Whitfield, WR
ERH-205-02
20150504
Help received: Class discussion
Reflexive Essay
I had a few misconceptions about British literature before the course started
as a result of English courses that I took in high school. I thought that British
literature was complicated and hard to follow because my high school English
curriculum included Shakespeare, Beowulf, and The Canterbury Tales. When we
started the course by reading Mrs. Dalloway, I thought that my original ideas of
British literature being complicated and hard to follow were proved right. My initial
beliefs of British literature changed when we read Frankenstein.
I read Frankenstein in my senior year of high school, but I mostly skimmed
through the chapters as opposed to fully reading the text as I thought it would just
be complicated and wanted to finish the assigned reading as quickly as possible. I
found Frankenstein much more enjoyable while reading it for this class and actually
read the assigned text without skimming, for the most part. The text did not seem
complicated and I could easily follow the story, which made the reading much more
entertaining and eliminated a lot of the stress that previously came with reading
British literature.
Taking this course altered my perception of how I thought all British
literature was structured and written. I read Shakespeare in high school English
courses, but I could better understand Othello this semester due to the analysis
skills we learned in class. I read Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and A Mid Summer Night’s
Dream in high school, but I did not comprehend them. Breaking down the passages
and writing papers on each of the books we read in class taught me how to better
analyze, comprehend, and retain what I read instead of just finishing the books.
I also learned that British literature is not that dissimilar from American
literature at its roots. All books reflect the specific cultural roots of the author in
some way. The definition of culture that I wrote on the first day of class was: “the
thoughts, ideas, practices, and habits of a specific group of people,” and I thought the
most distinctive part of differing cultures was the unique traditions and beliefs of
the culture. My idea of what culture is did not change very much during the course,
but I added that the issues important to a specific culture also played an important
role in what makes cultures distinct.
The main difference between British literature and American literature that I
noticed throughout the course was what is important to the authors of the two
countries. Authors of all eras and countries write about what is important to that
generation, life lessons, social issues, and nostalgia about the past or a concept of the
golden era. British literature reflects their culture that people are born into their
classes and the upper class is better and looked up upon. This is evident in The
Canterbury Tales where the Knight is seen as an exemplar and in Mrs. Dalloway
throughout where the upper class is seen as superior.
American authors focus on the same types of overarching themes and
concepts, however the culture is different so the details are different. American
literature tends to focus more on folk legends and local heroes due to the American
culture of being able to move up in society with hard work and determination. Both
countries are writing about what is important to their culture and their own unique
social norms and issues. There is an increase in literature around cultural shifts in
both cultures. Important issues such as women’s rights, science, immigration, and
religion generate literature from authors who have opinions on what the new social
norm should be.
There will always be literature because cultural and social issues will always
exist they just morph over time and new issues arise. One day there may not be
differences in culture and the literature of all countries will be very similar due to
increased globalization and instant worldwide communication. Throughout the
course I realized that there are not as many dissimilarities between American and
British literature as I had previously believed. My views on culture have remained
mostly true over the semester, but it had not occurred to me how much the culture
of a specific group of people influenced the writings of that group.
This was the first literature course that I have ever taken. I have taken
English courses in high school and composition courses while at VMI, but not a class
specific to literature. I found the course very interesting, as I like analyzing and
interpreting the meaning of writing and movies. The Mrs. Dalloway and Othello
assignment were the most interesting assignments of the course to me. I enjoyed
breaking down the text of Mrs. Dalloway in order to understand the meaning of both
the words and the structure of the writing and the message that it portrayed. I
found the Othello assignment more interesting as I enjoy watching movies for
entertainment and enjoy analyzing the meaning behind scenes and props that are
used. Overall I found this course very enlightening and it offered a new prospective
on literature for me that I did not have before the course.