After reading The Sense of An Ending, I am glad that someone chose to research the Man Booker Prize Winner’s author, Julian Barnes! The themes of his work were evidently tied throughout your blog, promotional poster, food, and PowerPoint. I appreciate the comparison you made between modernism and post-modernism, highlighting the ambiguity, negative, yet logical notions that span one of the newer genres of today’s literature.
Of all the presentations in our class, I think yours had the most new literary techniques, which can be attributed to your focus on post-modernism. The pastiche, intertexuality, metafiction, temporal distortion, and faction were all terms I was unfamiliar beforehand, and you did an excellent job at defining these terms for the audience to understand. I wish you would have included more examples of these terms however, as the newness of these terms made it difficult for me to process and picture within writing. I think you could have also tied these terms into a little more complex analysis of “why” Barnes chose these techniques and the purpose they serve to develop his themes. However, the consistency with which you tied every aspect of your presentation to post-modernism highlighted the breadth and style of Barnes’ work; in my opinion, your thoughts and ideas were extremely coherent and tied together well throughout presentation. Thank you for choosing to delve into Barnes’ relatively newer field of literature and providing an easy-to-understand overview of postmodernism!
Hi, Megan! I want to say first and foremost that I really liked your food connection-- it fit so perfectly and was immediately understandable even though it had many deeper implications. Going off of that, I thought your presentation did a really good job of tying in all of the deeper themes Julian Barnes had regarding love and the disconnect involved with the literary devices used. Though I did not read The Sense of an Ending, I could still tell that-- basing my knowledge of The Sense of an Ending on the creative summer presentations-- many themes were shared throughout Barnes’ writing. I also thought that your presentation had the most comprehensive explanation of postmodernist writing styles and their focus on disillusionment and their “denial of the existence of any ultimate principles”. You also showed a very strong focus on the literary devices that Barnes used in his writing as opposed to simply how postmodernism, etc. had influenced his styles. You showed how, through devices such as linear plotlines, factions and temporal distortions really affected the message he was sending and also included very specific definitions of what each device really was. Lastly, I like the overall composition of your blog. Though this is thematically about “the heart” and what love is, etc. it does not look like the conventional “it’s all about love”-themed blog. The white background, the picture (which I really liked since it is not the typical, glamorized “heart” but rather, in the spirit of postmodernism, a literal, no-sugarcoating heart), the font-- they all work together in developing a sense of disconnect within the blog itself and this seemed to tie in well with the points you made throughout your essays.
I thought your presentation was both intriguing and engaging. I loved the intro with the cookies. Those along with humorous anecdote about Valentines Day was a great way to start off, by not only showing what your project was going to be about, but really making the audience enjoy the presentation. I loved that you discussed the post-modern influences on Barnes, it's extremely constructive to see why the author writes as he does. I thought it was great how you brought the poem in at the end and it served to tie the whole presentation together. The thematic connections were fantastic in closing the presentation and leaving the audience with a true feel for what Barnes was trying to accomplish.
I loved the comparison and contrast that you showed between modernism and post-modernism. The detail that you went in with that was extremely helpful in my understanding of your works as I was not that deeply familiar with both of those. I was also unfamiliar with many of the writing techniques used by those writers, and your explanations were again, very in depth and beneficial to my own understanding of writing from that period in general. It was also very helpful to see the examples of the devices from your book that you later showed.
Megan, I really enjoyed your presentation. First off, you have a very nice speaking voice. Secondly, your presentation was thoughtful and creative. You were very easy to listen to and used good anecdotes that kept everyone interested. Good job including the whole idea of postmodernism in your project, you explained it thoroughly in your presentation which was good because I need a refresher. In addition, you used a lot of good, complex literary terms, so it was good for you to have defined them for us.
The faction and the temporal distortion were well explained with good use of quotes from your novel. Those techniques seemed to be necessary for the development of the characters and the plot and make the book interesting. You perhaps could have included a little more explanation of the bigger themes seen through the novel because there was lot of focus on the smaller elements. I too, had a newer author (relevant in the 2000's) so it was interesting to see how you made his work qualified!
After reading The Sense of An Ending, I am glad that someone chose to research the Man Booker Prize Winner’s author, Julian Barnes! The themes of his work were evidently tied throughout your blog, promotional poster, food, and PowerPoint. I appreciate the comparison you made between modernism and post-modernism, highlighting the ambiguity, negative, yet logical notions that span one of the newer genres of today’s literature.
ReplyDeleteOf all the presentations in our class, I think yours had the most new literary techniques, which can be attributed to your focus on post-modernism. The pastiche, intertexuality, metafiction, temporal distortion, and faction were all terms I was unfamiliar beforehand, and you did an excellent job at defining these terms for the audience to understand. I wish you would have included more examples of these terms however, as the newness of these terms made it difficult for me to process and picture within writing. I think you could have also tied these terms into a little more complex analysis of “why” Barnes chose these techniques and the purpose they serve to develop his themes. However, the consistency with which you tied every aspect of your presentation to post-modernism highlighted the breadth and style of Barnes’ work; in my opinion, your thoughts and ideas were extremely coherent and tied together well throughout presentation. Thank you for choosing to delve into Barnes’ relatively newer field of literature and providing an easy-to-understand overview of postmodernism!
Hi, Megan! I want to say first and foremost that I really liked your food connection-- it fit so perfectly and was immediately understandable even though it had many deeper implications. Going off of that, I thought your presentation did a really good job of tying in all of the deeper themes Julian Barnes had regarding love and the disconnect involved with the literary devices used. Though I did not read The Sense of an Ending, I could still tell that-- basing my knowledge of The Sense of an Ending on the creative summer presentations-- many themes were shared throughout Barnes’ writing. I also thought that your presentation had the most comprehensive explanation of postmodernist writing styles and their focus on disillusionment and their “denial of the existence of any ultimate principles”. You also showed a very strong focus on the literary devices that Barnes used in his writing as opposed to simply how postmodernism, etc. had influenced his styles. You showed how, through devices such as linear plotlines, factions and temporal distortions really affected the message he was sending and also included very specific definitions of what each device really was. Lastly, I like the overall composition of your blog. Though this is thematically about “the heart” and what love is, etc. it does not look like the conventional “it’s all about love”-themed blog. The white background, the picture (which I really liked since it is not the typical, glamorized “heart” but rather, in the spirit of postmodernism, a literal, no-sugarcoating heart), the font-- they all work together in developing a sense of disconnect within the blog itself and this seemed to tie in well with the points you made throughout your essays.
ReplyDeleteI thought your presentation was both intriguing and engaging. I loved the intro with the cookies. Those along with humorous anecdote about Valentines Day was a great way to start off, by not only showing what your project was going to be about, but really making the audience enjoy the presentation. I loved that you discussed the post-modern influences on Barnes, it's extremely constructive to see why the author writes as he does. I thought it was great how you brought the poem in at the end and it served to tie the whole presentation together. The thematic connections were fantastic in closing the presentation and leaving the audience with a true feel for what Barnes was trying to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteI loved the comparison and contrast that you showed between modernism and post-modernism. The detail that you went in with that was extremely helpful in my understanding of your works as I was not that deeply familiar with both of those. I was also unfamiliar with many of the writing techniques used by those writers, and your explanations were again, very in depth and beneficial to my own understanding of writing from that period in general. It was also very helpful to see the examples of the devices from your book that you later showed.
Megan, I really enjoyed your presentation. First off, you have a very nice speaking voice. Secondly, your presentation was thoughtful and creative. You were very easy to listen to and used good anecdotes that kept everyone interested. Good job including the whole idea of postmodernism in your project, you explained it thoroughly in your presentation which was good because I need a refresher. In addition, you used a lot of good, complex literary terms, so it was good for you to have defined them for us.
ReplyDeleteThe faction and the temporal distortion were well explained with good use of quotes from your novel. Those techniques seemed to be necessary for the development of the characters and the plot and make the book interesting. You perhaps could have included a little more explanation of the bigger themes seen through the novel because there was lot of focus on the smaller elements. I too, had a newer author (relevant in the 2000's) so it was interesting to see how you made his work qualified!