Wednesday, October 25, 2006

All Saints and an Apt Literary Assignment

All Saints Day is just around the corner. Since you have been so helpful with the other times I have sought suggestions for class (British literature), I thought I would put out another post seeking your help.

All Saints Day. British literature. Any suggestions?

Whatever is done has to be done that day in class and that's all. Reading and discussing and analyzing.

A poem? Poems? A short story? Some story that deals with a communion of folks of some sort and the beauty of things when they work together, rely on each other, trust each other? Or perhaps when they don't? To show the failings of us here without being in the constant state of grace of those in the Communion of Saints?

Or something else?

All suggestions welcome. Comment in comment section below or send an email.

I have looked at quite a few poems and some sermons from those who have a literary bent to their art. Even a letter from Leon Bloy (I know, he's not British, but I like his writings a lot) that he wrote to his bride-to-be which dealt with their love and the still contested issue of the relics of saints and their (the saints) everlasting Communion. She was not yet Catholic.

Thanks.

2 comments:

Fred said...

A one-day thing is somewhat of a puzzle.

It's French, not British, but the Bernanos collection, The Heroic Face of Innocence, has a couple of good pieces. For example, "the Sermon of an Agnostic on the Feast of St. Therese" would make a good read aloud - for high school.

Something that would require some advance prep time is having students write up bios of saints (there's plenty of English saints if you want to keep it Anglophilic) in a Paul Harvey style: presenters can then guess who the saint is (you could give them a list up front).

Now, if only they made Yu-Gi-Oh using saints ...

Kathy Carroll said...

If it's just for one day, I would show one of these films:

- Becket (1964, Richard Burton in title role)
- A Man For All Seasons (1966, Paul Scofield as Thomas More)

Follow with group discussion and have the students write an essay summary of which character traits made these men saints.

Have a good class!
Kathy