ENGL 211 Common place book 3

This work will be based only on Part 1 of “Sir Gawain and the green Knight” . 

Start by noting a specific moment, detail, quote, or specific theme from the text that seems intriguing, significant, provocative, or perplexing, and include that specific quote in your reflection, with a citation (citations = a line number for poems, page number for prose). 

• Then, explain what stood out to you about this specific detail from the text. As you explain why this detail is significant, work towards developing a thesis, argument, or a question about a perplexing or confusing aspect of the reading, and explain how the text supports your point. Whichever approach you take, you should offer an insight that is not already immediately obvious to all readers. Instead, it should be an insight that will provoke the rest of us to further thought and consideration. As you develop this point, feel free to bring in additional quotes from the text to support your point.
• Finally, to wrap up your reading journal entry, end with a question about the text that you would like to ask the rest of your classmates. (Entries that do not end with a question will only be able to receive 2 out of 3 points, at most.)
• Once you’ve written up your Commonplace Book entry, take photo of it on your phone and upload the photo to this page in Blackboard–see the upload link below. (If you don’t have a smartphone, that’s fine–just let me know and we can work out a different method of staying on track with your Commonplace Book.)
• Then, once you’ve uploaded your photo of what you wrote, keep your Commonplace Book with you and bring it to class so that you will have it easily accessible to talk about what you wrote.

As you write your commonplace book entry, some questions you might consider (feel free to explore others!) are as follows:

• How does the genre of “romance” compare to that of “epic”?
• How do the values of King Arthur and his “knights” compare to Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon “warriors” / thanes / thegns so far? What seem to be the most important differences between “knights” and “warriors”?

What do you notice about the presentation of courtly life in this story so far?

What do you notice about the presence of “games” in this story so far?

• What values does this poem seem to hold up as admirable so far?
• Is there a role of religion in this text so far? If so, what is it?

What do you notice about magic, wonder, and the supernatural in this story so far?

• Do we see any humor in this text so far?