Starting Assumptions
Please write a good solid paragraph where you comment on any
of the following topics, raise any questions that come to mind: what do you
know about this week's topic already? what interests you about this topic? what
more would you like to learn about it? When you are done, post your comments
in the "Starting Assumptions" section of this week's Blackboard
Discussion Board. Please make sure that you do this by
Tuesday midnight; it is up to you whether you want to do this before
or after the Background assignment (either way is fine).
Note: you do not have to answer all these questions; just
pick the ones that are the most relevant to what's on your mind.
Identity and Guardian Angels
- Have you read any medieval folktale collections before - such as Boccaccio's
Decameron, or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales? What did you think of those stories?
Have you read some folktale collections from the Indian or Islamic traditions,
like the Panchatantra or the Arabian Nights?
- There is a famous medieval story of stolen identity which was made into
a film: Return
of Martin Guerre. Have you seen this film? (it is excellent!)
Have you perhaps seen the American remark of this film, set in the Civil War-era,
called Sommersby,
starring Jodie Foster and Richard Gere?
- Have you seen the film The
Double Life of Veronique? Is there any other film or story that
comes to mind in which there are two persons, identical to one another physically,
whose life stories get entangled somehow?
- Do you worry about identity theft? Do you look anything like the photo on
your driver's license or on your student ID? Have you ever been finger-printed?
Do you get confused by all the passwords and secret codes that you have to
use in order to get through modern life these days?
- When you hear the phrase "guardian angel" what comes to mind?
What do you think guardian angels do? What powers do they have? How do they
get involved in somebody's life? Do you believe in guardian angels?
Modern Languages 4970 / MRS 4903: Medieval Latin. Spring
2003 Online Course at the University of Oklahoma. Visit http://www.ou.edu/online/
for more info.
Laura Gibbs, University of Oklahoma - Information Technology © 2003.
laura-gibbs@ou.edu. Last updated:
December 29, 2002 7:12 PM