Dear tragedizers,
Next week we'll be concluding our work on Lorca's Blood Wedding.
The Monday session (31 March) will be the final structured discussion of the semester. This time, a team of anthropologists will be interviewing different groups from the rural Andalusian community where the events of Blood Wedding took place. The briefs for each team are here.
As usual, the interviewees will have a five-minute statement to prepare, in response to a question provided in advance; and you'll have five minutes to confer as a team at the beginning of the seminar. For this discussion, I've made two changes to the usual format:
- The follow-up questions from the interviewers will be supplied on the day, rather than in advance.
- The groups being interviewed will also be able to ask their interviewers a question. This will also be supplied on the day.
So you'll all find yourselves answering some unexpected questions. The questions will focus on social and ethical issues, so you may want to reflect on those aspects of Blood Wedding before Monday's session.
Team members are:
- Fieldwork team: Aqsa, Cameron
- Mothers and older women of the village: Keira, Max, Dorra
- Young men of the village: Masha, Nia, Levi
- Servants and agricultural labourers: Hana, Malina, Muna
The Thursday session next week (3 April) will be a literature review workshop. In the coming days I'll allocate each of you an article on Blood Wedding from the reading list (2-3 students per article). You should read the article in advance of the session, and make notes to summarize its argument (in just a few sentences) and comment on what you think are its strengths and weaknesses. You'll have some time at the beginning of the session to confer as a group, and agree on a summary and an outline of strengths/weaknesses. You'll then report on the article to the rest of the class.
I hope this exercise will help you practise critical reading of secondary sources; familiarize you with a relevant study; and enable you to learn about various other studies.
See you this Thursday for the lecture on symbolism in Blood Wedding.
Best wishes,
Adrian
