What's Going On?

* College Essay (either a new draft or same as last quarter) Due 12/19

* Blog posts about the plays (Ibsen, Lorca, Irish, USAmerican) Due 12/19 (unless you use a letter, then due 1/5)

* Compare and Contrast Bildungsroman Essay Due 12/19 (unless you use a letter, then due 1/5)

* Personal Poetry Anthology Due dates and directions here

* Memorize and be able to analyze a sonnet (look here here and here) for the midyear exam (D-block 12/22, F-block 12/23) (Notes: On Monday 1/5 F-block should be prepared to "teach" the two sonnets you have read and taken notes on. Both classes will also do a fun activity on Monday with Sonnet 130 and a postmodern poem by Harryette Mullen called "Dim Lady".)

* Learn several literary terms for the exam. (Look here for last year's list and student-researched definitions. More on this after break.)

* Read something that you don't have to. I recommend The Best American Nonrequired Reading. It's put together by high schoolers in the Bay Area of California and new edition comes out every year.

* If you're feeling up for some intellectual stimulation. I will be giving a lecture on Charles Olson's Maximus Poems called Polis is What? on Saturday, January 3 at three in the afternoon at the Cape Ann Museum on Middle Street.

Personal Poetry Anthology

AP English Literature and Composition

Personal Poetry Anthology

Due:
1. Email me your theme over vacation.
2. Bring typed copies of seven of the fifteen poems to class on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 (the epiphany, twelfth night)
3. Bring a draft of one of your own poems to class on Monday, January 12, 2009
4. Bring a draft of the introduction to class on Monday, January 12, 2009
5. Completed project is due Friday, January 16, 2009 (no extension letters will be accepted)

Theme: ___________________________________

For this assignment, you will prepare a poetry anthology. For our purposes, poetry will include song lyrics. The anthology will be unified by a common theme, and must consist of the following minimal requirements:

Criteria

1. A late sixteenth or seventeenth

century poem (Elizabethan,

Metaphysical, Cavalier)

2. A nineteenth century poem

(Romantic, Gothic, Victorian)

3. A twentieth century poem

(modern or post-modern)

4. A twenty-first century poem

(post-modern)

5. Lyrics to song
6. A sonnet (or poem written in

another traditional form: sestina,

terza rima, rondeau, villanelle, etc.)

7. A poem translated

from another language

8. A poem that you have written

containing an allusion

9. A poem that you have written

using a traditional or invented form

10. A poem that you have written

that is a strict, loose, or homophonic translation

11. A poem that you have written

in any form

12. Free choice
13. “ “
14. “ “
15. “ “

You must include:

1. A title page with MLA information (See Compass page 54.)
2. A dedication and epigraph page
3. An introduction (300-500 words introducing the theme, briefly explaining the relationship between the poems and the theme, and reflecting upon the theme.)
4. A table of contents with titles and authors
5. A minimum of fifteen (15) separate poems/songs.
6. A Works Cited page, including discography (MLA format See Compass page 56-58)

You may include:

1. More of your own poems
2. Illustrations and/or photograph (Art taken from other sources much be cited)
3. More than one song lyric
4. A mixed-CD/mixed-tape with the song(s) and poems

Approaches to Poetry

"Prepare" one of the remaining poems for tomorrow's class discussion.
D-Block: "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph," "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," "Musee des Beaux Arts," or "O Daedalus, Fly Away Home"
F-Block: "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph," "Musee des Beaux Arts," or "O Daedalus, Fly Away Home"

By "prepare" I mean take read, reread, and takes notes on the poem, using one or more of the mnemonic devices (say-play-imply, SOAPSTone + Theme, and/or TP CAST + Theme).

1. Say, play, suggest; or, say, play, imply …

What does the poem say literally?

How does the poem play with language and conventions? (How does it use or shape language in a particular way? Think of sounds and rhythm. Think of syntax—the shape of sentence—and diction—the level of the language: formal, conversational, slangy, etc. Think of line breaks and stanza breaks.)

What does the poem suggest or imply? Think of suggestive images. Think of the mood. Think of figurative language (metaphors, similes, metonymies, personifications, etc.) Think of the connotations of the particular word choices. Think of the tone of the speaker.

2. TP CAST + Theme

Title: Read and think about the possible meaning of the title of the poem.

Paraphrase: "Translate" the literal meaning of the poem into your own words. (Denotative level)

Connotation: Analyze the figurative, associative, implied, and suggestive meaning of the poem (Connotative level)

Attitude: Analyze the tone of the poem. What is the speaker's attitude/tone? What is the poet's attitude/tone?

Shifts: Note shifts in the poem: Shifts in setting (time and place), in language (diction and syntax), in structure (length of lines, rhythm, rhyme scheme, etc.), in tone, in meaning. Shifts in meaning are often indicated by transitional words (but, yet, etc.), by juxtaposition, by changes in form/structure.

Title: Take a second (or third and fourth) look at the title. Think about the title in relation to the literal/denotative level, the connotative/implied level, and the poem as a whole.

Theme: What does the poem suggest or imply about human nature(s), human society (-ies), human struggles, etc.?

3. SOAPSTone + Theme

Speaker: Who is speaking the poem? What do you know? What can you infer?

Occasion: What is the occasion for the poem? The time and the place? What do you know? What can you infer?

Audience: Who is the audience for the poem? What do you know? What can you infer?

Purpose: What is the speaker's purpose? What is the poet's purpose? What do you know? What can you infer?

Subject: What is the subject of the poem? What is it about? Literally? Figuratively? What do you know on the surface? What can you infer?

Tone: What is the tone or attitude of the speaker? of the poet? What are the clues?

Theme: What does the poem suggest or imply about human nature(s), human society (-ies), human struggles, etc.?

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

Click on the image to see the whole...
Pieter Brueghel De Val van Icarus (painted around 1558)
Here's a link to an interesting commentary on the painting that expands our discussion yesterday.

Henrik Ibsen Plays

You will need to post comments three times on the first play before pumpkin time on Monday, December 8. Read the directions!

When posting comments...

* Use your name and first initial as usual.

* Label the post 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

* In the first section of each post (labeled 1a, 2a, or 3a) analyze a specific passage and/or meaningfully connect related passages. Remember that some of the students reading your posts will not have read the same play, so make sure you provide adequate context. (This is the same problem faced by book, film, art, and music reviewers who analyze works of art that most of their audience hasn't yet experienced.) Remember to consider both what the play suggests (the themes) and how the play suggests it (the techniques).

* Leave an empty line.

* In the second section of each post (labeled 1b, 2b, 3b) respond to a comment or comments made by peers. You might respond to peers who are reading the same play by extending one of their ideas into new territory by connecting it to new a passage or by drawing new conclusions. You might offer an alternative interpretation of the same evidence offered by peers. You might also (or alternatively) respond to peers reading a different play. Since all of the plays deal at some level with the relationship between identity and family and since all of the plays in each section are either by the same author (Ibsen or Lorca) or by authors from the same country (Ireland and the U.S.A.) you will notice meaningful similarities and differences between the play you are reading and the others.

Each section of each post should be a couple hundred words or more (meaning each post will be several hundred words long). More importantly, however, is that you demonstrate an ability to analyze specific passages and eventually to synthesize the separate analyses into a convincing understanding of the whole.

Federico Garcia Lorca Plays

You will need to post comments three times on the first play before pumpkin time on Monday, December 8. Read the directions!

When posting comments...

* Use your name and first initial as usual.

* Label the post 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

* In the first section of each post (labeled 1a, 2a, or 3a) analyze a specific passage and/or meaningfully connect related passages. Remember that some of the students reading your posts will not have read the same play, so make sure you provide adequate context. (This is the same problem faced by book, film, art, and music reviewers who analyze works of art that most of their audience hasn't yet experienced.) Remember to consider both what the play suggests (the themes) and how the play suggests it (the techniques).

* Leave an empty line.

* In the second section of each post (labeled 1b, 2b, 3b) respond to a comment or comments made by peers. You might respond to peers who are reading the same play by extending one of their ideas into new territory by connecting it to new a passage or by drawing new conclusions. You might offer an alternative interpretation of the same evidence offered by peers. You might also (or alternatively) respond to peers reading a different play. Since all of the plays deal at some level with the relationship between identity and family and since all of the plays in each section are either by the same author (Ibsen or Lorca) or by authors from the same country (Ireland and the U.S.A.) you will notice meaningful similarities and differences between the play you are reading and the others.

Each section of each post should be a couple hundred words or more (meaning each post will be several hundred words long). More importantly, however, is that you demonstrate an ability to analyze specific passages and eventually to synthesize the separate analyses into a convincing understanding of the whole.

20th Century Irish Plays

You will need to post comments three times on the first play before pumpkin time on Monday, December 8. Read the directions!

When posting comments...

* Use your name and first initial as usual.

* Label the post 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

* In the first section of each post (labeled 1a, 2a, or 3a) analyze a specific passage and/or meaningfully connect related passages. Remember that some of the students reading your posts will not have read the same play, so make sure you provide adequate context. (This is the same problem faced by book, film, art, and music reviewers who analyze works of art that most of their audience hasn't yet experienced.) Remember to consider both what the play suggests (the themes) and how the play suggests it (the techniques).

* Leave an empty line.

* In the second section of each post (labeled 1b, 2b, 3b) respond to a comment or comments made by peers. You might respond to peers who are reading the same play by extending one of their ideas into new territory by connecting it to new a passage or by drawing new conclusions. You might offer an alternative interpretation of the same evidence offered by peers. You might also (or alternatively) respond to peers reading a different play. Since all of the plays deal at some level with the relationship between identity and family and since all of the plays in each section are either by the same author (Ibsen or Lorca) or by authors from the same country (Ireland and the U.S.A.) you will notice meaningful similarities and differences between the play you are reading and the others.

Each section of each post should be a couple hundred words or more (meaning each post will be several hundred words long). More importantly, however, is that you demonstrate an ability to analyze specific passages and eventually to synthesize the separate analyses into a convincing understanding of the whole.

Note: Since you must read two plays (one by 12/8 and another by 12/19) I recommend the following pairs: Ourselves Alone paired with either The Plough and the Stars or Juno and the Paycock (these plays deal with identity, family, and revolutionary politics) or Philadelphia, Here I Come paired with The Playboy of the Western World (which, it seems to me, offer different views of the difficulties of rural Irish life).

20th Century USAmerican Plays

You will need to post comments three times on the first play before pumpkin time on Monday, December 8. Read the directions!

When posting comments...

* Use your name and first initial as usual.

* Label the post 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

* In the first section of each post (labeled 1a, 2a, or 3a) analyze a specific passage and/or meaningfully connect related passages. Remember that some of the students reading your posts will not have read the same play, so make sure you provide adequate context. (This is the same problem faced by book, film, art, and music reviewers who analyze works of art that most of their audience hasn't yet experienced.) Remember to consider both what the play suggests (the themes) and how the play suggests it (the techniques).

* Leave an empty line.

* In the second section of each post (labeled 1b, 2b, 3b) respond to a comment or comments made by peers. You might respond to peers who are reading the same play by extending one of their ideas into new territory by connecting it to new a passage or by drawing new conclusions. You might offer an alternative interpretation of the same evidence offered by peers. You might also (or alternatively) respond to peers reading a different play. Since all of the plays deal at some level with the relationship between identity and family and since all of the plays in each section are either by the same author (Ibsen or Lorca) or by authors from the same country (Ireland and the U.S.A.) you will notice meaningful similarities and differences between the play you are reading and the others.

Each section of each post should be a couple hundred words or more (meaning each post will be several hundred words long). More importantly, however, is that you demonstrate an ability to analyze specific passages and eventually to synthesize the separate analyses into a convincing understanding of the whole.

Note: Since you will have to read a second play as well, I think it will useful for you to think about which play you will read next as you read through your peers comments. Family tensions -- some hidden, some overt -- mark each of the American plays I've listed for you, so I think any pairing will yield productive comparisons. I look forward to reading the comment stream.

Celtic: SELL-tick & KELL-tick

Re: F-block's discussion on pronouncing words

Here is a good source for the history of "Celtic" as a word, especially with regard to pronunciation. Although it is not my original source for the information I gave you yesterday, it covers the same points.

List of Plays and Links

Self, Family, and Society

List of Plays

Read two of these plays by Henrik Ibsen

Enemy of the People (Ibsen)** (Project Gutenberg translation here)

A Doll’s House (Ibsen) * (Project Gutenberg translation here)

The Wild Duck (Ibsen) ** (University of Virginia translation here)

Hedda Gabler (Ibsen) * (Project Gutenberg translation here)

OR

Read two of these plays by Federico Garcia Lorca

Blood Wedding (Lorca)# (translation online: Act I, Act II, Act III)

Yerma (Lorca)# (translation online: Act I, Act II, Act III)

House of Bernarda Alba (Lorca)# (translation online: Act I, Act II, Act III)

OR

Read two of these 20^th Century Irish Plays

Juno and the Paycock (O'Casey)**

The Plough and the Stars (O'Casey)**

Ourselves Alone (Devlin)#

The Playboy of the Western World (Synge)* (etext here)

Philadelphia, Here I Come (Friel)

OR

Read two of these 20^th Century American Plays

Glass Menagerie (Williams)*

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Williams)*

Death of a Salesman (Miller)*

Long Day’s Journey into Night (O’Neill)*

A Touch of the Poet (O'Neill)*

Fences (Wilson)*

* marks plays that are owned by Gloucester High School

** marks plays that are available in the high school library

# marks plays that you could borrow from Mr. Cook

Bildungsroman: Jane Eyre and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Compare and Contrast Essay: Bildungsroman

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

The two novels we read as a class during the first semester are both generally considered to be bildungsromans, or “novels of formation.” However, although Bronte and Joyce both portray protagonists who to varying degrees “come of age” over the course of the novels, each writer utilizes and revises the conventions of the bildungsroman to achieve different artistic ends.

In a well-organized essay compare and contrast the ways the novelists honor and subvert bildungsroman conventions (listed below); be especially sure to compare and contrast how the particular ways the authors adhere to and deviate from bildungsroman conventions contribute to the overall meaning and effect of the two novels.

*******

Suzanne Hader developed the following list after reading Marianne Hirsch’s “The Novel of Formation as Genre"

1. A Bildungsroman is, most generally, the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. The growth process, at its roots a quest story, has been described as both "an apprenticeship to life" and a "search for meaningful existence within society."

2. To spur the hero or heroine on to their journey, some form of loss or discontent must jar them at an early stage away from the home or family setting.

3. The process of maturity is long, arduous, and gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order.

4. Eventually, the spirit and values of the social order become manifest in the protagonist, who is then accommodated into society. The novel ends with an assessment by the protagonist of himself and his new place in that society.

For comparison, edification, and use here are links to kunstlerroman and roman a clef.
~~~~~~~~~~
Also, perhaps of interest to Megan L. and others, here is a blogpost called "Joyce's Kunstleroman" (sic) that compares Stephen's sense of art to Dante's (author of The Divine Comedy). If you're interested in how this blogpost relates to what we've been talking about check out the comments box below.

Bring two copies of a first draft to class on Tuesday, November 24.
Final drafts are due December 5.

Introduction [to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man & Dubliners] by Kevin J. H. Dettmar

Post comments below.
(Don't forget to dig into the essay. Read closely. Read imaginatively.)

"Jane Eyre: A Marxist Study" by Terry Eagleton

Post comments below.

"Jane Eyre in Search of Her Story" by Rosemarie Bodenheimer

Post comments below.

A Poem for Election Day by Our Great-Uncle Walt Whitman

Here's a link to a Boston Globe article written by BU professor and former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky about Walt Whitman's poem "Election Day, November, 1884". (I wonder what the conversation between Stephen Dedalus and the speaker of this poem would be like. The former wanting to fly above the political nets and skeptical of the wisdom of the "rabble" (cf. Joyce's The Day of Rabblement). The later glorying in the power of choosing one's leaders. The former perhaps overly cynical and more than a bit anti-social though still idealistic. The later perhaps overly naive and more than a bit optimistic though still recognizing the real divisions within a populace. Hm... Happy Election Day to All!!!

Here's the poem:

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:

This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating -America's choosing day,

(The heart of it not in the chosen - the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)

The stretch of North and South arous'd - sea-board and inland - Texas to Maine - the Prairie States - Vermont, Virginia, California,

The final ballot-shower from East to West - the paradox and conflict,

The countless snow-flakes falling - (a swordless conflict,

Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's): the peaceful choice of all,

Or good or ill humanity - welcoming the darker odds, the dross:

- Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify - while the heart pants, life glows:

These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,

Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.

A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man (Synthesizing: Pulling Ideas Together from across the Five Chapters)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the teacher-lead discussion (Friday, October 31). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 5)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the teacher-lead discussion (Thursday, October 30). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 4)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the teacher-lead discussion (Tuesday, October 28). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

D-block
Summary by Ali O: Stephen disciplines himself at the beginning & in the end allows himself to think about women again. Also, his family is once again moving
Lucy F: interested in the passage in which he is asked if he has a vocation for the priesthood. We looked closely at this passage.

We talked about the priest's comments about Victor Hugo: "had never written half so well when he had turned against the church as he had written when he was a catholic." & how Stephen reacts: "the tiny flame which the priest's allusion had kindled upon Stephen's cheek had sunk down again and his eyes were still fixed calmly on the colourless sky. But an unresting dout flew hither and thither before his mind."

I mentioned the quotation "the priest let the blindcord fall" (Barnes & Noble edition 136) but had meant to quote from 134: "as [the priest] spoke and smiled, slowly dangling and loooping the cord of the other blind..." & then mention all of this in association with the mainy uses of "grave" & "mirthless": "leaned his chin gravely..." "seeing in [the priest's face] a mirthless reflection of the sunken day..." "a mirthless mask" "the life of the college passed gravely over his consciousness. It was a grave and ordered and passionless life that awaited him..." & then another face "the face was eyeless and souravoured and devout, shot with pink tinges of suffocated anger. Was it not a mental spectre of the face of one of the jesuits..."

Look at all that Joyce is saying w/ repetition & imagery (& subtle or implied metaphor); one might even say that Joyce employs a macabre diction).

& Hannah pointed out (B&N 157) where Stephen plays with ivy and ivory. "What about ivory ivy?" She senses his interested in language & sees him, finally, as a poet, an artist.

Several times we alluded to but never delved into the final scene with the woman in the water.
I mentioned the concept of "epiphany". Somewhere in here we talked about the virgin-whore complex.

*

F-block
Summary by Jaclyn
* Stephen assigns himself devotional tasks (rosary) & disciplines himself (not moving in bed, not making eye contact w/ women). Devotion to the Virgin Mary. Thoughts about the Holy Trinity.
* Stephen is asked if he has thought about becoming a priest. ("Les jupes" makes him think of women--never far from his mind.)
* Family struggles (Jaclyn asserts: he seems to feel for his siblings--in their innocence.)
* Friends joke about his name in Greek. (Reader is reminded of Dedalus, etc.)
* Stephen has an epiphany while watching the girl washing.

Allie: provokes conversation about women, especially if Stephen considers/grasps women as independent agents w/ their own consciousness or if he sees them only in relation to himself (as pure, as beautiful, as sexual, etc.) & why might this be significant? Like D-block, we talked briefly about the virgin-whore complex.

Michael asked about the use of "-boro" by a sibiling. We talked about playing with language (& "secret" codes) in the novel and outside it.

Then I became to involved and stopped taking notes until...

* Isabel asked a question about church and state & speculated whether or not Stephen blamed the church for his family's financial difficulties.
* I said I thought he blamed his father.
* Courtland quoted from B&N 214: "[my father is] a medical student, an oarsman, a tenor, an amateur actor, a shouting politician, a small landlord, a small investor, a drinker, a good fellow, a storyteller, somebody's secretary, something in a distillery, a taxgatherer, a bankrupt and at present a praiser of his own past."

Allie read from page 146-147 where Stephen is thinking while seeing the bodies of his friends. Stephen reveals his ambivalence about the body. (This is a major thread in the book. Stephen's ideas about his body &/vs. his soul--& is also a major thread in Western Civ/Christianity.) Allie suggested that Stephen talk w/ Walt Whitman. (This thread is worth following up upon and tracing through the whole work.)

Typing this I remember when I stopped taking notes. I asked a leading question: what statement marks Satan's *fall* (falling falling falling!--Icarus & the Christian fall)? Ans.: "I will not serve" (B&N 103). Then page 145 "...the office he had refused....He had refused. Why?" & earlier on 141 "He would fall. He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant...fall...falling, falling, but not yet fallen, still unfallen, but about to fall."

Naomi was right! He has not yet fallen--he has merely refused to become a priest--but he will fall & we see that in chapter five. (But is this "falling" is another kind of rising or flying: When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets" (180). By refusing the call he may be able to avoid the net of the priesthood & may fly. But does he fly like Dedalus (successful) or like Icarus (doomed).

We also talked about Stephen's discussion w/ the director (priest) about becoming a priest (having a vocation). Much of what we talked about was also discussed in D-block see the commentary above.

Now your turn. Write!

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 3)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Wednesday, October 22 and Friday, October 24). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

Over the weekend I'll get the notes up from Friday's discussion. In both classes, the best A Portrait discussion sessions yet. Interesting to me how deep, specific, and serious both discussions were, yet how different. By reading the notes when I post them you'll have access to both threads of conversation.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 2)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Monday, October 20 and, for D-block, Tuesday, October 21). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

D-Block (Write quick summaries for Tuesday to ground our analysis.)

E-Block (Write quick summaries for Wednesday to ground our analysis.)

* Examined parallels between the end of chapter 1 (falling, soft, grey) and chapter 2 (swoon, soft, dark).

* Thought about a few of the various moments in chapters 1 and 2 where women, intimacy, and sexuality are issues--and how this is related to other aspects of his identity: church and father specifically. More to be examined here.

* Discussed significance of Mr Tate (jokingly, with "a short loud laugh" 68) accusing Stephen of heresy and of Stephen's fight w/ mates over Tennyson and Byron. Linked this to Stephen's outsider status.

* Note: re: Courtland's comments: This is what I get for making inferences without the text in front of me. I re-read the red/white rose (Lancaster/York) passage (page 9) and noticed that Stephen (not just the narrator) is aware of the link between his face and the colors: "Stephen felt his own face red" and later "He thought his face must be white". Here as elsewhere Stephen obsesses with aesthetics (beauty: the colors are "beautiful to think of") and imagination (green rose) over practicality (the contest at hand) and identification (he is a white rose but identifies w/ the other colors as much as with the white).

* Much more to be said. The summaries will help.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (Chapter 1)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Friday, October 17). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.


D: After a strong summary from Hannah B. D-block talked about...

* How determining one's place in the world--in one's religion, one's school, one's country, one's family, one's language--is one of the major themes dealt with in chapter one.

In relation to the issue of finding one's place in the world...

* We talked about the significance of Stephen's conversations with Athy. {This was Lucy F's contribution. }(We talked about Athy's "gossip" (Lucy F's apt word choice) about "smugging" (Ryan O provided the footnote) & the relationship of his name (a town and county in Ireland) to Stephen's strange name. (page 6)

* We talked about the Christmas dinner and the significance of the argument between Dante (loyalty to the Catholic religion) and Mr Casey/Mr Dedalus (loyalty to the Irish cause). (23+)

* We talked about the significance of Stephen's thoughts about Dieu and the names for God (13) which are preceded by Stephen's list of his relationship to "the universe" and by Fleming's rhyme about Stephen's place in the world.

* We talked about the significance Stephen saying "he was going to marry Eileen" (4)

* We talked about the significance of the question "do you kiss your mother?" and of Stephen's thoughts (and sensory impressions) of kissing. (11)

* Near the end I threw out the assertion "For Stephen every relationship is a problem or issue to be questioned and considered; nothing about his identity and his relationship to his social environment seems easy or natural."

* Also, Michael H helped out by digging up a passage in reference to a question I asked--but I can't remember the question. Michael H, do you remember?

* We should think a bit more about these and other moments in relation to what Joyce is suggesting about identity development (bildungsroman) [and artistic development (kunstlerroman)] and the social environment (family, schoolmates, school authority, religion, country, language, etc.)

* Finally, after class I wondered about Joyce's technique of having the narrator present Stephen's inner impressions and associations without explanation (as opposed to objective, fly-on-the-wall descriptions with explanation). Why might Joyce have made this narrative choice? Does the technique itself suggest something about Joyce's view of the nature of the self and identity?

E: After Isabel P's excellent summary E-block talked about...

* Stephen's funeral fantasy (and other imaginings: "green roses") and how this might be related this to his development as an artist (Isabel P);

* How the book is structured by Stephen's sensations and associations not by linear storytelling (this happened, then that, then that);

* How the narrator doesn't stop to explain Stephen's sensations and associations leaving the reader to infer;

* How Joyce seems to want the reader to experience Stephen's sensations and associations as opposed to just reading an explanation of them;

* [I stopped writing notes for the last ten minutes or so, while I tried to direct a quick discussion. I'm not sure what I've left out. I do know that I am missing comments or questions by Sarah J and Allie L. Do you remember what you said?]

Additional Comments on Jane Eyre (chapters 27-38)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Monday, September 29 through Wednesday, October 1). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

Additional Comments on Jane Eyre (chapters 17-26)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Monday, September 22 through Wednesday, September 24). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

Additional Comments on Jane Eyre (chapters 1-16)

In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Monday, September 15 through Wednesday, September 17). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.

Abbreviated Course Overview

The AP English Literature and Composition course at Gloucester High School is designed

• To encourage students to investigate the self and its relationship to its surroundings (families, societies, cultures, civilizations, nature);
• To prepare students—through active-reader strategies, knowledge of literary techniques, exploratory writing in journals, focused classroom discussions, the process of formal writing, etc.—to analyze, understand, explain, and evaluate works of imaginative literature from many time periods and many places;
• To help students write with purpose, style, sophistication, and a command of many aspects of the English language, including vocabulary and sentence structure;
• To prepare students to write logically coherent analytical and critical essays that offer insightful generalities illustrated by specific details;
• To equip students with the reading, writing, and critical thinking skills necessary to succeed on the AP English Literature and Composition Exam.

Unit 1a: The Search for Self (pre-reading over the summer)

• Read Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison), Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys), Translations (Brian Friel), Song of Myself (Walt Whitman) and take active reader notes.
• Write essays that (one) containing insightful, interpretive assertions about how authors use literary techniques to develop themes and (two) develop these assertions with specific textual evidence and clear explanations.

Unit 1: The Search for Self (and an introduction to AP writing)

• Read Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce).
• Learn concepts relevant to the self, identity, and identity formation.
• Learning literary terms and techniques relevant to novels. (Literary style will be emphasized in the unit.)
• Participate in student led discussions.
• Write analyses explaining the relationship between specific passages and the work as a whole.
• Write analyses that explain how literary style and technique affects meaning.
• Write analyses that compare novels in meaningful ways, especially with regard to style, technique, and the theme of identity formation.

Unit 2: The Search for Self (and writing personal essays for college)

• Examine facets of one’s own identity through free-writing, open-responses, reflective self-questioning, and small and large group discussion.
• Read and analyze college essays and literary personal essays (from among other places The Best American Essays of the Century). Evaluation will take the form of written response and discussion.
• Write and revise a personal essay and/or personal statement for college admission.
• Write and revise a “not for college” literary essay in which one explores one’s own identity formation.

Unit 3: The Search for Self (in Poetry from the English Renaissance through Romanticism to Modernism)

• Read poetry (and prose about poetry) relevant to the exploration of the self: Shakespeare’s sonnets, metaphysical poets (Donne, Herbert, Marvell), Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” Keats’s “Negative Capability” letter, poems by Wordsworth and other English Romantics (Coleridge, Shelley, Keats), Dickinson (and excerpts from Susan Howe’s My Emily Dickinson), Whitman, Hopkins (and “inscape”), Pound and Eliot’s personae, William Carlos Williams’ imagism, Fernando Pessoa’s heteronyms, Frank O’Hara’s “Personism”, Sylvia Plath (and other “Confessional Poets”), Charles Olson’s Projective Verse, etc.
• Participate in student led discussions about poetry.
• Learn literary terms and techniques relevant to poetry.
• Write analyses explaining how poetic style and technique contributes to meaning.
• Write and revise analyses comparing how particular poems address similar themes.
• Create a poetry anthology with an introduction.

Unit 4: The Self, Family, and Society

• Read Antigone (Sophocles) and King Lear (Shakespeare), as well as a “choice” play from a list of titles including Enemy of the People (Ibsen), Long Day’s Journey into Night (O’Neill), Death of a Salesman (Miller), Fences (Wilson), and others. (This year instead of the choice play we may be reading Brecht’s play Galileo. This is dependent upon a grant from the Education Foundation.)
• Read As I Lay Dying (Faulkner), as well as a “choice” novel from a list of titles including East of Eden (Steinbeck), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez), Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Kesey) and others.
• Participate in student led discussions about drama and fiction in relation to appropriate literary terms and the theme of the self’s relationship with family and society.
• Learn literary terms and techniques relevant to drama.
• Continue to write and revise essays about the relationship between style, technique, and meaning.
• Continue to write and revise essays comparing works that deal with a similar theme.

Unit 5: The Self, the Journey, and the World beyond the Known

• Read (and do a “staged reading” of) Waiting for Godot (Beckett). (This play is an anti-journey of sorts.)
• Read Heart of Darkness (Conrad) and view Apocalypse Now! (Coppola)
• Reading excerpts from Moby Dick (Melville), Call Me Ishmael (Olson), and The Inferno (Dante).
• Understand concepts related to this unit’s theme: the journey, the quest, the walkabout, “the other,” etc.
• Practice timed-writing: one on a poem and one on an excerpt from a work of fiction. At this point in the year students will have identified aspects of their writing that are in need of improvement before the AP exam. During the drafting, assessing, and revising process students will be asked to pay special attention to the aspects of essay writing—vocabulary, sentence structure, organization, generalizations, and/or supporting detail—which are in need of improvement.
• Write, evaluate, and rewrite an extended analysis and evaluation of the conflicts between self, family, and society in the literature of this unit.

Unit 6: The World and the Self: Attention, Imagination, and Innovation (After the AP Test)

• Read literature in which authors use imagination and imaginative language to transform attentive perceptions of “real world” particulars into artistic expression: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays, The Maximus Poems (Charles Olson), Zero Hour (Ernesto Cardenal), Century of the Wind (Eduardo Galeano) to examine ways that.
• Read non-realist imaginative literature: Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (Stevens), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Stoppard), selection of “Magical Realist” short fiction, selection of Surrealist poems, excerpts from Metamorphoses (Ovid), excerpts from The Truth and Life of Myth (a book-length essay by Robert Duncan).
• Watch an excerpt from the film Six Degrees of Separation that deals directly with competing definitions of “imagination.”
• Write, evaluate, and revise an extended essay on the role of the imagination (and imaginative language) in the literature they have studied.
• Create imaginative works based on close examination of the world and imaginative use of language.
• Read, research, and analyze the work of an inventive, innovative modern or post-modern literary artist. You will choose from a list or propose your own.
• Create imaginative works in response to the work of the aforementioned artist.

Literary Style Notes

Style: Word, Sentence, Discourse
See: Class notes

Diction/Word:
Formality scale (See: class notes)

Language of origin (See: class notes)

Register:
The subvocabulary used in a particular social setting by a particular social group
Psychology: codependency, psyche, dysfunctional
Christianity: sin, soul, sinful
Soccer: miskick, player, benched
Medicine: pathology, brain, diseased

Syntax/Sentence:
Sentence structure (structure of clauses)
simple-------compound-------complex-------compound complex

Syntax (order of words)
standard-------periodic-------inverted

Sentence length
short-------varied-------long

Discourse:
Tone: Author's attitude toward subject matter as implied by her/his use of language.
sarcastic-------ironic-------humorous-------euphoric-------serious-------solemn

Mood: overall feeling which permeates a piece
horrific-------eerie-------mysterious-------cheerful
atmospheric-------neutral

Narration:
Point of View
1st person (minor character)-------1st person (protagonist)-------2nd person (rare)-------3rd person limited-------3rd person omniscient

unreliable-------naive-------reliable

Narrative Language
subjective stream of consciousness-------objective report language

showing-------telling

Approach toward "reality":
surrealistic-------fantastical (magical realism)-------mimetic

Dialogue:
exclusively dialogue-------no dialgoue

Use of detail
descriptive-------spare
adjectival-------noun+verb

Use of figures
literal-------figurative
image-------similes-------metaphor-------symbol-------allegory
controlling metaphor-------decorative metaphor-------dead metaphor (cliche)

Sound of Words and Sentences (Aural Properties)
incantatory (chant-like)-------rhythmic-------arhythmic
onomatopoeia-------rhyme-------assonance-------alliteration-------dissonance

*******
(notes derived from materials created by Elizabeth Johnson Tsang)

Notes After the Song of Myself Session

Here you'll find a link to an online version of the poem, some comments on the poem, and a helpful link posted by Allie L.

I began typing up notes from this morning's discussion but then I decided to erase them. Instead I'll hit the ball--tennis? volleyball?--into your court. What questions do you still have about the poem, about what Whitman is saying? What is he saying about the self and the relationship between the self and the body, other people, animals, beliefs, etc.? How does what he is saying overall find expression (and nuance and revision) in individual sections? Post ideas and questions in the comments box. Use the comment box as a class resource.

Here are the revised prompts:
(Post or email one of the two by Monday, August 25. Post or email the other by Tuesday, September 2. Post or email the reflection as soon as you think of it or before Tuesday, September 2.

1. Analyze a section of Song of Myself
Choose one of the numbered sections from Song of Myself that you think is particularly worth analyzing and explaining. Write a response that meticulously explains what Whitman is saying in the section, explains how Whitman's use of language and literary devices contributes to what he is saying, and explains how the section contributes to the meaning of the poem as a whole.

Expectations: I expect you to make strong insightful assertions about the meaning of the section and the meaning of the whole poem; I expect to use (quote, explain, develop) specific evidence from the section (the whole section not just parts of it) to support your assertions. (Please indicate what edition of Song of Myself you are using: 1855, 1882, or another.)

If you have questions please email me. In today's session we practiced relating close reading of a section to the meaning as a whole, but you still might have some questions.

2. Write a Whitmanesque Poem
Write a poem (20+ lines) of your own using Whitman’s work as a guide. First, determine three characteristics of Whitman’s poetry. Then write a poem that emulates those three characteristics. (Think about the long lines, lists, repetitions, parallel structures. Think about Whitman’s assertion of self and the relationship between that self and the things around the self. Think about his observations of other people and other things around.) Be inventive. Have fun with this. Then write a paragraph explaining how your poem uses (and perhaps adapts) at least three characteristics of Whitman’s poem.

3. Reflection on the summer
Instead of writing reflections about your last set of responses, please take a moment to write a reflection about the summer reading, summer writing, and summer sessions.

Self-Reflection on the summer work for AP English

Name:

Assignment: Summer Reading, Summer Writing, Summer Sessions

I had trouble with... (please be specific)

1.

2.

3.

What I like about my summer work (reading, writing, participation in the sessions--please be specific and seek personal insight):

What was most difficult for me (reading, writing, participating in the sessions--please be specific and seek personal insight):

What I learned from the summer sessions:

What I will do differently when the school year begins:

Dispatch after a Week of More Teacher Camp

Final AP English Summer Session

The final AP English summer session will be held on Monday, August 18 from eight am until lunch in room 2207 at Gloucester High School. This date was set early in the summer. I hope you have planned accordingly.

You must either attend the session or email me before the session explaining why you will be unable to attend.

Finishing the Summer Strong

AP English summer preparations have fallen apart a bit in the past several weeks. The third session had the lowest attendance. The work assigned for the third book has been the slowest to arrive. I understand that completing schoolwork in the summer is difficult for many reasons. I, too, have fallen off the pace a bit. (I spent most of last week in a graduate course in Cambridge where I didn’t have access to a computer.)

But we will not wallow in self-pity. We will not fear the coming of the fall. We will embrace it. Here’s how.

First, you will either attend the session on Monday or send me an email explaining why you cannot be there. This email should also contain some of your thoughts and a few of your questions about Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.

Second, you will complete the Song of Myself responses on time. One of the responses will be due on Monday, August 25—my daughter’s birthday!—and one will be on Tuesday, September 2—in other words, before the first day of school. (You choose which one to turn in on which date. Revised prompts will be posted on the blog after Monday’s session. Email the responses or post them on the blog.)

Third, you will complete the work you have missed. This is the most important part of the “finishing the summer strong” plan.

I will begin calculating your summer work grade* after the first day of classes (September 3). Therefore, all late work must be in by September 3.

Fourth, after we have completed the four summer readings and eight summer responses, we’ll begin the year with confidence. We’ll have had a lot of experience with the sort of thoughtful reading, writing, and talking that will help you get fours and fives on the AP test next May.

I will see you on Monday or hear from you before then.

Sincerely,

Mr. James Cook
Gloucester High School

*How will summer work grades be calculated?

As most of you know, I have been evaluating your summer responses as homework assignments that “exceed expectations,” “meet expectations,” or “do not meet expectations.” To “meet expectations” your writing must make plausible assertions and support these assertions with accurate evidence from the text. Simple.

What do the phrases “exceeds expectations,” “meets expectations,” or “does not meet expectations” mean in terms of grades?

If you consistently exceed expectations you will earn a grade in the mid to high A range. If you consistently meet expectations you will earn a grade in the B to A- range (depending on whether you occasionally exceed expectations or occasionally fall below expectations). If you consistently do not meet expectations you will earn a grade in the C to B- range.

Students who have attended summer sessions and have handed work in on time can expect a bump up in the summer work grade. So, if you’ve consistently met expectations and have turned in your work on time and have attended the sessions (or have stayed in contact with me) you’re more likely to earn an A- (even if you haven’t exceeded expectations).

Notes after the Translations Session

New prompts:

1. Passage Analysis

Choose a passage from Brian Friel’s play Translations in which translation (mistranslation, imperfect translation, the absence of translation, renaming as a form of translation, cultural translation, etc.) plays a significant role. Type out the passage including the page number and MLA citation. Below the typed out passage, explain how Friel uses literary techniques, such as selection of suggestive detail, indirect (or implied) characterization, point of view, events (on stage or off stage), actions (as implied by dialogue or stated in stage directions) irony, etc., to make a point about identity, language, and culture. The best analyses will display a mastery of what Friel is saying (or, rather, what he is suggesting or implying) in the passage, what techniques Friel uses in the passage to say it, and how the passage relates to the work as a whole.

Note 1: Make a strong assertion about what Friel is saying (suggesting or implying) in the passage.

Note 2: When showing how Friel uses a technique or techniques to make his point in the passage, discuss only the techniques that you understand and that contribute to the meaning of the passage you’ve chosen. Some responses may mention all the techniques I’ve listed but will fail to show an understanding of how Friel uses the techniques to make a point about translation. Other responses may focus on one or two techniques but thoroughly and convincingly explain how those techniques contribute to what Friel has to say about translation. If you can explain how Friel’s way of writing contributes to what he is saying (implying, suggesting, showing, illustrating) but you do not know the name of technique, don’t worry. Explain what you think Friel is doing; you can learn the name for the technique later.

Note 3: You must have direct quotations from the passage in the body of your response. Avoid dropping the quotations into your writing as separate sentences. Try weaving the quotations into your own writing. If that seems too hard do this: “place the quotation after a colon if what precedes the quotation is a complete sentence on its own.”

2. Passage Creation

Write a brief scene (300+ words) of your own in which translation, mistranslation, or lack of translation reveals something about identity (who I am), language (how we communicate), culture (how a group acts, what it believes, what it values), and/or power (who is in control). In other words use the conventions of dramatic writing—especially dialogue and stage directions—to make a point about translation. (Don’t forget to title your scene.) (Alternative: if you are uncomfortable using the conventions of dramatic writing you may instead write a personal narrative essay in which you narrate and reflect upon a story about yourself in which translation plays a prominent role.) I am looking to see that you understand how issues of translation can reveal something about identity, language, culture, and/or power.

3. Self-Reflection on Wide Sargasso Sea Responses

Name:

Assignment:

I had trouble with

1.

2.

3.

What I like about my responses:

What was most difficult for me:

What I learned from this assignment:

What I will do differently on the Translations responses:

Post these responses to the blog or email them to me. One is due Sunday, August 10. The other is due Friday, August 15. You choose which is due when. (When you post or send the "Passage Analysis" of Translations also post or send a self-reflection on the Wide Sargasso Sea responses.)

AP Summer Session #3: Translations

The third and penultimate AP English Literature and Composition summer session will be held on Monday, August 4 from eight am to lunch in room 2207 at Gloucester High School.

Please email me to tell me you're coming or to explain the dire circumstances that will keep you away.

Click here for the "before reading," "while reading," and "after reading" notes for Translations. These notes are also available on the blog. (Depending on what I learn by reading the rest of your WSS responses and what I learn during Monday's session I may alter the "after reading" prompts but rest assured that one response will be analytical and the other will allow you to put a more personal spin on the issues of identity, family, culture, and "translation".)

You'll see, I think, when you read the notes that over the course of the summer we've been building a substantial understanding of the relationship between, on the one hand, the self and identity and, on the other hand, the effect that one's surrounding have on one's development of self and identity.

The play is a pretty quick read--and the play was designed to be part exploration of identity and culture and part entertaining loving story--so even if you have not begun reading it I expect that you will have read it by Monday. (If you have any problems let me know before Monday.)

Notes After the Wide Sargasso Sea Session

Read carefully. Because it has taken me a few extra days to return your Invisible Man responses, I've given you some more time in which to complete your Wide Sargasso Sea responses.

1. On Wednesday (July 23) I will email you comments on your Invisible Man responses.

2. Read the comments on your Invisible Man responses and complete the following self-reflection. You will post or email your self-reflection by midnight on Sunday, July 27. The goal is to learn from the Invisible Man responses and to show improvement on the Wide Sargasso Sea responses.

Self-Reflection on Invisible Man Responses

Name:

Assignment:

I had trouble with

1.

2.

3.

What I like about my responses:

What was most difficult for me:

What I learned from this assignment:

What I will do differently on the Wide Sargasso Sea responses:

3. Read the following prompts. Email or post (below) one response by midnight Sunday July 27 and the other response by midnight Friday August 1. You choose which response is due on which day.

Prompt #1
Choose three passages from Wide Sargasso Sea (one from part one, one from part two, one from part three) in which Jean Rhys uses a literary technique (such as shifting point of view, or a symbolic image, or Biblical allusion, or motif, or any other literary technique) to reveal something about the self.
Then explain how in each passage Rhys uses the literary technique to develop a particular idea about the relationship between the self and what (or who) lies outside the self.

Prompt #2
Choose a rich passage from Wide Sargasso Sea and another from Invisible Man in which identity is a significant issue. Read the passages carefully. Then, in a well-written response, compare and contrast the passages, analyzing the treatment of identity in each passage. In other words, compare and contrast both what the passages seem to say about identity and how the authors say it. (Hint: when discussing how think about literary techniques like point of view, characterization, motifs, symbolic imagery, etc.)

4. During Monday's session (7/21) we talked about several things that could help you answer the prompts more effectively...

re: improving responses
* Most of the AP Lit and Comp exam consists of looking closely at textual evidence to make draw inferences and make assertions. In other words make interpretations (assertions and inferences) and back it up (evidence).
* Most of your Invisible Man responses failed to make bold assertions about the text and to support these assertions with inferences based on evidence from the text.
* Here's what we can learn:
* Strong analytical responses include bold, insightful assertions about the text.
* Strong analytical responses include thoughtful inferences (interpretations) that are based upon a close reading of the text and support bold assertions . (Strong analytical responses introduce and interpret directions quotations!)
* Strong analytical responses include specific evidence from the text from which the writer draws inferences that support the bold assertions.
* For example (Mr. Cook's Monday afternoon ideas with support):

Assertion: In Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys uses the motif of name-calling to reveal that Antoinette's identity crisis is the direct result of Colonialism.

Inference #1 (that supports that assertion): Jean Rhys uses Tia's name-calling to show that Antoinette is neither a "real white" nor a native black; she has neither the power of the colonizer nor the sense of belonging held by the colonized.
Evidence #1(upon which the inference is based): Tia tells Antoinette "Real white people, they got money.... Old time white people [i.e. Creole's] nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger" (24). Later, Antoinette tells her husband that English women have reject her family by calling them "white niggers" (102).

Inference #2: Another name used to identity Antoinette reveals that she is of low social standing and is unwelcome in the Caribbean where she was born.
Evidence #2: Antoinette remembers that "one day a little girl followed me singing, 'Go away white cockroach, go away, go away'" (23). The term "cockroach" names her low status and the chant "go away" tells her that she is as unwelcome as any white colonizer. Later Amélie, though a servant, once again reveals Antoinette's lower than European status when she says, "'I hit you back white cockroach, I hit you back'" (100). Amélie then sings "The white cockroach she marry...The white cockroach she buy young man" (101). Antoinette feels the sting of the name; her husband, secure in his English identity, does not understand.

Inference #3: Jean Rhys has Antoinette's husband replace her Creole name with an English one to emphasize that although she is white she is not English, not European, or, as Tia, put it not "real white." Her resistance the English name shows that despite the difficulties in being Creole she is unwilling to reject her native identity, even if the new identity is more privileged. That she eventually succumbs to the English name shows that like she is ultimately controlled by her husband, just as a colony is controlled by the parent country.
Evidence: #4: When Antoinette's husband calls her "Bertha" she answers by saying "not Bertha tonight," but when he insists "on this of all nights, you must be Bertha," she acquiesces: "As you wish" (136).

(Notice that several inferences based on several parts of the text will be needed to support the assertion. Please don't plagiarize my assertions and inferences. However, you could use some of the same evidence to build your own assertions and inferences. But, really, there's so much to write about in a text as rich as WSS.)

re: identity
To discuss identity and self more insightfully we paired them with other terms: identity and names, identity and race, identity and gender, identity and social class, identity and place, self and submissiveness, self and self-less love, self and nature, self and God, etc. Such pairings could be helpful in responding to the prompts.

re: literary techniques
The following are some of the literary techniques that Rhys seems to employ in relation to identity and self in Wide Sargasso Sea:: point of view (Antoinette, her husband, Daniel); Biblical allusion (snakes, cocks crowing, Eden, Judas); symbolic imagery (the color red, flowers and vegetation, animals especially birds and snakes, fire and candles, etc.), motifs (the supernatural especially obeah, saints, and God; names of people and places; songs; letters); italics; paradoxes and contrasts; and any others you might have noticed.

Email me with questions and ideas.
Our goal is for the Wide Sargasso Sea responses to be better than the Invisible Man responses.
Let's achieve our first goal.

Dispatch from AP Camp Day 4

Here's an overview of what we'll do on Monday, July 21
Don't forget to contact me before the session. I want to know who is coming. If you're not coming I want to know why.

*

Wide Sargasso Sea Seminar

Essential Questions
How can I better respond to a prompt that asks me to discuss the significance of a particular literary element or technique in a particular scene?
How can I better respond to a prompt that also asks me to discuss the significance of a particular literary element to a work as a whole?

Activities
Return Invisible Man responses with feedback.

Discuss reading the prompt closely (especially “scene,” “aspect,” “context,” and “work as a whole”). Make sure students understand these terms. Also introduce the term "passage".)

Discuss the writing of scene/passage analyses (assertion, inference, evidence, “so what?”).

Model exploration of a rich passage* (one passage from Invisible Man, one from Wide Sargasso Sea).

Have students complete “Paper Recap Sheet” in response to the discussion of the Invisible Man responses.

Students will turn in Invisible Man response “Recap” with Wide Sargasso Sea responses.

Students will be expected to show improvement on Wide Sargasso Sea responses. (Note: remind them that we will revisit Invisible Man in September.)

Have students lead and participate in class discussion* of three rich passages from Wide Sargasso Sea that they will help choose.

Look closely at Wide Sargasso Sea prompts. Make sure students understand the task and understand how they can use the feedback on the Invisible Man responses to make improvements.

Essential Questions
What is an identity? What affects the formation of an identity? How effect does one’s identity have on one’s life?

Activities
Discuss identity in Invisible Man.

Make assertions in response to the question: what does Invisible Man (as a whole) has to say about self and identity, etc.?

Discuss these assertions in small groups.

Offer and discuss supporting evidence.

Have small groups informally present assertions and support to the class as a whole.

Discuss the following questions using a 10-2 lecture formant and in small and large groups.

a. What is an “I”? What is a “self”? What is an “identity”? (What is character?) What does it mean to be “someone” or to be “nobody”? Define these denotatively, connotatively, idiolectively.
b. What affects the formation of a self/identity and the fate of that self/identity? In what ways is one’s self/identity a matter of choice? In what ways is one’s self and/or identity a matter of factors beyond one’s control? Then, how does one’s environment determine one’s fate? How does one’s “character” determine one’s fate? How do one’s choices determine one’s fate? Discuss in small and large group.
c. What are the effects of not knowing oneself (of not understanding oneself)? What are the effects of not knowing or not understanding the forces that are acting on one? What are the effects of changing or masking oneself in order to find a place within one’s environment? Discuss in small and large group.
d. How do conflicting allegiances, conflicting desires, conflicting roles, conflicting conceptions of our identities create identity crises? How does one resolve (or manage) these identity crises? How does one find a place or make a place for oneself in the world? What can prevent one from finding a place in the world? What are the implications?

Discuss identity in Wide Sargasso Sea.

Have students make assertions and ask questions about the importance of historical and cultural context in relation to identity conflict in Wide Sargasso Sea. (Use IM responses as guide/model.)

Then have students lead and participate in a discussion about identity in WSS. (Encourage them to use the essential questions discussed earlier in the session and to refer to the previously analyzed passages.)

Finally, have students lead and participate in a discussion that explores how Rhys’ uses particular literary techniques to develop ideas about the self and identity. (This will be a preliminary discussion in preparation for the blog prompts.)

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What is your aesthetic philosophy? What makes good art? What makes a good book? What makes a good work of literature?

Activities
What is your aesthetic philosophy? (Read Keats poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.)
Is beauty important in art? Why? How can literature be beautiful? (What determines/creates beauty in literature?) Examples.
Is truth important in art? What kind of truth does art convey? (How can fiction be true? How is this different from other truths?) Is this form of truth valuable to our civilization? Why? Examples.
What makes good art? What makes good literature? What makes a “good book” or a “good read”? Define. Give examples.

Is Invisible Man a successful work of art? of literature? Is it a good book? A good read? How do we know? How can we judge?

Is Wide Sargasso Sea a successful work of art? of literature? Is it a good book? A good read? How do we know? How can we judge?


*means a handout will be given.