Oral Timed "Writes" work like this...

A page number will be announced and 5 minutes provided to read the poem and, if desired, take written notes. I will select poems of medium difficulty. Nothing too wierd or cryptic.

Volunteers may go first. If there are no volunteers, names will be drawn. When it is your turn, you will stand beside your desk and speak loudly and clearly enough for everyone in the room to hear and comprehend. You are not required to make eye contact with anyone however. No one may talk to you or prod you as you speak. We will stay on the same poem until 2-4 students have analyzed it and I deem it "exhausted" of new commentary.

You will first give a 3-sentence intro paragraph, exactly like the fill-in-the-blank version we practiced with last week. Then you will proceed into one body paragraph using 8 sentences (TS, CD, CM, CM, CD, CM, CM, CS). That's it.

You may speak slowly and look at your notes. You may backtrack a little bit, within the sentence you are speaking, but extensive backtracking or too much hesitation will cost you a point.

You will be graded on the basics: understanding of the poem, ID of tone, use of terms, selection of CDs, quality of CMs, use of the organizational format. You could also lose a point for overly vague or fake commentary... you know what I mean! One easy point will be offered for a smiling disposition :)

Each student must go once. If there is time left on Tuesday or perhaps Friday, persons who feel dissatisfied with their performance may take a second shot.

A Short Short-Story Unit

We will be finishing up our literary time line with a quick foray into short stories (and then on to poetry for the month of April, leading into the Exam). The purpose of the unit is to solidify your understanding of literary developments from "traditional Western" to Modernist.

1. Look back at TOTC as a traditional work: Truth is out there, we can find it, let's learn from our mistakes, use stories as a way of resolving chaos... Story is linear... Good triumphs over evil... What other works from the 20th century and even now continue to be "traditional?"

2. Look at the period of transition: romanticism, revolutions, Darwin, socialism/communism, Industrial Revolution, World War, Depression, loss of American Dream... Think about C&P's place in this.

3. Look at a couple of Modernist short stories: The Yellow Wallpaper, p. 316-26. Second selection T.B.A.

4. Look at some Modernist art and study the overlap.

5. Take a time line test!!! Will refer to Oedipus through R&GAD.

Research Paper

Topic: A Tale of Two Cities through a critical lens of your choice: archetypal, biographical/historical, new historical, psychological/Freudian, feminist, Marxist, or deconstructive.

Purpose: To do some work with "BL" instead of "VISI" and to ensure that you can handle writing a research paper independently

Specifications:
1) 4-5 pages, a typical college freshman paper length
2) MLA format
3) 5 scholarly sources (nothing ending in "pedia") including at least one print source. Notecard system is up to you along with full responsibility for accurate quotation and citation -- I will not check notecards.
4) Due on-line March 18th by midnight with additional deadlines as listed below
5) Scored out of 30 points -- see rubric below

Research Phases/Deadlines (updated)
(Please email to ckirk@seattlechristian.org)

> Reading, Book 2, Monday 3/2

> Reading, Book 3 (end), Thursday 3/5

> Working Thesis, Monday 3/9 -- Consult broad sources in order to create a working thesis suitable to direct continued research. Email thesis for approval. Approval overnight.

> Verify Sources, Friday 3/13 -- Consult narrowed sources in order to complete research. Email list of 5 sources with brief justification of each source's validity. Approval over weekend.

> Paper Due, Wednesday 3/18 -- Synthesis and organization of sources up to you unless you request a conference. Quotation and citation format will be reviewed in class Monday. Email completed essay as an attachment by midnight.

Grading Rubric
10 points for content/analysis
10 points for composition skills: organization, fluency, diction...
10 points for quotation/citation format (MLA)
+Up to 5 penalty points for basic skills editing errors; one "free" error

Resources I found for you...
1) description of schools of criticism, some with sample essays
2) a quiz on critical perspectives

A note on historical criticism:
The difference between traditional historical crit and "new" historical crit can be difficult to grasp. Here's how I understand it -- In the traditional vein, you look at the work from within the historical/biographical point of view, almost as if the literary work is a type of history textbook from which you can reconstruct historical reality. New historical crit is said to be more ideological than the traditional version, and it is based on the fact that historical "reality" is impossible to reconstruct. The new historical critic looks backwards with a more postmodern, liberal-leaning judgment of the work's historical culture. A new historical critic might analyze the historical aspects of a work in order to understand a much broader treatment of cultural issues. Example: A traditional historical critic might read Hamlet as a conflict between Catholic and Protestant worldviews, delving into the Wittenburg and Reformation context of Shakespeare's audience. A new historical critic would put that conflict in the context of how human grapple with worldview in general, even noticing naturalist and postmodern worldview conflicts lurking about in Hamlet's psyche. Hope that helps.

Blog Assignments

I discovered this article in my Christianity Today email, and I thought it would be an appropriate and timely read for our class. Consider this your first blog assignment of the new semester. Read and comment.

Inauguration Blog assignment date: Monday 1/26. Due date: Friday 1/30.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/januaryweb-only/103-56.0.html

Regarding R&G blogs, here's the plan: Please blog at the end of each act, after the class discussion is concluded. Your comments should be personal and literary, making connections between your world and the world of the play. The style is informal. Lindsey, write straight to the computer! :)

R&G Act I Blog assignment date: Wed 1/28. Due date: Friday 1/30.

Oh How I Love Terms, Part III - Challenge Terms!

These "challenge" terms represent potential test items for the A.P. Exam. They are largely figurative and syntactical terms, and they will appear in individual sentences/phrases.

TERMS TO BE POSTED ASAP!!!

Oh How I Love Terms, Part II - Storytelling

These terms relate to the structure of storytelling and the sub-genres of narrative:

Random terms, alphabetically:
allegory
anecdote
antagonist
aside
black humor / dark comedy
catharsis
characterization
chorus
comedy (vs. comic) (high vs. low)
epic
epiphany
epithet
fable
fantasy
farce - has broad comic situations
flashback
flat / round character
foil
foreshadowing
frame device
genre
hamartia
hero / monomyth
hubris
humor (vs. wit)
joke (vs. gag)
legend
limited / omniscient
motivation
myth
narrative, narrator
parable
parody
plot
point of view
romantic
satire
scene
setting
slapstick
soliloquy
stereotype
stock character
Theatre of the Absurd
theme
tragedy, tragic hero
trilogy


Classic structural terms, particularly for tragedy and comedy:
prologue
exposition
rising action
climax, turning point
falling action
denouement
resolution
catastrophe
peripetia
anagnorisis
parode
agon (act 1)
episode (act 2)
exode
*Conceptually, you should be able to compare and contrast these two original classic storytelling forms on points of religiosity, scope of conflict, types of heroes, type of ending, and determinism/improbability

"Rhetoric of Humor"
establishment of superiority
incongruity / irony
hyperbole / caricature
puns / repartee
repetition / rhythm
slapstick / noises off
violating taboos

Snow Day Update!

1) Christmas in Denmark to be held the first day back in January.

2) Bonus points will go to those who did MC items (Passages 9 and 12) for homework as assigned Monday night. All others, no credit for or against you.

3) Please do the remaining MC items on your own and check your answers on your own time when school resumes - I'll copy the answers and explanations and make them available. Then submit your score to me for credit. Points TBA.

4) Terms cards due the 2nd day class resumes in January. Please make it a New Year's card instead of Christmas!

5) Don't forget the blog assigned last Friday - Trace Hamlet's philosophical / spiritual development from the beginning of the play to the end, quoting him as you go.

6) MOR not due till Feb. 1, but keep in mind that we'll be reading R&G Are Dead in January, so you might want to get your independent reading out of the way.

7) I had intended to return your most recent timed writes before break, but... snow! Your writing abilities are looking pretty good, but many of you forgot that in order to make a case for TONE, you must analyze those "voice indicators" -- diction, detail, imagery, language (and syntax, which we'll study in February). Many of you simply explained the meaning of the text, without analyzing the words in the text. We will do another timed write the first week back.

8) Over the holidays extra credit: View a secular Christmas movie and write a paper analyzing its worldview. 1st paragraph - intro/summary. 2nd para - power in the universe and nature of man. 3rd para - conflict and hope. 4th para - values and reality. 5th para - conclude as to film's worldview. As you conclude you may use words/phrases such as Judeo-Christian, traditional, compatible with Christian values, humanist, etc. Remember that "humanist" is not necessarily exclusive of God, but "secular humanist" is atheist. I can't think of a truly postmodern Christmas film, but if you can find one, I'd be interested! We haven't studied postmodernism much, but indicators of postmodern literature include metafiction, questionable nature of reality, relativity of values, meaninglessness of language, and the individual struggling for meaning in a technological world. Good luck! I hope some of you will take me up on this! Leave comments if you have questions and I will check back periodically to offer replies.