Summary of the Fourth Session, Post-Session #4 Assignment, Preparing for the Beginning of the School Year

1. Summary
On Monday, August 17 we discussed Wide Sargasso Sea (also known by former student Felicia Lowe as Why'd Sargasso Sea?).
My plan was to tackle it section by section so as to keep narrative perspective & other differences between the sections fresh in mind (& I think we did!). For each section I solicited passages from you -- the passages you marked as you read -- & to conceptualize the conflict in the novel I made two columns. One column linked that which made Antoinette feel "safe" and another column linked that which made Antoinette feel "bold" "free" and "happy" but not safe. We tried to use the break between safety and happiness to help explain the difficulties Antoinette had trying to construct a healthy identity that worked within the environment she was given. (We also talked about her exclusion from various communities and her attempts to connect. & we situated her struggle to form a viable identity within the larger social context of the social, cultural, and economic issues in the Caribbean and England.) At the end of class we tried to make bold, insightful assertions (thesis statements) about the work as a whole that could be supported by the passages we examined closely.

2. Post-Session Work
I decided to cut back on the writing a bit. So at the end of class I had you write some bold, insightful assertions about Wide Sargasso Sea. These assertions -- perhaps a single sentence, perhaps several -- are, as Nick, I think, noted, also known as thesis statements.

You will hone one of these assertions and post the bold, insightful assertion in the comment box below. (The best assertions will be clear, will be bold*, will take on some element of the novel that you found significant (even essential), and will go beyond what we discussed in class. One way to think about generating a thesis is to isolate some aspect of the novel's style or technique -- shifting points of view, contrasting settings, symbolic imagery, significant motifs, etc. -- and to explain how Jean Rhys' use of that technique is meaningful in the novel as a whole.)

Instead of writing a full essay to support the assertion write down five or more passages from the novel that you would use to develop the thesis if I did ask you to write an essay. Make sure that you cite at least one passage from each of the novel's three sections. Write the "first few words...last few words" of each of the five or more passages along with (the page number). If you feel its not immediately apparent how the passage relates to the assertion it would be wise to explain the connection.

Turn this work in by Monday, August 24, pumpkin time (11:59 pm).

3. Preparing for the Beginning of School
I'm going to add to this when I return from a quick camping trip in New Hampshire this weekend but in the meantime don't forget to read the summer reading book you signed up for last spring. (Have fun with it.)

I'm reading As you Like It by Shakespeare and Kafka on the Beach a bildungsroman (novel of identity formation) by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. If you're interested write down what you're reading (or anything else you've read this summer) at the end of your post-session work in the comment box.

More soon.
best wishes,
Mr. James Cook

Summary of the Third Session, Post-Session #3 Assignments, Pre-Session #4 Assignments

1. Summary of the Third Session
I'll expand the summary later but here's the short version:
* during the first part of day's class we discussed Translations, exploring the relationship between one's surrounding culture and one's identity. We were especially keen to think about the ways (and reasons) that individuals either embrace cultural change or resist it. We talked about this in relation to Gloucester too. We also explored the techniques that Brian Friel used in the play to develop ideas about threats to and preservation of cultural identity; we focused especially upon language (and issues of language such as translation and naming) as an aspect of individual identity and cultural identity.
* Then we talked about writing passage analysis.
* Finally we talked about Waiting for Godot. We focused on how Beckett's choices (his techniques) as a playwright helped create a sense of the absurdity of existence. We talked about how the play makes the reader/audience uneasy and that this unease is both funny and disturbing. The play, after all, is a tragicomedy, we observed. Finally, we discussed how unease, absurdity, alienation relate to issues of identity and the individual's relationship with others in all the work we've discussed so far this summer. Oh, and I also mentioned this passage from Six Degrees of Separation, a play-made-into-a-film, which deals with the imagination as a possible way out of alienation. (Will Smith!?!?) Notice the mention of the end of Godot.

2. In the comment box post your post-session #3 work by Monday, August 10 (before pumpkin time).

What do you do?
* Write your first name and last initial.
* Choose a rich, interesting, beguiling passage from Translations. On the blog type up the passage, include the page number. Write a summary of the passage. What happens? Who is involved? Where are they? When? Etc. Then write an analytical commentary. How Brian Friel is using literary techniques (is making particular choices with language) in the passage. How does the passage relate to other passages and to the themes in the play as a whole? Peel back the layers. What do you find? Remember that I encourage to speculate and take interpretive risks. (X appears to mean Y. X suggests or might mean Y.) 300+ words
* Do the same for Waiting for Godot. Choose a passage. Type it out with the page number. Write a summary. Write an analytical commentary. 300+ words.
* Finally, if you didn't turn in your pre-session work post it.

3. Wide Sargasso Sea pre-session work still to come. (If you want to start reading now. Look for motifs and look for the ways Jean Rhys shows the difficulty Antoinette has forming a viable, healthy identity in her environment. Mark the passages as you read.)
Finally, as previously sent in an email, your last pre-session work for the summer of '09:

What should you bring to class on Monday? Bring Wide Sargasso Sea. Bring paper and something to write with. Write down the page number, first few words and last few words of one passage that you would like to discuss on Monday from each of the novel's three sections. (So you'll choose three passages total; one from each of the three sections.) Then write a brief (four sentence or so) summary of each passage and three open-ended discussion questions for each passage. The passages, brief summary, and questions will be your entry ticket. (This will be a common procedure in preparation for student-led discussions.)

When choosing passages you might think about:
happiness (the desireability of, the elusiveness of, the sources of); identity (racial identity, social class identity, national identity, family and self, name and self); safety and threat (the effect of living with threats); madness, sanity, reason, and passion (and complications of identity); sexuality and power; reality and dreams; and images of fire and destruction, images of animals and plants (and what these images suggest about the themes stated above); finally you might consider narrative point of view (what is the effect of the shifting narrator?)