Universal Themes and Patterns

The first section of our course is about discovering the patterns and archetypes in art and literature. Archetypes are the deeper lessons and themes that art attempts to teach us. For example, in drama, the two masks- Tragedy and Comedy- represent the two forces of humour and sadness, goodness, and evil, light and dark, comic and tragic. 

Within Tragedy, are themes such as revenge, ambition, and love and hate. 

"Romeo and Juliet" is a tragic story of love and hate. Because the story deals with such a 'timeless' theme, the play never stops being relevant. Its relevance is a result of art dealing with universal human patterns of love and hate. "Macbeth" show us unbridled ambition; "Hamlet" show us revenge, existential angst, and insanity.

Let's take a look at a few pieces of writing on the subject of universal themes.

We'll be reading pages 164-192 in the text "Viewpoints 12" in order to learn about timeless themes in art (literature). 

Are there timeless themes in music? Drama? Painting? Poetry? 

Course Outline

Here is a link to the Course Outline

Welcome to Eng 4U1

I entitled this blog "Literature is about Humanity" because in the day to day learning of English Lit. it's easy to forget that literature is ALWAYS about WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.

Stories, poems, essays, all attempt to probe, question and discover who we are as humans. For example, themes look at issues such as: Ambition (Macbeth), love and hate (Romeo and Juliet), Revenge (Hamlet), how racism is wrong (To Kill a Mockingbird), who we are when civilization is stripped away (Lord of the Flies).

In fact, I will go so far as to say that all literature- poems, shorts stories, essay, plays, novels- attempts to answer the question: WHO AM I? Who am I as an individual, as a woman/man, as a Canadian, as a member of the human species, as a global citizen. Who am I as an ethical being who has to make difficult choices in life?

This is a living question that we continue to be ask and answer throughout our lives, whether we are 50 years old or 15 years old. It's much deeper than the roles we live out like  father, mother, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, sister, brother...

A Separate Peace, and Hamlet, two works we'll be looking at, both deal with the main characters attempting to understand themselves within the context of their lives. Of course, both stories are just fiction, but their implications, their themes are as real, as human, as personal, as can be for the reader. And that is because these stories let the reader think about their own lives in terms of vengeance, forgiveness, and how we as readers love and get along in our own contextual lives with our friends, family, enemies...


Activity #1
Write a comment/reflection on this blog. Make it one paragraph, in sentence form, and use your own examples of how literature, stories, movies, novels, art in general (choose an art that you love- music, painting, drama, fiction, poetry), is about humanity. What has been your experience in the English classroom? Do you have favourite stories, movies, shows, songs, etc. How does art and creativity inspire you? Would you like to write your own poems, stories in this course? 

Call it Activity #1 and include your first name and initial so I know who wrote it. Also, comment on one other person's response. we'll look at these in Class Wednesday. Assessed out of 10.