All 102 sections have voted in favor of a novel! We will all read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.
We will probably start reading this novel in the beginning of March, so please make sure you get a copy as soon as possible! Locally, Barnes & Noble (Market Commons) and Books-A-Million (Inlet Square and Coastal Grand malls) both have new paperbacks that retail for 14.00; it is also on Amazon for about 10 bucks new and much cheaper used. E-books are also cool–so feel free to bring iPad/Nook/Kindle to class if you go that route.
Requirements: An original film review of the film shown in class, 500-750 words minimum but no more than 1000 words, typed and double-spaced. You may use research if you like, but it is not necessary. You may use research for context (about the actors, director, time period, etc) or to respond to other reviews offering a different perspective.
Prompt: For this essay you will be crafting one of the most popular forms of literary criticism, the film review. Although many blogs, newspapers and websites will give capsule reviews or a simple thumbs up or down, the critical movie review is actually a short analytical essay that assesses a film by highlighting aspects like theme, character, cleverness of plot, etc.
Depending on the movie, it might also examine the use of music, camera angles, color and lighting. The formal review also typically considers historical and social context–is this movie characteristic of a certain genre, time, or culture?
Critical reviews can be difficult to write because like an acrobat, they must walk the fine line between descriptive objectivity of what the viewer sees and what the story is on one hand, and how and why the film is successful or unsuccessful on the other. Moreover, they must be fun and entertaining to read!
Obviously, a review can’t cover everything about a movie, so it is common to choose the elements that highlight the best and worst aspects of a particular work.
The best way to understand the genre that I’m asking you to write in is to read! Here are some excellent reviews to help you understand the style of this assignment:
Tue 1/10: In-Class: Introduction, syllabus, course expectations, what is literature and why should we read it?
Thur 1/12: Due: Read Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing (LRRW from now on) 8-11 and17-21. Then read LRRW “Defining Poetry” 801-802; “Word Choice” 876-900. Pay particularly close attention to the poems by Whitman, Espaillat, Rich, cummings, Coleman. Take notes and annotate the poems.
In-Class: Poetry discussion. Interpretative diagram (rhetorical model, found above), basic approaches to literature.
***NOTE: AAST students (only sections P04 and P05) will not have class on 1/17; however, you are responsible for the material covered that day. Please be prepared to discuss all readings on Thursday.***
Tue 1/17 Due: Read “Voice” 838-839; “Figures of Speech” 923-926. Read slowly and aloud the following poems: “Roominghouses are old women” 926-927; “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” 931-932; and “Daddy” 938. Write a 1-2 response looking closely at the type of language present in either “Roominghouses,” “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” or “Daddy” What kind of language does the poet use? What feeling, mood, or effect does the type of language create? Use terminology from the textbook when explaining your interpretation.
In-Class: Discussion. Key terms: speaker, persona, figurative vs. literal language, simile, metaphor. Explicating a poem: how do the poetic devices (the elements of poetry, like word order, sound, figurative language, etc) establish or reinforce a particular theme or mood in the poem. Hand out Poetry Essay prompt.
Thur 119: Due: Read slowly and aloud the following poems all by Langston Hughes: “I, Too” 1080-1081; “Song for a Dark Girl” 1081; “Theme for English B” 1082-1083; “Harlem” 924; “Dream Boogie” 1083-1084. Pick a question from the Reading and Reacting section on 1091 and type a response (1 full page) drawing specifically from the poems and your interpretations and experiences.
In-Class: Discuss Hughes; as a class we will read “Writing an Explication” 61 and the sample student paper 62-66. Also look at the section “Imagery” 905-906.
Refrigerator, 1957
by Thomas Lux
More like a vault — you pull the handle out
and on the shelves: not a lot,
and what there is (a boiled potato
in a bag, a chicken carcass
under foil) looking dispirited,
drained, mugged. This is not
a place to go in hope or hunger.
But, just to the right of the middle
of the middle door shelf, on fire, a lit-from-within red,
heart red, sexual red, wet neon red,
shining red in their liquid, exotic,
aloof, slumming
in such company: a jar
of maraschino cherries. Three-quarters
full, fiery globes, like strippers
at a church social. Maraschino cherries, maraschino,
the only foreign word I knew. Not once
did I see these cherries employed: not
in a drink, nor on top
of a glob of ice cream,
or just pop one in your mouth. Not once.
The same jar there through an entire
childhood of dull dinners — bald meat,
pocked peas and, see above,
boiled potatoes. Maybe
they came over from the old country,
family heirlooms, or were status symbols
bought with a piece of the first paycheck
from a sweatshop,
which beat the pig farm in Bohemia,
handed down from my grandparents
to my parents
to be someday mine,
then my child’s?
They were beautiful
and, if I never ate one,
it was because I knew it might be missed
or because I knew it would not be replaced
and because you do not eat
that which rips your heart with joy.
Tue 1/31: Due: Read slowly and aloud the following poems: “Barbie Doll,” “Red Wheelbarrow” 906; “In a station of the Metro” 907; “Constantly Risking Absurdity” 925; and “Dulce Decorum Est” 915-916.
In-Class: Discussion.
Thur 2/2: Read “Understanding Fiction” 162-171 and “Character” 254-256. Read the following stories: “Hills Like White Elephants” 171-175; “A&P” 259-264
In-Class: Introduction to fiction; group discussion; quiz
Supplemental Stuff:Here’s a challenging scholarly article by literary theorist and linguist James Paul Gee examining the language of W. C. Williams’ poetry. Although it’s a rather challenging read for introductory students (it’s written for literary critics well-versed in the terminology and theory of the discipline), there are passages that are consumable for a more general audience. Take a peek and see what you can make of it.
The Poetry Foundation website has a brief but detailed biography on Williams:
William Carlos Williams has always been known as an experimenter, an innovator, a revolutionary figure in American poetry. Yet in comparison to artists of his own time who sought a new environment for creativity as expatriates in Europe, Williams lived a remarkably conventional life. A doctor for more than forty years serving the New Jersey town of Rutherford, he relied on his patients, the America around him, and his own ebullient imagination to create a distinctively American verse. Often domestic in focus and “remarkable for its empathy, sympathy, its muscular and emotional identification with its subjects,” Williams’s poetry is also characteristically honest: “There is no optimistic blindness in Williams,” wrote Randall Jarrell, “though there is a fresh gaiety, a stubborn or invincible joyousness.”
Tue 2/7: Due: Poetry essay. Read “Theme” 551-554, “Dead Man’s Path” 660-662 and this interview with Chinua Achebe.
In-Class: Reading Quiz. Discussion.
Thur 2/9: Due: Read “Setting” 305-308, “Point of View” 354-362, Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” 526-537 and Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” 617.
Tue 2/14: Due: Read Lahiri’s “The Third and Final Continent” 290-302, Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” 608-611, “Postcolonial Studies” and “American Multiculturalism” 2067-2071. Also read the textbook section on “Symbol, Allegory and Myth” 487-492.
Tues 2/21: Due: Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” 447-457. Answer question #9 in 1-2 paragraphs (typed). It would be a good idea to start Oscar Wao (thinking ahead).
Thur 3/1 Due: Completed draft of character analysis/Tumblr project (this should meet the assignments min. requirements for draft credit). Please bring in 2 hard copies of the essay component of the project for a workshop and a one-on-one conference with the instructor.
Tue 3/20: Due: Oscar Wao to pg 200 (the conclusion of Part I); type up 3 open-ended questions for book discussion (questions will be collected for a grade).
In-Class: Student-led discussion
Thur 3/22 Due: Continue reading Oscar Wao; bring in a draft of your film review for a workshop
LENGTH: 5-6 pages (five full pages excluding name, date, title is minimum), 12 point Times New Roman, 1″ margins, stapled or clipped.
RESEARCH: four to six critical sources (quoted or paraphrased) are required. These sources may be in the form of literary criticism and/or articles and materials on topical issues from the databases.
PROMPT: Questions sometimes arise about the contemporary relevance of poems, stories, films and novels which are taught in literature classes. Editors, scholars and teachers suggest that “great” literature is taught in schools because it deals with “timeless” themes that can be applied across cultures and different historical periods.
For this essay, you will write an essay looking at what you consider to be a significant theme in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and examine the theme in the novel as it relates to the real world, as has been done in the example written below. You will formulate an original thesis and support that thesis by using primary source material (passages and paraphrased information from the story) andsecondary material in the form of literary criticism and/or material related to the societal issue in the form of various resources, the most helpful of which will likely be materials from online databases to which the HGTC library subscribes.
This is the largest of the essay assignments in terms of relative weight of the grade (20% of the total).
GUIDELINES:
1. Please include a title for your essay. Within the introduction paragraph the name of the story and its author should appear.
2. The thesis statement for this paper is, as in any essay, the central focus of the entire paper. Please make certain that the thesis is specific, clearly worded, and factually accurate. It is typically stated near the end of the introduction.
3. All quoted material from the stories should include a parenthetical notation per MLA standards following the direct quotation. A works cited in MLA format should be placed at the end of the essay.
4. Secondary materials should be introduced with an attributive tag (According to Dr. Chip Arnold, a literature scholar and McCarthy critic) within the text. For the sake of your own credibility as a writer, an attributive tag allows your reader to understand precisely why you have selected the material and why they should take it seriously. As is the case in all academic work, the quality of a secondary reference may positively or negatively impact your message. Choose critical work most carefully.
5. Please feel free to see me personally for draft review and/or assistance.
EXAMPLE: Here is a brief example of an introductory paragraph which responds to this assignment.
This example focuses upon the theme issue of inequalities within the public education system and the negative effects children (and ultimately adults) suffer as a result of such a system, a theme present in the short story “Everyday Use.”
The featured story is Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use.” Here is the opening paragraph which includes the thesis:
A decade ago Jonathon Kozol’s landmark book Savage Inequality shed a light on inequities faced by poor children in American public schools. Since then, numerous writers, journalists, and researchers have reiterated Kozol’s idea that inequality in education can rupture the National fabric, ripping communities, neighborhoods, and families apart. One such family thus affected by inequities in education faced by the poor are the Johnsons of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use.” One fortunate member of the Johnson family is anointed as worthy of an education–the others, however, are denied. The immense difference in these characters leads to a less than harmonious family. The interaction among the Johnson women in “Everyday Use” does indeed illustrate savage inequality in education.
Tue 4/3: Due: One page mini-paper. I’d like a formal, typed proposal tells me the focus of your essay/possible thesis, where you plan to look for sources (if the library databases, then which databases). See the RESOURCES section of this website for some helpful videos and links.
OVERVIEW: You will create a Tumblr blog based upon a short story in your textbook and craft an accompanying analytical essay explaining your blog posts and analyzing the story/character(s). The essay will be turned in during class and the link to your Tumblr will be emailed to me on the same day.
PART 1: Tumblr:These are possible ideas. Feel free to use your creativity, so long as it displays careful, critical thought. For example, you might use text and multimedia to imagine how your character(s) might display him or herself on the internet. Use the story to determine their desires, fears, ambitions, preferences, etc.
Another approach might be to use text and multimedia to explore the historical or social context of the story–examining the connection between the fictional world and the real world of the characters. The best projects come from the combination of close readings and imagination!
PART TWO: Essay: page min. length: 2 full pages, typed, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman, MLA style. Your written essay will explain your Tumblr in detail, and provide an analysis your central character. This will demonstrate your careful understanding of the character. In the essay component, but sure to use quotations from the short story to support your analysis.
TIPS: As you read through the story, you might ask yourself these questions about the character you select: What kind of a person is he/she? Sympathetic? Bitter? Assertive? Confident? Compassionate? Which actions throughout the story express the most about her/him? What motivates this character? Does he/she undergo a dynamic change (a fundamental change in perspective) during the course of the short story? Or does she/he remain a static character?
