Fishermen Varsity English (AP)

What are you forging in the smithy of your soul?

2009-05-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.

In the comment box below let the members of the 2008-2009 Varsity English team know how your encounters with the reality of experience are going.

Also let us know about your attempts to forge the uncreated conscience of our race in the smithy of your soul.

You might also let us know how you are doing flying by the nets that have been flung at your soul to prevent it from flight.

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.

An Apology: No Godot

2009-05-14T04:55:00.000-07:00

In order to make room for Galileo I had to drop something else. So Godot had to go. For that I am sorry.

It is perhaps appropriate that those who were waiting for Waiting for Godot will end the year still waiting just as Gigi and Didi end the play. On second thought, though appropriate that's also cruel and Theatre of Cruelty is Artaud not Beckett.

Appropriately, this post is absurd. Ah, yes, Theatre of the Absurd. That's Beckett.

Of course, if anyone wants to you could tackle Theatre of the Absurd or Theatre of Cruelty in Option Y.

Your Blog

2009-05-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

1. Create a blog of your own: Go to blogger.com; follow the directions. (For a name, it might be easiest to use your first name + "apenglish". So my address might be Jamesapenglish.blogspot.com or if there were another "James" in the class maybe: JamesCapenglish.blogspot.com)

2. After you have created a blog. Post your blog address in the comment box of the project option you have chosen. This weekend (or before) I will add a link between the class blog and your individual blog, so mail me your blog address before then.

3. All of the work for your final project must be posted on your blog by the time of your final exam. (Art work should be scanned or digitally photographed and then posted on your blog.)

4. Blogs should include at least one relevant video, at least one relevant image, and at least five relevant links.

The Final Project Option i: Analyzing several works using a critical lens.

2009-05-08T11:53:00.001-07:00

If you take this option you will create a blog devoted to analyzing several works of art (literary and non-literary) using a particular critical lens (Marxist, Freudian, Feminist, Structuralist, Post-structuralist, Russian Formalist, etc.).

1. You will write a reflection upon researching the critical lens. Show that you understand the critical lens and its significance, etc. Show how the poet lens has some relationship to the how (form) and what (content) of the literature and art you know. Develop your own thoughts about the critical lens, especially in terms of how it might help or hinder the interpretation of literature and other art. (This reflection must be accompanied by at least three works cited.) 300+ words.

2. You will write a careful, insightful explication of three works of art (novel, play, poem, film, painting, sculpture, symphony, song, photography, etc.) using the critical lens. (At least one explication must be of a literary work.) 900+ words (or 300+ each).

3. You will create a work of art of your own that makes use of the critical lens. Write a paragraph explaining the connection between your creation and the work you have done. The art & paragraph should be on your blog.

This option is new and I'm still fleshing it out.

The Final Project Option Pi: Track a motif through several works.

2009-05-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

If you take this option you will create a blog devoted to the motif. (I will teach you how to create blogs next week.)

1. You will write an explication the use, effect, and meaning of the motif in at least three literary works. In a concluding section arrive at a bold, nuanced insight by comparing and contrasting the use of the motif in the three works. (1000+ words)

2. You will write a careful, insightful explication of how another work of art -- film, painting, sculpture, song, etc. -- makes use of the motif in a significant, relevant way. (As well as explicating the use of the motif within the single work, consider meaningful similarities and differences between its use in the non-literary work and its use in the literary works.) (300+ words).

3. You will create a work of art of your own that makes use of the motif. The work of art must be accompanied by a paragraph that discusses the use of the motif in the work you have created.

This option is new and I'm still fleshing it out a bit.

The Final Project Option Y: Groups, Movements, Schools in Drama and Fiction

2009-05-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Same as option X except replace poet/poem/poetry with playwright/play/drama or writer/novel (or novella)/fiction.

And for #1: instead of listing and reflecting upon ten poems, name and reflect upon one play or one novel/novella.

And for #2: instead of an explication of one poem, explicate a scene in the play or a substantial passage in the novel/novella.

The Final Project Option X: Poetry Groups, Movements, Schools

2009-05-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

If you choose this option you will create a blog devoted to a poetry group, school, or movement.

Before writing...

^Take notes on an inadequate and impossible lecture about poetry and the arts. (Monday and Tuesday next week).
^Choose a “group,” “movement,” or “school”. (No more than two students can share a “movement” or “school”.)
^Read as many poems as you can—at least ten—by poets within the group/movement/school.

1. Write a reflection on the experience of reading the poems.

The edict of the modern and post-modern age in poetry comes from Ezra Pound: “Make it new!” Think about how the poems employ elements of poetry in inventive ways (new, strange, disorienting, alienating, surprising ways)

Think about the treatment of language: speaker’s voice, language style, diction, syntax, sound, stanza structure, line breaks, arrangement on the page. Think about the meaning and effect of the variations from traditional forms of poetry and tradition uses of language.

Think about the content: subject matter, imagery, figurative language, narration. Look for fragmentation and juxtaposition.

Post this reflection (with a list of the poems you have read and who wrote them) on your blog. 300+ words.

2. Write a careful, insightful explication of one of the poems. Post this on your blog. To see a list of last year's blogs go here. (I will help you set up a blog in class next week.) For explication help look here. Also, look at the directions above for ideas about what to explicate/explain/interpret/unfold. You're only doing one explication so it should show an imaginative, insightful grasp of the whole and of the particulars of the poem.

When explicating write about what the poem seems to say and how it says it. With modernist and post-modernist poetry the how (or form)--the speaker's voice, diction, syntax, tone, sound, line breaks, arrangement, etc.--is often as important or more important than the what (or content)--the speaker, the occasion, the subject, the plot or events, other people or characters in the poem.

Or to put it more succinctly, Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot) said that James Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist) isn't "writing about something. He is writing something."
300+ words

3. Research the group / movement / school and write a reflection that demonstrates that you understand the group / movement / school, its relationship to the poems you’ve read, and to your own developing ideas about literature and language. {Notice the three parts to this: 1. show that you understand the group & what it was/is all about, its significance, etc.; 2. show how the group's ideas, values, etc. has some relationship to the how (form) and what (content) of the poems you've read; 3. develop your own thoughts about the poems you've read and the group that created them, especially in terms of what you think literature should or could do, as well as what you get from & want from literature.} This post must be accompanied by at least three works cited. 300+ words

4. Find a work of art other than a poem—painting, sculpture, musical composition, dance, film, etc.—that is somehow related to the group / movement / school. In some cases—surrealism, Dadaism, futurism for example—this will be easy because these movements occurred in the visual arts too. In other cases, you’ll have to be a bit more inventive. I can help with this. Ask me.

Write a response explicating the work of art and explaining how it relates to the poetry movement. (Notice there are two parts to this. 1. Provide a close reading of the work of art. For help explicating visual art check out step four here at my friend's blog (Mr. Gallagher of Malden High School). 2. Show a relationship between the poetry you have read (& the group / movement / school of poetry) and the art-other-than-poetry. I will also provide some examples in class. 300+ words.

5. Create a work of art—poem, painting, short film, script, etc.—that relates in someway to the poems, other art, or movement / group / school. Write a paragraph explaining the connection between your creation and the work you have done. The art & paragraph should be on your blog. (If the art is visual and you don't know how to scan it or take a digital photograph let me know; I'll help.)

Language and the Imagination: Modern and Post-Modern Poets in Context (a partial list)

{The lists are tentative and are subject to change. The nature of these groupings is often a bit arbitrary, sometimes the groupings are philosophical, sometimes the groupings are geographical, etc.}

[Proto-Modernists]

Walt Whitman

Emily Dickinson

Gerard Manley Hopkins

[Symbolist Poets]

Stéphane Mallarmé

Paul Verlaine

Charles Baudelaire

Arthur Rimbaud

Jules Laforge

[Anglo- and USAmerican Modernists]

Ezra Pound

T.S. Eliot

D.H. Lawrence

William Carlos Williams

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

Hart Crane

Marianne Moore

Wallace Stevens

Mina Loy

e.e. cummings

Austin Clarke

Hugh MacDiarmid

David Jones

W.B Yeats

Dylan Thomas

[European Modernists]

C.P. Cavafy

Rainer Maria Rilke

Georg Trakl

Fernando Pessoa [and his heteronyms]

Berltolt Brecht

Anna Akhmatova

Tomas Tranströmer

Vladimir Holan

Wisława Szymborska

[Latin American Modernismo/Vanguardia]

César Vallejo

Nicanor Parra

Ruben Darío

Nicolás Guillén

José Lezama Lima

Pablo Neruda

Octavio Paz

Jorge Luis Borges

Ernesto Cardinal

[Dadaist Poets]

Tristan Tzara

Hugo Ball

Kurt Schwitters

[Surrealist Poets]

Guillaume Apollinaire

Robert Desnos

Louis Aragon

Andre Breton

Paul Éluard

Pierre Reverdy

Paul Celan

[La Generacion de 27]

Federico Garcia Lorca

Jorge Guillen

Rafael Alberti

Pedro Salinas

Vicente Aleixandre

[Italian Futurism]

F.T. Marinetti

Farfa

[Russian Futurism]

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Velemir Khlebnikov

[Portuguese and Brazilian Futurism]

Alvaro De Campo (one of Fernando Pessoa’s heteronyms)

Mario De Andrade

[Harlem Renaissance]

Langston Hughes

Arna Bontemps

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

James Weldon Johnson

Claude McKay

Jean Toomer

[Objectivism]

Lorine Niedecker

George Oppen

Charles Reznikoff

Louis Zukofsky

Carl Rakosi

Basil Bunting

[Beats, San Francisco Renaissance, and Post-Beat Poets]

Jack Kerouac

Allen Ginsberg

Gregory Corso

William Burroughs

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Bob Kaufman

Kenneth Rexroth

Anne Waldman

Diane DiPrima

Joanne Kyger

Richard Brautigan

Charles Bukowski

Ed Sanders

Gary Snyder

Philip Whalen

Jack Spicer

Robin Blaser

[Negritude Poets]

Aimé Césaire

René Depestre

Léopold Senghor

[“Black Mountain”/Projective Verse Poets]

Charles Olson

Robert Duncan

Robert Creeley

Denise Levertov

LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka {also, Black Arts Movement}

John Wieners

Ed Dorn

Cid Corman

Larry Eigner

Jonathan Williams

Paul Blackburn

Joel Oppenheimer

Hilda Morley

[New York School Poets: first and second generation]

Kenneth Koch

Frank O’Hara

James Schuyler

John Ashbery

Anne Waldman

Ron Padgett

Barbara Guest

Ted Berrigan

Alice Notley

Kenward Elmslie

Bernadette Mayer

Eileen Myles

David Rattray

[Black Arts Movement]

Amiri Baraka

Nikki Giovanni

Sonia Sanchez

Larry Neal

Gwendolyn Brooks

Eldridge Cleaver

Jayne Cortez

Henry Dumas

Mari Evans

[Ethnopoets and Deep Image Poets]

Gary Snyder

Jerome Rothenberg

Diane Wakoski

David Antin

Clayton Eshleman

Pierre Joris

Armand Schwerner

Nathaniel Tarn

Robert Kelly

Robert Bly

James Wright

Galway Kinnell

Linda Parker/Crane

[Confessional Poetry]

Sylvia Plath

Adrienne Rich

Anne Sexton

Robert Lowell

Sharon Olds

John Berryman

W.D. Snodgrass

Delmore Schwartz

Theodore Roethke

[Language Poets]

Ron Silliman

Jackson Mac Low

Hannah Weiner

Susan Howe

Fanny Howe

Clark Coolidge

Lyn Hejinian

Michael Palmer

Charles Bernstein

Leslie Scalapino

[Misty Poets]

Bei Dao

Gu Cheng

Duo Duo

Yang Lian

Mang Ke

Shu Ting

[“Multiculturalism”]

[Martian Poets]

Craig Raine

Christopher Reid

[USAmerican Neosurrealism]

James Tate

Bill Knott

Andre Codrescu

[Flarf]

[Post-language Poetry]

[New Formalism]

[Gloucester Modernist and Avant-Garde Poets]

Jeremy Ingalls

Gerrit Lansing

Vincent Ferrini

Charles Olson

Linda Parker/Crane

CONGRATULATIONS VARSITY ENGLISH!!!!!!!

2009-05-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

Celtic captain Stephen McManus says, "Danae fret. Yer scours'll be greit. Yer all campiones es fer es I ken seh."

Thanks Stephen.

GHS Varsity English Goes to the AP Literature Finals

2009-04-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, May 7 bright and early in the morning the Fishermen Varsity English team will play in the College Board AP Literature finals. We started struggling a bit toward the end of the regular season but we're committed to the final preparations necessary for success in the playoffs. (The last two sentences constitute ___. A. a Bildungsroman B. a conceit C. a dynamic character D. a stream of consciousness E. a rhyming couplet)

Preparations:

1. The AP Multiple Choice Questions packet must be complete by Monday, April 27.

2. Read another work of "literary merit" of your choice by Thursday, April 30. Here's a list of books the school owns that you might consider: Slaughterhouse-Five, The Color Purple, Beloved, The Awakening, Equus. Here's a list of books that some of you have already read outside of class: Twelfth Night, The Things They Carried, Lolita, My Name is Asher Lev, On the Road, Moby-Dick (the school has copies of this), Heart of Darkness (the school has this too). I recently read Under the Volcano. Christopher Farmer recommends Ernest Hemingway; I've read The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Farewell to Arms. Read anything that you would feel comfortable using on a "Question 3" prompt on the AP test. Let me know what you're reading (or have very recently read) by writing the title and author in the comment box as soon as you know.

3. By Friday, May 1 complete the "Preparation for Question Three" handout for King Lear, the work of "literary merit" you have chosen, and two other books from this year (your choice of Invisible Man, Wide Sargasso Sea, Translations, Jane Eyre, A Portrait of the Artist, the two plays you read before Christmas, As I Lay Dying, and Galileo). That's four by May 1. (Then between May 1 and May 7 you'll complete two more--for a total of six.)
Here's the form:

Advanced placement: Preparation for Question Three

Novel & Play Review Sheet

Title: ____________________________ year published: ______ genre: ________

Author: _________________________________ (b. ________; d. ________)

Relevant background of author:

Relevant literary terms, philosophical terms, historical context, etc.

Characters (round/flat, dynamic/static) and characterization (direct, indirect: through what s/he says, what others say, what s/he does and looks like, etc.)

Protagonist:
Other significant characters:

How do the characters form a larger design? (Foils, parallels, other interrelationships)

Plot

conflict(s): internal/external; vs. self, vs. another person, society, vs. nature, vs. supernatural, vs. machine

development, pacing, resolution, patterns

Setting (time/place, type, purpose)

Tone (type, how conveyed)

Point of view (type(s))

Style & Diction (level, registers, figurative language, dialog, sentence structure, use of detail)

Themes (& how are they conveyed: through character, plot, setting, tone, point of view, style, etc.)

4. Be in class as often as possible. We will practice for the exam every day from the end of vacation until the exam day (Thursday May 7).

*

& while I'm reviewing here's what we've already done during term four.

1. You blogged in response to some aspect of any performance of King Lear.
2. You blogged in response to one or more poem by Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms.
3. Galileo work: 1. summary/response to scenes 12-14; 2. summary, analysis, quotation analysis of an assigned scene; 3. new character in (or affected by) your assigned scene*; 4. write a response to the way the scene you were assigned was performed -- what did you notice? how did the way the scene was depicted affect the meaning of the scene and play -- (or if you didn't see the Galileo performance: describe the scene has you would stage it and why).

[* Go to the scene you have been assigned. After reviewing the list of characters in the play, choose a character (not already involved in your scene) who you think might have a strong reaction (or interesting reaction) to something that is said or something that is done during your scene.
* Imagine what attitude the character you have chosen would have toward the scene. Why? What emotions does he or she feel? How might your character express that attitude and those emotions through an action?

1. Write down the character you have chosen. (For example you might choose to put the Pope (in disguise) into the Carnival scene. Or you might choose to have the children in the final scene hear about the ideas Galileo expresses in scene one. Or...)
2. Write down where the character is when s/he reacts to something said or done in your scene (you could add the new character to the scene or have the character hear about it at another time and place).
3. Write down who the character is with when reacting.
4. Write down what the character does to express her/his reaction (For Pope Urban hearing about Galileo's recantation might take off his official vestments and pray quietly in a corner, whereas Sagredo might try to continue making his breakfast but end up cutting himself while slicing fruit.)
5. If there's time act out your ideas for a classmate. Do this in pairs.]

Final Notes:
I want everyone to do well on the AP test and to get an A or B during fourth quarter. EVERYONE! I was depressed by some of the grade calculations I had to do this past weekend and I am sure some of you are no happier about the calculations. However, I was happy to respond to a lot of thoughtful insights about literature, the poems, and Lear. I spent perhaps too much time writing comments but I did it, so please make sure you get the comments I wrote about your literature essays and blog responses.

Assignments Update: Due Dates, Directions for Galileo Scene Work, and a Place to Respond to One of This Week's Poems

2009-04-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

I. Galileo work: Finish the work on the Galileo scene by tomorrow, Friday April 10. In case you didn't get a chance to write it down here's the assignment.

PART ONE: CHECK THAT YOU HAVE READ TO THE END.

Write a summary and reaction (either personal or analytical) to the end of the play (scenes 12 through 14).

PART TWO: CREATE A STUDY GUIDE FOR GALILEO BY BERTOLT BRECHT

I will assign you one scene. Your scene is ____.

1. You will write a summary of the scene. (You can use the summaries at the beginning of the scenes in King Lear as a guide.)

2. Write an analysis of the scene.

Think about what is implied by the way it is written.
Think about the ways the techniques – direct characterization, indirect characterization (in dialogue, in stage directions, in character descriptions), foil characters, verbal irony, etc.; action, interaction, physical and intellectual and emotional conflict, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, situational irony, etc.; images, objects, symbols, figurative language, etc.; – contribute to the themes and effect of the scene.
Think about the relationship of the scene to the work as a whole.

3. “Important Quotation Explained”: Choose a quotation. Write down the quotation and a paragraph or so explaining the quotation’s significance.

II. Write a response to one of the poems from this week's packet. You can post your response here. Post before you go away for vacation. (I know I said post by Sunday, but that's when I had forgotten that this is an important weekend for many families. Enjoy your families before you go off to Big Time University and elsewhere.)

Spring Cleaning (part two)

2009-04-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

Finishing Term Three
Anything you want included in your term three grade must be turned in by pumpkin time tomorrow (April 7). If you have post anything today or tomorrow you must also give me a handwritten note saying what you have posted; otherwise, I probably won't see your work.

(Grades for term three: 1. "What is literature?" blog posts, "Literature Essay" draft and revision, As I Lay Dying microblogging, As I Lay Dying passage discussion, As I Lay Dying group work, As I Lay Dying timed essay, blog posts on a story ("Darkness" "...Grotesque" "Love" "How They..." "Searching..." or "The Dreamer") and two poems (first week here and second week here), and 6. three King Lear blog posts.)

Beginning Term Four (Galileo, King Lear, and poems by Fernando Pessoa)

1. Read Galileo by Bertolt Brecht by class time on Wednesday. (We'll have a quiz on the reading.)

2. By Wednesday pumpkin time comment (in the comment box at the end of this post) on some aspect of staging King Lear. (I asked you to pay special attention to a character whose lines you read during class time, so you might be interested in commenting on the depiction of that character. But then again you might not. You might be more interested in commenting on how a key scene was depicted. Or you might be interested in commenting on lines that were omitted. Etc.

In class we watched scenes from a version directed by and starring Brian Blessed. Some of you watched the Royal Shakespeare Company production shown on PBS. (For more of Sir Ian McKellen look at the video bar on the right. Click to watch excerpts.) You might also be interested in looking at Lawrence Olivier as Lear (in the video bar on the right), James Earl Jones as Lear (in the video bar on the right), or a famous Russian version that was recommended to me by a professor I met at a party last week (in the video bar on the right).

Whatever aspect of the staging of the play you comment on and whatever version (or versions) of the play you comment on make sure you discuss how it is significant in terms of the effect and meaning of the overall work. 300+ words should suffice.

3. Turn in a Galileo permission slip signed by parents and teachers by class time on Thursday.

4. Respond to one of this week's poems (all by the heteronyms of Fernando Pessoa) before you go off for April vacation. (I'll open up a comment box for this on Wednesday.)

5. Begin filling out the "Preparing for Question Three" handout using King Lear and three other works of literary merit that you have read either in class or out of class. (I'll hand this paper out before vacation.)

6. Begin working on the "AP Multiple Choice Questions" packet. (I'll hand this out before vacation.)

7. Choose a novel of literary merit (whatever that means) to read before the AP exam. (More on this before vacation.)

Gloucester and Poetry on TV this Sunday...no foolin'

2009-04-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place
April 5, 2009
7pm, WGBH Boston
Channel 2

King Lear makes an appearance in this film. If you catch it--it's not hard to catch--and can explain the context I will reward you royally.

Watch and post a response...& I will reward you...

More Poems: Cavafy, Donne, and Wieners

2009-04-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

"Ithaka" and "The City" by C.P. Cavafy
"The Triple Fool" by John Donne
"The Acts of Youth" and "Billie" by John Wieners

Comment on at least one of the poems by pumpkin time on Friday, April 3. Your comment could take several different forms:

* You might show how the poem addresses a theme (or makes use of an image or technique or relationship or ... that has been developed elsewhere too -- in the existential short story or non-fiction piece you have already written about, in King Lear, in As I Lay Dying, etc.

* You might explain how the way the poem is written contributes to its meaning and effect.

* You could respond in the form of say-play-imply (or say-play-suggest, if you prefer) or SOAPStone + theme or TPCAST + theme.

* You might respond to the poem personally. (Make sure you show an understanding of the poem as you respond to it.) Do you relate or connect? To what? Why?

* You might write a poem or brief play in response to the poem. (Again, as long as the literary work shows an understanding of the poem. Append a little note to the end of your creative piece explaining how your poem or play makes use of the original poem.)

First name and last initial.
The name of the poem(s) you will focus on.

existence, the self and others in poems

2009-03-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

"They Don't Have to Have that Look" by David Rattray
"The Ache of Marriage" by Denise Levertov
"Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" by LeRoi Jones
"In the Waiting Room" by Elizabeth Bishop

This week I've handed out several poems to augment our exploration of the self, existence, and the self's relationship with others. Your comment could take several different forms:

* You might show how the poem addresses a theme (or makes use of an image or technique or relationship or ... that has been developed elsewhere too -- in the existential short story or non-fiction piece you have already written about, in King Lear, in As I Lay Dying, etc.

* You might explain how the way the poem is written contributes to its meaning and effect.

* You could respond in the form of say-play-imply (or say-play-suggest, if you prefer) or SOAPStone + theme or TPCAST + theme.

* You might respond to the poem personally. (Make sure you show an understanding of the poem as you respond to it.) Do you relate or connect? To what? Why?

* You might write a poem or brief play in response to the poem. (Again, as long as the literary work shows an understanding of the poem. Append a little note to the end of your creative piece explaining how your poem or play makes use of the original poem.)

Begin your post this way:
First name and last initial: JCook
The name of the poem(s) you will focus on: "They Don't Have to Have that Look" by David Rattray, "The Ache of Marriage" by Denise Levertov, "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" by LeRoi Jones, "In the Waiting Room" by Elizabeth Bishop

I am interested in reading what you have to say about these poems.

King Lear on TV tonight!

2009-03-25T05:20:00.000-07:00

Here's what the WGBH website says:

"Actor Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, X-Men) returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company after a 17-year hiatus to perform the title role in this production of William Shakespeare's King Lear, widely considered one of the playwright's most enduring and haunting works. The tragedy begins with Lear proposing to split his kingdom among his three daughters (Frances Barber, Monica Dolan, and Romola Garai) according to how much each can profess her love for him, and spirals forward to dramatize the king's deception, betrayal, and eventual descent into madness."

Wed Mar 25 8pm, 2/HD (That's tonight!)
Thu Mar 26 1am, 44 (These other times are a bit absurd, no?)
Thu Mar 26 1am, 2/HD
Fri Mar 27 3am, 44
Mon Mar 30 1am, 2/HD
Mon Mar 30 3am, 44

If you watch the film you can write a 300 word or so response, review, critique that can replace on of the blog posts.

Spring Cleaning...

2009-03-20T05:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring! The vernal equinox is finally here.

O.K. Here's what's going on.

1. REVISED LITERATURE ESSAY. If you used a letter last week to postpone turning in the revision of your Exploration of the Concept of Literature Essay (that's the best name for it I've come up with yet) then your revision is due on Monday, March 23. Remember to turn in the draft I commented on and a reflection on your revisions--along with the revision.

2. BLOGGING ABOUT KING LEAR ACT ONE. You were to have blogged about Act One of King Lear by Monday night (March 16). If you didn't do so do it now!

3. BLOGGING ABOUT EXISTENTIAL READINGS. I mentioned casually that I want you to post your first comments about the readings you chose last week by the end of this week. Now, more officially, I'll remind you to blog by pumpkin time on Monday, March 23. By the way, those who have written already have done wonderfully, provocatively, chillingly well. I feel lucky to have you all as students.

4. READING KING LEAR THROUGH ACT THREE & BLOGGING ABOUT IT. On Friday (March 20, Happy Spring! Vernal Equinox!) we'll finish reading act three in F-block. So if you're not here on Friday (Good luck MUNners!) then catch up over the weekend. I'll open blogging on acts two and three on Monday and the blogging period will close Wednesday night, March 25 at pumpkin time.

5. MORE BLOGGING ABOUT EXISTENTIAL READINGS. As mentioned above next week I'll hand out poems and such related to the existential readings you've already completed. Blog about these (especially in relation to the stories I gave you last week and/or As I Lay Dying and/or King Lear). I'll open blogging on these other readings at the beginning of the week and the blogging will close on Friday night, March 27 at pumpkin time.

6. READING KING LEAR THROUGH THE END & BLOGGING ABOUT IT. Next week we'll finish reading King Lear. Blogging about the last two acts of the play will close on Monday, March 30 at pumpkin time.

So to summarize the due dates (all deadlines are pumpkin time):

King Lear act one NOW! if you haven't done it already.
Literature Essay (if you used a letter) due Monday, March 23.
Existential story blogging due Monday, March 23.
King Lear acts two and three blogging due Wednesday, March 25.
Existential poems, etc. blogging due Friday, March 27.
King Lear acts four and five blogging due Monday, March 30.

King Lear (All Posts)

2009-03-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

I've changed my mind.
I thought I was going to have you post your comments over here at last year's blog so you could interact with their comments. Though I still invite you to take a look at the act one comments, I just noticed that I hadn't fine-tuned a motif-based approach until act two. So we'll stick to posting comments on this blog for now -- at least for act one. In fact, accepting a request from some of you, we'll do all the King Lear blogging here. Above you'll find links to last years act 1 and acts 2 and 3 comments. Here's a link to comments on acts 4 and 5 from last year's class.

So here are the directions and notes:

1. Consider (& take notes on) the motifs (some are images & some are concepts) below...
* what is said and what is true;
* sight (eyes, blindness) and other senses (touch, smell {noses}) [especially as related to truth and understanding];
* fools, madness, and wisdom; duty and betrayal;
* naturalness and unnaturalness (this motif is especially slippery, flickering, and otherwise ambiguous in King Lear);
* animals and humans;
* storms and calms;
* age and youth;
* parents and children;
* rank and status;
* nothingness, loss, nakedness...& self...

[* New for '09 eating, appetites, consuming. Eating is, after all, a way of filling the nothing within.
* Also new for '09: fates, planets, stars.
* & sexuality, lust, etc.
* Oh, & as ever in tragedies, blood; the blood that means related and the blood that is violence.]

All of the aforementioned motifs interact, weaving in and out of each other to form a matrix of association. So when Lear denies Cordelia her inheritance, he doesn't say "get away from me; you're no longer my daughter" (in Elizabethan English and iambic pentameter). He evokes several motifs and images: "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" "For by the sacred radiance of the sun... by all the operation of the orbs" "paternal care" "property of blood" "gorge his appetite" "avoid my sight" (1.1.120-139).

Also be on the look out for inversions: the natural becoming unnatural, the truth that is false, the sight that is a lie, the fool that is wise, etc. & look out for parallels. ("Monster" is tagged on Cordelia and Edgar in Act One.) Look out for motif-words with ambiguous multiple or shifting meanings (especially "nature"). Listen for playfulness and for echoes. Figurative associations often haunt the literal meanings. And repetitions often reveal the play's obsessions.

2. Comment on at least two interrelated motifs. Your comments should refer to at least two specific passages (at least one passage for each motif). Demonstrate your understanding of the play so far by linking the motifs and the passages to each other and to the overall events and themes. Again, we're using close attention to small particulars to illuminate the whole. At the beginning of your post include your name, name the motifs, and quote the passages (include act.scene.line). Your insightful well-supported commentary comes next.

Comments on act one are due by pumpkin time on Tuesday, March 17, 2009. (Sláinte!)
Comments on acts two and three are due by pumpkin time on Wednesday, March 25, 2009.
Comments on acts four and five are due by pumpkin time on Monday, March 30, 2009.

"Darkness" (2007) by Andrew Sean Greer

2009-03-11T06:53:00.001-07:00

You might think about the questions: how do external changes affect our relationships with each other? What happens when authors use fantastical-allegorical elements alongside realistic elements in a story? How does the catechistic (question-answer) form of the story influence the effect the story has on the reader?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

"The Book of the Grotesque" from Winesburg, Ohio (1919) by Sherwood Anderson

2009-03-11T06:52:00.002-07:00

You might think about the questions: How complex a thing is a self? What, in Anderson's work, is a "grotesque"? How does empathy work? Do we carry others around inside us, so to speak? What is the relationship between how we look to others and how we feel and what we think and what we carry around within?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

"Love" (1960) by Clarice Lispector

2009-03-11T06:52:00.001-07:00

You might think about the questions: How do the particular small things Laura witnesses trigger an existential crisis? What is the nature of her existential crisis? Can you explain it? Can you relate to it? What new understanding accompanies the crisis? Do you share that understanding? How do the many paradoxes and oxymorons used by Lispector effectively convey the crisis? What about the end? What happens to the crisis? Why? Can you explain what happens within Laura from the time she gets home to the time she goes to bed? Were you disappointed? Pleased?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

"How They Took My Body Apart and Made Another Me" (2003) by Robert Kelly

2009-03-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

You might think about the questions: What questions about the self and about identity are raised by this story? What does the story suggest about the relationship between language and self? How might the story be understood as expressing a person's alienation from himself? How does might the strange imagery be seen as metaphorical, symbolic, and/or suggestive? (Be particular. I'm really curious as to what you think.) How does the piece both make use of and subvert sci-fi conventions? Why do you think Kelly has written in this manner? Close read a passage what is suggested? As a whole what is suggested? And, perhaps more importantly, what was the piece's affect on you? Can you explain how it had that effect?

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

Searching for Zion (2007) by Emily Raboteau

2009-03-11T06:50:00.001-07:00

You might think about the questions: Is this a work of literature even though it is non-fiction? Does the truth of this story depend on its literal truth or does it convey a thematic truth too? What questions about identity and friendship and home and journeys and "promised lands" are raised by this story? Did you relate to certain people in the story more than to others, especially relative to their struggles with identity, home, and quests? Explain.

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

The Dreamer Did Not Exist (2007) by David Gessner

2009-03-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

You might think about the questions: What are you thoughts about Gessner's childhood crisis? What do you think about Gessner's ideas about the compulsion to write? What is the relationship between eating and being (and writing) (and (a)theism) (and...) in the essay (in your own thoughts and your own life)? How does narrative function in this essay relative to the explication and analysis? What do you think about the tone? Asking questions about this piece beguiles me more than any of the others. Those who have written already have done extremely well so if my questions don't move you respond to them. (Side note: is this literature even though it's a personal essay?)

You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.

Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).

Passages in As I Lay Dying

2009-03-03T10:34:00.001-08:00

Speaker
Page #
by class time tomorrow.

As I Lay Dying (Trying to Put It Together)

2009-02-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

1. GROUP WORK: Put your group work (under the worm -- you'll know it when you see it) in the topmost black bin on the desk at the front of room 2207. Make sure all of the names of your group members are on the work. This work is due by the end of the school day Friday, February 27, 2009.

Directions:
1a. Physical Map of the Journey (on a sheet of blank paper); 1b Mark three points on the map and find a quotation that corresponds (in some meaningful way) with each of the three points. (The three quotations should be written on a sheet of lined paper.)

2a. Map of the character's relationships (on a sheet of blank paper); 2b Mark three points on the relationship map and find a quotation that corresponds (in some meaningful way) to each of the three points you have marked. (The three quotations should be written on a sheet of lined paper.)

3a. Graph of some aspect of As I Lay Dying (on a sheet of blank paper); 3b Find a passage in the book that uses imagery that for your group captures the essence or core of the work as a whole. Draw a picture of the verbal imagery. (The quote and picture should be on a sheet of lined paper.)

2. MAPS: Yesterday we talked about 2a and 3a in D-block. We talked about 2a in F-block. Next week we'll talk about the rest. To be prepared to talk about 1a and 1b check out this map from the University of Virginia. The As I Lay Dying map is based on this map (from the University of Virginia Special Collections Library) which Faulkner made almost thirty years after writing As I Lay Dying and which omits As I Lay Dying entirely. The creator of the As I Lay Dying map also refers to the second map on this page (from the University of Michigan library: I know it's hard to read) and argues that Faulkner has placed Armstid's place too far from the river and Tull's place on the wrong side of the river in the UMich map. (Tull's place appears in Faulkner's novel Sanctuary too and seems to be on the other side of the river.) What is the relationship between a reader's experience of reading a novel and all of this other stuff (maps made after the fact, comments by the author, books a Quidditch, etc.)?

3. MICROBLOGGING

4. Select a passage from As I Lay Dying for a passage analysis essay. Bring this passage to class on Monday, March 2, 2009.

5. A few comments: One of the choices I remember having to make in school, especially at the upper levels, is "who am I working for?" Am I writing to satisfy myself? Am I writing to communicate something to my teacher, thinking of her or him as a person, a thinker and feeler, rather than as a grader? Am I writing to represent as fully and as truthfully as possible my understanding of whatever I am studying? (Am I writing to get as close as possible to a truth?) Am I writing for a grade? Why am I doing this work? Who am I trying to please? I tried to get at this in f-block yesterday and I've tried to get at this question at other times in both classes.

I think it's worth talking about because it leads back to the question "why bother with literature?" and a broader question "why bother with art?" and "why bother to understand the world around us and our own nature?"

That said I have been unfair to Cash. I will attempt to be more fair to him (and to the truth rendered grotesquely embodied by Cash) when we talk more next week. (One could do worse than to start with his narration starting on 232.)

all the best,
Mr. James Cook

(P.S. I write and read and teach and do very many other things to provide an outlet for a Darl within.)

An experiment: Micro-blogging while reading As I Lay Dying

2009-02-13T12:11:00.000-08:00

What to look for...
On Tuesday we flipped through the book and then read the first chapter of As I Lay Dying together. We looked at the style, the narration, the motifs, the imagery, and the themes in those first 2+ pages. Here are some of the observations, thoughts, and questions from the first day...

* What effect do the multiple narrators have on your of what happens and what it means? (How does the multiple narrator technique affect your experience while reading? How does it affect your sense of the novel's meaning--or meanings?)

* What effect do motifs and images have on your experience and understanding of the novel? Think about Jewel/gold. Think about Jewel-as-wood and the wooden coffin. Think about horses. Notice anything that is repeated. Notice anything that resembles anything else or that contrast with anything else. Patterns--or as my daughter says, "pattrens"--are often a tool for suggesting meaning. But you already know that.

* What is the relationship between the way the narrators use language and the way they view themselves, others, and existence itself? (Do characters whose identities are in crisis use language differently from the characters with stable identities?)

* What is the relationship between individual identity (i.e. who one is to oneself) and family identity (i.e. who one is to one's family) in the novel? Characterize the relationships between the various characters in the story. (Think, for example, of Darl walking around the house and Jewel walking through the house in the first chapter.) What effect do they have on each other? The interrelationships are quite complex, I think.

* What does the journey reveal about individuals? What does the journey reveal about the family?

* Is existence absurd or does existence make sense? If existence is absurd should we strive to make our own sense? What do the characters suggest? What does the novel as a whole suggest? What characters seem to have existential crises? What characters are secure in their identities? What techniques does Faulkner use to let us know?

* Do the characters in the story seem realistic or are they exaggerated "grotesques"? (One could ask the same question about the events of the story.)

* Is the novel a dark comedy (or modern tragicomedy)? a modern tragedy? Do you find yourself seeing the pathos in their situation or the humor?

What to do...
After you read each chunk of As I Lay Dying (or perhaps before reading the next chunk) write some notes in response to the reading. Each observation and each idea would be, perhaps, twitter-like or textish in length.) ["Twitter" and "textish" see how technology yields neologisms.] I don't know exactly what to expect, but I think it would be reasonable to expect that if you post three times each post will contain at least five observations with a short idea and/or question about each observation.

Here are ideas about what to do (the last is most important)...
* Point out passages that relate to the italicized phrases above. Quote the passages (or part of them) and indicate the page number.
* Briefly suggest what might be significant about the passage (especially in relation to the italicized phrases above.
* Write a personal response about a passage (indicate the passage) & be sure to keep the-book-as-a-whole in mind. (In other words, rant about how an author is using a character but not about how much you dislike the character--unless you also talk about how the author is using the character.) Let's read with our hearts and our heads. As John Gardner says, and I think he's right, we need both.
* Respond briefly to what peers have noticed and what they have said.
* Simply: What do you notice? What do you think about it?

Writing the "Literature?" Essay

2009-02-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Some thoughts about getting started writing your essays after you have written your questions:

* You know some of what works and doesn't work for you as a writer so use my suggests in that light.

* Attempt an informal response to your question. (Give yourself a certain amount of time in which to write this response. Get your ideas down as clearly as possible within the time you've given yourself. Have someone else read what you have written. Ask this someone else to explain your ideas back to you. What's clear? What's unclear? What might need more explanation?)

* Look for passages in the readings (and elsewhere) that speak to your question. (I'll post works cited information for the readings I've provided. Do this on your own for the works you find on your own.)

* Write a bit (perhaps in note form) about what those passages have to say about your question.

* Think about particular personal experiences -- especially, but not exclusively, experiences reading and writing -- that will help you develop a response to your question. (You may certainly use the first person in this essay. In fact I expect most of you will.)

* Define your terms whenever possible. (Kingsolver offers a definition of political novels. Prynne offers a definition of poetic language. Often these definitions are paragraphs rather than sentences.)

* Consider your own tone and style. What way of writing would best suit your response to the question?

* Consider using narrative, explanation, analysis, and reflection in the essay.

What is literature? [And why bother?]

2009-01-30T10:40:00.000-08:00

In preparation for writing your own essay in response to some version* of the question--what is literature and what is it for?--we have been reading and will continue to read several works that explore this question.

Work for this unit...
1. By class time (not pumpkin time) on Wednesday, February 4 write a "What is literature? [And why bother?]" comment. Respond thoughtfully to a thread of discussion from class, or respond a particular comment by a peer, or respond to a particular passage in one of the readings, or compare passages in more than one of the readings that seem similar or contradictory or in some other way thought provoking. Or, you could respond directly to the questions: what is literature and why bother? Or you could respond to one or more of the questions I have written below--at the end of each reading--to provoke thought. Responses should be 300 words or so in length. Be bold. Be thoughtful. Delve into some uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts. Be clear as you can be. Be specific.

2. By class time (not pumpkin time) on Thursday, February 5 read "How to Tell a True War Story" (if you would prefer an ink and paper copy please let me know), mark three passages for discussion, write two questions, and write a summary/response. Do not post these notes. Bring them to class on Thursday. On Thursday I will break the reading down into sections for which certain students will be responsible.

3. By pumpkin time on Friday, February 6 write another thoughtful comment (300 words or so in length) on the blog. End your comment with the question or questions you will explore in your "Literature? Essay". (Refer to the questions below and above in the title line if they help.)

4. A complete 1000-2000 word draft (which will be graded but weighted as a homework assignment rather than as an essay) is due on Friday, February 13 by pumpkin time. (What could go wrong on Friday the thirteenth?)

Here is a list of the works we have and will read related to the big question. Below you'll also find links to related resources.

1. Read for Tuesday, January 26. "Jabberwocky" a personal essay by Barabara Kingsolver (re: how does fiction help teach empathy, especially empathy for "others," i.e. people with a different point of view? how is teaching empathy inherently politically? )

2. Read for Thursday, January 28. "Keynote Speech at the First Pearl River Poetry Conference, Guagzhou, P.R. China, 28th June 2005" a speech by J.H. Prynne (re: what is the role of the poet, especially with regard to language and truth?; re: what is the nature of poetic language?)

3. Read for Monday, February 2. "What is Literature?" (the first chapter of Literary Theory) by Terry Eagleton
This is a webpage that might help with "What is Literature?" (re: how is literature different from other forms of writing?)

4. Read on Friday, January 30 in F-block. Read on Tuesday, February 3 in D-block. "Negative Capability" LETTER from John Keats to his brothers. (And here's another website about "Negative Capability". This one includes an excerpt from another letter: "poetical character... has no self- it is everything and nothing- it has no character and enjoys light and shade; it lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or elevated- it has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an Imogen. What shocks the virtuous philosopher delights the camelion [sic] Poet... A Poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence, because he has no identity, he is continually filling some other body" (re: how is the way a creative writer knows different from the way a critic, a philosopher, a scientist knows? how is dwelling within mysteries and uncertainties part of the creative process? how is being open to "others" part of the creative process?)

5. Read for Thursday, February 5. "How to Tell a True War Story" from The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (re: how can fiction convey truth "better" than a "true" story?)

6. Optional reading. John Gardner's letter to AP students at a Bennington, VT high school & an excerpt from John Gardner's On Moral Fiction: "...the writing of fiction is a mode of thought. No one can achieve profound characterization of a person (or place) without appealing to semi-unconscious associations. To sharpen or intensify a characterization, a writer makes use of metaphor and reinforcing background--weather, physical objects, animals--details which either mirror character or give character something to react to. To understand that Marlon Brando is a certain kind of weather is to discover something (though something neither useful nor demonstrable) and in the same instant to communicate something. Thus one of the ways in which fiction thinks is by discovering deep metaphoric identities." (re: how does a creative writer use mysterious, unconscious associations and correspondences to explore truth?)

7. Optional reading: from Eduardo Galeano's Century of the Wind here is an excerpt: "The poet [Pablo Neruda], distracted by politics, asks of poetry that it make itself useful like metal or flour, that it get ready to stain its face with coal dust and fight body to body." (re: of what use is literature (of what use are the arts) in political struggles?)

8. Optional reading: from Flannery O'Connor's Mystery and Manners here is an excerpt: "When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one. The meaning of a story has to be embodied in it, has to be made concrete in it. A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell him to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning, and the purpose of making statements about the meaning of a story is only to help you to experience that meaning more fully." (re: How is literature's meaning embodied? How is literature's meaning experienced?)

_______
* You will write your own question related to these. Any such question contextual. None is the "right" question.

Citing Translations (I made a mistake!)

2009-01-14T11:34:00.001-08:00

Here's how to cite translations. (In F-block when Alex R asked if the author and translator went inside the same period a slight pinprick in the back of my head singled that I was heading into folly but I blundered ahead anyway. The pinprick nagged at me so I spent a few minutes digging around MLA format and I found this.)

Original author's last name, first name. Title of book in which the poem appears. Trans. Translator's first name Translator's last name. Publishing City: Publisher, Publication Date.
*
Example
Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Jessie Coulsen. New York: Norton, 1964.
*
All with a hanging indentation.

Works Cited

2009-01-13T04:49:00.000-08:00

I've put in bold where I've cited an album and where I've cited an unpublished manuscript. (None of the poems I used came from the internet so if you need help with internet citation consult The Compass, the MLA handout in the library, or the MLA Handbook also in the library.)

Abrams, M. H. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Fifth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987.

Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.

Cardenal, Ernesto. Zero Hour and Other Documentary Poems. New York: New Directions, 1980.

Clements, A. L. ed. John Donne’s Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1966.

Codrescu, Andrei, ed. Up Late: American Poetry Since 1970. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1989.

Conrad, C.A. Deviant Propulsion. Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2006.

Cook, James W., ed. Polis 1. Gloucester, MA: The Polis Arts Alliance, 2002.

Cook, James William. Arguments & Letters. Gloucester, MA: Unpublished Manuscript, 2004.

Cook, James William. Some Arguments. Somerville, MA: Openmouth Press, 2005.

Cook, James William. The Fool. Gloucester, MA: Unpublished Manuscript, 2008.

Cornish, Sam. 1935: A memoir. Boston: Ploughshare Books, 1990.

Creeley, Robert. The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley: 1945-1975. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.

Depestre, René. A Rainbow for the Christian West. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977.

Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1961.

García Lorca, Federico. Collected Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.

Ginsberg, Allen. Collected Poems 1947-1980. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988.

Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Random House, Inc., 1990.

Levertov, Denise. O Taste and See. New York: New Directions, 1964.

McKim, Musa. Alone With The Moon: Selected Writings of Musa McKim. Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1994.

Niedecker, Lorine. The Granite Pail. Frankfort, Kentucky: Gnomon Press, 1996.

Notley, Alice. Mysteries of Small Houses. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.

Olson, Charles. Charles Olson, Selected Writings. New York: New Directions, 1966.

Phillips, J.J., Ishmael Reed, Gundars Strads, and Shawn Wong, eds. The Before Columbus Foundation Poetry Anthology. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992.

Rich, Dave and Lisa Rich, eds. Process. Gloucester, MA: Cod Bank Press, 2008.

Simic, Charles ed. The Horse Has Six Legs: An Anthology of Serbian Poetry. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1992.

The Clash. “Straight to Hell.” Combat Rock. Epic Records, 1982.

The Pogues. “Fairytale of New York.” If I Should Fall from Grace with God. Island Records, Inc., 1988.

Wieners, John. Selected Poems, 1958-1984. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1986.

Williams, William Carlos. William Carlos Williams, Selected Poems. New York: New Directions, 1985.

Finding Twenty-First Century Poems...

2009-01-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

Here is SUNY-Buffalo's list of print and web poetry magazines. The page has hyperlinks to the magazines themselves.

Jacket is one of my favorite online poetry magazines. It's based in Australia but includes poems and essays on poetry from around the world. (Lots of USAmerican poems and prose.) This page shows the contents of every Jacket, issues 1 through 35. The page also has a search link. Using the search link I looked for poems containing miscellaneous theme-words and I had found some interesting and relevant essays and poems.

This page set up by the Poetry Foundation might help too. It has links to poems organized by "category".

Poems from the end of the twentieth century can be used in this category.

Examples: Cover, Introduction, and Table of Contents

2009-01-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

[Cover page]

“Stating the Case of the Underdog”:

Protest Songs, Laments, Documentary Poems, Blues, Cante Jondo, and so on

James Cook

Elizabeth Johnson Tsang

College Board AP Institute:

AP Literature and Composition

July 28, 2008

*******

[Introduction]

Introduction: Under and Below, Down and Out, Black and Blue

Strangely, it was while reading a Ford Maddox Ford quotation about Jean Rhys’s first novel that I came upon the theme of this poetry anthology. Francis Wyndham quotes Ford as writing that Rhys demonstrates “a terrifying instinct and a terrific—an almost lurid!—passion for stating the case of the underdog.” Wyndham goes on to write that without what Ford calls “a singular instinct for form” Rhys’s work might become bathetic: “sentimental or sensational.” Conversely, without the unflinching moral depiction of the downtrodden the formal acuity might seem superficial, no more than a shiny trinket. However, by championing the underdog—by revealing the underdog—with a fine (and innovative) sense of the novelist’s art (especially narration and characterization) Rhys produced “original art” that is both “exquisite and deeply disturbing.”

I hope these poems live up to Rhys’s fiction. All of the poems might be said to “state the case of the underdog.” The forms, however, are quite diverse.

Some poems are laments (“The Widow’s Lament in Springtime,” “I reason, Earth is short,” “Jim Dunn’s Eviction”). Some are blues (“Blues at Dawn” and “This Morning I Have Got to Keep Moving”). Some are deep songs, cantes jondos, possessed by duende. (Federico García Lorca wrote, “The duende…is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought. [I]t is not a question of ability, but of true, living style, of blood, of the most ancient culture, of spontaneous creation.”)

At least one poem is a wound (“Billie”). Another is an ache (“The ache of Marriage”). Yet another is a meditation on death (“The Fool on the Football Wars”).

There is a Whitmanic song of protest (“Cap’tain Zombi”). And there is an epistolary protest, a kind of prose poem (“Dear Mr. President…”). Some poems are analogous to activist documentary films (“Yiddish Speaking Socialists of the Lower East Side,” “Nicaraguan Canto,” “Wichita Vortex Sutra,” “Eugene Delacroix Says,” “Sept 17 / Aug 29, ’88”). Some poems are a combination of critique and witness (“London” and “After Lorca”).

In the anthology there is an ekphrastic poem—a poem responding to visual art (“Sugar Cane”). One piece is a poetic play (“Plumbing”). (Since there are prose poems can there not be play poems?) In another set of poems Vasko Popa employs a speaker who uses the language of children’s games; such games, of course, have losers: “There’s no place he doesn’t look/And looking he loses himself.”

The anthology contains three songs (“Song: Men of England,” “Straight to Hell,” “Fairytale of New York), a protest sonnet (“England in 1819”), and a Donne valediction, a poem of parting with ample characteristic conceits. (The later poem’s private defiance of the sorrowful moment seems analogous in some ways to the public defiance of injustice in the political protest poems within the anthology.)

Among the poems whose lines are liberated from the left margin, there are many variations of William Carlos Williams’ variable foot line and some Olsonian projective verse (“Song 3,” “Wichita Vortex Sutra,” “Nicaraguan Canto,” “Yiddish Speaking Socialists…”). There are poets playing with the net down (CAConrad), poets playing with the net up (Donne, Shelley, Blake), and poets playing with the net (Dickinson and Niedecker).

Poets are makers. (“Poein,” from which “poet” is derived, is classical Greek for “to make.”) And these poems are made of private sorrows and socio-political injustice, of resignation and resilience, of protest and witness, of song and declaration, of chant and moan, of empathy and defiance; all make “cases,” so to speak, for the wounded, the aching, the degraded, the alienated, the downtrodden. These are poems for and of the underdog.

*******
[Table of Contents]

“Stating the Case of the Underdog”:

Protest Songs, Laments, Documentary Poems, Blues, Cante Jondo, and so on

THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL

“A Valediction: Of Weeping,” John Donne a 17^th century poem
“Song: Men of England,” Percy Bysshe Shelley a 19^th century poem
“The Widow’s Lament in Springtime,” William Carlos Williams a 20^th century poem
“England in 1819,” Percy Bysshe Shelley a sonnet
“Straight to Hell,” Joe Strummer (performed by The Clash) a song lyric
“Sugar Cane,” James William Cook a poem I have written
“Jim Dunn’s Eviction,” James William Cook a poem I have written
“The Fool on the Football Wars,” James William Cook a poem I have written

WITNESS AND PROTEST

“After Lorca,” Robert Creeley
“The Songs of Maximus, Song 3” Charles Olson
“Eugene Delacroix Says,” Ed Dorn
“London,” William Blake
“Gloucester Poem,” Amanda Porter
from “Nicaraguan Canto,” Ernesto Cardenal, translation Robert Pring-Mill
“Yiddish Speaking Socialists of The Lower East Side,” Ed Sanders
“Cap’tain Zombi,” René Depestre, translation Joan Dayan
from “Wichita Vortex Sutra” Allen Ginsberg
“Sept 17 / Aug 29, ’88,” Alice Notley
“Dear Mr. President There Was Egg Shell under Your Desk Last Night in My Dream!” CAConrad

BLUES & CANTE JONDO (DEEP SONG)

“Confusion,” Federico García Lorca, translation James William Cook
“Blues at Dawn” Langston Hughes
[301], Emily Dickinson
“This Morning I have Got to Keep Moving/Oral Histories and Family Sketches,” Sam Cornish
“Valentine’s Day,” CAConrad
“Fairytale of New York,” Shane MacGowan (performed by The Pogues)
“Plumbing,” Musa McKim
“The Ache of Marriage,” Denise Levertov
“Billie,” John Wieners
[“Who was Mary Shelley?”], Lorine Niedecker

DUENDE IN CHILD’S PLAY

from “Games,” Vasko Popa

Note: In case you noticed the directions for the assignment I did this summer were different than the directions I gave to you. So make sure you follow the directions instead of just following what I've done.

Literary Terms

2009-01-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

Post definitions and examples in the comments box by pumpkin time on Monday, January 12.

Click here for literary terms.

What's Going On?

2008-12-18T11:11:00.001-08:00

* 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

2008-12-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

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

A late sixteenth or seventeenth

century poem (Elizabethan,

Metaphysical, Cavalier)

A nineteenth century poem

(Romantic, Gothic, Victorian)

A twentieth century poem

(modern or post-modern)

A twenty-first century poem

(post-modern)

Lyrics to song
A sonnet (or poem written in

another traditional form: sestina,

terza rima, rondeau, villanelle, etc.)

A poem translated

from another language

A poem that you have written

containing an allusion

A poem that you have written

using a traditional or invented form

A poem that you have written

that is a strict, loose, or homophonic translation

A poem that you have written

in any form

Free choice
“ “
“ “
“ “

You must include:

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

You may include:

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

Approaches to Poetry

2008-12-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

"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

2008-12-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-26T11:38:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-26T11:37:00.002-08:00

20th Century Irish Plays

2008-11-26T11:37:00.001-08:00

20th Century USAmerican Plays

2008-11-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

Celtic: SELL-tick & KELL-tick

2008-11-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

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)

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)

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)

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

2008-11-17T09:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T11:48:00.004-08:00

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

"Jane Eyre: A Marxist Study" by Terry Eagleton

2008-11-12T11:48:00.001-08:00

Post comments below.

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

2008-11-12T11:46:00.001-08:00

Post comments below.

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

2008-11-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-10-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-10-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-10-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-10-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-10-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-10-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-09-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-09-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-09-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-19T07:53:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

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)

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

2008-08-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-08-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-07-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

(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

2008-07-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Back from Illinois

2008-06-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have returned from the cornfields and box stores of the middle west.
There are several points I need to address.

1. There are a few of you form whom I do not have a functional email address. If you did not receive an email from me on Friday, June 13 please reply to me at jcook@gloucester.k12.ma.us with your email address.

2. I have made two changes to the comments. First, I have deleted our personal introductions. This saddens me. Many of your posts were witty. Some of them were honest and revelatory. Most of you used the comment box for the intended, class-building purpose. Second, I have changed the settings on the blog so now I will have to approve all comments before they appear on the blog. This, too, saddens me.

3. Start reading Invisible Man now if you haven't done so already. It's a long novel and is the one we will deal with first. I plan to hold our first session on the first Monday of July (7/7) in the morning (starting time to be announced). This gives you about three weeks to do the following work before the first session: do pre-reading research (see: "Before Reading" on the blog), read the novel, mark important passages and take notes (see: "While Reading" on the blog). During the first session we will discuss the work and you will ask lots of questions. Then you will do some writing in the comments box of the blog (see: "After Reading" directions on the blog). This "After Reading" work will be due by midnight of the Friday after the first session (7/11).

4. Tentative Dates for Summer Seminars
(By the seminar date you are expected to have completed the "before reading" and "while reading" activities--and, of course, you are expected to have read the book. "After reading" assignments must be posted by the Friday following the seminar even if you do not attend the seminar.)

July 7 Invisible Man ("After Reading" due 7/11)
July 21 Wide Sargasso Sea ("After Reading" due 7/25)
August 4 Translations ("After Reading" due 8/8)
August 18 Song of Myself ("After Reading" due 8/22)

These dates are tentative. Did I mention that they are tentative, provisional and subject to change?

5. Email me (jcook@gloucester.k12.ma.us) with any questions about any of the above, including particular questions about the books (especially Invisible Man). You can also post questions and comments (especially about Invisible Man). I'd love to find out what you are thinking about the Ellison's novel. For many of last year's students it was one of their favorites. (It will be especially important for students who cannot attend the July 7 session to discuss the novel with me and peers through email and the comment box.

Summer Reading

2008-06-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving tonight for Illinois. Before I leave I need to say a few things.

1. When I return (some time around June 22) I will post the dates for our summer seminars.

2. Below I have posted what to do before, during, and after reading each of the summer reading books. (You will writing two responses to Invisible Man, Wide Sargasso Sea, and Translations; you will be writing three responses to Song of Myself.) Read the works in the order listed above. Getting going with Invisible Man now. We will deal with it at our first summer session. Enjoy!

3. The comment boxes are public. They can be read by anyone. Parents, other teachers, administrators, strangers, etc. Please use "school appropriate" language. (For example, the superintendent has taken an interest in our blogging.... Hello, Mr. Farmer.)

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

2008-06-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Before reading:
1. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man won the 1953 National Book Award for fiction. Here's his acceptance speech.

If I were asked in all seriousness just what I considered to be the chief significance of Invisible Man as a fiction, I would reply: Its experimental attitude and its attempt to return to the mood of personal moral responsibility for democracy which typified the best of our nineteenth-century fiction.

When I examined the rather rigid concepts of reality which informed a number of the works which impressed me and to which I owed a great deal, I was forced to conclude that for me and for so many hundreds of thousands of Americans, reality was simply far more mysterious and uncertain, and at the same time more exciting, and still, despite its raw violence and capriciousness, more promising.

To see America with an awareness of its rich diversity and its almost magical fluidity and freedom I was forced to conceive of a novel unburdened by the narrow naturalism which has led after so many triumphs to the final and unrelieved despair which marks so much of our current fiction. I was to dream of a prose which was flexible, and swift as American change is swift, confronting the inequalities and brutalities of our society forthrightly, but yet thrusting forth its images of hope, human fraternity, and individual self-realization. A prose which would make use of the richness of our speech, the idiomatic expression, and the rhetorical flourishes from past periods which are still alive among us. Despite my personal failures there must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale.

~~~~~~~

Invisible Man is at its heart an attempt to use imaginative language to grapple with some of the core questions about living in modern America. Though some of the specifics have changed, the central questions about how to create a better civilization and how to develop a fully realized identity in the modern world still persist.

~~~~~~~

2. Context: References to culture and history permeate Invisible Man, so it’s useful to know some

things before reading. Look up the following and record notes in your journal:

· Louis Armstong's "Black and Blue" appears in the Prologue. (Jazz, improvisation, syncopation are important concepts in the Prologue too.)

· W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of “Double Consciousness” from Souls of Black Folk seems to inform a great deal of the novel and will inform our discussion of identity during the first term.

· Booker T. Washington seems to be the model for the Founder and the philosophy of the school that the narrator attends.

· Although Ellison denies using him as a model, Marcus Garvey is quite similar in some ways to Ras.

· A novel that seems to have influenced one of the motifs and some of the ideas in Invisible Man is Fyodor Dostoyevski’s Notes from Underground.

· Ellison uses a quotation from T. S. Eliot’s The Family Reunion and another from Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno as epigraphs.

· There are other historical and cultural references throughout the book. Some are direct. Most are indirect. Write down questions!

While reading

· In your journal make note of motifs (include page numbers and a brief note):

o Vision (invisibility, blindness, misunderstanding, sight, visibility,
understanding)

o Light and Dark

o Colors (white, black, red)

o Underground

o Other motifs that you discover (dreams, sex, violence, food, speech and speeches, music, family and blood)

· Also make note of passages (include page numbers and a brief note)

o that deal with the theme of the self, identity, and the self’s relationship with groups;

o that demonstrate Ellison’s particular use of language (imaginative, symbolic, experimental, musical, rhythmic, vernacular words choices and sentence structures);

o that show connections within Invisible Man, between Invisible Man and other things you’ve read (including the cultural and historical references you researched before starting to read), and between your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings and Invisible Man.

AFTER READING

· Post an open response (300+ words) in the comments below. Respond to a specific scene from the beginning (Prologue to New York City), middle (New York City to Brotherhood), and end of the novel (Brotherhood to end). (That means at least three scenes; a scene takes place in one location at one time) Show that you can link the novel’s particulars to the novel’s concepts. (That is the essence of AP writing.) Responses should be 300+ words each (about a page 12-point font, double-spaced). Your response should show an understanding of how Ellison develops one of the concepts listed below in each of three scenes you choose (one from the beginning, one from the middle, and one from the end of the novel):

o The theme of identity (individual identity, identity and groups, belonging and alienation);

o Motifs (invisibility and blindness, light and dark (white, black, red), speaking and speeches, music, family and blood, sexuality, violence)

o Ellison’s use of language (“the richness of our speech, the idiomatic expression, and the rhetorical flourishes from past periods which are still alive among us”)

o Ellison’s allegorical-tragic- comic-satiric-surreal-symbolic) style (He said, “leav[e] sociology and case histories to the scientists, [fiction should] arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale.”

Post a second response (300+ words) addressing how some aspect of the historical and culture context is significant to your understanding of the novel as a whole.

Wide Sargasso Sea

2008-06-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

before reading
Emily White writes, "The novel is Rhys's answer to Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë's book had long haunted her, mostly for the story it did not tell--that of the madwoman in the attic, Rochester's terrible secret. Antoinette is Rhys's imagining of that locked-up woman, who in the end burns up the house and herself. Wide Sargasso Sea follows her voyage into the dark, both from her point of view and Rochester's. It is a voyage charged with soul-destroying lust. 'I watched her die many times,' observes the new husband. 'In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty.'"

Jane Eyre will be the first novel we read in September but you might familiarize yourself with the general plot before reading Wide Sargasso Sea.

WHILE READING

· In your journal make note of some of the themes, motifs, and literary techniques found in Wide Sargasso Sea: happiness (the desire for, the elusiveness of); threat (the effect of living with threats); identity (racial identity, social class identity, national identity, family and self, name and self); madness (and complications of identity); sexuality and power; reality and dreams; fires, destruction; flowers, plants, nature; narrative perspective (point of view; how does perspective affect perception of identity, perception of reality)

· Also note connections between different parts of the novel; between the novel and other literature you have read, especially Invisible Man (or films you have seen); and between the novel and your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

Notice I have deleted the Wide Sargasso Sea prompts.

I have revised them and posted the new prompts on July 21 (above).

Translations, Brian Friel

2008-06-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

Translations, Brian Friel

Here new.
Here new or used.
Here used.

BEFORE READING
This is a play about identity, place, culture, history, and language.

How does the time and place we live in shape who we are? (The play is about the west of Ireland in the 19th century, but we could ask the same question about living in Gloucester in the early 21st century.)

How does the local culture shape who are? How does the larger culture (of which the local is part) shape who we are? What happens when the immediate culture is at odds with the larger culture? Do the play's characters embrace the traditions of west Ireland or do they embrace the new British ways? And you? What is your relationship to local culture, mass culture, micro-cultures, subcultures?)

How does history shape who are? How does language shape who are?

And, finally, and perhaps most importantly how do individuals create their own answers to all of these questions? How do individuals deal with geographic, cultural, historical, linguistic forces? Do we push back? Do we learn to cope? Do we flee? Do we cross borders? Our answers define our lives and can redefine place, culture, history, and language. This is the stuff of life--when life is lived consciously.

Now a bit of quick context:
The play is set in the 19th century in the west of Ireland.
At this time, the Irish (especially in the west) still speak Irish Gaelic (a language the Irish call, simply, Irish).
However, Ireland is still a colony of Great Britain, so the British set out on a project to anglicize the names of places in Ireland. ("Anglicize" means to translate into English words or English sounds. The name of your family may have been anglicized at some point in your family's history. We'll talk about this.)
The British want the Irish to speak English.
More context: you should be aware that the British win. Furthermore, despite the efforts of the Irish government after Ireland won independence in the early 20th century, English is still the predominant language on the island--although Irish (the language) is a mandatory subject in Irish schools and there are areas (mostly in the west) called gaeltachts where the dominant language is Irish. (In the States we call the language "Gaelic"; in Ireland they call it "Irish"; when speaking to USAmericans, I tend to compromise by saying "Irish Gaelic.")

WHILE READING (with help from teachit.co.uk 4047. doc)
* In your journal make note of the various "translations" in the play: translation is about language but also persons, places, things and conditions; translation is about movement, motion, things on the move and changing; translation is about crossing borders, moving something from one condition or position across a border to another position; translation is a kind of transformation. Think about translations, borders, and crossing borders (and languages). Note all of the translations in the play.

* Think about translation and power, which is to think about language, culture, and colonialism. Who controls the language? Who controls the culture? Who controls the translations and, therefore, the transformations? Where do you see Friel explore these questions in the play? (Mark passages. Make notes.)

Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o writes: "Language carries culture, and culture carries...the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world.... Language is thus inseparable from ourselves as a community of human beings with a specific form and character, a specific history, a specific relationship to the world." When you lose the power over language do you lose the power over culture, identity, and self-definition? Where do you see Friel explore this question in the play? (Mark passages. Make notes.)

* Think about translation and connection. Translation can be an attempt to transcend the boundaries of language and culture. Translation can, therefore, be about creating new identities, new connections, new understandings. This sort of translation, transformation, border crossing can be renewing but also can be dangerous. Where do you see this in the play? (Mark passages. Make notes.)

AFTER READING
* Respond to the theme of "translation" on the blog (300+ words). Refer to specific passages. Close analysis of scenes and quotations is important. Show me you understand the particulars of the play and their relationship to the meaning and effect of the whole play.

* In a second response on the blog (300+ words), write a perfect reflection about the theme of "translation" in your experience of the world and/or observations of others in the world. Be specific. Be insightful.

Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

2008-06-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

Here or here new.
Here used.
Here free.

BEFORE READING
James E. Miller, Jr. of the University of Chicago writes:

“Song of Myself” portrays (and mythologizes) Whitman's poetic birth and the journey into knowing launched by that “awakening.” But the “I” who speaks is not alone. His camerado, the “you” addressed in the poem's second line, is the reader, placed on shared ground with the poet, a presence throughout much of the journey.

In the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself” came first in the series of twelve untitled poems, dominating the volume not only by its sheer bulk, but also by its brilliant display of Whitman's innovative techniques and original themes. Whitman left the poem in the lead position in the 1856 edition and gave it its first title, “Poem of Walt Whitman, an American,” shortened to “Walt Whitman” in the third edition of 1860. By the time Whitman had shaped Leaves of Grass into its final structure in 1881, he left the poem (its lines now grouped into 52 sections) in a lead position, preceded only by the epigraph-like cluster “Inscriptions” and the programmatic “Starting from Paumanok.”

WHILE READING
• In your journal make note of Whitman's depiction of the self and its relationship with the surrounding world. (Think also about the relationship between Walt Whitman the poet and Walt Whitman the speaker of the poem.)
• Make note of the motifs Whitman uses while developing his ideas about the self in the world: the body and the spirit (“soul”), the individual and the group, the self and others (“I contain multitudes”), the self and nature, learning from encoded beliefs (“creeds”) or from experience, age and youth, male and female, life (procreating, sexuality, etc.) and death (dying and killing), activity (doing) and passivity (watching, observing, loafing, musing).
• Make note of Whitman’s use of language and poetic structure: lists, repetitions, parallel structures, etc. How do these formal elements contribute to Whitman's depiction of the self in the world?
• Consult this webpage which has some insightful notes on the poem.

AFTER READING
Go here.

Welcome

2008-06-04T10:14:00.001-07:00

Gloucester High School 2008-2009 AP English students this is your blog.
You will be spending a lot of time here over the next twelve months.

1.
Please introduce yourself in the comment box below.:

STEP ONE
Click on comments.

STEP TWO
If you do not yet have a Google Account click on "Sign Up Here"
Follow the directions for creating a Google Account. (You can use any valid pre-existing email address to create a Google Account.)

If you do have a Google Account write your username (your user name is your email address!) and password.

STEP THREE
Write a comment introducing yourself to the class.

STEP FOUR
If you have any problems with commenting come see me in 2207 ASAP. Also, if you have not yet given me an email come see me.

2. At the end of the week I will post the summer reading assignments. I suggest that you print a copy out a copy of the directions for yourself. I also suggest that you get the books as soon as possible: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Translations by Brian Friel, and Song of Myself by Walt Whitman.

Notes on the books: The two novels--Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys--are widely available. You could buy a new copy, a used copy (visit local used bookshops; or, use AbeBooks), or take the book out of the library. I recommend that you have your own copy but I realize that may not be possible. Translations by Brian Friel is a bit more difficult to find but I found several used copies through AbeBooks, as well as new and used copies through Amazon. The Bookstore (on Main Street in Gloucester) will also order books for you. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman can be bought for $2.50 (not including shipping) through Dover Books. Whitman's poem can also be found on the internet in several places including here with excellent notes and commentary. Finally, the poem can be found within Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, which is very widely available and includes many fine works in addition to Song of Myself.

3. Finally, sometime next week (after the AP teachers have had a chance to get together) I will post the summer meeting times.

Fishermen Varsity English (AP)

What are you forging in the smithy of your soul?

An Apology: No Godot

Your Blog

The Final Project Option i: Analyzing several works using a critical lens.

The Final Project Option Pi: Track a motif through several works.

The Final Project Option Y: Groups, Movements, Schools in Drama and Fiction

The Final Project Option X: Poetry Groups, Movements, Schools

CONGRATULATIONS VARSITY ENGLISH!!!!!!!

GHS Varsity English Goes to the AP Literature Finals

Assignments Update: Due Dates, Directions for Galileo Scene Work, and a Place to Respond to One of This Week's Poems

Spring Cleaning (part two)

Gloucester and Poetry on TV this Sunday...no foolin'

More Poems: Cavafy, Donne, and Wieners

existence, the self and others in poems

King Lear on TV tonight!

Spring Cleaning...

King Lear (All Posts)

"Darkness" (2007) by Andrew Sean Greer

"The Book of the Grotesque" from *Winesburg, Ohio* (1919) by Sherwood Anderson

"Love" (1960) by Clarice Lispector

"How They Took My Body Apart and Made Another Me" (2003) by Robert Kelly

Searching for Zion (2007) by Emily Raboteau

The Dreamer Did Not Exist (2007) by David Gessner

Passages in *As I Lay Dying*

As I Lay Dying (Trying to Put It Together)

An experiment: Micro-blogging while reading *As I Lay Dying*

Writing the "Literature?" Essay

What is literature? [And why bother?]

Citing Translations (I made a mistake!)

Works Cited

Finding Twenty-First Century Poems...

Examples: Cover, Introduction, and Table of Contents

Protest Songs, Laments, Documentary Poems, Blues, Cante Jondo, and so on

Literary Terms

What's Going On?

Personal Poetry Anthology

Approaches to Poetry

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

Henrik Ibsen Plays

Federico Garcia Lorca Plays

20th Century Irish Plays

20th Century USAmerican Plays

Celtic: SELL-tick & KELL-tick

List of Plays and Links

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

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

"Jane Eyre: A Marxist Study" by Terry Eagleton

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

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

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884

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

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

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 4)

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

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

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

Additional Comments on Jane Eyre (chapters 27-38)

Additional Comments on Jane Eyre (chapters 17-26)

Additional Comments on Jane Eyre (chapters 1-16)

Abbreviated Course Overview

Literary Style Notes

Notes After the Song of Myself Session

Dispatch after a Week of More Teacher Camp

Finishing the Summer Strong

Notes after the Translations Session

AP Summer Session #3: Translations

Notes After the Wide Sargasso Sea Session

Dispatch from AP Camp Day 4

Dispatch from AP Camp Day 1

Invisible Man Reminder

Back from Illinois

Summer Reading

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

Wide Sargasso Sea

Translations, Brian Friel

Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

Welcome

"The Book of the Grotesque" from Winesburg, Ohio (1919) by Sherwood Anderson

Passages in As I Lay Dying

An experiment: Micro-blogging while reading As I Lay Dying