21L.007  World Literatures

It's that time of year again (already), namely Evaluations.  You can do yours for World Literatures (21L.007) at
http://tinyurl.com/lit-evals
the site is open now and until December 17th.
Please make every attempt to do this.  The Institute sets great store by it, and, if your don't send your one in, they blame me!  Shocking, I know. 
So, I will set aside time at the end of tomorrow's class for the purpose.  Bring a communication device, therefore. 
Willie

Hugh MacDiarmid will form our focus tomorrow.  Make sure you have familiarised yourself with the poems on the Stellar site and come ready to discuss them.  Note, there's also a glossary posted to help you in your preparation as well as a link to the online edition of the  Dictionary of the Scottish Language (DSL). 
Willie

I've posted the questions for the final essay.  You'll find them in the Homework section of the Stellar site. 
You will find the required poems in the Materials section.  Study them carefully and come prepared to say something about them on Thursday.  We're concentrating on Burns tomorrow.
Willie

I've posted some links to John Byrne's films, Tutti Frutti (1987), Your Cheatin' Heart (1990), his Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles (1993), plus a still from the production of The Slab Boys on Broadway in 1983 starring Sean Penn, Val Kilmer and Kevin Bacon.  This is intended to give some indication of the range of Byrne's work and provide a context for The Slab Boys.  The Humanities Film Library, located at 14N-428, has dvd copies of the complete version of  Tutti Frutti, and the 1997 film of The Slab Boys which, although designed by Byrne himself, I found very  disappointing--it is pretty (too pretty?)  to be sure, but  has little of the pace and intensity of the original stage version; there was too much money involved in it, apparently,  and too many backers pulling in too many different directions.  The wit and freshness of the original script, as published, ought to be your guide here. 

I've posted the entry on James Leslie Mitchell from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (publ. 2004) by Dr. Douglas Young, one of Mitchell's leading biographers.  It gives a good clear account of his life and a reliable discussion of Sunset Song and other of the author's novels.