Sherwood Anderson & William Faulkner: Understanding the Grotesque

Read "The Book of the Grotesque" a story from the book Winesburg, Ohio (a cousin of Dubliners) by Sherwood Anderson. Write a thoughtful response in the comment box. You might write an analysis linking technique to meaning. You might write a comparison between this story and another, focusing on theme, style, characterization, or several elements or something else. You might write your own "interfiction" by fleshing out some part of the story (the back story, the "dream that was not a dream," the narrator as character, etc.) Or you might have another idea you'd like to try out.

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Then start reading As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Read and take notes on pages 3-84 by class time on Monday.

Here are the motifs. (Thanks to Mr. Phillips for motif ideas)

Animals

Maternity/Feminity

Language/Words (uses and limits)

Religion

Existence and Identity (ontology)

Death and Life (Dying and Living, Non-being and being)

Community/Society

Sanity and Insanity

Trauma, Suffering (Responses to Trauma and Suffering)

Dark Humor & the Grotesque

Hope and Despair

Family (Loyalty and Betrayal)

Paternity/Masculinity

Secrets

Tools/Building

Sexuality

Money/buying/selling

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Here's Faulkner talking about his intent to write a literary masterpiece:
"I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall." - William Faulkner

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Click here whenever you want to see a map for As I Lay Dying. The map is a revision of a map made by Faulkner himself. For Faulkner's map click here.

Place for Andrew Ryan to Post His A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Part-to-Whole Essay

Andrew, it's probably too many characters to fit in one blog post so break it up.
Thank you.

Personal Anthology Poetry Project

AP English Literature and Composition
Personal Poetry Anthology
1. Email me your theme.
2. Bring typed copies of seven of the fifteen poems to class on ____________________
3. Bring a draft of one of your own poems to class on ____________________
4. Bring a draft of the introduction to class on ____________________
5. Completed project is due ___________________ (no extension letters will be accepted)
Theme: ___________________________________
For this assignment, you will prepare a poetry anthology. For our purposes, poetry will include song lyrics. The anthology will be unified by a common theme, and must consist of the following minimal requirements:
Criteria Title of Poem (Author of Poem)
1. A late sixteenth or seventeenth
century poem (Elizabethan,
Metaphysical, Cavalier)
2. A nineteenth century poem
(Romantic, Gothic, Victorian)
3. A twentieth century poem
(modern or post-modern)
4. A twenty-first century poem
(post-modern)
5. Lyrics to song
6. A sonnet (or poem written in
another traditional form: sestina,
terza rima, rondeau, villanelle, etc.)
7. A poem translated
from another language
8. A poem that you have written
containing an allusion
9. A poem that you have written
using a traditional or invented form
10. A poem that you have written
that is a strict, loose, or homophonic translation
11. A poem that you have written
in any form
12. Free choice
13. “ “
14. “ “
15. “ “

You must include
a. A title page with MLA information (See Compass page 58-59.)
b. A dedication and epigraph page
c. An introduction (300-500 words introducing the theme, briefly explaining the relationship between the poems and the theme, and reflecting upon the theme.)
d. A table of contents with titles and authors
e. A minimum of fifteen (15) separate poems/songs.
f. A Works Cited page, including discography (MLA format See Compass page 56-58)
You may include:
a. More of your own poems
b. Illustrations and/or photograph (Art taken from other sources much be cited)
c. More than one song lyric
d. A mixed-CD/mixed-tape with the song(s) and poems

Sonnet Responses

Read as many of Shakespeare's sonnets as you can stomach. Read 'em all if you can. I dare ya.

The Sonnets at Shakespeare Online
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Open Source Shakespeare

Write a say-play-imply, SOAPSTone + Theme, and/or TPCAST + Theme for three of the sonnets other than sonnet 130 by Friday (1/15) pumpkin time.

(If you're feeling inventive you cold -- for one of the responses -- write a modernized version of the sonnet in the manner of Harryette Mullen's "Dim Lady".)

Midyear Exam Literary Vocabulary

Post clear, thorough definitions & clear, appropriate examples (offer an explanation if necessary) by pumpkin time January 13.

Sonnets & Poetry (21)
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet, Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet, Iambic Pentameter, Meter, Iamb, Rhyme Scheme, Volta, Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Stanza, Octet, Sestet, Quatrain, Couplet, Enjambment, End rhyme, Full rhyme, Near/Off/Half/Slant Rhyme, Sonnet Sequence/Sonnet Cycle/Corona/Crown of Sonnets, Blank Verse

Other Types of Poems (5)
free verse, villanelle, sestina, terza rima, ballads

Other Poetic Techniques (3)
anaphora, epistrophe, inversion

Figurative Language (16)
figurative language, simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, apostrophe, conceit, hyperbole, pun, double entendre, rhetorical question (=erotema), oxymoron, paradox, synesthesia, denotation, connotation

Irony (4)
irony, verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony

Narration (5)
narration, first person narration, third person limited narration, third person omniscient narration, stream of consciousness

Writing Style (9)
style, voice, diction, syntax, tone, mood, dialect, colloquialism, vernacular

Character (13)
characterization, direct characterization, indirect characterization, dynamic character, static character, round character, flat character, foil, protagonist, antagonist, tragic hero, antihero

Plot & Events (10)
Plot, exposition, inciting action, rising action, climax, denouement (resolution), flashback, foreshadowing, internal conflict, external conflict,

Other Literary Terms from First Semester (4)
motif, symbol, epigraph, epiphany

Blog Blurbs

Write a blurb for Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Example Blurbs:

"Splendid art...a funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears." Wilfrid Sheed, Life

"Very tough and very funny...sad and delightful...very Vonnegut" New York Times

"Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer...a zany but moral mad scientist." Time

"Unique...one of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best." Doris Lessing, The New York Times Book Review

"Our finest black-humorist....We laugh in self-defense." The Atlantic Monthly

"A laughing prophet of doom." New York Times

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A good blurb captures the nature of the book and offers an opinion (implied or overt).

Some blurbs use figurative language (similes, analogies, metaphors).
Vonnegut is a "zany but moral mad scientist". Vonnegut "maps our landscapes for us." Reading Slaughterhouse-Five can feel like riding several rollercoaster at the same time.

Some blurbs use comparisons. "Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer." Slaughterhouse-Five makes one wonder what would happen if, first, one of Adam Sandler's absurdly incompetent characters took over Saving Private Ryan and then that story were put into a blender.

Some blurbs use paradox: "a funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears" "A laughing prophet of doom" "We laugh in self-defense"...

Some blurbs simply rely upon adjectives: "Very tough and very funny...sad and delightful..."

Have fun. Try more than one if you'd like.