Foster (1-3, 5)
How to Read Literature Like a Professor sections 1-3, 5.
How does literature as Foster describes it differ from literature as you experienced it in high school? (Choose one or two quotations from Foster that you found instructive, and come to class ready to talk about them.)
Fitzgerald, ''Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' (online)
The full text of this out-of-copyright story by F. Scott Fitzgerald is available online.
About 24 hours before class, post your agenda item (see the FAQ page) on this story. Then, before class today, respond to 2-4 agenda items posted by your peers. During class, I may call on you to lead a brief class discussion based on your weblog, or I might ask you to share the comment you posted on a peer's agenda item.
I don't generally offer discussion questions, because I'd much rather you come up with your own important questions to answer during the class discussion. Nevertheless, I'll get you started this time.
In what ways does Marjorie demonstrate strength? In what ways does Bernice? Who is the stronger character, and why? Quote exact words from the story that support your claim, and identify quotations from the story that work against your claim.
Parts of Speech (TBA)
Read this two-page introduction to the parts of speech.
http://www.gpc.edu/~issowl/handouts/identifying-parts-of-speech.pdf
We will start with the basics -- verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, and verb.
London, ''To Build a Fire'' (online)
Download from www.bralyn.net.
Foster (10 & 12)
Also review 19 & 20 (on geography and the seasons).
Academic Article on London (TBA)
Pease, Donald E. "Psychoanalyzing the Narrative Logics of Naturalism: The Call of the Wild." Journal of Modern Literature 25:3 (2002). 26p. Academic Search Elite EBSCOHost. Seton Hill U. Reeves Lib. 28 Jan 2005.
Poetry Selections
Introduction, up to p. 16
"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (43)
"Spring and Fall" (50)
"Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock" (107)
Poetry Selections
"The Turtle" by Vachel Lindsay
"The Turtle" by Ogden Nash
"Trees" by Joyce Kilmer
"The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevens
"Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevens
I've had students who expect all poetry to be like this -- light and snappy and short, with only a single point to make. But happy people who live stable lives just aren't very interesting, artistically. It's the threatened, terrified, and dying people do things worth writing about (and reading about).
On the other hand, art covers the full range of human emotions -- including cheerfulness. While cleverness in poetry will only get you so far, I think that angst-ridden poets who pour their heart, soul, blood, phlegm, and bile into their verses could learn a thing or two from these examples, which demonstrate the potential of poetry to delight.
Why? Well, in part, I want to make up for the depressing selection of poems I asked you to read last time. But budding poets can also learn from this example. If you know really well how poems can delight, then you can focus on creating delight in the reader, rather than simply expressing the feelings inside you.
If you create poems out of a need to express the innermost, deepest feelings that would otherwise go unexpressed, then you'll end up with poems that mean quite a bit to you (because you mention a song that was important to you, the name of a person who invokes strong feelings, or a place that holds emotional significance for you), but leaves your readers scratching their heads.
In addition, once you've mastered delight, you can subvert your newfound talent to make poetry that totally creeps people out. (See Dr. Arnzen's Gorelets.)
Coleridge,''The Raven''
Underneath an old oak tree
There was of swine a huge company
That grunted as they crunched the mast
For that was ripe, and fell full fast.
Then they trotted away, for the wind grew high:
One acorn they left, and no more might you spy.
Next came a Raven, that liked not such folly
He belonged, they did say, to the witch Melancholy!
Blacker was he than blackest jet,
Flew low in the rain, and his feathers not wet
He picked up the acorn and buried it straight
By the side of a river both deep and great.
Where then did the Raven go?
He went high and low
Over hill, over dale, did the black Raven go.
Many Autumns, many Springs
Traveled he with wandering wings:
Many summers, many Winters
I can't tell half his adventures.
At length he came back, and with him a She
And the acorn was grown to a tall oak tree.
They built them a nest in the topmost bough,
And young ones they had, and were happy enow.
But soon came a Woodman in leathern guise,
His brow, like a pent-house, hung over his eyes.
He'd an axe in his hand, not a word he spoke,
But with many a hem! and a sturdy stroke,
At length he brought down the poor Raven's own oak.
His young ones were killed; for they could not depart,
And their mother did die of a broken heart.
The boughs from the trunk the Woodman did sever;
And they floated it down on the course of the river.
They sawed it in planks, and its bark they did strip,
And with this tree and others they made a good ship.
The ship, it was launched; but in sight of the land
Such a storm there did rise as no ship would withstand.
It bulged on a rock, and the waves rush'd in fast;
Round and round flew the Raven, and cawed to the blast.
He heard the last shriek of the perishing souls--
See! see! o'er the topmast the mad water rolls!
Right glad was the Raven, and off he went fleet,
And Death riding home on a cloud he did meet,
And he thank'd him again and again for this treat:
They had taken his all; and REVENGE IT WAS SWEET!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Eliot, ''The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock''
In Koch and Farrell, Sleeping on the Wing (169).
Also, pages 16-23.
Sonnets
Shakespaere, "Let me Not to the Marriage of True Minds"
Donne, "Death, Be Not Proud"
Hácová, ''Love, Life and Death in Coleridge's Poem 'The Raven'''
It looks like the PDF has been taken offline, but for now anyway it's possible to read the cache of Google's HTML version.
Article: Kinghorn
Read:
Kinghorn, A. M. "`All joy o' the worm' or, death by asp or asps unknown in Act V of Antony and Cleopatra." English Studies 75.2 (1994): 104+. Academic Search Elite Seton Hill University Lib., Greensburg. 23 Feb 2005. (http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu).
See also:
Kirkland, Larry R. "To End Itself in Death: Suicide in Shakspeare's Tragedies." Southern Medical Journal 97.7 (1999): 660+. Academic Search Elite Seton Hill University Lib., Greensburg. 23 Feb 2005. (http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu).
Article: Levin
Levin, Richard A. "That I might hear thee call great Caesar `ass unpolicied'." Papers on Language & Literature 33.3 (1997) 224+. Academic Search Elite Seton Hill University Lib., Greensburg. 23 Feb 2005. (http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu).
Article: Simonds
Simonds, Peggy Munoz. "`To the Very Heart of Loss': Renaissance iconography in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra." Shakespeare Studies 22 (1994): 220+. Academic Search Elite Seton Hill University Lib., Greensburg. 23 Feb 2005. (http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu). [Note: There are photos in the PDF version, but not the HTML version.]
(Update, 28 Feb: I had her listed as "Munoz" but it's the same author.)
Article: Bowers
Bowers, Rick. "`The luck of Caesar': Winning and losing in Antony and Cleopatra." English Studies 79.6 (1998) 522+. Academic Search Elite Seton Hill University Lib., Greensburg. 23 Feb 2005. (http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu).
Article: Hall
Hall, Joan Lord. "`To the Very Heart of Loss': Rival constructs of `heart' in Antony and Cleopatra." College Literature 18.1 (1991) 64+. Academic Search Elite Seton Hill University Lib., Greensburg. 23 Feb 2005. (http://http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu).
Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves 3
[W]hile the semicolon lightly propels you in any direction related to the foregoing ("Whee! Surprise me!"), the colon nudges you along liines already subtly laid down. (114)
Truss 4 & 5
I know the chapters aren't numbered, so for clarification, we'll be discussing the chapters on the dash and the hyphen.
Stephenson, Diamond Age 1 (rescheduled from 14 Apr)
Read up to (and including) "Nell's further experiences with the Primer; the origin of Princess Nell." (In my edition, that's up to page 111.
Stephenson, Diamond Age 2
Read up to page 295.
Miller, Resurrection Blues 2
Rescheduled from April 10
Resurrection Blues Study Guide (online)
The study guide is available online as a PDF. Rescheduled from 10 Apr.