First Set of Questions (Summer II 2012)

Good evening :)

I enjoyed meeting everyone tonight and look forward to working with you this summer!  Hope you are enjoying the cooler weather, too.

I've just sent you invitations.  Check your spam folders if you do not see your invitation right away.  MC has a particularly good spam filter. 

Also, here is the link to information about Unexpected Stage Company's production of Trifles:

http://www.unexpectedstage.org/

If we can get at least ten people, each ticket will be only $7.  And the director assures me that there is enough parking.

Which date works better for you:  Saturday July 28 at 7:30 or Saturday August 4 at 7:30?

Finally, here are questions for your journal:

-- Based on what you've seen so far in the 1985 version of Death of a Salesman, what seems to be the central idea of this production?  Why?

-- How has watching this DVD helped you read Miller's play?

-- How has watching this DVD helped you understand Willy's character, his relationship to the rest of his family, or his life & times?

-- How has reading Miller's play helped you think about the DVD? 

-- What seems to be the play's theme?

-- How have Miller's stage directions helped you understand his play and/or Willy and his family?

-- How would you "diagnose" Willy?  Why?  Can we diagnose a fictional character?  Why?  Why not?  Should we?  (Note that psychoanalytic criticism is only one type of criticism.)

 

-- But as promised, here is a link to Erikson's stages of development.  

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/erikson.htm
Use these stages of development to talk about Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy.  Feel free to talk about Charlie and Bernard as well.
Or is Carol Gilligan's theory more appropriate to Linda?
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/classes/handbook/Gilligan.html

-- Discuss the body language in the film.  How does it help you understand Miller's play more?

-- Discuss the DVD as a film.  How does the director use elements of film to get his points across?

-- How does "the grayness of life" pertain to DoaS?

-- How is DoaS a timeless play?

-- How is it a timely play?

-- How is this play a historical curiosity?

Perhaps one of these questions will lead to your first expanded journal entry!

See you tomorrow,

Dr. Szlyk