Workshop week1
Workshop week 4
Workshop week 6
Workshop week 7 (& 8)
Workshop week 9
Workshop week 10
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1) Groups of no more than three students will be in charge of seminar presentation on Mondays. The members of the groups should have equal participation in the presentation.
2) The presentation will consist of an oral and written summary of the material covered the previous week. Each group will be expected to present orally their summary at the beginning of the seminar and set a clear framework for further exploration of the major issues raised by readings and lectures. It is recommended to focus on one or two major ideas that can be the axis to integrate other relevant points.
3) The presentation should demonstrate literary analysis. Each group will be in charge of preparing well-thought out questions to elucidate and discuss meaning, form and context of the previous week's material. If possible, students are encouraged to apply concepts from the literary theory workshop.
4) Students in charge of presentations are expected to research the theme on their own for achieving a thorough understanding of the material and provide further information for discussion. This could be biographical information about the author, or a critical article that engages the week's theme. All sources should be properly cited during your oral presentation as well as in your written paper.
5) The written summary should contain:
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Please note this date moves forward by one day the date announced in the syllabus, so that you have time to read each other's essays in small groups in advance of the required writing workshop on Tuesday, October 24th from 12:30-3:30 in CAB 110.
The goal of the essay is to create an intellectual, critical bridge that links three of the works we have read so far: Doña Barbara, The Great Gatsby, and one poem that you select. Your essay must have a thesis statement and a clearly developed argument. The argument should demonstrate your understanding of the relationships between literature and language, and literature and nation. You should provide clear working definitions of the key terms you use in your argument. You should include evidence to support your argument, and that evidence should come in the form of specific textual references (words, sentences, verses, symbols, images, metaphors, etc.)
Suggested approach: give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm, take notes, free write, etc., before you settle on a thesis and outline. During this stage of the writing process, think carefully about various ideas/images/symbols that emerge in the novels and that bear on issues of nation. After you have a general idea of how you might compare/contrast the two novels, re-read the poems and select one that speaks to the issues you have identified in the novels. Consult your lecture notes and think about the meaning of nation and nationality in literature generally, but especially in these literary works. As you think and write notes, aim to narrow down the very large topic to something manageable. For example, you might have noticed that Doña Barbara and The Great Gatsby both conclude with an image of the future, and that some of the poems are also concerned with the future. You could write and excellent short essay that focuses on representations of the future in three works, and that through this focus says something important about literature and nation. Or you could come up with a different kind of focus ?but definitely come up with a focus!
The final essay should be 5-6 pages long plus bibliography. The first draft (due Monday, Oct. 23) can be longer than that. (It is often easier to write several pages and then condense them into a shorter essay with greater impact.) Since you will not be able to be able to write exhaustively about the texts, you should select carefully those issues that appear most relevant and present them succinctly and coherently. Before you bring in our first draft, double check to make sure it is at least 5-6 pages long, that spelling and grammar are correct, and that you have met the goals stated above.
Give your essay a title clearly related to its contents. Number each page. Use a font that is easy to read (neither overly large nor overly small). The bibliography should be in alphabetical order. Record your sources properly, using parenthetical style. (That is to say, after citing a particular text, or paraphrasing an author's idea, put in parenthesis the author's last name and the relevant page number the last name of the author and the page number. If you cite more than one text by that author, include after the name, the title of the book. For more information, consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed, (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999: pp. 209-224). For basic MLA bibliography guidelines, follow the links on the library web page.
Papers without a bibliography will not be accepted.
The final draft of this essay (1 copy) is due Monday, October 30.
First Writing Assignment: Addendum
On Monday, October 22nd, at 1:00 PM you will receive
copies of three different papers written by three of your classmates. For
Tuesday, you are expected…
- to read carefully and respectfully each paper and make necessary marks and comments in the margins,
- to write in a separate page three to five comments /questions/suggestions on the paper’s content and organization (e.g., Is the thesis clearly stated? Does the argument progress logically and without gaps? Is each consecutive step in the argument explained clearly and elaborated sufficiently? Are examples appropriate?, etc.).
- to write, in addition to your commentary on content and organization, at least two observations on form and language (e.g., vocabulary choice, appropriate and clear syntax, cohesive paragraphs, punctuation, proper citation format, etc.).
You will give this page to the author of the paper
who will attach it to the final version.
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Due Wednesday, November 29 at 10:00 as part of your portfolio:
An analytical essay on one of these novels: The Sound and the Fury,
A Brief Life, The Seven Madmen, Invisible Man.
In the first half of the quarter, we studied two novels and many poems in which mythologies and critiques of nation were explicit and prominent. In the last half of the quarter, we have read four novels that offer critiques of nation that are, in some cases, more oblique. These novels offer perspectives that are often marginalized in "official" national discourse—for example, the perspectives of working people, minority groups, inhabitants of the American South, certain intellectuals, and people who are disregarded (even criminalized) by their own society.
Your task: select one of the four novels. Focus on one character in that novel. What internal conflicts are central to this character? How do these conflicts represent or relate to wider social problems or tensions? Write an analytical essay in which you present an argument based on one character that speaks to wider social issues.
Your essay must have a thesis statement and a clearly developed argument. The argument should demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between a character and the society in which she or he lives. You should provide clear working definitions of the key terms you use in your argument. You should include evidence to support your argument, and that evidence should come in the form of specific textual references (words, sentences, symbols, images, metaphors, etc.).
Suggested approach: give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm, take notes, free write, etc. before you settle on a thesis and outline. During this stage of the writing process, think carefully about various characters and how their internal conflicts represent or relate to wider social problems or tensions. Consult your lecture notes and think about the meaning of nation and citizenship, and about the historical period in which the novels were written. As you think and write notes, aim to narrow down this very large topic to something manageable.
The final essay should be 5-6 pages long plus bibliography.
We highly recommend that you bring two copies of a first draft to seminar on Monday, November 27th. In seminar, we will exchange drafts in small groups. That will allow you time to rewrite based on your colleagues’ comments and turn in the final draft on Wednesday, the 29th. Since you will not be able to write exhaustively about the novel, you should select those issues that appear most relevant and present them succinctly and coherently. Before you bring in your first draft, double check to make sure it is at least 5-6 pages long, that spelling and grammar are correct, and that you have met the goals stated above.
Give your essay a title clearly related to its content. Number each page. Use a font size that is easy to read (neither overly large nor overly small). The bibliography should be in alphabetical order. Record your sources properly, using parenthetical style. (That is to say, after citing a text or paraphrasing an author’s idea, put in parenthesis the author’s last name and the relevant page number. If you cite more than one text by that author, include after the name the title of the book.) For more information consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed., (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999: pp. 209-224). For basic MLA bibliography guidelines, follow the links on the library web page.
Papers without a bibliography will not be accepted.
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Week 1. Workshop: What is Literature? Literary Genres. Poetry
1. Taking Bishop's poems as examples, indicate how the poetic language is different from everyday language.
2. What characteristics of the lyric genre do you see represented in Bishop's poems? Which ones could be added or subtracted according to Bishop's example?
3. Establish the relationship between object/ reality and artistic object/
artistic reality. Look at Van Gogh's paintings and read the description
by Martin Heidegger in "The Origin of the Work of Art" (lecture delivered
in 1936. Heidegger, Martin, "The Origin of the Work of Art," in Poetry,
Language,
Thought. Trans., Hofstadter, Albert. New York: Harper &
Row, 1971. pp. 15-88.). Write a paragraph describing your aesthetic reaction
to the painting and another paragraph relating your aesthetic reaction
to one of Bishop's poems. Does the language in which you express your reaction
differ from paragraph to paragraph? How is the language in the poem and
the language in the painting similar or dissimilar?
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2) In small groups, discuss, define and exemplify the following concepts from Bakhtin's "Discourse in the Novel":
v Novel
v Stratification
v Heteroglossia (linguistic, social, worldview)
v Authoritative and internally persuasive discourses
(a) Could you find examples of "parodic stylization of generic, professional or other languages…" (Bakhtin 37) in Fitzgerald's novel? Could you exemplify "direct authorial discourse"? Could you give an example of "hybrid construction" (Bakhtin 39)?
(b) Identify those words that belong to Nick, Daisy, Tom, Gatsby and Mildred and which relationship they hold to the other characters' worldview. Can you distinguish the author's words in dialogical relationship to those of the characters? Take as examples passages from chapter II and chapter VI. You can also concentrate on some monologues by Nick, e.g., the one at the beginning of the novel (first 3-5 pages) and the one in the second part of chapter III.
(c) Take as your model the conversation between Tom, Daisy and Gatsby
in chapter VI and the description of the party at the beginning of chapter
II, and write a paragraph describing Gatsby's party in Daisy's, Gatsby's
or Tom's "language".
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Turn to page 78, the long paragraph that begins "He went out." Identify the voices—which characters speak, and to whom are they speaking? In your small groups, turn this paragraph into a script and act it out.
Turn to page 79, bottom of the page, paragraph beginning "It was a while…" Identify the voices that speak here. Who is speaking to whom? (No need to act this paragraph out.)
Part Two
Refer to these passages from Bakhtin, "Discourse in the Novel"
32: "The novel can be defined as a diversity of social speech types, sometimes even diversity of languages and a diversity of individual voices, artistically organized."
35: As a living, socio-ideological concrete thing, as heteroglot opinion, language, for the individual consciousness, lies on the borderline between oneself and the other."
40: "Heteroglossia, once incorporated into the novel (whatever
the forms for its incorporation), is another’s speech in another’s language,
serving to express authorial intentions but in a refracted way. Such speech
constitutes a special type of double-voiced discourse…"
From this follows the decisive and distinctive importance of
the novel as a genre: the human being in the novel is first, foremost and
always a speaking human being; the novel requires speaking persons bringing
with them their own unique ideological discourse, their own language."
In small groups, discuss what these passages mean. Be prepared to paraphrase them for the entire class.
Part Three
Turn to page 185. Jason, Dilsey, Caroline, and Quentin all speak
on this page. Jason and Quentin both say very mean things to Dilsey,
and they make free use of the "n" word. What kind of response does
Dilsey make, both here and in other passages of the novel you find relevant?
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2) To Ryan's suggestions for the structuralist reading of The Aspern
Papers, add the following suggestions:
Part One
In groups, discuss "The Manifesto of the Communist Party" and be prepared to answer these three questions when we return to the entire group:
1) What do you not understand in the manifesto?
2) What rings true to you?
3) What rings false to you?
Part Two
In groups, look for evidence in King Lear that supports Michael Ryan’s Marxist analysis of the play.
Group One: Look especially at Ryan, page 56 third paragraph and Lear, page 2-10 (opening scene)
Group Two: Look especially at Ryan, page 56 fourth paragraph to bottom of 57 and Lear, pages 10-15. (dowry scene)
Group Three: Look especially at Ryan, bottom of page 57 and top of 58 and Lear, pages 29-34 (Goneril)
Group Four: Look especially at Ryan, bottom of page 57 and top of 58 and Lear, pages 57-63 (Regan)
Group Five: Look especially at Ryan, two full paragraphs on page 58 and Lear, pages 15-21, 38-43, 71-72. (Edmund)
Be prepared to tell the entire group:
a) what Ryan’s main argument is
b) what evidence you find to support his argument
For your portfolio, write a paragraph that explains (a) and (b).
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In small groups, discuss the poem "A Miracle for Breakfast" by Bishop. Follow Michael Ryan’s suggestions, and develop a Marxist reading of the poem. We will share small group discussions with the larger group.
Writing assignment: based on your discussion, write 1-2 paragraphs that
explain the social critique offered in "A Miracle for Breakfast."
Make specific reference to images, key words, symbols, and other features
of the poem.
Part Two:
Having read excerpts by Gramsci, Althusser, and Fiske…
Form four small groups. Each group will be responsible for one of the following words:
1) subject
2) interpellation
3) ideology
4) hegemony
Discuss the word assigned your group. Select one member of the
group to report out to the entire class. Be prepared to define the
word (in your own words) and to explain that definition (what does the
word mean and why is it important to Marxist theory). How can the
study of culture be enriched by using these concepts? How can the
study of literature be enriched by using them?
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Your portfolio is due Wednesday, November 29 at 10:00
Assemble your portfolio in an envelope or lightweight folder of some kind. It should contain the following items, whether you are enrolled for 12 or 16 credits:
1) First draft of your essay comparing Doña Barbara, The Great
Gatsby, and a poem. Also include all the response sheets from the
revision process. (That is, comments by other people on your work.)
2) Final draft of this essay.
3) A copy of your seminar presentation paper.
4) Your final essay.
5) A 2-3 page reflective essay about what you have learned this quarter
(for instructions, see below). Please note: if you plan to leave
the program at the end of fall quarter, this essay will provide the basis
for your transcript self-evaluation.
For students enrolled for 16 credits, the following additional items should appear in your portfolio:
1) Group response to the first workshop comparing poetic language with
a Van Gogh painting.
2) A paragraph or two explaining formalism with reference to a poem.
3) A paragraph or two setting forth a formalist reading of a Bishop
poem.
4) A paragraph or two setting forth your ideas about the representation
of race and racism in The Sound and the Fury (with reference to Bakhtin).
5) A diagram of Ryan’s structuralist reading of King Lear.
6) A paragraph or two explaining either the article by Barthes or the
article by Saussure.
7) A paragraph or two offering a structuralist reading of The Aspern
Papers.
8) As a capstone to workshop, please type up a 1-2 page paper in which
you: a) offer your own definition of formalism and provide an example of
a formalist approach to poetry; and b) offer your own definition of structuralism
and provide an example of a structuralist approach to a work of literature.
The examples can be drawn directly from workshop exercises if these are
the best examples, but can also be drawn from any texts we’ve read in the
program.
(We will continue to work on Marxist literary theory; those exercises should appear in your portfolio winter quarter.)
There are at least two reasons for assembling a portfolio: the process helps you reflect on and synthesize what you’ve learned, and the portfolio itself provides the documents that the faculty evaluate to assess your learning. It is important that the portfolio be complete and show your work in its best light, so that your evaluation will be fair and complete.
In order to strengthen the portfolio, you are assigned to write a 2-3 page reflective essay in which you: a) identify three turning points in your learning this quarter; b) explain what you learned in each case and why this learning is important to you; and c) state your learning goals for the quarter and how you met those goals.
Suggested approach: assemble your portfolio and gather all your lecture notes, workshop notes, etc. Review what you’ve accomplished. Select three items that stand out to you—possibly one or both essays, a particular lecture, a particular workshop exercise, etc.—and think about what you learned and why this learning was important to you. Most people learn from mistakes, so don’t hesitate to include mistakes if that is what you learned from! Write the essay as if you need to persuade your reader that your view is accurate and the learning is important.
For students who continue in the program, this document will be very helpful next quarter, so dedicate time to polish it now. Those students who are leaving in December will revise this paper for an external audience, shorten it, highlight goals met and progress made, and bring the revised version to your eval conference as a transcript self-eval.