Othello.

Othello is a Moor who serves the Venetian republic; he has been tasked with commanding the Venetian army against the Turks of the island of Cyprus. At the beginning of the drama we find Othello who, together with Lieutenant Cassio, leaves Venice. He should be followed by Desdemona, his wife, escorted by Iago and his wife Emilia.
Othello and Desdemona were secretly married but the truth is revealed by iago.Once they arrive at their destination they discover that the Turkish fleet is no longer there, destroyed by a storm. At that point I, the deceitful bishop, tried in every way to remove Cassius with a petty stratagem that worked also thanks to Roderigo’s help. Emilia, unsuspecting accomplice, helps iago to get Cassio a handkerchief of Desdemona;discovered this - alerted by iago - Otello is convinced that Desdemona betrayed him.
Iago has done nothing but falsely defend Cassio, pretending openly and deceiving, and this is at the heart of the tragedy: that persuasion that drives the Moor to yield to a furious and uncontrollable rage. Othello, overwhelmed by uncontrollable jealousy, kills Desdemona in their bed by smothering her with a pillow. The epilogue sees Emilia reveal that Desdemona’s betrayal was nothing more than a lie, the invention of her husband Iago.
The latter kills her immediately for revealing that truth. Devoured by the remorse of his gesture Othello decides to commit suicide, letting himself fall on the body of his wife.Iago, for his part, is taken away and condemned to torture while Cassius takes the place of Othello in his role as servant of the Venetian republic.

The flourishing of Medieval Drama

In the 15th century it can be see the flourishing of medieval drama developed from liturgical ceremonies. After music was introduced into churches in the 6th century and words were later fitted to the melodies, and a dramatic dialogue began to emerge. 

Little by little other effects were added and all of this produced an evolution from liturgical drama to Miracle and Mystery Plays.

Mystery Plays tells about Gospel events while Miracles talks episodes from the lives of Saints. Miracle are grouped into four cycles adapted from the Bible, now know by the names of the towns where they were perfomed: Chester, York,Coventry and Wakefield.  

In this period Latin was replaced by the vernacular English and the perfomances inside churches became more and more difficult because of the growing size of the audience. So the plays were removed from the churches and began to be perfomed in the church courtyard or in open spaces of the town. These were represented on a pegeant, a carriage on six wheels in the form of a small house. 

The second great literary product of the time, the Morality Play, were focused on the conflict between good and evil. Also they gave a lesson that people should be learn. The best Morality Play is Everyman. Then Moralities were replaced by Interludes very brevity, their rare use of allegory, the introduction of humor or satire. The best example of Interlude is The Four P's by John Heywood. 

Beowulf and Canterbury Tales.

The only long epic poem in Old English ( germanic language) is Beowulf. This poem tells about the adventure of a Scandinavian prince, called Beowulf. He's a traditional hero and he's the most famous warrior in the land of Geats, territory in Southern Sweden. Beowulf crossed the sea to the land of Danes to save it of mortal enemy: Grendel. He won the battle and he returned triumphant and he took the power for 50 yars as king. Then a dragon invaded the land and Beowulf killed it but after that he died.

In this epic poem the character represents the braveness, the goodness and the salvation for the society while the Dragon represents the fear of people during that time.

Canterbury Tales and Geoffrey Chaucer.

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London into a wealthy family of wine traders in 1343. He can be considered like the father of the English literature.

His poem most important is Canterbury Tales. It's a long narrative poem set in spring that tells the story of thirty people (men, women, monks, nun and Chaucer himself) who are going on a pilgrimage. They are travelling to Canterbury in Kent to the shrine of Thomas Becket. They meet at the Tabard Inn in London.

During the pilgrimage every pilgrim should tell two stories while going to Canterbury and two coming back. The best stories receives a prize while the worse a penality.

In this work Canterbury represents the holy city while London the terrestrial city.

Also, the pilgrimage was famous because it was the only way to travel for normal people but also to save their souls.

With this work Chaucer wanted to give a portrait of English society that is corrupted by the religion and the middle classes.

Important in this period is also Thomas Becket, He was an archbishop that fought against his best friend called Henry II (the king of England) because the king wanted to limit the church powers.

                        
                       The Prioress

This tales talks about of a nun that proves to be rich and not humble. She spoke french very well, she wore a coral trinket on her arm, she had a seat of beads with green gaudies and she fited her dogs whit meat and white bread (very expensive in this period). Chaucer with this poem do a parody of church.

                             The Wife of Bath

The Wife of Bath is a storyteller who recites her autobiography of her travelling around the world as a pilgrim. She confesses that she got married five times and she had many lovers when she was young. 

She seems proud of it and she represents worldly qualities as well as a female.

Her name is Dame Alice and Bath is the town she came from and it's a city that Romans built in England. 

The Feudal System.

                                                                                           

In this period the society was divided into four social classes.

At the base of pyramid there were the peasants that worked for the vassals in exchange of lands and protection.

Then there were the knights that gave protection and military service to nobles and they received glory and fame by the king.

Nobles were the class more rich than other two classes and they gave money to the king to get landed.

To the vertex of the pyramid there was the king that had the control of all territories and he had the absolute power. 

 

                                                                                

The Castle is the most famous building in the middle ages. It wad built on a mountain or hill and was surrounded by huge moats and big walls. These were used as residence of the king but also from far away to see the arrival of enemies.

Middle Ages.

Middle ages began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 a.c. and ended with the conquest of America by Cristoforo Colombo in 1492.

This period is know like a Dark Period because there were a lot of caresty, wars, illnesses and especially the corruption of the church that used religion as a weapon of manipulation, en fact the pope was accused of nepotism. People started to think that natural events were consequence of God's punishment.

Middle Age is divided into three parts: Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages.

First inhabitants of England were:

• Celts: They were a population of artisans and they lived in tribes, they were very strong in wars and they had bronze and iron weapons. 
• Romans: They arrived in England in 43 AD with the Emperor Claudius to conquest Scotland. They started to built a lot of bridges, walls, roads to facilitate the travels around England.
• Anglo-Saxon: They were germanic people and they didn't speak the language of the place and for this they were considered barbarian also for their ways of living.
• Vikings: They came from Scandinavia and they were good in  sailing and navigational skills
• .Normans: They were man of the North and they came from France. The norman conquest in 1066 in the battle of Hasting is the most remarkable English event because after that England changed. Led by William the Conqueror they brought the french culture and language. Important it's the creation of the Domesday Book in which were written all the properties that the people had. In this way people payed the taxis for the first time.

Globalization..!

Globalization is the process of interaction and integration between people, companies and governemets worldwide. Globalization grows to advances in transportation and communication technology. However conflicts and diplomacy are also parts of the history of old and modern
globalization.





 
Economic globalization is the process of increasing economic integration between countries, leading to the emergence of a single world market. 

Political globalization can refer to the increasing and conviction that all people should be governed by their own consent and a rule of law. It may also refer to the increasing number of inter-governmental organizations with global scope.


















Cultural globalization refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings, values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations.










Very important in the Globalization is the E-Commerce.
E-Commerce, also know as electronic commerce io internet commerce, refers to the  buying and selling of goods or services using the intenet.
The E-Commerce more used is Amazon, an internet services where you can buy all like electronic objets, books, clothes and other.

Artificial Brain Ten Years Away

A top British professor presented in a conference his building of replica human brain. Professor Henry Markham told that this it's not impossible and we can do it in 10 years. He is director of the Blue Brain project, which aims to engineer mammals' brains from laboratory data. He has already had success with creating parts of a rat's brain. Markham said that the human brain was an almost frithtening organ. Professor hoped his research would lead to new treatments for mental illnesses. Markham believes that a technology brain reduce the need of experiments on animals. He provided a simple explanation of his work: "It's a bit like going and cataloguing a bit of the rainforest.. But it is a bit more because you have to describe and discover all the rules of communication and connectivity."