Friday, January 9, 2009

William Shakespeare



Biography
William Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers at all times. He was born in April 23, 1546 in Stanford Upon-Avon in England. He is called the grand literary figure of the Western world. His father was a glove-maker and trader of farm products.
Shakespeare studied Latin grammar during the early years of his life beside logic, composition, oration, and monuments of Roman literature.
In 1582, when he was 18 years old he go married to Anne. They got only one son who died when he was 11 years old. Shakespeare moved to London in 1585 and there he worked as an actor and playwright for the Lords Chamberlain's men company. In 1599, he became a partner in ownership of the global theater. He died in 1616 after having a very productive life.



His works
Shakespeare is the greatest English poet and playwright. The first Shakespeare’s work was Richard III and Hennery VI which both written at the bingeing of 1590s. Until the mid-1590s, he wrote comedies influenced by Roman and Italian models and history plays. In 1595, he wrote his most famous tragedy, romantic Romeo and Joliet. In 1599, he wrote another tragedy called Julius Caesar. That was the period in which he wrote his greatest comedies and histories. From 1608 to 1613 another period of his writing started. He began his Romantic writings.
Task two: DramaIt might be surprising to know that many of Shakespeare's plays, especially in the experimental period were hardly original. He barrowed plot features from earlier plays. Borrowing plots and taking liberties with historical facts was not uncommon in Shakespeare's time and his skill for language, imagery, pun and his creative adaptation of myths and history have set Shakespeare apart as arguably the greatest playwright of all times.

Marshall McLahun

Biography
Marshall McLahun is a Canadian philosopher, educator and literary critic. He was born in July21, 1911 in Edmonton in Canada. His parents were Methodist.
In 1915, he moved with his family to Winnipeg, Manitoba where he grew up and went to school. In 1928, he joined the University of Manitoba from which he earned his Masters degree from later on. After that, he moved with his family to England to study in Cambridge University. In 1936, he received the Bachelor degree and he returned to Canada. He wanted to work as an assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin Masson but he did not the chance. He went back to England to join Cambridge University to finish his higher study.
From 1937 to 1944, he taught English at Saint Louis University. There he found his futures wife, Corinne Lewis. They got married in 1939. In 1950s, McLahun began studying communication and culture at the University of Toronto. Later he began to make his family. Marshall and his wife got six children. His had was full of events and movements until he died in his sleep last day of 1980.


His works
During his life, Marshall wrote many books and essays. He is a very famous of his slogan 'The media is the message'. He wrote this slogan in one of his most popular books called Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man which was published in 1964. Also his doctoral dissertation is very rich of his ideas about media.
Marshall was influenced by F.R.Leavis and Dengs Thompsons' books. This influence is very clear in his study called Folklore of Industrial Man published in 1951. In addition, he was very interested in the critical study of popular culture. In 1962, he published his famous book, The Gutenberg Galaxy. The book contains many short essays introduced by an advertisement or essay taken from a magazine or a newspaper followed by Marshalls' comment.
Hot and cool media
In his book Understanding Media, Marshall says that different media invite different degree of participation on the part of the person who chooses to consume a medium. He says that there are two types of media, Hot and Cool media. Hot media usually provides complete involvement without a considerable stimulus. On the other hand, cool media usually provides little involvement with substantial stimulus.

Karl Marx

Biography


Karl Marx is a German philosopher and, historian, and politician. He was born in Trier, Prussia in May 5, 1818. He received his education at home until he became thirteen years old. His father was a successful lawyer. Marx was very interested to study philosophy and literature but he did not do so because his father insisted that his son should study law. Karl earned the University of Bonn in 1835. During his study, he wrote many poems and essays concerning life. Also he absorbed the atheistic philosophy of the Young Hegelians who were prominent in Berlin at that time. He earned a Doctoral degree in 1841 from the University of Jena. After that, he returned to Rhineland in 1842 where he became the editor of Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne. In 1849, he went to Paris where he made contact with socialists from many countries, and renewed his acquaintance with Fridrich Engels, beginning long-life friendship. On June 19, 1843, Karl Marx got married to Junny Von, a daughter of a Prussian baron. The death of his wife in December 1881 made him ill for the last fifteen months of his life. He died in London on March14, 1883.


His works
When he was young, Karl Marx was influenced by the intellectual climate in Germany. He was very much influenced by Hegel's works. In his life, he published a large number of books and essays. The first book which he wrote in collaboration with Engel was The Holly Family, published in 1855. In 1847 the two played a key role in founding the communist league and wrote the Manifesto of the communist party.
In 1859, Karl Marx published his well-known work called Critique of Political Economy. It is believed that the book is pat of a long unpublished preparatory draft for a major book of which the critique was to be the first part. The two remaining volumes occupied Marx for the rest of his life, and he left both uncompleted. After Marx’s death, Engel edited and published them in 1884 and 1893.