British Literature Symposium

The first paper gave me a lot of insight into how deeply you can look into the meaning of a book or play.  She went away from the standard interpretations of the play.  At first I was skeptical but by the end she almost had me convinced that her interpretation was right.  This is applicable to my paper, because my book has a very standardized interpretation, but I could try to pull a different, obscure meaning out of it if I wanted to.

The second presentation was about how the Sherlock Holmes character and story has changed over time and how it has become open for interpretation to any author.  It was interesting how she evaluated how the Sherlock Holmes stories have changed over time to match the desires fo the audience viewing it.  The part of her presentation that could apply to my paper was what she said about character development.  She basically said that once an author has created a character, the readers are able to interpret that character to be whatever they want it to be.  In my book, the author clearly wanted characters to be interpreted a certain way, but I, or any other reader, could interpret it however I want.

            The last paper was interesting because it discussed how people portray themselves versus how they are innately.  She talked about how masculinity changed in the Victorian Era and how this is reflected in a short periodical.  She talked about how men would change the way they acted in order to be viewed as more masculine. This is really applicable to my book.  In my book, the animals are acting in way that is not innately “animal.”  They are acting in a way that is against their nature in order to be perceived in a different way and to attain a goal.