"Dejen que los chicos rompan los libros"

These are some of Mempo Giardinelli's words at the International Book Fair. What do you think? What books did you read when you were a kid? Did you tear books when you were little?

“Dejen que los chicos rompan los libros. La apropiación a través de la rotura es un gesto de amor. Cuando un chico marca, dibuja y arranca una hoja es un gesto de amor. Yo de chico podía jugar a los soldaditos y el fuerte lo hacía con mis libros. Después sí, por ahí, leía."

To read the complete version:

Mempo Giardinelli: “Dejen que los chicos rompan los libros”

Bloom's Literary Places- LONDON

"More than any other writer, Charles Dickens conveyed the atmosphere of Victorian London. His keen observations of characters and language, the social backdrops, and the wide discrepancies between rich and poor tell us more than any historian or journalist of the time. His works are intricately linked with London, both through location and experience. His graphic images of workhouses, prisons, slums, dark alleyways, and the ever-present fog have formed some of our strongest impressions of Victorian London."

To read more about London by Charles Dickens, take a look at this book:

Bloom's Literary places: London

Oliver Twist, the movie

You can read more information about the movie, the period and find activities in the following link:

Oliver Twist

Analyze Cultural and Historical Context

Homework:

List the characteristics of the period in one column and the treatment of those characteristics in Oliver Twist in a second column. Bring your chart for nex week.

Realism in fiction- Charles Dickens

Dickens was aware of many of the social problems of his day and wrote to call attention to them. As you read, think about the following questions:

• If you were a writer, what social problems would you want to call attention to today?

• How else might you call attention to today’s social issues?

An era of rapid change- Questions of the time

During Queen Victoria’s reign, England went from horse-drawn carriages to motor cars, from rule by aristocrats to votes for every man, from a land of farmers to a land of factories. England also actively embraced imperialism as the country’s destiny and duty to the world. Yet as their country changed in
unexpected ways, the English moved from happy confidence in progress to increasing doubt. Some writers turned away from the new reality; others tackled it head-on. Some of the questions of time were:

- When is progress problem?
- Can values be imposed?
- Is it better to escape or face reality?
- Why do people fear change?

Let's discuss these issues in class.

¿Que es un autor?

"¿Qué es un autor?", se preguntaron en el origen de todo los fotógrafos Sebastián Freire y Paola Cortés Rocca cuando se juntaron a pensar en un proyecto que reuniese imágenes de escritores argentinos.

Muestra fotográfica: ¿Que es un autor?

Have a look at the video and answer the following questions:

Have you ever seen these authors before? Have you ever read something from them? What?

Now read the article.

The authors mention that they are planning to continue with the project and include more authors from the region. What authors would you include? Name one.

What is an author?

According to common sense, authors are people who write books. This is part of the definition from "The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms." But then it goes on...it is an activity subject to considerable historical variation.

Summarize the main ideas of the definition.