Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A Portrait of the Artist as a Bildungsroman

Write about the relationship between A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Hader/Hirsh's explanation of the bildungsroman genre. Use the prompt found here but everywhere the prompt says Jane Eyre think A Portrait and everywhere it says Charlotte Bronte think James Joyce.

(You might also consider A Portait's relationship to the kunstlerroman genre.

Friday, November 20, 2009

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (chapter 5)

Write a substantial post (300+ words) explaining how a passage in chapter 5 is significant to the work as a whole. (Use close reading techniques. In other words explain the significance of techniques like motif, imagery, allusion, style, tone, etc. in the passage.)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 4)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 3)

Explain how some of what you've written about already extends into chapter 3. Think about the motifs and themes. Think about Stephen's development (as person and artist). Think about St. Stephen and Daedalus/Icarus. Think about the style. How do these develop in chapter 3.

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 2)

Explain how particular passages in chapter 2 make use of the motifs and develop the themes first introduced in chapter 1. (Don't just identify the motifs and themes in the passages but discuss how they are significant.)

How does all of it relate to Stephen's development as an individual (bildungsroman) and artist (kunstlerroman) within a particular environment?

&, if you dare, explain how all of this is related to Stephen Dedalus' name; Stephen, the Christian martyr, and Dedalus, the artificer and father of Icarus.

Finally, go back and look at a particular passage. Analyze how the style is similar to or different from the style used elsewhere. How is the style significant?

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 1)

Discuss how the themes and motifs we discovered in the first page and a half of the text are significant elsewhere in chapter one. (We discovered other, related motifs and themes, repeated elsewhere in the first chapter; you might right about this too -- or instead.) Analyze the significance of the motifs and themes in specific passages.

Discuss how the way the book is written -- the narrative perspective, point of view, and voice; the impressionistic, episodic narrative style -- is significant. Analyze the style and voice in specific passages.

(If you'd like something a little more specific you could explain how the first page and half teach the reader how to read the book by introducing the narrative style, motifs, and themes that pervade the rest of the novel.)