Our Class Today - Lot of things: Feminism, Kindertransport, Phychoanalysis, and Shampoo Surgeon Dean Mahomed

We have done a number of things in class today. I was late in spite of all my effort to be early. Fortunately, many had not arrived even when I arrived late. We discussed how to work a dramatic story and how to use historical fact as a starting point of your playwriting. This kind of researched writing can give you a wonderful sense of being very relevant to your time.

1. We started with a discussion of a Bengali Book titled শীতে উপেক্ষিতা by Ranjan. One of our students read out the first paragraph, which was full of a style known as "Euphuism". It is a style that is self-consciously ornamental and sophisticated. This book was suggested as a very good resource for learning about complex sentence structure. 
2. We then moved to the trailer of a play titled "Kindertransport", based on the transfer of 10,000 Jewish children during the WWII to Britain and their problems of adjusting to the new society, new culture, new environment. Many of these children's parents were brutally murdered in Germany by the Nazis. The purpose of this play in NOT to expose the historical facts but rather to show how someone adjusts to new environment when someone is forcefully removed from one's environment.
3. We next moved to a very detailed discussion of the time and life of Sake Dean Mahomed, the first Indian to travel to England and to publish books in English. We discussed about the writing a FULL play about Sake Dean's travel and his adjustment with a new environment. We discussed about the importance of research before choosing a topic for writing a play. 
4. Next, we moved to a short review of reading three topics from Theory Before Theory - handout by Peter Barry. Most of the students have barely read the topics and it is going to be a big trouble in our future classes, because reading is still NOT believed by students as to be the most important activity for any meaningful engagement.  
5.  During the class we also made a very brief reference to T. S. Eliot's famous Essay "Tradition and Individual Talent." We intend to make further reference to this essay in coming weeks.
6.  While making reference to Feminism, we had a small discussion of the play A Man for All Seasons and the novel The Scarlet Letter. In the play we come to know how Anglican church was separated from Protestant Church. The Scarlet Letter shows how the author dreams of a more humanist society where the Christ figure is imagined as a woman. 
7.  There are some consistent absences in the class which I believe will create a HUGE problem when I give them assignments later. 
8.  I have also declared in the class that the Mid-term exam will consist of following things: (a) A 10 Min Play and the skeleton will be provided in the QP; (b) a number of short notes that have been discussed in the class; (c) a Full-length play of about 40 min where the students have to submit a play based on Sake Sean Mahomed's life. 
9.  Today students also read selected sentences that defines Psychoanalysis and Feminism. 
10. I also read out the first page from the first page of the chapter Feminism from the book "Readers' Guide to Literary Theory." We tried to discuss the following two sentences in the context of feminist thinking - "In Aeschylus’s trilogy, The Oresteia, victory is granted by Athena to the male argument, put by Apollo, that the mother is no parent to her child. The victory of the male principle of intellect brings to an end the reign of the sensual female Furies and asserts patriarchy over matriarchy."
11. Here is the LINK to the book Readers' Guide to Literary Theory =  This book is one of the most reliable book on literary theories. 
12. Today Finally, we decided to read and PSYCHOANALYSE John Keats' poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci. This kind of reading will show how to analyse a text according to psychoanalytical theories. Such practice is intended to improve the students' concept of characterization during Playwriting.