English 1006
Prompt #28
29 October 2013
Having been back to the text

Going back to language

I've read through all the postings and replies since last time, and it seems to me there's a great deal of thoughtful, reflective writing there; most people seemed to take the chance to go back and think more concretely about the play and their experiences of reading and then seeing it, and to use that chance pretty effectively. I want to be as sure as I can that everybody's had a chance to see what others said, so I'm going to use the postings as the texts to consider in class today.

But this time I want to think about something slightly different: where the postings were about how a person understood or felt differently about a passage in the play because she had seen it, I want to focus attention back on something we were talking about before we began working on Private Lives: how language invites us to make judgments or to figure things out or have responses. One way to think about this is to imagine that in each case Noel Coward is showing you these people acting this way and saying these things.

I'll count off some groups and give each group a set of about for postings and responses. Read through them looking for word choices or ways of saying things where characters in the play are using language in these ways, or when Noel Coward is asking us to watch them using language in such ways. Here's an example:
AMANDA: You were abusing Elyot like a pickpocket to me a little while ago, now you are standing up for him.
SIBYL: I'm beginning to suspect that he wsn't quite so much to blame as I thought.
AMANDA: Oh really?
SIBYL: You certainly have a very unpleasant temper.
AMANDA: It's a little difficult to keep up with your rapid changes of front . . .

I think Sibyl's remark about Amanda's temper is an explanation of why she's beginning to understand Elyot a bit better -- but Amanda doesn't understand that at all, and thinks she's changing the subject. Sibyl's response doesn't make any sense unless we come to understand what she's doing; and Coward expects us to understand that. It would be quite different if Sibyl had said, for example, "I'm beginning to see why he might have left you; you certainly have an unpleasant temper."
Decide on one example of language in the play which depends on the audience understanding something that isn't quite said, or making a judgement, and identify it on the form you'll have, with a sentence or two explaining what you think the issue is. Agree on the example, and the explanation, put the printout containing your choice on top, and hand the pile back in.
For Thursday
It's still mid-term time; this process will continue for a bit longer. See Prompt #29, which will appear this evening.

Go to the previous prompt
Go to the next prompt
 Go to the list of prompts
Go to the main working site for English 1006G