Questions for 7/24 -- EN 190 Summer II 2012

 

Above are pictures of the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state.  (Sherman Alexie is part Spokane and part Couer d'Alene.)

Good evening :)

While I am still online, I'd like to send a few questions in case you need an entry or two for your journal.  Writing a journal entry is a good way to study for the midterm.  However, you may also post the draft of your paper for Friday as your entry.

You may recognize some of these questions from our class discussion.

-- what is Sherman Alexie trying to tell us about being Native American?

-- what do we learn about Victor, Thomas, and Junior from each of Alexie's stories?

-- what do we learn about the reservation from these stories?

-- discuss Alexie's use of first person.

-- discuss his use of third person

-- discuss his use of flashbacks and/or chronology

-- how do the parts of his stories fit together?

-- what is Alexie trying to tell us about being human?

-- why read stories about people who are disadvantaged?

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk

Questions for 7/23 -- EN 190 Summer II 2012

Above is a picture of a house near where "Bad Neighbors" is set.  I believe that 1400 8th NW would be in the Shaw neighborhood.

Good evening :)

Just a reminder that our midterm is Thursday, the second paper and journals are due Friday, and the play is Saturday.  If you weren't sure whether or not you'd attend, please let me know what you've decided.  Thank you!

For tomorrow, we will read Sherman Alexie's three stories ("This is What It Means," "The Lone Ranger," and "Somebody") and apply what we've learned about the elements of fiction.  We may also discuss "The Christmas Pies."

Here are a few questions for you:

 -- Apply one of the elements we've discussed to one of our readings for tomorrow.  

-- Apply Burke's Motives to one of our readings for tomorrow or to one of our short stories.  The five parts of this method follow:  act (what happened), actor (who performed the act), scene (where/when), agency (how -- narration & style), and motives (why--author & characters).

-- In your opinion, which is the most interesting element of fiction?  why?

-- Compare two of the stories we've discussed or read.  How are they different?  How are they similar?  How do they shed light on each other?

-- Which trends do you see emerging in our examination of fiction?  why?

-- Of the stories we've read, which would be worth staging?  why?  How would it/they be different?

-- How do our authors work with archetypes (symbols that have meaning across culture)?  How do they make them interesting to you as a reader?

-- Do you prefer symbols to be surprising and unique or to be universal?    Why?

-- How do symbols help you enjoy literature?

-- How do our authors work with literary symbols (surprising and different symbols)?  How do these symbols make you look at the world or the story in a new way?

-- How do our authors use word choices or diction to create character and setting and/or make the narrative more believable?  

-- How do our authors use sentence structure and/or rhythm to keep you interested?

-- How do our authors use irony?

-- How do our authors use dialogue?

See you in class!

Dr. Szlyk

Study Guide for Midterm -- pt. 3 -- EN 190 -- Summer II 2012

I hope that this photo stays on this blog!  It's from the 1985 movie Smooth Talk that is based on "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" with Laura Dern and 

Treat Williams.  Here is a clip from the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvmkCVbrBk

And the review is here:  

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19860509/REVIEWS/605090305/1023

I'll start with a bit about orality.  Orality refers to characteristics of a culture before writing is invented.  Some characteristics are stories that begin in medias res (the middle of things), a reliance on episodes rather than a narrative arc, a reliance on externals and action rather than on interiority, performance, improvisation, and key words like "wine dark sea" and "dawn's rosy fingers."  Relevant figures are Milman Parry (researcher) and Father Walter J. Ong (theorist).

These terms are relevant to fiction:

short story

novella -- 50 to 100 pp.

novel -- over 100 pp.

graphic fiction

genre fiction

plot--

plot vs. story

narrative arc

flashback

foreshadowing

conflict (person vs. person, person vs. self, person vs. society, person vs. nature)

epiphany

exposition

chronological order

reverse chronological order

character -- 

round vs. flat (E.M. Forster)

dynamic vs. static

ways of depicting character: telling, showing, saying, thinking

interiority

protagonist

antagonist

minor

point of view

narrator

narrative

3rd person (omniscient, limited, central consciousness)

stream of consciousness

2nd person (Bright Lights, Big City)

But there are more examples of this trick:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-person_narrative

1st person (naive, reliable, omniscient)

theme -- an implied thesis statement (subject + predicate) assigned by the reader (not the writer); as a result, a work may have more than one theme!

abstraction and limitations of theme

setting -- includes place, time, circumstance

symbol -- is concrete and meaningful...may be categorized as private, literary, conventional or traditional, cliche, or archetypal

style -- diction, sentence structure, rhythm, voice

irony

tone

motives: act, actor, scene, agency, motives

Study Guide for Midterm -- pt. 2 -- EN 190 -- Summer II 2012

As a change of pace, since we have so many pictures of Brooklyn and the theater, I thought I'd post a picture of LA.  Here is a more idyllic picture, reflecting what older people may think of when they hear about LA or California.

On to the terms and links!

drama vs. theater 

drama -- playwright, script, characters, stage directions, setting, plot

theater -- director, actor, audience, performance, set, sound, lighting

 As promised, here is a link to Erikson's stages of development.  

 http://fac.hsu.edu/langlet/lectures/dev/Erikson/erik_erikson.htm

You may also find Kohlberg's theory interesting as well:

http://college.cengage.com/psychology/nevid/psychology/1e/shared/conceptcharts/ch10/conceptchart_10.1.pdf

Michael Morrison provides a Christian perspective on development:

http://campus.dyc.edu/~drwaltz/FoundLearnTheory/FLT_readings/MoralDevelMorrison.htm

Or is Carol Gilligan's theory more appropriate to Linda?
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/classes/handbook/Gilligan.html

Other approaches to literature include formalist (focusing on elements of the text), historical, economic, gender (male OR female), racial, and ethnic.

Ways of categorizing literature include genre, historical period, language, nation, culture (including academic or youth), and theme.

Here is my entry on Miller's life and career:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/202

You may also find this interview to be interesting:

http://bostonreview.net/BR14.1/miller.html

For more information about DoaS' time and place, see this entry:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/201

Take a look at other versions of DoaS:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/200

The latest version is here:  http://www.broadway.com/shows/death-salesman/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSyIdMK99BQ

To be fair, you ought to look at the reviews, too:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/203

And here is the link to the entry on the Beijing production:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/182

For more information about Trifles, see this entry:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/196

Below is a picture of Glaspell's Provincetown Theater in NYC.

After a scare in 2008, it is still open:

http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/home.html

Questions for 7/23 -- EN 190 Summer II 2012

 

Good afternoon :)

I hope that the extended responses are coming along well.  Please let me know if you have questions or concerns about them this weekend.

For Monday, we will be reading chapters 6 and 7, focusing on setting and symbol as well as style, irony, and tone.  On Tuesday, we may look at Sherman Alexie's stories.  We will finish up fiction and begin watching Nosferatu then.  

Here is a link to "Why I Live at the P.O.":

http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html

You may read some of Bright Lights, Big City here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=_c8nKqDTgFkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bright+lights+big+city&source=bl&ots=B61NPPorXc&sig=d9A643s3lw08yauowiaBy7vum_s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gZQIUPTuDuH20gGq2cXrAw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=bright%20lights%20big%20city&f=false

Here are a few more questions for your journal and perhaps the next extended response:

-- what purpose does fiction serve?  why is it worth reading?

-- which short story has been your favorite so far?  why?

-- what makes a narrator reliable?

-- why might an author choose to give a story an unreliable narrator?

-- of the short stories we've read, which narrators could be unreliable?  why?

-- discuss the impact of Bright Lights, Big City's second person narration

Here is the beginning of the movie starring Michael J. Fox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJM696jKWA4

-- discuss the impact of a narrator's language.  Do you prefer him/her to use standard English?  Do you prefer him/her to use more colorful or less formal language?  Which types of language do you trust more?  Why?  Why not?

-- Discuss the impact of a story's setting (time and place).  Why does it matter when/where a story is set?

-- Have you been to any of the settings in the stories we've read so far?  What is it it like for you to read these stories and revisit these settings?

-- What is it like for you to read about places that are very much unlike Montgomery County?

-- What is it like for you to read stories set in the distant or not-so-distant past?

--  Discuss the impact of imagery in one of the stories we've read or are reading this weekend.

-- Discuss the impact of conventional, allegorical, or unconventional symbolism in one of the stories we've read or are reading.

-- Which is the most interesting symbol you've encountered in the stories we've read or are reading?  why?

-- Which is the most interesting symbol you've encountered outside of our class?  why?

-- Discuss a symbol from a culture that is not mainstream American.

-- Compare "Today's Demon: Magic" and "The Christmas Pies" as fiction and as graphic fiction.

-- Which other graphic fiction belongs in our anthology?  why?

-- What is your definition of literature?  Which works fit?  Which do not?  Why?
(Note that at one point plays were not considered to be literature and that the Bodleian library did not originally contain play scripts, even Shakespeare's.)

-- How would you expand on someone's point from Thursday's discussions?

I look forward to seeing and hearing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk

 

Study Guide for Midterm -- pt. 1 -- EN 190 -- Summer II 2012

Above is an image from the Orange Tree Theatre (UK)'s evening of short plays by Susan Glaspell.  For more information about this production, see these links:

http://www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk/Archive/index.asp?id={9D6F875A-DD54-41B7-BC4F-0F3EC5413B54}&year=2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/apr/09/theatre

But more importantly, which readings/viewings will be on our midterm (July 27)?

Death of a Salesman -- text, DVD of 1985 production, and the following clips:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brdbM9YSCq4 (2000, with Brian Dennehy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnTqlxajQ5Q (1996, BBC, with Warren Mitchell)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nYKpvtYPG4 (2008, DC's own Arena Stage)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJNaEDrtjug (2009, with Charles S. Dutton)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPnEFZJafjE (2008, with Avery Brooks)

Trifles -- text and the following clips  

Below are links to the videos we watched.  If you have more patience with opera, you may start here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTIZ5TL1vaQ

Otherwise, these are the movies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpNuw0vFU5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9EPnf1WXSE&feature=related

"A Jury of Her Peers" is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izSqRdOdCuo

Here is one clip from one version of Sophie Treadwell's Machinal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hikCYLzkYA

"Godfather Death" -- text  http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm044.html
and the following clip  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG0P3W_Pgps

"Love in L.A."

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

"The House on Mango Street"

"Everyday Use"

"Why I Live at the P.O." -- http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html

Bright Lights, Big City -- http://books.google.com/books?id=_c8nKqDTgFkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bright+lights+big+city&source=bl&ots=B61NPPorXc&sig=d9A643s3lw08yauowiaBy7vum_s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gZQIUPTuDuH20gGq2cXrAw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=bright%20lights%20big%20city&f=false

I wouldn't mind living at the Gulfport, MS P.O. below!

 Readings continue below:

"Hills Like White Elephants"

"The Things They Carried"

"Bad Neighbors"

"The Lesson"

"This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona"

"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"

"The Christmas Pies"

Here are clips from Smoke Signals that we watched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwcJaUaVfR0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPnV2392Tck

We also watched the following video of a Native American storyteller:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guu0EflnQPI

Questions for 7/19 -- EN 190 Summer II 2012

Good evening :)

Tonight we began our exploration of fiction, focusing on plot and character but also covering other aspects.  It was a fine beginning!  For Thursday, we will move on to point of view and theme.  

These are our readings:  chapter 5 (including stories) (98-134) and “Girl” (397-8) as well as “Dinner with Dr. Aziz.”  One of our stories will be Lynda Barry's "Today's Demon: Magic," a work of graphic fiction.

Before I go onto the questions, here are links to information about MLA:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/mladocu.html

http://libguides.montgomerycollege.edu/mla

Here are a few more questions for your journal:

-- how is your extended journal entry on drama/theater coming along?  (Feel free to post your draft at Multiply.)

-- how would you apply Erikson, Kohlberg, or Gilligan's theory to the short stories we've read so far?  

You may also find Piaget's theory to be useful:

http://psych.colorado.edu/~colunga/P4684/piaget.pdf

-- choose one of the terms we discussed tonight and then use it to examine one of the short stories we've read so far.  (Feel free to choose one of the stories from ch. 5, "Girl," or "Dinner with Dr. Aziz.")

-- do you believe that people can change?  why?  why not?

-- do you believe that a person's character is consistent?  why?  why not?

-- how does your experience help you interpret any of the short stories we've read so far?

-- How might doing research on history, economics, gender, ethnicity, or literature help you understand one of our short stories more?  

-- Today we looked at stories in the third person.  How does fiction change when you read a story in the first person (I, me, mine)?  Which person do you prefer?  Why?

-- How would ch. 4's stories change if they were told in the first person?

-- discuss the reliability of narrators.

-- Choose a story we've read.  What is its theme?  How is the theme different from a director's central idea?

-- How does the author's gender affect the stories we've read?  

--  Is "Girl" a short story?  why?  why not?

-- Is "Today's Demon: Magic" typical of the graphic fiction you've read?  why?  why not?

-- Which graphic fiction ought to be studied in EN 190 and other English classes?

-- Is graphic fiction literature?  why?  why not?

-- how do you define literary fiction?

-- do you read "genre" fiction (i.e., mysteries, SF, romances, fan fiction)?  should these stories be studied in En 190?

-- how did our brief exploration of storytelling help you understand fiction more?  (here is a link to the video that we watched:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG0P3W_Pgps

-- what purpose does literary fiction serve?

See you in class!

Dr. Szlyk