyright and copyleft are generally considered to be the polar opposites of each other and thus their true meanings and purposes are often misconstrued. Contrary to popular opinion, copyleft is not quite the exact opposite of copyright; in fact I may even be so bold as to venture the idea that copyleft may even include some aspects of copyright in its stance. Therefore, the success of the Copyleft/Free Culture movement does not necessarily mean an absolute return to a pre-copyright, or even pre-modern creative environment because they do not involve the outright absence of copyright altogether; rather, rather they both involve some surrendering of some but not all copyright laws, essentially by placing less emphasis on the mercenary aspects of copyright and more on the purpose of sharing ideas and improving them for the sake of creativity and advancement. A return to pre-modern/pre-copyright laws would mean the absence of copyright altogether.




The United States Copyright law, which will be the focal point of this discussion, was established in the 18th century with the intention to balance public interest with individual rights, in other words, the public’s rights to access knowledge should not be limited by the individual author’s right to restrict access. Another definition of copyright went further to include that copyright, among other species of intellectual property, enable creators to earn money from their works while generating new art, knowledge and information from the public, while at the same time offering protection to the original author. The conclusion we arrive at therefore, that encompasses these two explanations, is that copyright, although it offers protection to the author, was in essence aimed at fostering greater creativity and to ensure that the public has a greater variety of creative works available to use, learn from and consume and therefore facilitate the advancement and spread of knowledge. To quote the 18th Century language of the United States’ Constitution, the purpose of copyright was to “Promote the progress of Science”. In fact, the first United States copyright law was entitled “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning”. Copyright protects an author’s expression, but not his/her ideas.



Copyleft, on the other hand, is a form of licensing that uses existing copyright law to ensure a work remains freely available. The main difference between copyright and copyleft is that while copyright law can be used by an author to prohibit others from reproducing, adapting or distributing copies of his/her work, with copyleft, an author gives people the permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute his/her work under the condition that any resulting copies or adaptations are also free to be modified, that is, they are bound by the same licensing agreement. What people fail misunderstand about copyleft is that it is not a “free-for-all” circumstance. Copyleft does allow the author to impose some restrictions on his/her work. Indeed we can see that without existing copyright laws, copyleft would not in actuality, have grounds to exist.



Copyleft and copyright were both designed with the principal purpose of encouraging and developing ideas based on other’s ideas. The main difference is that copyright does not protect ideas, it merely protects the expression of the ideas, that is it protects the works themselves, while copyleft allows the works themselves to be modified and distributed with conditions.

• Copyleft fosters greater improvement because you already have a foundation to base your work off of while copyright, although it does foster creativity, makes it harder to improve anything because although the ideas would not be necessarily original, the works would have to be significantly.

• Without copyright there would be no copyleft because there would be no limitations already in place to ensure that uncooperative people would not take advantage of the freer software.

• Money talks – the biggest question remains that if money/recognition were not involved, would copyright even be necessary? And if copyright laws were not enforced, would there be copyleft/free culture? Copyright laws exist in copyleft because it ensures that self-interested people do not abuse the nature of the copyleft regime, but in fact make sure that it remains exactly as it is and fulfills the purpose for which it was created.

• Give examples of pre-modern/pre-copyleft days – Canterbury Tales/Bocaccio/Gower - Some of the tales in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are uncannily similar, almost exact replicates in some instances, to their source materials. Chaucer uses these sources to compile the Canterbury Tales, which is essentially a satire of English society of his day. According to modern copyright law, this would definitely be deemed illegal; however, because it was published pre-copyright, it is now widely accepted. This would not fall under Copyleft or Free Culture and so Copyleft/Free Culture cannot be considered the opposite of copyright.

Critical Essay: Stage 1

Topic - Does the success of the Copyleft/Free Culture movement involve a return to a pre-modern, or at least pre-copyright, creative environment?

Thesis - The  Copyleft/Free Culture Movement does not involve a return to a premodern/pre-copyright creative environment because they do not mean the outright absence of copyright; rather they both involve some surrendering of some but not all copyright laws. A return to pre-modern/pre-copyright laws would mean the absence of copyright altogether.
 

•  Some of the tales in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are uncannily similar, almost exact replicates in some instances, to their source materials. Chaucer uses these sources to compile the Canterbury Tales, which is essentially a satire of English society of his day. According to modern copyright law, this would definitely be deemed illegal; however, because it was published pre-copyright, it is now widely accepted. This would not fall under Copyleft or Free Culture and so Copyleft/Free Culture cannot be considered the opposite of copyright.
• In Copyleft, the work is not in the public domain, that is it is not "free-for-all". It comes with terms and conditions in that it comes with the agreement that just as someone is modifying someone else's work, this "new" work made will come with the same agreement, that it is allowed to be modified. It is the middle ground between having zero ownership and having sole ownership. Copyright involves having sole owenrship of your own expression of what you have modified in someone else's work.  

 This is a really rough draft, as you can see. These are some of the points I have come up with so far. My only concern would be, for example, the issue we brought up in class concerning Microsoft Word source code. I'm not sure if other legalities would be involved in this case, such as patents, proprietary software etc. and so I'm not sure if this issue would fall directly under a copyright vs. copyleft scenario. I have ideas but I'm afraid that I am misconstruing them as these topics are all so similar and so I'm afraid I'm either confusing myself or messing myself up. Any clarification would be most welcome.

Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 4

Please view in fullscreen. Just a note, the slides go by pretty quickly to keep up with the audio track so pause and read at your leisure. Enjoy!

Multimodal Donne Annotation

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Recasting the Canterbury tales: Stage 4

After having received the results and feedback of my last two assignments, there was one thing I realized that was common to both and that was that I am not very clear in voicing my thoughts and my points. I realize that my arguments are somewhat vague and often times I do not draw enough evidence from the texts I analyze, thus my points come across more like speculation rather than black-and-white. This is something I definitely need to work on because your thesis is the foundation of your essay, any essay that you undertake and thus if my thesis is not clear or is lacking in any way, that puts your whole essay under scrutiny.


This assignment was certainly more challenging than the others as it involved a lot more than simply writing. I have said this a million times before but I am definitely not what I would consider tech-savvy in any way and thus this assignment forced me to broaden my horizons and step out of my comfort zone; writing I can do, but to incorporate pictures and audiovisual elements was certainly not something I was entirely comfortable with. I am actually proud of myself that I was able to pull something like this off because I never thought I would be capable.


I am generally pleased with the feedback and outcome of my assignment but I think I need to seriously consider and carefully think through the comments I received in order to prevent myself from making these mistakes again. However I have seen where I have improved and overall I am happy with how this turned out.

Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 3

PLEASE VIEW FULLSCREEN!!! I know that I have to edit the fonts and synchronize the audio with each slide still but please bear with me. it took me a while to find this.

M U L T I M O D A L D O N N E A N N O T A T I O N

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Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 2

HOLY SONNET XI

I'm sorry but I didn't really improve on the information here because my peer reviews didn't suggest anything to that effect. For my final composition, I'm thinking I want to do it in the form of a Powerpoint presentation, so that each individual slide will consist of the portion of the sonnet that I'm annotating as well as my annotation. I plan to include audio in there, whether it be the audio file that I uploaded as part of my and/or some other type of audio, perhaps musc but I'm not sure what, and alos visuals, just like the photo of the Crucifixion that I included for my first draft; I think a picture conveys so much wothout saying anything. My biggest problem would be how to upload the powerpoint to my prism account so that I can put a link to access the file on my blog as my final composition. I'm not exactly techno-savvy so any information on this would be extremely helpful.





Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side,
Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me,
For I have sinn'd, and sinne', and only He,
Who could do no iniquity, hath died.
But by my death can not be satisfied
My sins, which pass the Jews' impiety.
They kill'd once an inglorious man, but I
Crucify him daily, being now glorified.
O let me then His strange love still admire ;
Kings pardon, but He bore our punishment ;
And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire,
But to supplant, and with gainful intent ;
God clothed Himself in vile man's flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe.


Trevor, Douglas. “John Donne and Scholarly Melancholy”. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 81-102 . Jan 01, 2000. Print. March 2, 2010.


This excerpt was taken from Studies in English Literature, written by Douglas Trevor, who is the assistant professor of English at the University of Iowa. I chose this citation, because not only was the source and author credible, in terms of his scholarly qualifications, but because of the content of the passage in relation to my sonnet, Holy Sonnet XI (see above). The article, from its title, speaks about the relationship between the main themes in Donne’s sonnets and what the author refers to as “scholarly melancholy”. The author draws reference to Donne himself as a reason behind the melancholy in his works, stating that “Throughout his life, John Donne’s prose and poetry are filled with references to, as well as accounts of, his self-understanding as a melancholic”. He then delves deeper into this melancholy, linking it with religion, which is very apt in reference to Sonnet XI; this melancholy, and furthermore religious melancholy, would have no doubt been as a result of Donne’s tumultuous and contradictory life, especially within the context of his being an official of the Church. According to Julia Kristeva, whom the author quotes in his analysis, "the implicitness of love and consequently of reconciliation and forgiveness completely transforms the scope of Christian initiation by giving it an aura of glory and unwavering hope for those who believe. Christian faith appears then as an antidote to hiatus and depression, along with hiatus and depression and starting from them."

In the beginning of Sonnet XI, Donne gives us quite a violent awakening. He is essentially asking to be persecuted and subjected to the suffering that Jesus endured, acknowledging his life as a sinner and the fact that he continues to persecute Jesus in his sinfulness, in his humanity. We see the parallels with Donne’s religious melancholy and the hiatus and depression that accompany the beginning of Christian faith as he obviously wants to suffer like Jesus did, to endure depression and desolation for the sake of his Lord. But we also see the Christian faith that they also speak of, in lines 9-14, where Donne, despite his self-persecution, admires the fact that God still loves us in spite of our sin and that Jesus, who was the only person who did not deserve to die from sin, was the one who did. We can also infer this from the picture of the Crucifixion above in that although it was a depressing image, it also conveyed a message of hope. And so we get the melancholy in Christ’s death, but can rejoice from a Christian perspective that Christ’s death brought us new life. And I think this is what Donne is getting at.



Grant, Patrick. “Augustinian Spirituality and the Holy Sonnets of John Donne”. ELH, Vol. 38, No. 4, p. 542-561. Dec. 1971. Print. March 2, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872265

This article, written by Patrick Grant and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, begins with St. Bonaventure, who was a faithful disciple of St. Augustine, and his thoughts on atonement. It is similar to the previous excerpt “John Donne and Scholarly Melancholy”. What I found particularly interesting was that the analogy I drew of Jesus on the crucifix as being both a symbol of sadness and one of hope before I even read this excerpt, is being drawn by St. Bonaventure here as well, in particular, the cross as a symbol of our salvation. Again we see the parallels here with suffering and melancholy, but joyous suffering in terms of Christianity, as with Donne. Grant the author, quotes verses from a meditation that St. Bonaventure is promoting, which draws our attention to the cross and its significance and concludes with him wanting to eventually join Christ on the cross. This is essentially the same motive that Donne has in Sonnet XI, where he is fixated on the suffering that Jesus endured, as stated in greater detail previously, and so wants to be persecuted in the same way for his own sins. What I think is even more interesting is that these men are not just willing to suffer for their sins, but desire to suffer in the same fashion. Bonaventure draws reference to the cross; Donne goes into great detail in his first two lines, using quite violent descriptions.




Stachniewski, John. “John Donne: The Despair of the "Holy Sonnets"”. ELH, Vol. 48, No. 4,p.677-705.Winter 1981. Print. March 2, 2010.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872957

In this article, the author sets his purpose firmly to establish “a strong Calvinist influence on the Holy Sonnets”. What is interesting is that Calvinism is based upon total depravity, a theological doctrine which derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin. This article therefore ties in with the excerpt concerning St. Bonaventure. The author mentions that his intention is to relate Donne’s sonnets to an “expression of a dominant mood of despair”; I disagree that the dominant mood in this sonnet is one of despair, but there is an element of sadness, scholarly melancholy if you will.



Hahn, Thomas; “The Antecedents of Donne’s Holy Sonnet XI.” American Benedictine Review, 1979; 30: 69-79. Print. March 2, 2010.

I have not as yet gotten the information on this article as I had to borrow it and am waiting for it to be delivered. But I do intend to use this as one of my sources.



Labriola, Albert C., “ ‘Vile harsh attire: Biblical Typology in John Donne’s ‘Spit In My Face Yee Jewes’”. John Donne Journal: Studies in the Age of Donne, Vol. 22, p. 47 57. 2003. Print. March 2, 2010.

Again, I had to request this source from the ILLiad Library and so it has not yet been delivered to me. But again, I intend to use this as a source for my annotation.

	John Donne - Holy Sonnet 11 - Spit in my face you Jews... .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

This is a voiceover of the Holy Sonnet XI, the sonnet I chose to annotate. It is refreshing in the sense that it is not an excerpt from a book, but rather, one can infer other things from the audio than from text. In this case, the first thing I noticed was the speaker's monotone and low pitch. This I expect would be utilized in this case to convey the somberness of the sonnet, in terms of Jesus' death and the fact that Donne himself is asking to suffer in this same way for his sins because he feels he deserves to.

I notice how Donne writes the sonnet, in particular the first two lines where he says " Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side, buffet, and scoff, and scourge, and crucify me" - this gives the impression of continuous suffering, in his use of the word "and" between each punishment, as there is no pause that would have been granted by the use of a comma alone. We can hear from the voiceover how the speaker recites it as well that the suffering verbs just seem to go from one to the other without a break, and alos increase in intensity. We also hear the use of the "and" in line 3 where Donne says he has "sinn'd and sinne'", which again gives the impression of continuity, in that he was a sinner and continues to be one; he wants his suffering to be as continuous as his sin.

We hear the long pause brought about by the use of the full stop at the end of lines 6, 7 and 8, where Donne talks firstly about wanting to suffer, then moves to his death, followed by Jesus' death. The last use of the full stop moves us from a theme of death to one of faith and hope, where he begins to talk about admiring God's love for us in examining the Crucifixion; while earthly kings merely pardon their perpetrators, the King of Kings subjected himself to humanity, sin and death so that we, his perpetrators, might live. I also noted the use of the semi-colon to transition in this portion of the poem dealing with faith and hope. I think he uses the semicolon in this area because we are linking ideas of the same theme of hope and God's love, whether it be in the form of Jesus or Jacob, who was clothed in vile harsh attire just as Jesus was "clothed" in human form.

I am not exactly sure of the meter of the sonnet but I know that we can tell the meter by listening to it aloud as opposed to merely reading, hence why I chose this audio file.

Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 1

HOLY SONNET XI







Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side,
Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me,
For I have sinn'd, and sinne', and only He,
Who could do no iniquity, hath died.
But by my death can not be satisfied
My sins, which pass the Jews' impiety.
They kill'd once an inglorious man, but I
Crucify him daily, being now glorified.
O let me then His strange love still admire ;
Kings pardon, but He bore our punishment ;
And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire,
But to supplant, and with gainful intent ;
God clothed Himself in vile man's flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe.


Trevor, Douglas. “John Donne and Scholarly Melancholy”. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 81-102 . Jan 01, 2000. Print. March 2, 2010.


This excerpt was taken from Studies in English Literature, written by Douglas Trevor, who is the assistant professor of English at the University of Iowa. I chose this citation, because not only was the source and author credible, in terms of his scholarly qualifications, but because of the content of the passage in relation to my sonnet, Holy Sonnet XI (see above). The article, from its title, speaks about the relationship between the main themes in Donne’s sonnets and what the author refers to as “scholarly melancholy”. The author draws reference to Donne himself as a reason behind the melancholy in his works, stating that “Throughout his life, John Donne’s prose and poetry are filled with references to, as well as accounts of, his self-understanding as a melancholic”. He then delves deeper into this melancholy, linking it with religion, which is very apt in reference to Sonnet XI; this melancholy, and furthermore religious melancholy, would have no doubt been as a result of Donne’s tumultuous and contradictory life, especially within the context of his being an official of the Church. According to Julia Kristeva, whom the author quotes in his analysis, "the implicitness of love and consequently of reconciliation and forgiveness completely transforms the scope of Christian initiation by giving it an aura of glory and unwavering hope for those who believe. Christian faith appears then as an antidote to hiatus and depression, along with hiatus and depression and starting from them."

In the beginning of Sonnet XI, Donne gives us quite a violent awakening. He is essentially asking to be persecuted and subjected to the suffering that Jesus endured, acknowledging his life as a sinner and the fact that he continues to persecute Jesus in his sinfulness, in his humanity. We see the parallels with Donne’s religious melancholy and the hiatus and depression that accompany the beginning of Christian faith as he obviously wants to suffer like Jesus did, to endure depression and desolation for the sake of his Lord. But we also see the Christian faith that they also speak of, in lines 9-14, where Donne, despite his self-persecution, admires the fact that God still loves us in spite of our sin and that Jesus, who was the only person who did not deserve to die from sin, was the one who did. We can also infer this from the picture of the Crucifixion above in that although it was a depressing image, it also conveyed a message of hope. And so we get the melancholy in Christ’s death, but can rejoice from a Christian perspective that Christ’s death brought us new life. And I think this is what Donne is getting at.



Grant, Patrick. “Augustinian Spirituality and the Holy Sonnets of John Donne”. ELH, Vol. 38, No. 4, p. 542-561. Dec. 1971. Print. March 2, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872265

This article, written by Patrick Grant and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, begins with St. Bonaventure, who was a faithful disciple of St. Augustine, and his thoughts on atonement. It is similar to the previous excerpt “John Donne and Scholarly Melancholy”. What I found particularly interesting was that the analogy I drew of Jesus on the crucifix as being both a symbol of sadness and one of hope before I even read this excerpt, is being drawn by St. Bonaventure here as well, in particular, the cross as a symbol of our salvation. Again we see the parallels here with suffering and melancholy, but joyous suffering in terms of Christianity, as with Donne. Grant the author, quotes verses from a meditation that St. Bonaventure is promoting, which draws our attention to the cross and its significance and concludes with him wanting to eventually join Christ on the cross. This is essentially the same motive that Donne has in Sonnet XI, where he is fixated on the suffering that Jesus endured, as stated in greater detail previously, and so wants to be persecuted in the same way for his own sins. What I think is even more interesting is that these men are not just willing to suffer for their sins, but desire to suffer in the same fashion. Bonaventure draws reference to the cross; Donne goes into great detail in his first two lines, using quite violent descriptions.




Stachniewski, John. “John Donne: The Despair of the "Holy Sonnets"”. ELH, Vol. 48, No. 4,p.677-705.Winter 1981. Print. March 2, 2010.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2872957

In this article, the author sets his purpose firmly to establish “a strong Calvinist influence on the Holy Sonnets”. What is interesting is that Calvinism is based upon total depravity, a theological doctrine which derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin. This article therefore ties in with the excerpt concerning St. Bonaventure. The author mentions that his intention is to relate Donne’s sonnets to an “expression of a dominant mood of despair”; I disagree that the dominant mood in this sonnet is one of despair, but there is an element of sadness, scholarly melancholy if you will.



Hahn, Thomas; “The Antecedents of Donne’s Holy Sonnet XI.” American Benedictine Review, 1979; 30: 69-79. Print. March 2, 2010.

I have not as yet gotten the information on this article as I had to borrow it and am waiting for it to be delivered. But I do intend to use this as one of my sources.



Labriola, Albert C., “ ‘Vile harsh attire: Biblical Typology in John Donne’s ‘Spit In My Face Yee Jewes’”. John Donne Journal: Studies in the Age of Donne, Vol. 22, p. 47 57. 2003. Print. March 2, 2010.

Again, I had to request this source from the ILLiad Library and so it has not yet been delivered to me. But again, I intend to use this as a source for my annotation.

	John Donne - Holy Sonnet 11 - Spit in my face you Jews... .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

This is a voiceover of the Holy Sonnet XI, the sonnet I chose to annotate. It is refreshing in the sense that it is not an excerpt from a book, but rather, one can infer other things from the audio than from text. In this case, the first thing I noticed was the speaker's monotone and low pitch. This I expect would be utilized in this case to convey the somberness of the sonnet, in terms of Jesus' death and the fact that Donne himself is asking to suffer in this same way for his sins because he feels he deserves to.

I notice how Donne writes the sonnet, in particular the first two lines where he says " Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side, buffet, and scoff, and scourge, and crucify me" - this gives the impression of continuous suffering, in his use of the word "and" between each punishment, as there is no pause that would have been granted by the use of a comma alone. We can hear from the voiceover how the speaker recites it as well that the suffering verbs just seem to go from one to the other without a break, and alos increase in intensity. We also hear the use of the "and" in line 3 where Donne says he has "sinn'd and sinne'", which again gives the impression of continuity, in that he was a sinner and continues to be one; he wants his suffering to be as continuous as his sin.

We hear the long pause brought about by the use of the full stop at the end of lines 6, 7 and 8, where Donne talks firstly about wanting to suffer, then moves to his death, followed by Jesus' death. The last use of the full stop moves us from a theme of death to one of faith and hope, where he begins to talk about admiring God's love for us in examining the Crucifixion; while earthly kings merely pardon their perpetrators, the King of Kings subjected himself to humanity, sin and death so that we, his perpetrators, might live. I also noted the use of the semi-colon to transition in this portion of the poem dealing with faith and hope. I think he uses the semicolon in this area because we are linking ideas of the same theme of hope and God's love, whether it be in the form of Jesus or Jacob, who was clothed in vile harsh attire just as Jesus was "clothed" in human form.

I am not exactly sure of the meter of the sonnet but I know that we can tell the meter by listening to it aloud as opposed to merely reading, hence why I chose this audio file.

Recasting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 3

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Prioress

For my version of the Canterbury Tales, I chose to recast my version of the prioress as a student of my high school, more specifically a student who was in my senior year; perhaps I might even venture to be so bold as to recast myself in the role of the Prioress but I feel any girl would have been a good choice because we were all exposed to the same thing as students of St. Joseph’s Convent, St. Joseph graduating in the same year.

Chaucer’s portrait of the Prioress in the General Prologue was that of a beautiful, charming, elegant, and very religious woman. He surprisingly did not find a particular flaw with her, nor did he try to highlight any particular vice through her or manipulate her character in any corrupt or lewd manner the way he did with his other pilgrims. His satire of her was subtle rather than scathing and so it gave me a relatively easy task because I don’t think any of the other corrupt pilgrims would have fit into the context of a Catholic high school appropriately.

I chose her for my character for various reasons. The first was that since my resetting of the Canterbury Tales occurred in my high school, which was a Catholic high school/convent and so we would be surrounded by Christianity and religion, I thought it fitting that my new “pilgrim” should be someone of similar religious background and thus the prioress was the obvious choice. Also, on a less important but nonetheless relevant note, another similarity between the students at my high school and the Prioress was that we even dressed alike. We dressed just like the Prioress did in that we wore uniforms to exemplify simplicity; the Prioress in the General Prologue was praised for her beauty in her modesty.

They make mention as well in the General Prologue that the Prioress wore a brooch on her religious garb that said “Amor vincit omnia” or “love conquers all”. We also had to wear badges on our uniform which read “Virtute et labore” – “virtues and labor”. The brooch I expect served as a reminder to the Prioress of something she was passionate about or wanted to emulate or even just something to remind her of what she was called to do or be. Similarly, “Virtute et labore” was our school motto and so we wore this to remind us of what we were to stand for and what was expected of us. (See Figs. 1 and 2)



Fig. 1. A snapshot of what a student’s badge looked like



Fig.2. Students wearing their uniforms and badges

Secondly, in the General Prologue, Chaucer mentions that “And French she spoke with elegant fluency after the School of Stratford at Bow” which gave me the impression that she was a learned woman, especially since French was considered one of the more elite languages of the day. This fit into the category of a school setting because that is essentially what we as the students of a high school would be there for - our scholastic education.

Chaucer goes on to describe the prioress as being kind and exceedingly well-mannered, especially focusing on her great etiquette and courtly demeanor. He illustrates her great compassion through her love for animals, especially her pet hounds. Even though I may not have appreciated it at the time or recognized it for what it was, those were just the kind of traits and behaviors the teachers (and nuns) strived to bring out in us. They always advocated a holistic education, that we should grow not only in knowledge, but also as human beings in the image of God and being called to love as He did, and emphasized the need for us to be “proper young ladies in society” - in dress, in modesty, in behavior, in all aspects; this is what the prioress herself made the effort to be. Her imitation of a woman of the royal court was in essence what we were taught to be at school.

And finally, what was ironic about the Prioress was that despite her moral exterior and her seemingly even more extensively moral tale, her tale had underlying tones of anti-Semitism. In the context of my setting, this would not translate directly into prejudice or hostility towards Jews, but rather discrimination in general. Since our high school was already so diverse, discrimination was understandably somewhat of a problem, especially given that it was a predominantly all-girls’ high school. We didn’t deal with discrimination in terms of religion or race, rather just the usual, and sadly inevitable, adolescent girl issues such as gossiping and criticizing and judging one another. These would be the underlying issues if one of the students had to retell the Prioress’ tale.

Moreover, the parallel here between the Prioress, her tale and the resetting of the Tales in my high school is that the Prioress was not perfect in spite of all her attempts to be and likewise, no matter how much the faculty and those in authority would try to mold us and nurture us into being young women who were like the Prioress, we too were not perfect and we too had our flaws. Thus is the curse of being human in that we are not God and we do falter. I am sure the Prioress did not intend to come across as being condemnatory, especially given her position; we too did not intend on being hurtful or spiteful towards one another, it was just unfortunately in our nature at that stage in our lives and thus were underlying problems we had to deal with.

With reference to my video, I tried to express how the students at my school were with each other and in the environment. The words of the poem interspersed throughout the video are the words of our school song. I also used pictures to convey similarities between the students in our everyday activities and the Prioress in hers. The music I chose for the background reflected the type of music one would expect to hear in a convent - the song was Ave Maria and it was sung in Latin and so I thought that this would have been extremely fitting for a Catholic school, and would be familiar to both the Prioress and to us students. I also thought the music conveyed a more subdued mood which in turn conveyed what reminded me of a Prioress – gentle and mild. I included myself because I thought that it would be appropriate to have something, no matter how small, of an actual student to capture the way we spoke and acted.

In conclusion, I chose the Prioress because she would have had the most in common with the environment I chose to reset my version of the Canterbury Tales. Since I myself was once a student there, I could relate to everything the Prioress represented, and moreover, so could any of the students who attended my high school, hence the reason I/they essentially became my new ‘pilgrim’.



Works Cited

Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley. “The Prioress’s Tale”. Web. February 20, 2010.
http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Sir-Edward-Coley-Burne-Jones/The-Prioress%27 Tale.html

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The General Prologue”. The Canterbury Tales: 9-11. 2007. Print. February 20, 2010.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Prioress’ Prologue and Tale”. The Canterbury Tales: 521-535. 2007. Print. February 20, 2010.

Map of Trinidad and Tobago. Web. February 20,2010. http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/caribbean/trinidad-tobago/map.htm

The Prioress’ Tale. Web. February 20, 2010. http://www.enc.edu/~delvyn.case/prioress/PRIORESS/Project.html

Snap shot of Trinidad. http://www.jonathanreedconsulting.com/images/trinidad.jpg

Resetting the Canterbury Tales:Stage 5

Resetting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 5

I was generally pleased with the outcome of this assignment and with the feedback I received and I thought it extremely helpful as I can now incorporate this, or at least try to, into my future assignments.
I realized some of my errors from even before I received feedback, though sadly at that time, there was nothing I could have done as the due date for the assignment had already passed. For example, only after I had submitted my essay on the due date did it occur to me that I should have mentioned something about my choice of audio for the slideshow in the essay. I was so fixated on elaborating on the slideshow that I neglected the audio, which was also a significant part of the assignment and thus this would have made my entire composition seem lacking as I did not fully integrate all modes as my assignment description had suggested. Nonetheless at least I recognized my error. Although it could have been avoidable, I learnt from my mistake.

Secondly, I have realized from my feedback that my ideas not flow as seamlessly as they should. Although I try my best to organize them so that my essay would not be a muddle of points scattered about the page and my reader would not be confused, I realize that this is something I need to pay attention to and work on. Just as I don’t want my reader to be confused by the layout of my essay, so I should also try to have my points systematic and connected well. Using topic/transition sentences as suggested would definitely be an improvement.

And lastly, my citations and overall presentation do need some improvement and so my intention is to look back at old essays, for example from English 1101, where my citations were not as bad, and work on my future essays using this, as well as other MLA sources, as a guide. Also, I am aware that I have this habit of trying to cram all my ideas into extremely long sentences and I will definitely keep this in mind when writing. Especially since for these particular assignments we will be posting to a blog, which is a totally different forum from writing and submitting a whole paper, I realize that I need to break down my giant ideas into smaller pieces that would be easier for the reader to chew on, swallow and digest.

Overall, I was pleased with everything. I understand my composition skills are not perfect and I do have areas to improve but I was also happy to see that my composition was not totally in shambles. Now I can use this as a spring board for my future assignments.

Recasting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 2

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Recasting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 1

The Prioress

For my version of the Canterbury Tales, I chose to recast my version of the pilgrim as the prioress. Chaucer’s portrait of the Prioress in the General Prologue was that of a beautiful, charming, elegant, and very religious woman. He surprisingly did not find a particular flaw with her, nor did he try to highlight any particular vice through her or manipulate her character in any corrupt or lewd manner the way he did with his other pilgrims. His satire of her was subtle rather than scathing and so it gave me a relatively easy task because I don’t think any of the other corrupt pilgrims would have fit into the context of a Catholic high school appropriately.

I chose her for my character for various reasons. The first was that since my resetting of the Canterbury Tales occurred in my high school, which was a Catholic high school/convent and so we would be surrounded by Christianity and religion, I thought it fitting that my new “pilgrim” should be someone of similar religious background and thus the prioress was the obvious choice.

Secondly, in the General Prologue, Chaucer mentions that “And French she spoke with elegant fluency after the School of Stratford at Bow” which gave me the impression that she was a learned woman, especially since French was considered one of the more elite languages of the day. This fit into the category of a school setting because that is essentially what we as the students of a high school would be there for - our scholastic education.

Chaucer goes on to describe the prioress as being kind and exceedingly well-mannered, especially focusing on her great etiquette and courtly demeanor. He illustrates her great compassion through her love for animals, especially her pet hounds. Even though I may not have appreciated it at the time or recognized it for what it was, those were just the kind of traits and behaviors the teachers (and nuns) strived to bring out in us. They always advocated a holistic education, that we should grow not only in knowledge, but also as human beings in the image of God and being called to love as He did, and emphasized the need for us to be “proper young ladies in society” - in dress, in modesty, in behavior, in all aspects; this is what the prioress herself made the effort to be. Her imitation of a woman of the royal court was in essence what we were taught to be at school.

Other points –
• Prioress’ tale although extremely religious and moral has underlying tones of anti-Semitism, which would translate into modern-day discrimination and judgment, which shows that no matter how ‘perfect’ someone appears or tries to be, we are but human and we are not perfect. And none of the girls at my high school, me included, were perfect. As much as we strived to be and were taught to be, we were human. (elaborate by talking about some struggles that being at an all-girls high school would be in terms of discrimination such as gossiping, criticizing others and their behaviours)
• The prioress was similar to the students even in dress. The prioress wore a brooch on her religious garb that said “Amor vincit omnia” – love conquers all. We also had to wear badges on our uniforms that said “Virtute et labore”, the motto of our school which meant Virtues and labor. (picture of convent badge here). This, although small, is a significant similarity because it just shows that we were reminded of what we were called to do/be. Just as the Prioress, although beautifully described, was simple and modest in her dress, so were we, in our uniform attire. (insert picture of girls in uniform here)

Resetting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 4

Resetting the Canterbury Tales

It was evident in the Canterbury Tales that Chaucer was not writing to a particular section of society. He targeted neither the people of the higher estates of the day, nor the people who would be deemed lower class. Instead, it could be inferred that Chaucer’s underlying intention was to write for the general population, which included people from all walks of life. Evidence for this claim can be drawn from several things in the General Prologue of the Tales, as well as the Tales themselves. For instance, his decision to write the Tales in Middle English instead of the more popular, and supposedly more “superior” languages of the day like Latin and French, showed that he was writing for people who could understand such, that is, more or less the working class of society at the time. His choice not to order each pilgrim’s tale in order of his/her estate, as well as the random selection by drawing lots to determine the order in which the tales would be told, as opposed to sorting in the order of the pilgrim’s estate also showed that he did not pay much regard to the socio-economic status/socio-political status of society of the day. And lastly, but I think most importantly, his decision to set the General prologue of the Tales in a tavern, a place where, at the time, one could find a multitude of people from different classes, in Southwark, England showed that he was writing to a broad cross-section of society. It was somewhat of a geographic space representative of the literary space in which Chaucer was writing. As a result of all this, I thought that the most appropriate place where I could reset the Canterbury Tales, was my high school, St. Joseph’s Convent (see Figure 1 below), and to be more specific, my senior year of high school back in my home country.



Fig.1. A snapshot of my high school, St. Joseph’s Convent.


I chose my high school primarily because it integrated the general population, i.e. incorporated people from all walks of life, just as Chaucer did in the Tales. In this case, instead of people from all professions and estates like nobility and clergy, my high school represented people of different backgrounds, cultures, even nationalities. The student population of my senior year was analogous to the diverse pilgrims that Chaucer himself describes, that venture on the journey in the General Prologue of the Tales. Trinidad itself is very much a cosmopolitan country and so my senior year was merely a sample of this. Figure 2 below is just one example of this. There were Whites, Blacks, people of East Indian descent, Chinese descent, Spanish heritage and people of mixed races. In medieval England, the population was predominantly, if not completely white, and the only distinction would be in their estates. In resetting the Canterbury Tales to my senior year of high school, the diversity would come from culture and heritage as opposed to class.



Fig. 2. A photo showing a sample of the cultural diversity of the students in my senior year of high school.


I chose high school as opposed to college, let’s say, because I figure that one has to be of a certain financial status in order to be able to afford college. Granted that yes there are provisions such as student loans, financial aid and scholarships, but even if these do foot some of the bill, students generally have to be able to somehow afford the fees in order to attend. In addition, not everyone can afford college, but high school is free in my home country of Trinidad and Tobago and so, by and large, everyone goes to high school. Hence there would be, again, a diverse representation economically. The student population ranged from the very rich to the poor.

The other selling factor for me was that the layout of my high school was such that seniors (those who were graduating in two years or less) had their own building section, where we would generally have our classes (except labs) separate from the rest of the school. On the ground floor of this building was a sort of open common area with benches and tables and a view of the whole school, and it led straight onto the recreational/sporting area there was for the students. It was a customary meeting place for the students on mornings before classes or afternoons after, during breaks, lunchtimes or free periods where we would share food, laughter, gossip and just good conversation and good times with one another. We called this area “The Grotto” and it reminded me of the tavern in the Canterbury Tales; the tavern in medieval times was also a place of community where it was more common to find a variety of individuals. It was loud, rowdy even, and more often than not crowded and bustling, yet people who were seeking time alone could do so in their quiet corners. In other words, the tavern seemed like a place where everyone could find what they wanted – those who were looking for a good time could definitely find it there, and those who were looking for contemplation could find it there too. This was what “The Grotto” was to us.

And finally, on a somewhat less but nonetheless important note, it should be observed that my high school was indeed a Catholic high school, and as such, we too would embark on our own retreats, just as those in the Tales. Therefore we too could be considered pilgrims of the school.
The only real challenge I saw in choosing this as my re-setting was that it was predominantly an all-girls’ high school, and thus one could argue that this would reduce the diversity of the student body considerably. However, I preferred to address the issue of diversity in terms of culture and the background instead of merely by sex. Just a point of information as well, we did have boys in our senior year (for reasons that are too complicated to delve into at this juncture) which is why I specifically stated my senior year of high school.

In conclusion, it was a challenge to recreate the setting that Chaucer so intricately thought out to convey his intentions, thoughts and opinions in the Canterbury Tales, but I think my high school was the most apt choice as it embodies what I think he set out to present – diversity, community and humor.




Works Cited

Media Fire. Grease - We Go Together.mp3. Web. January 25, 2010.
< http://www.mediafire.com/?wdeeukxa2u4>

Resetting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 3

USING MY HIGH SCHOOL, IN PARTICULAR MY SENIOR YEAR AS A SETTING FOR THE CANTERBURY TALES


I chose my high school because:
• It integrated the general population, i.e. incorporated people from all walks of like. In this case, instead of people from all professions and estates like nobility and clergy, my high school represented people of different backgrounds, cultures, even nationalities. The student population of my senior year is analogous to the diverse pilgrims that Chaucer himself describes, that venture on the journey in the General Prologue of the Tales. Trinidad itself is very much a cosmopolitan country and so my senior year was merely a sample of this. There were Whites, Blacks, people of East Indian descent, Chinese descent, Spanish heritage and people of mixed races. In medieval England, the population was predominantly, if not completely white, and the only distinction would be in their estates. In resetting the Canterbury Tales to my senior year of high school, the diversity would come from culture and heritage as opposed to class.
• I chose high school as opposed to college, for example, because I figure that one has to be of a certain financial status in order to be able to afford college. Granted that yes there are provisions such as student loans, financial aid and scholarships, but even if these do foot some of the bill, students generally have to be able to somehow afford the fees in order to attend. In addition, not everyone can afford college, but high school is free in my home country of Trinidad and Tobago and so practically everyone goes to high school. Hence there would be, again, a diverse representation economically. The student population ranged from the very rich to the downright poor.
• The layout of my high school was such that seniors (those who were graduating in two years or less) had their own building section, where we would generally have our classes (except labs) separate from the rest of the school. On the ground floor of this building was a sort of open common area with benches and tables and a view of the whole school, and it led straight onto the recreational/sporting area we had for the students. It was a customary meeting place for the students on mornings before classes or afternoons after, during breaks, lunchtimes or free periods where we would share food, laughter, gossip and just good conversation and good times with one another. We called this area “The Grotto” and it reminded me of the tavern in the Canterbury Tales; the tavern in medieval times was also a place of community where it was more common to find a variety of individuals. It was loud, rowdy even, and more often than not crowded and bustling, yet people who were seeking time alone could do so in their quiet corners. In other words, the tavern seemed like a place where everyone could find what they wanted – those who were looking for a good time could definitely find it there, and those who were looking for contemplation could find it there too. This was what “The Grotto” was to us.
• Since it was a Catholic high school, we would often go on retreats as well, just as the pilgrims did in the Tales, except we would travel on buses, not on horseback (lol)

Resetting the Canterbury Tales - Stage 2

Resetting the Canterbury Tales - Stage 1