A short story for our literary club: Alice Munro

Wintertime is really at its peak right now! Just the perfect time for some cozy reading on the couch, huh?  I suggest expanding our English vocabulary and our understanding of the human soul as we read a short story from one of the greatest contemporary Canadian writers: Alice Munro. The story "Chance" was published in 2004, in her book New Selected Stories. The idea is to have a brief literary workshop in class in a couple of weeks, when all of you have read the story and reflected on the discussion questions below. Also, and for your convenience, check out the glossary I made for you, before and while reading, as you like.

The story "Chance", by Alice Munro
Glossary from Munro's "Chance"
Discussion questions

In case you feel like listening to more stories by Munro, here's a couple of audio files containing two stories from Munro's last collection, Too Much Happiness, really recommendable too!

Free Radicals

Some Women

Hieronymus Bosch

The triptych of The Garden of Earthly Delights (1503-1504) 

Hieronymus Bosch, born Jeroen Anthonissen van Aken (c. 1450 - August 9, 1516) was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of his works depicts sin and human moral failings. Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man. His works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time.

The video that follows is a short extract from a full documentary film produced by BBC FOUR, called Hieronymus Bosch and the Delights of Hell. While concentrating on the artist's central themes and imagery, the film also examines the medieval culture in which he worked. The extract below corresponds to part 1 (out of 5), and lasts 10 minutes. It has no English subtitles, except for the part they speak in French, but the narrator speaks fairly clearly and slowly. Now that we have analysed The Conjurer in class, maybe you feel like exploring more of his groundbreaking paintings. If so, the  BBC FOUR documentary can be a good start!

And remember we're going to a British Art Show this Friday in downtown Madrid! Click on this link to find out more about it: Treasure Island: British Art from Holbein to Hockney.