Mimicking the Artist 2 (30pts): One

Due: Monday, June 8, 2009

One image, one word, one event, one setting, one phrase, one theme, one metaphor...

Pick one of the authors we've encountered over the second half of the term to imitate in your own story. Write an original piece in which you follow the lead of your author in using one image, event, metaphor, or phrase to center your story around. 

For instance, Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" centers around the title metaphor; Viramontes' "The Moths" uses the title image; John Updike centered his "A&P" around the title setting (the A&P grocery store); Kincaid uses the her title "Girl" to define gender roles of impoverished Caribbeans. Garcia Marquez gives us "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World." 

What will you give us? These authors' stories use these focal points to explore the lives of their characters, and the worlds they live in. What is your story, what kind of world does it exist in, and what kind of image will help shape that world? Rather than tell us directly, use your focal "one" to paint your story. Use sensory descriptions; pay attention to your mimicked author. How do they write? What language can you take from them and make your own?

Guidelines: 2 pages, single-spaced, and title your piece with a title that is going to grab your readers attention and get them into the story (The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World!)

Reader Response #4 (50pts): 6/1

Due: Monday, June 1st

Requirements: 1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12pt. font, Times New Roman

Prompt: 

Crafting Sentences

After reading Robert Penn Warren's "Blackberry Winter" (p. 783-798) and marking those sentences with vivid and/or stark images, musical cadences or some other linguistic feat that help shape a consistent writing style, go back and pick out those sentences that represent the author's writing style.

In other words, it is time to analyze the craft of a sentence-level. In your response discuss Penn Warren's use of language, what patterns one can find in his sentences, and how does that language shape the story?

With this prompt, try your best to really deconstruct and explain those 1-3 sentences of Penn Warren's that you will use to argue the story's writing style. Don't simply identify, for instance, what images come up in the story, but discuss why this image; what does image uncover in story's meaning; how is image used? 

Reading for Friday, May 29th:

Read Edwidge Danticat and Jamaica Kincaid for Friday, May 29th! 

This means we are skipping over Ellison and Wright! You may still include these two writers in your next Mimicking assignment, to be handed out at a later date.

Your final Reader Response (#4), will be handed out on Friday, and be due on Monday, as to give you a brief analytical writing break!

For Friday, 5/22 and Wednesday:

The class will not be meeting together, but you are required to do the following reading and writing assignments:

1) Read Yasunari Kawabata's "The White Horse" (p. 426) and Helena Maria Viramontes' "The Moths" and then respond with Reader Response #3

2) Reader Response # 3 (50pts):

Due: May, 27, 2009 (Wednesday)

Prompt:

Choose one of the stories and argue what the symbolic representation of the title's image means within the story. As always, provide some textual evidence that you explain to clarify your argument. 

Both stories are fairly short, so you really have a chance in this response to discuss the symbolic meaning of either story.

Requirements: 1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman, Cite page numbers in appropriate places

3) Bonus:

The Art Institute of Chicago has free admission until the end of this Friday, May 22nd to celebrate the opening of the Modern Wing of the museum. The new wing includes a special exhibit of painter Cy Twombly's work, as well as art work from the last 100 years.

This is the perfect time, since we are discussing Symbol and the museum is free, and we don't have class on Friday, for you to visit the museum and check out the new wing.

If you would like some bonus points, do the following Bonus Art Response (due Wednesday, too):

Choose any piece of art within the museum that inspires you; a piece that's symbolic gesture you feel you have some understanding of and could argue in a reader response.

Describe the piece of art, provide contextual information (artist, title, year painted), and then argue What the piece symbolically states, and how it does so. 

You do not need to provide every minute detail, but focus on detailing the main images so that your audience can see the piece.

Guidelines: 1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman

In-class prompt (35 – 40 minutes):

Both “The Lady with the Dog” and “An Adventure in Paris” involves adultery that takes place (or starts) in a city outside the main character’s hometown. Choose one of the stories to focus on answer “Using evidence from the text, why does the character have an affair within the story, and what role does the visiting city play in their reasons? Be specific, and also explain how the mental state of the character changes by the story’s end.”

-       Have a clear thesis statement that answers the two questions of prompt

-       Use at least 4 quotes from different parts of story

o   Do not just quote, but properly cite page number

o   Also, after quotations, re-state in your own words, with analysis, the significance of the quoted material in answering your thesis

-       Allow for two to three main points (topic sentences) based off of your thesis statement…

-       Take all of the time given, as this will be graded. Also, this is a good practice for other analytical essays!

Reading for Monday, 5/18 and RR#2 announcement

For Monday, 5/18: Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

On Monday you will be assigned Reader Response #2, which will ask you for a response to a question on symbolism in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried." 

Reader Response #3 will be assigned shortly after, so that we are getting a good amount of critical writing done for the improvement of our analytical eyes!

In-class Writing Practice

1. Come up with some themes in the writing in which you discuss how setting plays a role in "Shiloh." Think not only of the final setting, but ALL of the settings within the story...

- Also think back to last class' questions on setting for help/

- We will write list on board:  ...

2. Come up with some questions that ask something about the themes as they pertain to story and, perhaps, the characters, the plot, or another literary element in text.

3. Pull out some relevant quotes from the story…

4. Make some claims that from the thematic questions created in class… and then use quotations as support…

- When you write an essay, I always keep in mind:

1. What my thesis is, and 

2. What is the thesis of this individual paragraph!

o I look at each paragraph as a small essay!!! One paragraph=one idea

Theme Week: dissecting a story for theme

Bharati Mukherjee – “The Management of Grief”

Discussion Questions to bring out thematic analysis:

1. How does the title indicate what the story may be thematically about? How do we see the title being played out within the story on a general level?  

Some bulleted answers, to get the ball rolling...

- Story is about how one handles their grief
- There are multiple ways in which people handle their grief
- Allows you to focus on the idea of “managing” grief and what that means!

2. Summarize the major event in the story, who was all affected and how does our main character, Shaila, seem to be dealing? Then compare and contrast the different ways characters react.

3. Going back to plot, what is happening in the first scene of the story, and why might Mukherjee start the story with this scene? What details help us in those first introduction paragraphs allow us to understand Shaila’s mindset?

4. Discuss the differences and similarities amongst how Shaila, Kusum and Dr. Sharma

5. Describe the different cultural reactions that are taking place in the story. What is a thematic significance of these differences?

6. For above, how do the Irish treat the victims? How do the Canadians? Dissect some of the different parts where we see the interaction of two cultures, and how does that help us understand the story’s themes more clearly?

7. How does Shaila change by the stories end, and what causes her change? Explain how that affects how we read the title of the story – the thematic importance of the title?

8. If we haven’t, dissect some of the language used.

9. What about the scene where Shaila is helping out and reflects on her Indian culture?

10. What else do we need to discuss? What did we miss?