This unit has really brought into perspective the role that the author or writer plays in the portrayal of their characters. How the effect of their own societal views and biases from the point in time they created that story, could lead audiences or readers to see a character as portrayed by their stereotypes rather than as their own person. We see this in Medea when comparing the two translations/adaptations of the play. In the one we had on hand there was a sense that Medea was more “other” and cruel than in the online version by Ben Powers. The specific diction used created an idea that she was so spiteful and needed revenge so bad that she killed her own children purely to get back at Jason. Because of the way she was seen the audience is persuaded not to have as much sympathy for her actions. This is juxtaposed with the other version we worked on which was written for a modern audience where there seems to be more of a pitiable tone taken on Medea. These two versions ability to completely change a person’s perspective of a character and their actions based on the language each translator decidedto use.
Month: February 2021
Kahaani – Final reflection
Kahaani has been an extremely rewarding and educational experience for me this year. I’ve learnt some of the best ways to collaborate with people in order to get what needs to be done, while also creating a meaningful connection with people I usually wouldn’t interact with. It was difficult to get most of the people in my group to focus enough to be working on the dance rather than playing around. I could see our dance leaders getting more and more frustrated and it became imminently clear that confrontation diffusion was a skill I needed to develop in order to avoid an explosion. There were moments when I thought we were never going to get the dance learnt or be able to perform it well without something having to change. Eventually, after a lot of convincing and threatening, the boys would settle down and we would be able to run the dance. The final performance was filled with zest and energy as we were all excited to be coming to the end of our Kahaani journey for this year. It has been a meaningful experience for me, committing to an activity which is helping those in far more need than ourselves. Not being able to actively see the difference my participation was making to the Kolkata GC was difficult to deal with. I had to trust that my contributions were aiding an issue of global significance rather than observing the change we were making in the world myself. Overall Kahaani is a wonderful thing to do in order to help out, just by sacrificing one lunch a week and a couple of weekends you get to learn and grow in a community of loving and supporting students.