Final Thoughts on Faulkner.

Hi Everyone: Please use the comment section below to add final thoughts about the last section of As I Lay Dying: you can mention scenes that will stick with you, as questions, respond to other students' ideas, offer your take on what's at the heart of the book, or discuss a line or passage.

See you on Friday, Mr. Telles.

Final Exam Period

Hi Everyone:

I hope that this message gets to everyone (my email account erased my AP Lit group email).  But I just want to remind you that we will be meeting in Mrs. Tarr's room (2211) on Friday, May 31st at 7:30.  You may see signs in the building telling you to report to the lecture hall for the exam, but you can disregard those signs.  Basically, you just need to be ready to speak for about five minutes about your project.  You can tell us about the frustration, ecstasy, confusion, intensity, or euphoria you felt while writing it.  It can be particularly interesting to hear about what kinds of changes or shifts you had to make in the process of writing. 

One final thing: we have to put Addie Bundren to rest somehow.  I'll be putting a blog stub up for any thoughts you have on the final section of As I Lay Dying.  I'm particularly interested in what you think of the Darl / barn situation and the famous final line in the context of the book as a whole.  But anything you can contribute to regarding the end of the book will be good, as long as it addresses specific scenes / situations and is thoughtful.

Thanks, Mr. Telles.

As I Lay Dying

Hi Everyone:

In this post, write about your experience of the first section of As I Lay Dying, up to page 84.  What have you noticed about the narrative, i.e. the shape of the story, motifs, passages that stand out, connections, observations about the language, etc.?  You may also respond to another student's ideas from one of our discussions. 

King Lear Blog Post

Hi Everyone:

For this blog assignment, scan the list of interesting quotes from King Lear that is located in the "pages" section of the blog.  Find two or more that you can connect either by theme, the appearance of a motif, similar tone, or are generally haunted by something similar.  Discuss the quotations by: a) observing what connects the quotations, b) explaining what is significant about the quotations when one thinks about the play as a whole, and c) exploring what the implications are of the ideas present in the quotations.

P.S. By exploring implications, you are moving beyond simply observing what's there in the quotation.  What conclusions can be tentatively drawn from what is expressed in the quotation?  If you are to accept what is expressed in the quotation, where does it lead you?

King Lear Motif Post

Choose a particular monologue or passage of dialogue to analyze. (1) In your analysis demonstrate an understanding of the passage's meaning within its context. (2) Also, identify and discuss the significance of (at least two) motifs within the passage. What does the use of the motifs reveal, particularly about characters, conflicts, and themes? (3) Finally, discuss the relationship between how the motifs are presented in the passage and how the motifs are presented elsewhere in the play. Post your response below. At the beginning of your post include your name, name the motifs, and quote the passages (include act.scene.line).

This post is due on Wednesday, February 27th.  

Poetry Project

Hi everyone: Here is a link to the library's media center.  If you scroll down to the literature section, you'll find volumes of the Poetry for Students series that may help you track down some poems for your anthology.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=mlin_n_glchs

Also, when it is time to post your proposed theme for the poetry project (Wednesday), you can just post it as a comment to this post rather than using a piece of paper.  Thanks.

Independent Reading Prep for Term Three

Independent Reading Project

By the end of the day on Monday (1/28) post a comment below telling me (1) what option you have picked (the options are explained below), (2) what you plan to read to get some background on your option (if it's a website post the URL; make sure it's a scholarly source), and (3) what novel, play, or other lengthy work (for example, a collection of stories or poems) of literary merit you plan to read and respond to before the middle of term three.

We will be doing some preliminary research on Thursday, January 24. Wikipedia is a useful tool for preliminary research (though you should not rely on Wikipedia research in scholarly writing).

Option 1: Bildungsroman. You might continue your study of the Bildungsroman genre (1) by consulting several sources -- starting with this one -- to learn more about Bildungsromans and (2) by reading a couple bildungsromans in addition to the one's you've already studied.

Option 2: Ur*-Narratives (Sacred Texts, Myths, Fairy Tales). You might continue your study of how writers, poets, and other artists use older, archetypal stories -- Bible stories, Greek myths, German fairy tales, etc. -- to create new stories, films, poems, paintings, etc. (We've already studied how Joyce, several painters, and several poets have made use of the Daedalus-Icarus myth.) You will (1) investigate an ur-narrative (a myth, a fairy tale, etc.) and (2) explore how several writers (and perhaps filmmakers, poets, and visual artists) have made use of the original story. (You might modify the assignment to look at how a couple different myths/tales are used.)
*"Ur" is Germanic in origin. In English it is sometimes used as a prefix meaning "original" or "prototypical".

Here are a few books that are based on myths, sacred texts, or folk tales:
* Here's a link to a list of books based on Greek mythology.
* William Butler Yeats wrote several plays based on Celtic mythology and tales.
* Anne Sexton wrote Transformations, a book of narrative poems based on German fairy tales.
* John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden include many Biblical allusions. Grapes of Wrath allusions include The Book of Job, the story of Noah and the flood in Genesis, and the story of the Hebrews and the Promised Land (Numbers, etc.) East of Eden is built around the Cain and Abel story in Genesis.

Option 3: Author Study. You might continue your investigation of one of the authors we have studied so far this year: Calvino, Ellison, Rhys, Bronte, Joyce. Or you might want to study another major author. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the author's life and cultural context and (2) her/his literary output beyond what you have already read.

Option 4: Literary Movement. You might continue your investigation of a literary movement that we have touched upon this year: Romanticism, Gothicism, Victorianism, Modernism. Or you might want to study another literary movement. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the -ism and (2) representative literary works from the movement.

Option 5: Literature of a Culture. You might continue your investigation of the literature produced by a particular culture. The works we have read so far this year have come out of several cultural contexts: Italian, African-American, Anglo-Caribbean, English, Irish. Or you might to want to study the literature of another culture. You will (1) investigate the literature produced by the particular culture and (2) read representative literary works from the culture.

Option 6: Critical Lens. You might study literature using a particular critical lens: gender studies, critical race theory, queer theory, Marxist literary criticism, psychoanalytic (Freudian) literary criticism, archetypal literary criticism, ecocriticism, deconstruction, etc. (Click here for Wikipedia's "literary theory" page for more ideas.) You will (1) investigate the critical theory and (2) read literary works "through the lens" of the critical theory.

Option 7: Something else that you concoct and propose. This something else should have a research component and a literary component.