**Papers on the Wife of Bath were handed back**
A few closing statements were made on her as well:

This is GOOD! Uniformity in literature is boring. Works that present only one perspective are rather boring.

Then the conversation moves to Sir Thomas Malory, the author of The Death of Arthur. It is obvious within minutes of beginning the story that it is much easier to read than The Canterbury Tales. This is because there were big changes made in the English language in the hundred years between these two literary works. These changes came about from the invention of the printing press. However, spelling didn't become an important aspect of language until the end of the 17th century.

In today's class, we opened up with the concept of GENRES, or classifications of literature. How are genres defined? Bryan said that by taking a group of works, finding similarities among them and then categorizing them would be creating a genre. Lauren said that they can also be defined by the expected feeling of the reader (for example, by watching a movie from the "horror" genre, one would expect to be scared at the end of the movie). Someone else mentioned that genres can also be defined by the style in which a text was written (for example, poetry). There is obviously room for overlapping with genres, which results in the mixture of feelings one might have from a text. Time frames will also affect genres and can be characterized by them (for example, Renessaince drama). WHY DO WE HAVE GENRES?? ---> There came a few responses: *to prepare your mind frame before reading *genres generally enhance the reading material and the stories are enhanced by genre knowledge *ease in finding a literary work due to its categorization *assists in helping YOU define what you like and dislike *to compare and contrast.

There were also some takers on this question: *tragedy because it signified "the death of an era" *historical legend because it has been repeatedly told throughout history and is reputed as true *the "heroic fantastic" because it contains some fantasy elements (the sword and wizards, for examples), as well as 2 possible heroes, Arthur and Lancelot *romance because it takes place in the knightly world, as well as the romantic theme in it.

It is important to look at each character specifically but especially Arthur. Aristotle said that if a story were a tragedy, there needed to be a "moment of recognition" (the truth being revealed somehow) and a "reversal of fortune" (the hero falls). In addition, these two themes are generally tied together. Sex is an inciting force in this story; however, Guinivere is simply not deemed nearly as important as one would think her to be. We also approached the idea that the force behind the story was simply accidental, seeing as the whole battle at the end was spurred by a man drawing his sword on a SNAKE that already bit him (could also be a phallic reference, but that's just a little extra I threw in here!-don't mind it!). At any rate, an accident also takes place when Lancelot just so happens to murder 2 men in the heat of the moment. These 2 events changed the course of the story yet they were both written into the story by Malory as accidents. Interesting end point eh?