At the beginning of class today, I handed out a copy of an essay that came up in one of our discussions in class. This is an essay that I wrote when I was in high school studying
Beowulf. This essay compares comedy daredevil Johnny Knoxville to Beowulf. Some people were familiar with Johnny Knoxville while others were not so we watched two video clips that represent the general nature of his work (see below).
(This video contains a swear towards the end of the video. If you would prefer to not be subject to the swear, feel free to skip the video. A summary of the video is: Johnny Knoxville gets charged by some buffalo in a muddy pen while wearing roller skates)
After watching the video, I handed out a copy of the essay I wrote in high school.
This essay presents a good opportunity to read some writing by a high school student and to be highly critical of the arguments presented in it. Often in class, we're sure to provide criticism that is mindful of what sort of feedback the author wants to receive. In this case, the essay is mine from high school and I'm inviting the class to be as critical as they feel is appropriate in their critique.
Everyone had two minutes to respond to the pre-reading question which we then discussed as a class.
We then reviewed the reading and post-reading questions and everyone had the next twenty minutes to read the essay and respond to these questions.
When everyone had finished reading the essay and responding to the reading and post-reading questions, we came together as a class and people discussed their critiques of the essay. Class discussion focused on the following points:
1 - Heroic qualities attributed to Knoxville and Beowulf.
2 - Significance of the hero's acts in society.
3 - The benefits gained from the hero's actions and how those relate to society.
4 - Other, modern-day figures that could be comparable hero figures to Beowulf.
Our next activity looked at Beowulf and Gilgamesh as heroes in our modern world.
This activity asks us to look at the two hero's and determine which one would be more useful in a modern conflict (the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia).
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B - Originating area for the Beowulf story in 450-600 CE (~1,400 - 1,500 years ago)
G - Originating area for the Gilgamesh story in 2100 BCE (~4,000 years ago)
U - Ukraine (red is the Crimean peninsula that was recently taken over by Russia
After reviewing the regions and timelines involved in comparing these older heroes to this modern conflict we reviewed the recent conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Simplified Conflict Summary (so far):
The Soviet Union broke up in 1991 with the end of the Cold War resulting in the creation of separate countries (Russia, Ukraine, and other eastern European countries). There are strong cultural ties in Ukraine to Russia. Russia has economic interests in the Crimean peninsula since, as a peninsula, it is a key port for eastern shipping (including a lot of Russia's oil).
As a world power, Russia has been trying to form a Russian union that would rival the European Union. Some people in Ukraine (including the Ukrainian president) wanted this closer relationship with Russia. The Ukranian president made moves to make Ukraine closer to Russia. This upset a lot of people in Ukraine. There were lots of protests and clashes with police. The protestors forced the Ukrainian president out of Ukraine and he went to Russia. Unmarked military personnel showed up in Crimea and forced the Ukrainian military out of the peninsula. The unmarked military personnel have recently been revealed (by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin) to be Russian. Russia now claims that Crimea is part of Russia. Western countries (Europe, the USA) have said, "errr...that's not really nice, but ok."
Currently there are more unmarked military personnel demanding that other parts of Ukraine also join Russia. Putin, the Russian President, says these unmarked personnel are not Russian. Ukrainians that do not want to be part of Russia, European countries, and the US believe these are Russian soldiers. Putin says he has no problem with these parts of Ukraine joining Russia and would support them. Europe, the US, and Ukrainians that want to be closer to Europe say, "errrrr...this is really not nice. Ukraine shouldn't be part of Russia; it should be its own country.. we're going to um...."
This leads us to the discussion question above...
To better explore this topic, we're going to look at a recent news article on this situation. Then, with Ukraine as the smaller dog in the fight so to speak, we're going to imagine that they get to call in a hero from older times to help them out, Beowulf or Gilgamesh. This will be framed by a discussion around which hero would better serve Ukraine and why (see handouts below)
Handouts:
Homework:
Complete the reading and response for the "Old Heroes, Modern Conflict: Ukraine" assignment (see above).
Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.
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