Why We Don't Rely On Wikipedia, Reason #100098

Click here for an article that discusses the dangers of Modern "research."

Take A Guided Tour Of Chicago Poetry

Download the mp3 from the Poetry Foundation's website, and bounce around the city, or traipse if you're worn out for a year of studies!

This would have been a great project for someone to do, : ). 

Intro to the Long Poem: In-class discussion

A Super-Superficial look at the complexity of the long poem

We don’t have enough time (it would take weeks) to really nail down the bits and pieces that make these works highly complex and admired, but we can discuss their importance to poetry and to the generation of poetry they belong. To help us discuss these poems, here are some questions to explore today in class:

1. What statement is the poem making about society or a culture? How does poem represent the culture, and what tone does it take towards the culture it discusses?

2. What are some basic elements of language the author uses to make that statement?

3. What are the main themes of the piece used to make the larger cultural statement?

The Long Poem: Tuesday, May 5th:

As you read the following poems, make note of the figurative language both line-to-line and of the poem as a whole text. 

What statement on life and society are each poem making? Or, how is each poem seeing its society?

Here are other questions to help prepare for Tuesday's discussion of these poems, and answering the above more general question:

1. What is the main subject of the poem? (a person, place, animal, etc.)

2. What is that main subject being compared to? (metaphors and similes)

3. Are there multiple comparisons (there should be!)?

4. Is there a connection among all of the comparisons?

5. At any point in the poem, do the comparisons change? When? To what?

6. What thematic meaning do you get from the different comparisons?

 Allen Ginsberg's "Howl", part I and II  with the poet reading!

T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Also, here is a link to some of the work from Juliana Spahr's collection of long poems, Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You:

Here is Spahr reading the first poem, a preface to the collection (one could say), with the catalyst for the poem explained!

Here is the the long poem "things" through Google Books. Click through each page. 

And, in class you will be given a handout!

For the Last Day of April (Thursday, the 30th):

Read:

Metaphor and Simile, and Symbol: pages 481-500 (minus the ED poem!)

Also: John Donne's "The Flea," p. 450.

Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," p. 454

Pay special attention to: Shakespeare's "[Shall I compare thee...]," Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," Sharon Olds' "Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941," the three rose poems!, and the two above!!!

iPod Podcasts

Dear Students,

Besides reminding those not in class that there's no class Thursday, April 23 -- I wanted to make note of those who use iTunes that...if you were interested...you can find free podcasts of classic poetry! I've been wanting to, and still intend, to have us listen to some on-line readings before the semester is over.

And for those that were interested in reading something of mine own! I doth protest no more...as we gear up for Thursday's Talk Like Shakespeare day. Click here to read the only other poem of mine on the web. Warning: It contains profanity, and that profanity is within context of the poem!

If I were to teach my own poems (ugh), I'd say the two exemplify a fake confessional voice (very 2000-chic) to explore their themes, but one is more narrative and the other more lyrical. 

The rest are all in print journals, or want to be, or soon will be. 

Reader Response #5; Final Project outline

Reader Response #5 – Thou Entice The Mouse With Cheese

Due: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 (in-class typed; 6pm by e-mail)

•  Find a poem (use the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Tool) from a published, canonical author. 
  
• How does metaphor uncover the tone of a particular poem – or vice versa?
  
• Give a reading of the poem, while answering the question above.
• Attach the poem to the response
  

Guidelines: 1-2 pages, double-spaced; 12-point font

*

 Final Projects: 

Creative response that brings literature to a more public sphere: visual media, verbal media, dance, etc….

•  A song (PJ Harvey has a song called “Joy” inspired by O’Connor’s “Good Country People” ; The Airborne Toxic Event named their band from Don DeLillo's novel White Noise)
  
• A dance with music that interprets literature
• Poster for a movie (or play) based on a piece of literature (real or imagined)
  
• Piece of art inspired by a particular piece of writing that isn't already mentioned here!
  
• A dramatic monologue
• A quick film/performance

- Make sure that the inspiration / influence of the written work is evident in the response “text” that you make…

- You will make a 5 minute presentation of your creative response in Week 15, explaining what inspired and influenced your response.

For Tuesday, April 21: Founders of American Poetry

Dickson (the isolated?) and Whitman (free/democratic?): 

Read: all of their poems in our book – Index in back of book besides my kind listing below:

ED: p. 469, 471, 490, 517, 533, 568, 577, 578, 579

WW: p. 444, 625, 626, also on-line:

“O Captain! My Captain!”

“The Sleepers”

“For You O Democracy”

Also: Consider the idea of "precision" (or control) in their language. How would you describe the complexity of precision (control) in the works of these two authors, based on the samples we're provided?

Week 11 Update: for Thursday, 4/16

1. Remember that your Mimicking Drama is due on Thursday (see last post for further instructions).

2. Read: Language, p. 465 – 489: Answer the question with each poem…in margin, in notes.

Read all of the poems in those pages, but pay closer attention to these below, as they are the ones we're likely to discuss. 

Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” p. 470
WCW’s “The Red Wheelbarrow”, “This is Just to Say,” p.472
ee cummings’ “[in Just – ], p. 473
Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty,” p. 473
Dickinson’s “[After great pain, a formal feeling comes – ]”, p. 469, “[I dwell in Possibility]” p. 471

Poetry HW for 4/14, and Mimicking Fiction

For Tuesday, 4/14:

Read pages 398-415, as we will begin discussing the poetry.

Also, I am giving an extra day for the Mimicking Drama (assigned below) assignment. It will be due on Thursday, April 16th (a week from this post):

Mimicking Drama (Plays, : ) ):

We've read three plays that deal with similar themes but written in different eras, on different cultures. Each play, we can agree, revolves around a central conflict in the plot. In Oedipus, the King is in conflict with his own fate. In The Piano Lesson family history and a family heirloom are fought over. In A Doll House we are introduced to another Modern social issue -- marital conflict/ gender equality.

You may choose to imitate any of our three authors, or honor your own favorite playwright.

The main qualification is that you write ONE SCENE (1-3 pages, single-spaced) that discusses/enlightens audience on the main conflict between two characters.

The only other thing is obvious: in a play, dialogue is key. Write in the appropriate dialect for your play scene's setting.

Reader Response #4 (50pts): Due 4/9

Reminder: Reading Schedule for Upcoming Weeks

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

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.

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)

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".

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

-???

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

- 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?

Reader Response #3 (50pts) and Reading Assignment: 3/3

Due: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 (hard copy to be handed in by class, or by e-mail, 6p.m.)

Debating the allegory?

Today in class we heard three different debates on what is Kafka’s allegory in “A Hunger Artist”:
1) The artistic struggle, and the lack of appreciation and isolation of an artist?
2) The foolishness of artists, who choose death and despair over happiness?
3) The artist and his aesthetics as saintly or Christ-like?

This debate should help you make a focused and developed argument as to what the story symbolically represents. You may use points brought up in the class debate, restated in your own words and explained in connection with the text. This response, then, is a written reiteration of class discussion; however, you may include points not emphasized in class. Duh!

Choose from options above and write a response in which you clearly state which allegory is Kafka’s intended allegory, from your own reading, and provide supporting points, with example lines from the text.

Tips:

1) Focus on the text and your point, not on you, the writer. This means to erase rhetorical fillers such as “I think” and “I feel” and “I am going to argue.” You, the “I”, is implied simply because you are the author.

2) Re-use the main points used in the debates as topic sentences in the body of your paragraphs! Along with that, your thesis statement then should be where you clarify which allegory Kafka’s intended.

3) This is to say, remember your First Year Writing courses, and provide page numbers in ( ) at end of quoted material. And also, remember the most effective writing provides assertions, support and explanation – not just assertions.
a. Assertion (topic sentence/main points)→Support assertion (textual evidence)→explanation (clarify how support supports your assertion, by discussing what the lines mean!)

Guidelines: 12pt, Times New Roman (Cambria is okay); 1-2 pages double-spaced.

Also, remember to read: 

- p. 215-216 on "theme"

- p. 224-236 and 332-347 (Mukherjee and DH Lawrence)

Kafka and Prague

Debating the Symbolism in “A Hunger Artist”

What is the “real” allegory in this story? Is this a story that symbolizes:

1) The artistic struggle, and the lack of appreciation and isolation of an artist?
2) The foolishness of artists, who choose death and despair over happiness?
3) The artist and his aesthetics as saintly or Christ-like?

During class, you will split into three debate teams based on your choice above, and your team will  go back through story to make their arguments!

o Each team should have three major points to present to the class, back and forth, one at a time! (approx. 2-3 min. to make each point)

o Each team should provide and explain textual evidence as support of each point.

o At least three members from each team must speak!

Tuesday, 2/24: Setting

Amy Tan – “A Pair of Tickets”

1) What role does the setting play in helping June May understand herself as Chinese; as a person? Provide textual evidence (page numbers, specific lines).

o Being in China, reflecting back on her American upbringing…

2) How does the setting allow us to learn about a character who has just died – June May’s mother?

o In particular, think about the train ride as a "moving" setting...

Homework Reminder for Thursday: 

Read p. 195-197 on Symbols (learn the vocab), and then read Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist” (p.207-214).

Be prepared to discuss what the Hunger Artist may represent, what may he symbolize, and what kind of language does Kafka use to give us this meaning. 

Of course, this means to start analyzing each of the parts of fiction we've done each week: Kafka's use of exposition; the setting; the point of view; allegory; etc.

reminder: Reader Response 2 due on Thursday, 2/19

Reminder that after reading Poe and Hemingway (106-118), Reader Response 2 is due. Here are the guidelines:

Response #2 (50 points)
Due: at beginning of class on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 (hard copy to be handed in)

Welty, Poe ou Hemingway?

We have discussed “the narrator” of our stories beaucoup (a lot). Each of these three authors are known for their distinct narrative styles – Hemingway the exemplary minimalist Modernists, Welty a voice of the South (Southern Gothic), and Poe a master of the macabre and an American pioneer of the short story.

Choose one of the three authors and analyze their respective short story from our anthology, focusing on the narration of the story.

Following are some questions you may use to inspire your response. You DO NOT have to answer them all:

1) What are you told, or not told, by the narrator, and what effect(s) does this have on your reading of the story?

2) How would you describe the narrator as a character? Are they part of the story, at a distance, or are they a big part of the story? What lines help give you their character, and what may the purpose of this type of narration be?

3) Language. How does the narrator’s language shape the world in the story? What may the reader be meant to take away from this world, from how the story is narrated?


Guidelines: 12pt, Times New Roman (Cambria is okay); 1-2 pages double-spaced.
Really work on 1) having a thesis/focused point and develop that one idea, and 2) explain/interpret your quoted lines, don’t allow them to speak for themselves…