Approaches to Literature MWF: March 2008

Monday, March 17, 2008

Class Notes

Class Notes for April 7 2008

Housekeeping:

1) Test are being graded, will be back on Wednesday
2) Final paper discussion will begin on Wednesday. This will be a major part of your final grade.

Approaches to Literature:
Drama
What is Drama?

Most of us are familiar with Drama as it comes to us via television, the movies, and the internet. BUT THERE'S MUCH MORE TO IT THAN THAT!

How is Drama like Short Fiction?

•Character
Setting
Cultural References

•Plot
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action

•Symbolism
Allegory
Motif
Theme

How is it like Poetry?

•Speaker
Audience
Situation

•Imagery
Metaphor
Simile
Symbol
Allegory

•Syntax
Balanced
Broken
Mimetic
Rhyme Scheme
Syllables

PART II:

However, it is also different from Poetry and Short Stories in that it is a
Staged Art. It has a THEATRICAL DIMENSION AND LITERARY DIMENSION.

We see it preformed, and our understanding of its performance, of its THEATRICAL dimension, is just as important as our understanding of its LITERERAY dimensions.

•In Dramatic works, you will find STAGE DIRECTIONS that will tell you how the play is to be performed.

•Thus, our first step in approaches Dramatic Works should be to consider the physical and practice realities of the performance.

• We need to remember that Drama is a COMPOSITE ART. It is made up of many other arts, and we need to understand these relationships to understand the work.

• The Rising of the Moon
• What is our experience of the play?
• Our interpretation of the play?
• Observing (details)
• Collecting (make connections between the details)
• Inferring (we make inferences about their significance)
• Concluding (conclusion about the plays significance)

Tips: Focus on a scene or sequence

Class Notes for April 2 2008

Short Story Review
1) Basic Review of Class concepts (5-10)
2) Class Selects Five Stories for Review
3) Group Assessment of Selected Stories
4) In-class Writing Assignment
5) Final Reflections, possible comments on poetry
6) How to get ready for this test!

Short Story: Part One

Character
Setting
Cultural References

Short Story: Part Two

Plot
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action

Short Story: Part Three

Symbolism
Allegory
Motif
Theme

Stories which may be on the test:

Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour 38

Week Six: Point of View and Character

John Updike A&P 32
Luke The Prodigal Son 27

Week Seven: Plot and Setting

Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Yellow Wallpaper 379
Nathanial Hawthorn The Minister’s Black Veil
Flannery O’Conner A Good Man is Hard to Find

Week Eight: Symbolism and Allegory

Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried 433
Shirley Jackson The Lottery 409
Gabriel Garcia Marquez A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings 272

Week Nine: Motif and Theme

Ralph Ellison Battle Royal 341
Edgar Allen Poe The Fall of the House of Usher 149

Class Notes March 31 2008 – Poetry Section Review

Raymond Carver:

“Cathedral” : 313
• What are some of the motifs in this story?
• What is the theme of this story?

Poetry Terms:

• Speaker

• Audience

• Situation

Imagery

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Symbol

• Allegory

Syntax
• Balanced
• Broken
• Mimetic
• Rhyme Scheme
• Syllables

Songs: Schooner Fare's "Portland Town"
"The Country Song"

Poems we have studied which may be on the test:

Emily Dickenson I’m Nobody! Who are you? 639
Edwin Arlington Robinson Miniver Cheevy 521
Walt Whitman One’s Self I sing 861

Speaker, Audience, and Situation

William Carlos Williams Danse Russe 867
Alfred, Lord Tenneyson Ulysses 856
William Butler Yeats The Second Coming 873
Robert Frost All poems 672-690
Margaret Atwood This is a Photograph of Me 757
William Blake The Lamb 770
John Donne The Flea 789

Week Three: Imagery, Metaphor, and Symbol

Sylvia Plath Blackberrying 836
Metaphors
Erza Pound In a Station at the Metro 842
Edward Allen Poe The Raven 838
William Blake The Tyger
Theodore Rothke My Papa’s Waltz

Week Four : Meter, Rhyme and Structure

Shakespeare’s Sonnets
William Carols Williams The Red Wheelbarrow 563
Walt Whitman When I heard the learn’d astronomer 566
e.e. cummings 1(a 567

Class Notes For March 28 2008

Edgar Allen Poe: The Fall of The House of Usher

1) Reaction:

2) Characters
a. Speaker:
b. Roderick:
c. Madeline:
d. Servant/Doctors:

3) Setting:
a. Where are we?
b. When are we?
c. Who are “the Ushers?”
d. Cultural References:
i. Strange Books and Paintings.

4) Plot
a. Exposition
b. Rising Action
c. Climax
d. Falling Action

5) Motif
a. What are some of the motifs, or recurring ideas or images, in this story?
b. How can an understanding of the motifs help us understand the story?

6) Theme:
a. A Theme is the Dominant or Unifying idea.
i. What is one of the themes of this story?

7) What about The Haunted Palace!
a. How do the themes of “The Haunted Palace” and the “Mad Trist” (the story of Ethelred and the Dragon) resemble the themes of the story?

Class Notes for March 26 2008

1) Ralph Ellison, Battle Royale
2) Get into groups and begin to discuss this story
3) Characters
4) Setting
5) There is a motif in this story. A motif is a recurring subject, theme, idea, ect.
6) What is the motif?
7) What do you think the point of the story is?
8) What is the speaker right about? What is the speaker wrong about?
9) Writing Assignment:
a. For the next ten minutes, I want you to write in response to the following question: What is the meaning of “Grandfather’s Curse”? And, more importantly, do you think the Grandfather’s advice was particularly good? Begin with this question: What can the MOTIF in this story tell us about Grandfather's curse?
10) What are our conclusions? How can an understanding of, and attention to, motif improve our understanding of a story?

Class Notes for March 24 2008

1) New Podcasts are up!
2) Get out your homework. Exchange.
3) What are some positive and negative aspects of traditions

4) A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
a. Reactions?
b. What is magic realism?
i.The embellishing of a realistic setting with surreal images or
events.
c. Plot
i. Exposition
ii. Rising Action
iii. Climax
iv. Falling Action?
d. Characters:
i. Pelayo: Husband
ii. Elisenda: Wife
iii. Child
iv. “Angel”
v. Father Gonzaga
vi. Villagers
vii. The Sick: What happens to them?
viii. The Spider Woman
e. Setting
f. Is this an allegory? If so, what is it an allegory for?

Class Notes for Friday, March 21 2008

Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery" (It ain't no Megabucks)

1) Reactions
2) Significant Details
3) Characters
4) What is the setting?
5) When does this story take place?
6) An Allegory: A series of symbols that stand for something else.
7) Is the Lottery an allegory? If so, what is it an allegory for What is The
Lottery and allegory for?
8) In-class writing assignment: What are some routines that you are aware of
in your day-to-day, or year-to-year life? Why do we have these routines? Why
might they be good?

Class Notes for March 19 2008

1) The Exam: Date and Contents
2) The Things they Carried: What are they things they carried?
a. Jimmy Cross
b. Henry Dobson
c. Dave Jensen
d. Ted Lavender
e. Mitchell sanders
f. Rat Kiley
g. Kiowa
3) What do the things they carried symbolize?
4) What do YOU carry
5) What do the things you carry symbolize?

Class Notes Eng 112 March 17, 2008

1) New Blog: www.eh112mwf.blogspot.com
2) St. Patrick’s Day, Symbolism. The Snake. Is it really a snake?
3) A Good Man is Hard to Find
a. Reaction
b. Important character information
c. Important plot details
d. How does everything connect?
e. The Grandmother, what do you make of her?
f. Extra Credit: Cultural references, the Spanish Influenza!
4) Read Tim O’Brien’s The Things they carried