John's Blog

I am not sure this history impacts the lives of the characters in the way I thought it would. I thought the impacts would be more direct, yet some were not at all. I also thought the impacts would mean one thing but when comparing them to the text I found them to reveal something else. For example, the Indian Termination Act of 1953 seemed to have had quite a large impact on the characters, but in the opposite way than I expected. It made many tribes become unrecognized federally. So, I thought that when comparing it to the text, I may find many characters who were from federally unrecognized tribes. However, many of these characters are of Cheyenne descent, which is in fact a federally recognized tribe. So, these characters' parents/grandparents grew up in this odd time of erasure all around them, yet not of themselves. They maintained their identity in a greater sense than other people of their generation who were not part of federally recognized tribes. The fear this creates is ...

 In Thomas Frank's chapter, I noticed multiple instances of repetition. On pages 208 and 209, the chapter starts by repeating the phrase "Before you were born" nine different times. Then, on page 213, the word "sweat" is used four times in three sentences. Finally, on page 225, the word "pray(er)" was used five times in four sentences. It seems this repetition shows how Thomas thinks about things. He likes to use one word or phrase to connect his ideas. It is a quirk. Did you all notice any other quirks or repeated behaviors in any of the other character's chapters? If so, what were they?

My final project is on the history of plays from different time periods and places. I am still gathering primary and secondary sources but I feel like I have made some decent progress. I found one play titled The Castle of Perseverance  that similarly looks at the role of government like Antigone  (my home source). It is from the medieval time period. Next, I found a Japanese play titled  Kanadehon Chushingura which is from the early modern era, 1748. I think this one will be especially interesting because a Japanese playwright made a play that incorporated both Kanadehon Chushingura and Hamlet during the 19th century which a secondary source looks at. I also found a primary source from 19th-century America titled Uncle Tom's Cabin . While the name is extraordinarily familiar, I have not actually read any version of this play before. I am still having trouble finding a good primary source of a play that is ancient and also not European as both my home source and The Castl...

In the second micro lecture, I was shown examples that broaden what I consider to be text. I was introduced to new types of storytelling throughout the various indigenous cultures. When looking at the different types of storytelling, specifically Long Dog's Buffalo Robe, Michelle brought up the point of how the multimodality presented in these robes is quite similar to the present day. This surprised me. Specifically, the fact that multimodality existed in such ways back centuries ago. Moreover, multimodality, while existing the same in both timeframes, took completely different routes into how the ideas of these stories are actually being expressed. This makes sense obviously as there was no technology at the time but I cannot help but feel surprised as to how it arose. For example, I was very interested in the circular formation of the images/characters because you don't really see that today. I thought that was really creative.  The Peruvian Quipus were interesting to me for...

Our visit to archives and special collections was more interesting than I expected. One of the most eye-opening realizations this visit gave me was how many different forms of "books" there are. There are so many unique ways of putting text to paper throughout history. For example, Antigone was written on Papyrus. It was interesting to see an actual papyrus fragment of the play in the special collections exhibit because it connects one to the play's time period along with the words written. It is an extremely unstable material as well. The Epic of Gilgamesh was etched in cuneiform on large tablets. While the library did not have any of the actual tablets, we got to see a receipt from that time. It was a very small tablet with a tiny bit of cuneiform signifying the purchase of a good. First, we saw Papyrus, then the stone tablets, and then we got to look at the Scroll of Esther. This was how a lot of middle age writing was done. Long scrolls like these would be wound up to...

I do not have a 100% clear idea of what exactly I want to compare but I know I want to learn more about Sophocles. Something about ancient text fascinates me. The fact that the ideas presented can relate so closely to the present day seems surreal. It gives me the feeling that thousands of years have passed yet nothing has really changed. Sophocles was a prolific playwright. Doing research, I found out that he won almost every literary contest he entered. I might want to compare book histories with four other Sophocles plays. Or, compare Antigone's  history with four other famous ancient plays by other authors. Surprisingly to myself, I actually found the process of book history research to be enjoyable. So, I want to do something centered around this for my final project.

 This micro lecture looked more at the history of the translations and books rather than the history of the play itself. I learned that in Oxyrinchus, Egypt, ancient papyrus scraps containing some parts of the play of Antigone  were found. I found it interesting that this was kind of the initial step to getting to the translation we have now. Why in Egypt and not in Greece? This makes me also wonder how much of the play could have been lost in those 500+ years in between. How many adaptations could there have been in that time? The part about the line shared through various Greek plays including Antigone  (the one about losing husband/brother) was quite fascinating because it again makes me wonder about how much of this current translation could have been from an entirely different play.  In Florence, Italy, some of the earliest versions of Antigone  were kept in a library called the Laurentian Library. And yes, the Laurentian Library has very beautiful and stun...