Read for Tuesday (3/31):
Recommended
1) "Drama: Reading, Responding, Writing," pages 650-652; 663-666(!)
2) "Elements of Drama," pages 667-675
Required:
1) Sophocles' Oedipus the King if you have yet done so..., pages 676-715 (at least two hours)
2) Act I of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, pages 716-747 (1-2 hours)
Week 9-10
Spring Break (3/24, 26) Happy Week Off!
Make sure to read, as the plays are thicker, and take longer . . .
Week 9 (3/31, 4/2)
Day 1: Read: August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, Act I
Day 2: Read: The Piano Lesson, Act II
Due: Response Paper #4 (Thursday)
Week 10 (4/7, 9)
Day 1: Read: Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, Act I and II
Day 2: Read: Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, Act III
Recommended: Read: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Act I, page 923-955
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Midterm Exam Reminder: Thursday, 3/19
Midterm Exam (150 points), In-class:
You will not be allowed to use your book or any notes. Just a pen(cil) and the exam, and your ripe minds!
All relevant terms discussed in class and in text may show up on the exam. You will have the entire class time on Thursday to complete the exam.
This exam will be a review of both the fiction stories read and the literary-element terms used to discuss them.
The exam will be divided into three parts:
1. Identification of literary element terms (allusion, antagonist, plot, metaphor, etc.)
2. Application of literary elements to excerpted passages
- You will be given a brief passage, and then be asked
a few questions on each passage
3. Short Answer: You will be asked four (4) questions on literary elements, and asked to provide concise examples with a brief example.
The exam serves as a review of the stories we have read, as well as your comprehension of literary devices and how to apply them within fiction.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Lit Crit Essay 1: Prose/Fiction and the next week's schedule
Lit Crit Essay 1: Prose/Fiction (200pts)
Due: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 (hard copy in class, or by 6pm e-mail)
The essay must be a minimum of three (3) complete pages, double-spaced, using a 12-point standard font, with a maximum length of five (5) pages. As the title of the assignment implies, you are being graded on your success at writing a literary critique – a clear and developed argument is of the most importance.
Title the piece of your literary critique to clue us in to the topic and thesis. The title is the first place your reading audience looks to to understand what they are going to read about.
Do not make it personal; avoid using the “I”. Write with the texts and literary elements being your subject. Avoid pronouns when possible. Refer to authors by their entire name, or their last name. You are not on a first-name basis with any of the authors, so these types of rhetorical mistakes must be wiped from your essays. These rhetorical gaffs will lower the grade, since they are easily fixable in proofreading.
Prompt:
Choose between the following two prompts, and respond to only one (1). These prompts can be found in our Norton anthology, suggestions #1 and #3 (236):
1. In any one story in this book find five words that have special thematic significance, and write an essay discussing the way each [word] relates to the story as a whole.
2. The great twentieth-century painter Pablo Picasso once said, “One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite – that that particular peach is but a detail.” Is a work of art “about” the details of its surface, or “about” its underlying themes? Write an essay exploring the relationship between details and theme in one or more of the stories in [our] anthology.
Due: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 (hard copy in class, or by 6pm e-mail)
Write a literary analysis of one or more of the stories in our Prose/Fiction Unit. You will want to have a thesis and provide textual evidence, which explains towards your thesis. Cite the page number of all quoted, paraphrased or summarized text from the stories at the end of each citation.
The essay must be a minimum of three (3) complete pages, double-spaced, using a 12-point standard font, with a maximum length of five (5) pages. As the title of the assignment implies, you are being graded on your success at writing a literary critique – a clear and developed argument is of the most importance.
Title the piece of your literary critique to clue us in to the topic and thesis. The title is the first place your reading audience looks to to understand what they are going to read about.
Do not make it personal; avoid using the “I”. Write with the texts and literary elements being your subject. Avoid pronouns when possible. Refer to authors by their entire name, or their last name. You are not on a first-name basis with any of the authors, so these types of rhetorical mistakes must be wiped from your essays. These rhetorical gaffs will lower the grade, since they are easily fixable in proofreading.
Prompt:
Choose between the following two prompts, and respond to only one (1). These prompts can be found in our Norton anthology, suggestions #1 and #3 (236):
1. In any one story in this book find five words that have special thematic significance, and write an essay discussing the way each [word] relates to the story as a whole.
2. The great twentieth-century painter Pablo Picasso once said, “One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite – that that particular peach is but a detail.” Is a work of art “about” the details of its surface, or “about” its underlying themes? Write an essay exploring the relationship between details and theme in one or more of the stories in [our] anthology.
Also: To give you time to do the best job possible, we will not have class this coming Thursday (3/12). However, I will be available to meet with students in Congress Room 527 during our usual class time.
We will resume class on Tuesday. Also note that the Midterm Exam is on Thursday, March 19th. This will be a review exam of the literary elements, and some of the questions will refer back to readings specifically linked to those elements. For instance, "A Hunger Artist" might be dealt with when you are asked a question of "symbolism".
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Annotations
Annotations are a necessary process in dealing with making an argument, especially with a literary text.
While "active reading" has been preached since day one, it is time to seriously start annotating a text, especially with plays and poetry quickly in our gun sights. . . .
Simply defined for our purpose, annotations are written clarifications of a line, word, or small excerpt of a literature which help in understanding the literal and figurative value of a text. With foreign words, allusions, archaic language, or just purely dense language -- our job is to get our hands dirty in finding the meaning; not to dismiss and keep reading on. In essence, we are translating the author's language into our modern language, into "laymen's terms."
In doing annotations, in the margins, or by writing them in a notebook, you'll really help make the literary piece more comprehensible.
Our book, if you've noticed with our stories today (Lawrence and Mukherjee), provides some very basic annotations. However, I'd like us to work on doing some longer annotations based on longer excerpts, especially if we have time in class as we discuss these two stories.
What to look for, what to annotate?
- Allusions: language that makes a reference to history, culture, etc.
- Archaic language and foreign terms
- "Thick language" (like Faulkner, or the beginning of "Odour...")
- words and phrases used unconventionally
-???
Monday, March 2, 2009
Literature – Mimicking the Artist (Fiction)
due: Tuesday, March 1oth, 2009 by e-mail (6pm)
Guidelines:
- 1-2 page short story (perhaps one brief scene from a larger piece) that serves as a creative homage to a writer you admire (or don’t!).
- Can be an author we’ve read, or a writer you’ve read and feel you understand their literary techniques/writing style
Guidelines:
- 1-2 page short story (perhaps one brief scene from a larger piece) that serves as a creative homage to a writer you admire (or don’t!).
- Can be an author we’ve read, or a writer you’ve read and feel you understand their literary techniques/writing style
- Imitate/parody the author’s writing style – the literary device(s) that make them famous (plot, characters, language/dialect/syntax/word choice, dialogue, theme, symbolism, suspense, allegory/ etc.)
o At the top, on left-hand side, head your paper with:
• Your name
• Mimicking _______ (insert their name)
• ID the technique your mimicking…
Look back to the end of chapters for some suggestions in how to imitate the stories in our book. I’d like you to modernize the stories (or sci-fi them), update the language, etc. If an author is known for thick language or dialect of their time and culture – use the dialect of our time and culture. However, be true to who you are, and consider if your language might offend your audience! In other words, do your best not to have flat characters (stereotypes) unless this is part of the authorial imitation.
The ubiquitous advice to burgeoning writers (even if forced to write!) is to be honest, and “Write what you know.” However, leaving the statement at that is dangerous. Without context, it tells you to write with an authority of having the answers, when this is simply not the case What that statement really means is this:
Write from the reality and experiences of your life; what have you been through, what people in your life have gone through; what is the world you live in; what themes of humanity obsess you? What do you know, but not really know? What is worth exploring based on you and your experience?
• Your name
• Mimicking _______ (insert their name)
• ID the technique your mimicking…
Look back to the end of chapters for some suggestions in how to imitate the stories in our book. I’d like you to modernize the stories (or sci-fi them), update the language, etc. If an author is known for thick language or dialect of their time and culture – use the dialect of our time and culture. However, be true to who you are, and consider if your language might offend your audience! In other words, do your best not to have flat characters (stereotypes) unless this is part of the authorial imitation.
The ubiquitous advice to burgeoning writers (even if forced to write!) is to be honest, and “Write what you know.” However, leaving the statement at that is dangerous. Without context, it tells you to write with an authority of having the answers, when this is simply not the case What that statement really means is this:
Write from the reality and experiences of your life; what have you been through, what people in your life have gone through; what is the world you live in; what themes of humanity obsess you? What do you know, but not really know? What is worth exploring based on you and your experience?
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