A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: chapter four & five

Due by class time on Monday, November 15. (I want to use the responses in class so it's important that you post before class.)

In the comment box below you will post a response (or responses) in which you use close reading to discuss the significance of passages from chapters four and five.

To generate ideas about significance you might think about these questions in relation to the final two chapters:

How does Stephen struggle to figure out who he is in relation to his environment? What are the different aspects of who he is and of his environment that are part of this struggle? Think about family, religion, nationality. How is each significant?

How does the way the story is written -- third person stream of consciousness narration, epiphanies, allusions, images, motifs, style, syntax, diction -- contribute to how the reader experiences and understands Stephen's process of identity formation?

How is the struggle related to becoming an artist, particularly a language artist? How is the struggle? How is the struggle related to the Daedalus-Icarus myth?

*******

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man online.
Click here to find chapter one with some good notes.
& here you'll find chapter two.
The home page for the enotes version of the book is here. You can use it to click on any of the five chapters or on "Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight" which mentions a lot of the elements -- epiphany, stream of consciousness, Daedalus & Icarus -- that I mentioned last week.

Extending the Discussion: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

In the comment box below you will post a response to chapter one and chapter two of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

To generate ideas you might think about these questions in relation to the first two chapters:

How does Stephen struggle to figure out who he is in relation to his environment? What are the different aspects of who he is and of his environment that are part of this struggle? Think about family, religion, nationality?

How does the way the story is written -- third person stream of consciousness narration, epiphanies, allusions, images, motifs, syntax, diction -- contribute to how the reader experiences and understands Stephen's process of identity formation?

How is the struggle related to becoming an artist, particularly a language artist? How is the struggle? How is the struggle related to the Daedalus-Icarus myth?

*******

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man online.
Click here to find chapter one with some good notes.
& here you'll find chapter two.
The home page for the enotes version of the book is here. You can use it to click on any of the five chapters or on "Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight" which mentions a lot of the elements -- epiphany, stream of consciousness, Daedalus & Icarus -- that I mentioned last week.

Monday's Field Trip During E and F-blocks

I'm looking forward to the walk, film, and talk on Monday. Hope you are too.

Here's the email I sent to each of you earlier today:

I forgot to remind you that we'll be walking over to the Cape Ann Cinema on Main Street on Monday. Let's meet in the atrium at 10:45 and walk over once we have everyone. (Bring lunch or buy something in the caf and carry it. You can probably get something on Main Street too but I can't promise whether it'd be before or after the film.)

We'll return to the school in time for G-block which starts at 1:23.

If you have questions please use "reply all" so everyone gets the question and then I'll respond "reply all" too.

Have a great weekend. See you Monday at 10:45.
all the best,

James W. Cook
Gloucester High School

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Every week by Saturday morning...
* Read 100 to 150 pages.

* Write 300+ words a week in response to your reading.
* Respond analytically and personally to what you have read.
* Discuss the significance of at least one passage/quotation.
* Discuss the relationship between what you are reading and something(s) else you have read this year.
* Respond to a comment made by a peer (after the first week).

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Every week by Saturday morning...
* Read 100 to 150 pages.

* Write 300+ words a week in response to your reading.
* Respond analytically and personally to what you have read.
* Discuss the significance of at least one passage/quotation.
* Discuss the relationship between what you are reading and something(s) else you have read this year.
* Respond to a comment made by a peer (after the first week).

Post-AP English Lit: Final Project

In the comment box write your first name, last initial, and the option you are choosing.

Final Project: Option X: Modern & Postmodern Poetry Groups, Movements, Schools

1. Write a reflection on the experience of as many poems as you can – at least ten – by poets within the group / movement / school.

The edict of the modern and post-modern age in poetry comes from Ezra Pound: “Make it new!” Think about how the poems employ elements of poetry in inventive ways (new, strange, disorienting, surprising ways).

Think about the treatment of language: speaker’s voice, language style, diction, syntax, sound, stanza structure, line breaks, arrangement on the page. Think about the meaning and effect of the variations from traditional forms of poetry and tradition uses of language.

Think about the content: subject matter, imagery, figurative language, narration. Look for fragmentation and juxtaposition.

Post this reflection (with a list of the poems you have read and who wrote them) on your blog.

2. Write a careful, insightful explication of one of the poems. Post this on your blog. For explication help look here. Also, look at the directions above for ideas about what to explicate/explain/interpret/unfold. You're only doing one explication so it should show an imaginative, insightful grasp of the whole and of the particulars of the poem.

When explicating write about what the poem seems to say and how it says it. With modernist and post-modernist poetry the how (or form)--the speaker's voice, diction, syntax, tone, sound, line breaks, arrangement, etc.--is often as important or more important than the what (or content)--the speaker, the occasion, the subject, the plot or events, other people or characters in the poem.

Or to put it more succinctly, Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot) said that James Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist) isn't "writing about something. He is writing something."

3. Research the group / movement / school and write a reflection that demonstrates that you understand the group / movement / school, its relationship to the poems you’ve read, and to your own developing ideas about literature and language. {Notice the three parts to this: 1. show that you understand the group & what it was/is all about, it's significance, etc.; 2. show how the group's ideas, values, etc. has some relationship to the how (form) and what (content) of the poems you've read; 3. develop your own thoughts about the poems you've read and the group that created them, especially in terms of what you think literature should or could do, as well as what you get from & want from literature.} Include works cited.

4. Find a work of art other than a poem—painting, sculpture, musical composition, dance, film, etc.—that is somehow related to the group / movement / school. In some cases—surrealism, Dadaism, futurism for example—this will be easy because these movements occurred in the visual arts too. In other cases, you’ll have to be a bit more inventive. I can help with this. Ask me.

Write a response explicating the work of art and explaining how it relates to the poetry movement. (Notice there are two parts to this. 1. Provide a close reading of the work of art. For help explicating visual art check out step four at my friend's blog (Mr. Gallagher of Malden High School). 2. Show a relationship between the poetry you have read (& the group / movement / school of poetry) and the art-other-than-poetry. I will also provide some examples in class.

5. Create a work of art—poem, painting, short film, script, etc.—that relates in someway to the poems, other art, or movement / group / school. Write a paragraph explaining the connection between your creation and the work you have done. The art & paragraph should be on your blog. (If the art is visual and you don't know how to scan it or take a digital photograph let me know; I'll help.)

Final Project: Option Y: Fiction/Drama Groups, Movements, Schools

Same as Option X except replace poet/poem/poetry with playwright/play/drama or writer/novel (or novella)/fiction.

And for #1: instead of listing and reflecting upon ten poems, name and reflect upon one play or one novel/novella.

And for #2: instead of an explication of one poem, explicate a scene in the play or a substantial passage in the novel/novella.

Final Project: Option Pi: Track a Motif through Several Works

If you take this option you will create a blog devoted to the motif. (I will teach you how to create blogs next week.)

1. You will write an explication the use, effect, and meaning of the motif in at least three literary works. In a concluding section arrive at a bold, nuanced insight by comparing and contrasting the use of the motif in the three works. (1000+ words)

2. You will write a summary and critique of a work of literary criticism that deals with how the motif functions in at least one of work of literature that you have read. (300 words)

3. You will write a careful, insightful explication of how another work of art -- film, painting, sculpture, song, etc. -- makes use of the motif in a significant, relevant way. (As well as explicating the use of the motif within the single work, consider meaningful similarities and differences between its use in the non-literary work and its use in the literary works.) (300+ words).

4. You will create a work of art of your own that makes use of the motif. The work of art must be accompanied by a paragraph that discusses the use of the motif in the work you have created.

This option is new and I'm still fleshing it out a bit.

Final Project: Option i (imaginary number): Analyzing Several Works through a Critical Lens

If you take this option you will create a blog devoted to analyzing several works of art (literary and non-literary) using a particular critical lens (Marxist, Freudian, Feminist, Structuralist, Post-structuralist, Russian Formalist, etc.).

1. You will write a reflection upon researching the critical lens. Show that you understand the critical lens and its significance, etc. Show how the poet lens has some relationship to the how (form) and what (content) of the literature and art you know. Develop your own thoughts about the critical lens, especially in terms of how it might help or hinder the interpretation of literature and other art. (This reflection must be accompanied by at least three works cited.) 300+ words.

2. You will write a careful, insightful explication of three works of art (novel, play, poem, film, painting, sculpture, symphony, song, photography, etc.) using the critical lens. (At least one explication must be of a literary work.) 900+ words (or 300+ each).

3. You will create a work of art of your own that makes use of the critical lens. Write a paragraph explaining the connection between your creation and the work you have done. The art & paragraph should be on your blog.

This option is new and I'm still fleshing it out.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Every week by Saturday morning...
* Read 100 to 150 pages.

* Write 300+ words a week in response to your reading.
* Respond analytically and personally to what you have read.
* Discuss the significance of at least one passage/quotation.
* Discuss the relationship between what you are reading and something(s) else you have read this year.
* Respond to a comment made by a peer (after the first week).