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.

Dispatch from AP Camp Day 1

(Jeff Wall's photographic depiction of the Invisible Man's apartment with 1,369 lights.)

I have spent the last eight hours (with three breaks for food) reading, writing, talking, hearing, and thinking about the AP Literature and Composition course and exam.

With my remaining ounces of teacherly strength I am writing to prod those of you who have not posted, emailed, and/or sent two responses to Invisible Man to do so immediately. If you are having a problem email me! I can be flexible but I need you to care enough and to be adult enough to engage me in a dialogue about the work. I know IM is a tough novel. I know it's the summer. But I also know that work done now will pay off later, especially work done with this particular novel because it is so rich in the sort of literary techniques (literary playfulness, I prefer) that the AP folks value highly.

I hope you're enjoying Wide Sargasso Sea. If you find yourself unsure about what exactly is happening, you should not be alarmed. We can help each other put it together. Don't get hung up on clarifying every aspect of plot and setting. Make sure you are noting Rhys' use of literary techniques (repeated motifs, contrasting images, shifts in perspective, unreliable narrators, etc.) to develop some ideas about identity (the relationship between self and others, identity and place, pleasure and power, helplessness and control, etc.) If it helps clarify somethings start with the contrast between the identities of Antoinette and her husband. (Think about one as a representation of uncertainty about one's identity and the other as a representation of certainty.) Then consider how each's experiences and environments led to each's identity. Consider also the implications for one's life and interaction with others of uncertainty and certainty about one's self. Identify particular scenes that highlight the contrasting identities. Identify particular motifs and images that speak to the contrast. Think about how the language each uses and the structure of the novel helps the novel convey ideas about the self and its relationship with its surroundings. Email me with questions about WSS.

If you can talk about those things you're in good shape for Monday (July 21). We'll meet in 2207, start at eight am, and end before lunch. (No changes there.) Everyone should email me with a quick note telling me that you'll be there on Monday (or why you can absolutely not be there).

We'll start by looking at your Invisible Man responses--what can we learn from them? how else might Invisible Man be able to help us with the AP course and exam?--then we'll delve into Wide Sargasso Sea with a combination of lecture, whole group discussion, small group discussion, and individual work focused on helping you write strong responses to the novel and improve your ability to read, take notes on, think about, discuss, and write about the third work of the summer, a play called Translations.

I look forward to seeing you again on Monday (July 21). Now it's time for me to make my way to the dining hall. (It's like being in college again.)

Invisible Man Reminder

Today is the day for posting Invisible Man responses. (Remember to post responses under the "Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison" directions. Scroll down to find them. P.S. I fixed some typos I found in the directions. I apologize for the confusion the typos may have caused.)

I am leaving this weekend for AP Camp at Fitchburg State College. I plan to read your two commentaries (one on an idea that runs through three scenes, one on the relationship between historical context and your understanding of the novel) while I'm there. If you have any difficulty posting your responses email them to me (jcook@gloucester.k12.ma.us) and we'll figure out the problem at the Wide Sargasso Sea session on July 21. If you have general computer difficulties make sure you handwrite the responses and send them to GHS by mail (32 Leslie O. Johnson Road, Gloucester, MA 01930). All mail must be postmarked today (July 11).

Once you're done with the Invisible Man responses turn your full attention to Wide Sargasso Sea, which you will have read and taken notes on by July 21. The blog has a section on WSS. Read it.

I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say about Invisible Man.