november 7

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "Step Right Up" by Tom Waits; "Bloody Well Right" by Supertramp]

Terms such as values and common sense can take on different meanings (which is a matter for psychologists; how can something you define as common sense confuse me?  Isn't common sense the sense we share in common?). Cultural anthropologists and social psychologists describe values as "learned, enduring, epistemologically grounded moral conceptualizations that assist us in making judgments and in preparing us to act." What values do you see in Hamlet? In online/contemporary American culture? How do the characters in the former and decision-makers in the latter use values to inform and justify their decisions and behavior?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Hamlet: Act III
3. Performative utterances in Hamlet

HW:
1. Read "The Performative Utterance in William Shakespeare's Hamlet" and post notes to your course blog
2. Finish reading Act III and post notes to your course blog