Une fois les écrits de la BEL passés, nous avons profité du cours de littérature anglaise dédié à la préparation des écrits pour aborder les textes discutés au cours de l’année sous un nouvel angle.
Les étudiant.e.s devaient présenter une création inspirée d’un des textes étudiés cette année, et expliquer les liens entre leur création et le texte. Tout était possible : musique, art plastique, cuisine, jeu de société…
Voici les œuvres de nos talentueux étudiants, accompagnés de leurs explications.
Inès, The Souls of Black Folk (DuBois) “I painted this picture of a sort of wooden cupboard with the lock visible. When you look through the keyhole, you can see a daffodil in the foreground, as well as a starry night. The wooden cabinet is quite dark and covered with foliage. And, the keyhole is rather large, to give a zoom effect, as if the landscape behind it were to take over from the wooden cabinet. In relation to the historical context given by DuBois, and the description he gave in his book, I decided to paint this picture to represent the hope present in African American communities, and which helps them to continue the fight. That is why there is a sort of zoom on the keyhole, to give an effect of growing hope.”
Julie, The Mill on the Floss (Eliot) “I decided to represent the doll of the text The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot. I used gouache because it reminds me of the paint that children use. I looked for 19th century images of dolls for reference. The doll suffers from the mistreatment of the child Maggie.”
Cheïma, The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) “I chose to organise a drawing contest based of an extract of Fitzgerald’ novel The Great Gatsby. The contest was linked to Fitzgerald by the characters drawn, like my own drawing which represents Fitzgerald in a manga named Bungo Stray Dogs. The final goal was for everyone to draw American authors.”
Maylis, The God of Small Things (Roy) “To represent the “baroque bedlam” of Chacko’s bedroom, I built a model with cardboard. Inside it, I put cupboards that are looking used, full, filled with clothes and book “heavy enough to inflict serious damage”. Also, I added the empty wine bottles, the underwear (with an exotic pattern), and the cigarette butts littering the floor next to a bed which symbolises the couple’s passion. The colours used are references to the Baroque.”
Manon, Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald) “I made a typical headband with black and golden beads and a long necklace with white pearls to bring back the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. Indeed, the novel Tender is the Night, written by F.S. Fitzgerald takes place in the 1920s, a time when women gained independence and started to express their autonomy through fashion and behaviour. This is why I chose to recreate 1920s jewellery. Everyone then got to create their own beaded bracelets.”
Loreena, Sense and Sensibility (Austen) “I have chosen the excerpt from Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility. To represent the wedding between Edward and Elinor, I have decided to make a strawberry pie that would represent their wedding cake. I arranged the strawberries in such a way as to represent a flower that could be associated with a red rose, which is a symbol of love and passion (for sensibility). I read that strawberries can represent the “fruit of the spirit”, and I think it could correspond to the character of Elinor who is judged as rational and smart, who knows how to control her emotion (sense).”
Mona, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou) “Having played the flute for 15 years, I decided to express the musical aspect of Maya Angelou’s work by playing the melody of the song “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”. This song’s symbolism embodies what is at stake in the excerpt.”
Héloïse, The Moonstone (Collins) “I chose this extract, and shaped the cake like an envelope, because when I read this text, I wondered how Miss Clack and Franklin Blake communicated for the investigation. At the end of the extract, Miss Clack gives “a message”. The stamp has a moon and diamond to represent the infamous moonstone.”
Anna, The Moonstone (Collins) “I created a game which allowed each player to learn to lie, like the hypocritical character Miss Clack. The game is played in groups of three: one person has to guess which of the two other players is lying about what is on their card.”
Nora, Staring at the Sun (Barnes) “I chose to present Room 605 in Mantes-la-Jolie from a different side as a sublime space, inspired by Julian Barnes’s text on the Grand Canyon. So, through photos, color and texture play, it unveils the poetic, intellectual, and emotional richness of an everyday setting.”
Rémi, “The Value of Laughter” (Woolf). “In “The Value of Laughter”, Woolf argues that laughter is necessary for a good human life. So is chocolate cake.”
