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April 26, 2006
Presentation Talking Points:
Formal Oral Presentations -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)Here are some things I hope to cover tonight:
1. Comparison/Contrast: An “essential method” according to Roberts (187) for COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS
a. “...select and articulate a common ground for discussion" (Roberts 184)
b. The inherent nature of this type of discussion is that it allows perspective and stifles mere plot summary (if done properly)
c. Decide on your goal-is your paper an equal elucidation of both works, a discussion of your preference of one, or an explanation of a method or an idea?
d. Compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges
i. Ideas/Themes/Subjects
ii. Character/Character Development/Character Depiction
iii. Setting functions
e. Things to avoid:
i. Plot Summary
ii. Lumping
iii. the “Tennis-Match” method: 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2
f. Useful vocabulary: Common, share, equally, both, parallel, similar, also, while, whereas, different, dissimilar, contrast, although, except, despite, along with this, in these ways, etc.
2. The Adding Machine/Expressionism - 1922
Definition: “In literature, expressionism is often considered a revolt against realism and naturalism, seeking to achieve a psychological or spiritual reality rather than record external events in logical sequence” (infoplease).
Dark world view/nihilistic
Contrary to hedonism of 1920’s
Moeller: “If Expressionism is objective seeing, as all observation must be, it is subjective projection; that is all the half-understood ‘hinterland’ thoughts, all the yearnings and unknown suppression of the mind, are exposed… in spite of character…”(ix)
white-collar drone is so far removed from happiness and meaning in this life that they will never be able to enjoy paradise, even if they do make it to heaven
Expressionism (visual arts) –1905-1940’s-moves away from “mirror up to nature” to expressing emotions of the artist.
most characters have names that are “numbered”
Why is this called Expressionistic literature and not Dadaistic or Surrealistic?
3. Paper #3
a. My initial opening paragraph (includes thesis):
O'Connor's "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", "A Circle in the Fire", "The Displaced Person" and "Good Country People" all have similar structure, characters and themes. In each story, a single or widowed female landholder with a defective daughter is visited by refugee males who eventually cause upheaval. Given O'Connor's immersion in Catholicism, the archetypal reading of this theme is that the visitors are disguised messenger angels who have come to inspire the female characters to examine their lives and repent their sins. Unfortunately, it is a message that none of the characters heed. O'Connor uses character, action, and dialogue to both fulfill and reverse the archetypal theme that we should show kindness to strangers.
b. Changed to:
O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own ”,“ A Circle in the Fire ”,“ Good Country People and “The Displaced Person” all have similar structure, characters and themes. In each story, a flawed single or widowed female landholder is visited by transient males who eventually cause upheaval. Based upon a mixture of secular and religious literature, an archetypal reading of O’Connor’s design is that each visitor is a personified opportunity for the prominent female characters to examine their lives and repent their selfishness. But because O’Connor’s stories often end before the reader knows whether the main female characters have evolved, the onus of growth transfers from the flawed female characters to the audience, who are warned against being greedy, insincere, prideful and distrustful.
I may need to include Bailey from “A Good Man is Hard to Find” as a defective child, so I deleted the whole defective daughter issue. (By the way, is a “Bad Man easy to Find?) I also could not imagine Mr. Shiftlet, the boys in “A Circle in the Fire”, “Manley Pointer” as angels (Mr. Guizac may have gotten away with it, but probably only because he didn’t know much English). Furthermore, I could not locate 1 iota of respected literary criticism about angels in Flannery O’Connor’s work- (“America” magazine and www.thezodiac.com don’t count), so I thought about the archetype more, coupled with O’Connor’s motivations, and came up with the whole “onus of growth on the reader” idea and dropped the kindness to strangers theme.
Because I didn’t want to completely lose the kindness to strangers idea because I think that this is where the archetype lies, I changed to:
O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own ”,“ A Circle in the Fire ”,“ Good Country People and “The Displaced Person” all have similar structure, characters and themes. In each story, a flawed single or widowed female landholder is visited by transient males who eventually cause upheaval. Based upon a mixture of secular and religious literature, an archetypal reading of O’Connor’s design is that each visitor is a personified opportunity for the prominent female characters to examine their lives and repent their selfishness. But because O’Connor’s stories often end before the reader knows whether the main female characters have evolved, the onus of growth transfers from the flawed female characters to the audience, who are warned against being greedy, insincere, prideful and distrustful. In doing so, she leans on the teachings of her faith and conveys the lesson that we should be kind to strangers.
I still wasn’t comfortable with the “…audience, who are warned against being greedy, insincere, prideful and distrustful” line, so the present version is as follows:
O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own ”,“ A Circle in the Fire ”,“ Good Country People and “The Displaced Person” all have similar structure, characters and themes. In each story, a flawed single or widowed female landholder is visited by transient males who eventually cause upheaval. Based upon a mixture of secular and religious literature, an archetypal reading of O’Connor’s design is that each visitor is a personified opportunity for the prominent female characters to examine their lives and repent their selfishness. But because O’Connor’s stories often end before the reader knows whether the main female characters have evolved, the onus of growth transfers from them. In doing so, she leans on the teachings of her faith to convey the belief that we should be kind to strangers.
Besides Trojan Horse, Aesop fables, and Snow White-any other stories that include a malicious visitor?
Do you think that the female landowners each have a fatal flaw?
Example MLA style:
BOOK:
Aesop. Aesop's Fables. Trans. John E. Keller and L. Clark Keating. Lexington, KY: The
University Press of Kentucky, 1993.
ARTICLE:
Collins, Caroline. "Jilted Southern Women: The Defiance of Margaret Cooper and
Her Twentieth Century Successors." Studies in the Novel 35.2 (2003): 178-
89.
The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. Toronto: Thomas
Nelson & Sons, 1966.
WEB SITE:
"expressionism: In Literature." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. © 1994, 2000-
2005, on Infoplease. © 2000–2006 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
26 Apr. 2006
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 5:20 PM | Comments (3)
April 22, 2006
List of Readings/Associated Topic
Roberts, Ch.17 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)As Roberts suggests, I've tried to relate the readings that we've had throughout the semester with the in-class topic to try and get a little insight into what was expected of us.
Work Class Topic
Desert Places Historical Context
Mending Wall Close Reading
After Apple Picking Close Reading
The World Trade Center Reading Poems Aloud
Oster "On Desert Places" Close Reading/Literary Criticism
Trifles Close Rdg/Representations of Reality
BBHH Character/Representations of Reality
The Adding Machine Expressionism
Stevens/Williams Poems Poetry Analysis
MLA Style - know how to cite books, articles, sites, etc.
Stevens Symbolism & Allusion
Williams Poetic Form
Gatsby Point of View
Gatsby Use of references and tenses in writing
Kumamoto Close reading/symbolism/allusion
Gatsby & the Sims Academic Journal Article
A Good Man is... Southern Gothic
The River Southern Gothic
The Life You Save... " "
Roberts Chap 18 Demonstrative Research Essays
A Stroke of Good Fortune
A Temple of The Holy Ghost
Roberts Appen. Critical Theory Workshop
The Artificial Nigger
A Circle in the Fire
A Late Encounter with the Enemy
Good Country People Ideas and Meanings in Literature
The Displaced Person
Roberts #8 Writing about an idea or theme
Hughes & Frost Writing aboue a problem
The Color of Water Comparison/Contrast (we spent very little time of this, and instead focused on biographical writing)
Some of these works and topics clearly mesh, others don't. I am just trying to formulate some sample questions as an aid in studying for the final.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 9:31 PM | Comments (3)
April 18, 2006
A Love/Hate Relationship
Roberts, Ch. 14 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)STEP 2: "...select and articulate a common ground for discussion". He goes on to suggest that if you are writing a comparison/contrast paper, a good way to get going is to compare character to character, idea to idea, setting to setting etc. After spending the entire last 2 full days of my life plus any prep work I did last week just trying to get enough mileage out of my Paper #3 thesis, I read this by Roberts and it was like a waiting for the thunder after a lightening flash. This really, really, really makes sense, and as much as I hate to admit it, I can already see how I'm going to have to revise my paper to avoid the "lumping effect". Whoever first said "Live & Learn" should be shot! It's been a lot more like "Don't live & learn" lately.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 8:53 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2006
Mommy
McBride, The Color of Water (1996) -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"It was a devastating realization coming to grips with the fact that all your life you had never really known the person you loved the most" (266). But James McBride DID know his mother, at least the parts of her that counted, the parts of her that enabled her to raise 12 children with no money, and have those children flourish into adulthood. Even though they have their place, it was refreshing to not have to worry about "close readings" or symbolism or any of that and just let this family's story unfold through the loving eyes of James McBride.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 3:24 PM | Comments (4)
April 16, 2006
Southern Hospitality
McBride, The Color of Water (1996) -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"I always felt that way about the South, that beneath the smiles and Southern hospitality and politeness were a lot of guns and liquer and secrets" (111). We spoke about this the Tues/Thurs class and a number of classmates commented on the hospitality and manners of Southerners. Mommy was from Virginia, which is not usually considered deep South, and she relates the other side of life that maybe Northern visitors don't normally get to see.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 9:21 AM | Comments (3)
April 8, 2006
Juke Box Love Song
Hughes and Frost -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
I Could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down,,,
Taking Harlem as a beautiful sensory experience as a present to your girlfriend. How cool is that! He's giving her a crown of neon, writing her a song out of the rumble of subways and cars and dancing with her until the dawn. This poem is so lively and energetic, you can't help but smile when you read it.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 8:43 PM | Comments (1)
Langston Hughes bio
Hughes and Frost -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"These poets reinforce Randall Jarrell's assertion that those who have inherited the custom of not reading poetry justify it by referring to the obscurity of the poems they have never read." Roberts just finished telling us all about Hughes' influences: Whitman, Longfellow, etc., then gives us this line. I don't think that he means obscurity as in "little known", I think that he means "Obscurity" as in "opagueness" or "cloudy", especially when the preceding line about clarity being derived from particular choices instead of "intellectial poverty".
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 5:53 PM | Comments (1)
(Forgive, O Lord...)
Hughes and Frost -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy big one on me.
This sounds like lines from a child's prayer with it's ryhme scheme. I am fascinated how poets pack their words with so much. Frost's "The Death of The Hired Man" wasn't as precise. I also enjoyed "Dust of Snow" on page 210. It's another version of the adage to "Stop and Smell the Roses".
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 5:20 PM | Comments (3)
Robert's Quilt Fends off the Frost
Hughes and Frost -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"Whatever the poet's personal shortcomings...(he was awarded)so many honoary degrees (the list includes Oxford and Cambridge)that he had them sewn together to make a blanket." No office walls littered with those cheap black acrylic framed for this guy! I wonder, did Frost say one chilly New England morning, "Honey, my knees are a-knockin', it's soooo chilly in here. I just can't muster up another trip to those woods for something to burn! I know! Hand me that needle and thread so I can stitch these pieces of paper together and cover myself. What? They are all of those very important degrees from all of those very important places? Well, let's put 'em to some use then!". I love it!
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
Roberts #12-Problems
Roberts, Ch. 12 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"A problem is any question that you cannot answer easily and correctly about a body of material that you know." Sorry to quote the first line of the whole chapter, but it sorta threw me off until I realized that Roberts' "PROBLEM" is really like our "CLAIM" in the whole claim-data-warrant scheme. By inserting "CLAIM" in place of "PROBLEM" throughout the chapter, I didn't get hung up on the negative connotations of the word 'PROBLEM".
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 5, 2006
Figures of Speech
Roberts, Ch. 8 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"Figuratie language is one of the major components of poetry, but it also abounds in prose fiction (See also Chapter 9)" (121). Thank goodness for figurative speech-life would be very dull without it, and writing as an artform would lose a lot of its spirit.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 2:11 PM | Comments (2)
April 3, 2006
Saving the best for last
O'Connor, '''The Displaced Person'' -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)WOW! I just finished reading "The Displaced Person" and don't know where to start. We could probably talk about this story alone for an entire class! O'Connor really shines in her descriptions: "Bars of sunlight fell from the cracked ceiling across his back and cut him in three distinct parts" (Talk about foreshadowing!). Then there's the long paragraph on page 218 comprising Mrs. Shortley's vision. My Paper #2 is all about how O'Connor blends normally separate dimensions in comparison to the works of M.C. Escher, and here's a prime example: "...her eyes on the distant low-lying clouds that looked like rows and rows of white fish washed up on a great blue beach" (218).
More than any otherof her stories, all of the heartache is this could have been avoided. Despite being one -widowed and twice-divorced, Mrs. McIntyre had never "...discharged any one before; they had all left her" (245). Chances are Mrs. McIntyre would never have fired the Shortleys even though that's what she told the priest (She made several lame attempts to fire DP even though she never did that either). Mrs. Shortley may not have then died. Secondly, the only reason I see for firing DP is his blindness toward inter-racial marriage, which is apparently the worst thing in the world to Mrs. McIntyre.
Finally, O'Connor takes great pains in repeatedly describing piles of bodies - once in relation to the pictures from the concentration camps, next while writing about the Shortleys and all of their animals in the car and finally in the death scene where mourners crowd DP's broken body. What is O'Connor saying?
I'm glad that this book really ended with a bang!
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 4:45 PM | Comments (1)
Flannery O'Connor starring in the role of Mrs. Freeman, a Good Country Person
O'Connor, '''Good Country People'' -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"Mrs. Freeman has a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children" (174). O'Connor could have been writing this about herself, especially the "assaults upon children" claim. Children are murdered, drowned, rejected & abandoned. O'Connor's fascination with deformity in her characters, focuses more on hidden rather than external deformites, even though Mr. Shiftlet & Hulga are both maimed. As for secrets infections, the problem is you may not know that you are infected until it's too late. This line may have been a self-criticism by O'Connor.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 12:14 PM | Comments (3)
First impression - title
O'Connor, '''Good Country People'' -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"Good Country People" - I admittedly am behind on my reading this week, but after seeing this title, without reading 1 word of this story, I just know that there is not going to be much good about any of O'Connor's characters herein. To be continued...
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)