I wish that I had been able to post this entry last night after our wonderful conversation had been fresh in my mind, but here is our entry for the week.
I'll start with links to the trailers that we watched. First is the trailer from the film version of Fences:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vylWibtgdbU
Next is a key scene from the 2010 Broadway version of Fences: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBTXS42dj40
Compare it to the original Broadway version with James Earl Jones and Courtney B. Vance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_kGtQmvrVI
Or to the Trickster Troy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v4l36NTrsA
At one point, there was a video of James Earl Jones' version of this scene, but I can't find it.
In the meantime, here are links to entries on Fences from past semesters. This entry emphasizes the Civil Rights movement and baseball more: http://en202.blogspot.com/2013/09/from-archives-background-on-fences.html The next entry contains images from other productions of Fences: http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/09/questions-for-engl-190-september-24.html This video takes you backstage to another such production at Boston's Huntington Theater Company: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp8OhjIkRNs&list=PLtOdbdAAmRTisMLDCW__G_tJT1a4X94wm&index=5
Here are a few questions for your journal.
In class, we mainly focused on the relationships in Fences. How does this focus shape your understanding of the play? What does it obscure? Why?
What does baseball mean to Troy? (Did you notice that at one point Rose was listening to the game even though her husband wasn't there?)
How do you interpret the Trickster Troy scene? One commenter on YouTube noted that Denzel Washington was trying too hard to be liked and that Troy's beliefs about Death were actually very childish. What do you think?
How does Troy's death affect his family? What do you think happens to Cory? Why?
Discuss Troy and Gabriel as brothers and as characters arising from magic realism. For more about magic realism, see this handout from Dallas Baptist University: http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/magical.htm Why does the play begin with Troy's story and end with Gabriel's dance?
What is Gabriel's role in Fences?
What is Bono's role in Fences?
What is Lyons' role in Fences?
What is Rose's role in Fences?
How does your awareness of racial issues help you understand Fences better?
How does Fences help you understand racial issues better? Consider August Wilson's preface to the play.
Compare and contrast Denzel Washington's performance of Troy with James Earl Jones'. If you choose to expand your response to this prompt for the paper, take a look at other performances, too.
Let's move on to fiction. Trickster Troy complements the folktales that we will be looking at. The first is "Godfather Death," one of the Brothers Grimm's many tales: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm044.html The second is the Native American tale "Coyote and Eagle Visit the Land of the Dead": http://www.native-languages.org/wishramstory.htm "The Red Convertible" by Louise Erdrich is in our book.
Here are a few questions for your journal.
How is fiction different from drama/theater? How is it similar?
How are folktales different from literary fiction like "The Red Convertible"?
How do the folktales handle literary elements such as plot, character, setting, narration, and symbolism?
How does literary fiction handle literary elements such as plot, character, setting, narration, and symbolism?
Compare the folktales that we are reading to folk tales in your own tradition.
Does length matter in short stories? How short is too short? How long is too long?
-- Discuss the role of plot and character in the stories we have read so far. Are these stories plot driven? character driven? or setting driven?
-- Discuss the ways in which fiction encourages empathy. How does this compare/contrast to drama/theater?
-- Discuss the ways in which fiction encourages moral behavior. How does this compare/contrast to drama/theater?
-- Discuss Death, the godson, and his father as characters. Consider that, in Fences, Troy wrestles with Death.
-- Discuss Coyote and Eagle as characters. Why does Coyote go to the land of the dead? Why does he not carry out his mission?
-- Look for other stories about Coyote. How does he differ from story to story?
Here are entries that give background about him and Native American cultures:
See you at the library!
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