This week, you'll be reading a couple more short stories (the last readings of the semester!) that will hopefully help you map out the plot of your own short story. Next Wednesday the 29th, you'll turn in your prewriting for your stories. Each of your assignments will include three parts: a blow-by-blow of the events of your story, a decision on how you will structure your story, and another decision on tense and POV. Let's look at each of these. Some Thoughts on Plotting + Example from "Mariner's Revenge"You'll turn in your plots as a simple bullet point list of stuff that happens in chronological order. Simple, and yet also very challenging. Here's an example of how I would ask the Decemberists to plot the events of their song "Mariner's Revenge."
Story Structure I want you to consciously decide how you will structure your story. We've talked about two types: chronological structure and in media res. Chronological structure follows time. Your scenes move forward through time just like we do, moment after moment after moment. In media res starts in the middle of the action, and it can create interesting suspense and questions in the reader's mind. For example, "Mariner's Revenge" starts in media res. Instead of the first verse talking about the main character as an 18 year old, we start in the belly of the whale. This plants a question for the reader: "How the heck did these two guys end up inside a whale?" You can use whichever structure serves your story the best, but I want you to be ready to explain how the structure affects your narrative. POVOk, let's think about point of view. You will need to select one for your story. Let's look at some of the POV's from the stories we've read over the course of the semester:
Welcome to the first week of the last unit of the semester! This Unit, we'll be focusing on plot by looking at some songs and some Southern Gothic short stories and then by writing our own. Let's get right into it. Plotting Our StoriesThe time has finally come for us to start working on our own stories. We've been building towards it all semester. I, for one, am excited! We're all going to be writing stories! So let's talk about what a story is. There are lots of ways to visualize story. My two favorite ones are the Hero's Journey and Freytag's Pyramid. They are classics for a reason. For our purposes, we are going to take it down even smaller. At the most basic level, a story has three parts. These three parts are:
In order to have a story, there must be change. The change doesn't have to be big. It can be big—some of us are writing stories with very epic conflict. But it doesn't have to be big. Once again, we're going to look to the music world to help us wrap our minds around story: "The General" by Dispatch "The Mariner's Revenge" by The Decemberists "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry This time, we are going to plot*, but also the other elements of story, like character, setting, and conflict. At the moment above of the *, it occurred to me that I'm taking for granted that we all know the difference between the three words narrative, story, and plot. I should probably clear this up. For this unit, I'll basically be using the words story and narrative interchangeably. There is a bit of a difference, I think. In common use, the word "narrative" is more often used to talk about a nonfiction story that has been shaped from real events (think "personal narrative). Story has the connotation of being completely invented. But like I said, for our purposes, these will mean the same thing. Plot is difference though. Plot is just the dimension of the story of where stuff happens. The action. Stories usually contain more than just action. So there's a bit of a difference between these two words. Plotting out a story and writing a story are two different things. A Parting Thought on Our Research PapersWe finished the final drafts of our last research paper (yay!). Before we move on completely, I just want to mention one thing I noticed that maybe you can take away to the next research paper you meet in your college career. So, just one final note on quote integration. (You can revisit my little dissertation on synthesis and quote integration here.) It's a good rule of thumb to never quote another person's words without framing them. On a very practical craft level, that means your sentences always, always, always need to start with your own words. You have to give your reader an entryway into the words of someone else. At the very least, the reader at least needs to know who is speaking. But a skillful writer will sometimes go beyond just the bare bones introduction of a quote to actually frame the ideas of the quote in the way that very clearly supports the essay writer's argument. Let me give you an example of what I mean: When determining what is considered a crime against humanity, the perpetrator must acknowledge their “attack against the civilian population and that his/her action is part of that attack” (United Nations). This is a sophisticated introduction to a quote. It's ok if you don't feel like you can blend your thoughts with the words of your source to this extent, but, like I said, every sentence in your essay should start with your own words. And your words should outnumber your sources' words in every single paragraph of your essay. Welcome to Gothic. Southern Gothic.Based on our interest in horror, I thought we'd close out our year focusing on one of my favorite genres that just happens to have a lot in common with horror: Southern Gothic. And we're going to kick it off with my boy William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." It's dark, with a side of crazy, just like you like your stories. Come to class on Wednesday ready to talk about the plot.
Surprisingly, Southern Gothic has become relevant again as an aesthetic. Here's a short video from one of my favorite pop culture publications Polyester Zine about what Southern Gothic means today on TikTok and Pinterest. This is the essay it references: "Daughters of Cain, Sharp Objects & How the Recession Gave Rise to the Southern Gothic." As a literary genre, Southern Gothic is firmly rooted in place, namely, the "deep south." This also happens to be the place where I was rooted. I grew up in Mississippi, an hour and a half north of William Faulkner's home. Basically, I saved the best for last ;) Yeah, so, we were eclipsed. Like an hour and a half ago, based on the time of the writing. I've seen two partial eclipses—the one last October and the one in 2017—and they have all been really powerful. When the temperature drops, that's the creepiest thing for me. And the quality of the light. And this time, of course, seeing the ring of fire. Anyways, I hope you were able to experience it yourselves. This Eclipse Monday marks the last of the missed school days for Unit 3. From here on out, according to my calculations, we should be actually having all the remainder of our scheduled classes together. This week is also the last week of Unit 3. Wednesday, you will be turning in your Conflict Creation for your creative project you've been piecing together all semester. And on Saturday, the final draft of your Self-Directed Research Essays are due. In class on Wednesday, I'm hoping to do a thesis workshop and get in some quality drafting time for everyone to get a head start on their final drafts. So, this post will focus on:
Conflict CreationTime to start some trouble. In your stories. When we first started talking about conflict, I told you that some kind of internal conflict is present in all good literature. As you think about your own stories, I want you to have both internal and external conflict represented. So you will need to choose an internal struggle for your main character to grapple with. And you will need to choose one (or more) forms of external conflict to strike against your main character in some kind of a way. For your Conflict Creation assignment, you will choose three of the following questions to answer. Pick three that you think match the character and setting of the short story you've built so far. Ok, here's the list: 1. What does your protagonist want more than anything, and what or who is stopping them from getting it? Conflict often arises from a character’s desires clashing with obstacles. Is your character in love with someone who doesn't love them back? Do they want money, status, or a career that they don't have? Do they experience jealousy? This prompt can help you figure out both internal conflict (what the character wants) and external (what part of their world is standing in their way.) 2. What are your characters' greatest fears, and how can these fears manifest as external obstacles or internal struggles? During your short story presentations, I couldn't help but notice that horror is a popular genre for us. Fear is a vital component of horror. Fear can be a very interesting way to explore both internal and external conflict. Is your character afraid of another person? Of humiliation? Of themselves? Is your main character a villain? 3. Is there a secret someone is keeping? How would the story change if this secret were revealed? Secrets can drive conflict both internally for characters and externally in their relationships. 4. Can you introduce a character with opposing goals to your protagonist? Maybe you want to really lean into Character vs. Character for your external conflict. That means you're going to need an antagonist as well. Think about how the interactions between these two characters could escalate tensions. 5. What societal or environmental pressures could complicate your characters' lives? Consider how larger forces might influence or exacerbate personal conflicts. 6. How might your characters' flaws or weaknesses lead them into conflict? Sometimes it can be easy to forget to give our characters weaknesses. But this is a really good place to go mining for some quality internal conflict. Personal growth often comes from facing and overcoming aspects of ourselves. 7. Is there a moral or ethical dilemma that could put your characters at odds with themselves or others? Dilemmas with no clear right or wrong answer can create compelling internal conflict. And if your character ends up on a different side of the dilemma from the rest of their community, it can be a good way to generate some external conflict, too. Revisiting the Ladder of Abstraction: Diction EditionI've been noticing something in our essays that I want to explicitly teach a little minilesson on. It all goes back to that Ladder of Abstraction that we talked about at the beginning of the semester. I encourage you to go back and reread that post, because I'm going to be applying that principle to the diction of our essays. Diction means "word choice." And I've noticed that in many of our essays, a word that tends to get chosen a lot is the word "people." As in: "People [do this thing/believe this thing/are wrong about this thing]." I'm open to hearing alternative opinions, but I can't think of a time when "people" used like this is appropriate for a academic essay. Usually, sentences that start with the word "people" are so abstract they are basically meaningless. Another thing also happens when the word "people" is being used as a subject of a sentence in an academic essay—the author of that essay has seriously compromised their credibility. A generalization made with the word "people" is basically saying that this particular thing is true for all human beings who have died, who are alive now, and who will be born. The human race is very diverse. Generalizations like this have the effect of stripping humanity of its diversity. Whatever trust the author has built with the reader becomes compromised. I'm going to challenge all of you to write your second drafts without the word "people." Instead, replace this noun with a more concrete noun, closer to the bottom of the ladder, so to speak. Let's see what you guys come up with. Rubric for our Second DraftsThe rubric for your second drafts will assess the four skills from your first draft:
In our conferences on Wednesday, we'll focus on these skills. If any of you got binged on one of these areas on our first drafts, you will have an opportunity to revise and strengthen this aspect of your essay. I hope everyone had a good Easter :) I'm really looking forward to our presentations on Wednesday! We've got a lot of really good short stories queued up. You guys can really pick 'em. Ok, let's get down to it. In this blog post, I will cover:
Short Story PresentationsThe purpose of these presentations is to introduce us all to your stories. You will not be giving away the whole premise or spoiling the plot. Think of your presentation like a movie trailer. You are trying to get us interested in your story. In class last Monday, y'all assured me that you were well acquainted with Google Slides. However, if you find yourself needing a refresh, this YouTube video covers all the basic tasks you will need to be able to do. Your presentation will have five slides. Slide #1: Title Page Content of the slide:
What you will say:
Other Guidelines and Considerations:
Slide #2: Image/Images Content of the slide:
What you will say:
Other Guidelines and Considerations:
Slide #3: A Quote from the Story Content of the slide:
What you will say:
Other Guidelines and Considerations:
Slide #4: Why You Think this Story Matters Content of the slide:
What you will say:
Other Guidelines and Considerations:
Slide #5: Tailored Recommendation Content of the slide:
What you will say:
Other Guidelines and Considerations:
Rubric for the first drafts of your Self-Directed Inquiry EssaysWe should have more time to talk about this on Wednesday. Your first drafts need to be at least 500 words long. The skills I'm assessing in the first drafts of these essays are:
Hi everyone! This week is like last week and the next two weeks in that we are only going to meet once (!). This week's blog post will focus on logistics a little more than usual:
On Monday, March 25thThis week, we will be reading the third short story for Unit 3 and transitioning into the composition of our research essay. This short story is different than any other short story that we've looked at so far because you get to choose what you read! If you don't know where to start, this list can help point you in the right direction. Also, your high school library that we walk through everyday to get to class has lots of short story offerings available on the shelves. I'll also be bringing a few physical anthologies that you can page through to get some ideas, the same anthologies I often consult when I'm designing a class. And next Wednesday, April 3, you'll be telling the class about your short story. By the end of class on Monday, you need to have accomplished two very important things:
You will be submitting both of these things to me on a Google Form. Your research question can (and maybe even should) change and adapt and become sharper and more specific as you learn more. But when you decide on your short story, you are committed to it. So choosing your short story and writing your research question is your Monday classwork. Your homework (due on Tuesday) is to read your chosen short story and do the Dialectical Journal and Analytic Paragraph assignment. On Wednesday, March 27thOn Wednesday, I'll be far away on the north side of Austin with all the other ACC professors learning whatever it is that people learn at Data Summits. You will be on your own writing your Annotated Bibliography and Outline for your research paper. The good news is that this isn't your first rodeo. To be exact, when it comes to outlining, it's your third rodeo. And when it comes to Annotated Bibliographies, it's your second. If you would like to review the process, format, and examples for writing an annotated bibliography, you'll find it here. If you would like to review the post on outlines, you'll find it here. If you would like to review my notes on incorporating research sources into an outline, you'll find them here. ***IMPORTANT NOTES***
On Wednesday, April 3The first part of class will be your short story presentations! This week, just work on reading and experiencing your selected short stories. Even though we don't have class on Monday, I will still publish a blog post Monday morning that gives specific requirements for the slides that will accompany your presentations. You'll turn in the link to your presentations on Blackboard by next Tuesday, and I'll put them up on the screen, and you'll just explain them to us. It will be very casual—you won't even have to stand up. So no stressing allowed :)
Bottom line: you will be responsible for reading next week's blogpost on your own and executing the instructions. If you have any questions or problems, please email me. Welcome back, guys! I hope everyone had exactly the kind of spring break they hoped for, filled with adventure, fun, rest, or a combination of all three. Now we're back at it, at the exact halfway point in our curriculum. For us, a little time I like to call the time of conflict. Because that's where our literary focus will be. This blog post covers:
Thoughts on the Unit 2 Research Paper Final DraftsThe first thing we'll do in class on Monday is devote a few minutes for you to read and digest the feedback on your research papers. As in all writing, I encourage you to look back and think about what you did. If you decide you would like to revise once again, do it! Come see me during my Monday/Wednesday office hours during Huddle Time in the College Center, and we'll talk about your goals for revision and ways to accomplish them. One of the things we aimed to learn on this paper were the particulars of the research paper genre. For college students across disciplines, the research paper is the paper that will follow you into every class and possibly make up part of every grade in your ultimate GPA as it did for me. Even my math instructor had us do independent research. ACC asks that we rehearse and improve our research skills in Comp 1 and Comp 2. Our third (and in some ways last) essay will once again be a research essay. In other words, I really, really encourage to learn everything you can from your writing and my feedback, especially as it applies to research. Because we are immediately going to exercise that knowledge again, right now. An Overview of Unit 3: ConflictAs we read our literature in these next couple of weeks, you have an extra quest. In addition to locating quotes, taking them through the ladder of abstraction on your dialectical journals, and writing analytical paragraphs, you will be practicing asking questions. Then for Week 3, you adopt on of these questions as your research question. In other words, you are 100% directing your own research this time around. I'm especially excited about our short stories this Unit. Since we are looking at conflict, they are both properly crazy pants stories: "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman Perkins. Then, you will each choose your own third short story to read, analyze, and share with the class via a short presentation. The Importance of the QuestionI'm pretty sure at some point, all the science in the world began as a question. Curiosity has always been a major driver of knowledge. For this next paper, you have complete control over your question. The only requirement from my end is that it stem from one of our short stories from the Unit, either one of the two that I chose, or the one that you selected. Once you've thought of your question, the question will direct your research. As you learn more, your question changes. It becomes more specific, more concrete. Then, at some magical point, you are able to answer your question. The answer to your question becomes your thesis. Here's a menu of questions to get you started off. These questions are optional, here to help you get the wheels turning. If one of them really speaks to you, feel free to apply to one of our stories and adopt it as your own.
Quick Musical Conflict PrimerDepending on who you ask, there are up to seven (at least) formal types of conflict. For our purposes, I want to focus on the most interesting and common sources of conflict, which also happen to connect to the literary elements we've studied so far: three about people and one about setting.
This conflict occurs within the character's mind. It often involves the character grappling with their own beliefs, choices, desires, or fears. In my opinion, all valuable literature contains an element of internal conflict. "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. Music Video Lyrics
This type involves conflict between two characters, often stemming from opposing desires, beliefs, or actions. "The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy and Monica Lyrics
Here, the character is in conflict with societal norms, laws, or expectations. This can involve fighting against social injustice, challenging cultural norms, or resisting oppressive systems. "I'm Just a Girl" by No Doubt Lyrics
This conflict pits the character against natural forces, highlighting the struggle for survival or the impact of the environment on human activities. "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" by Travis Lyrics *Note: Other, less widely applicable types of conflict are Person vs. Technology, Person vs. Supernatural, and Person vs. Fate Hi guys! Only ONE MORE WEEK before spring break! Also it's the last week of our setting unit, and it marks the exact halfway point of our semester. Once you turn in your final draft of the essay, you will officially be fifty percent of the way done with your Composition 2 course! Exciting stuff. In this blog post, I will cover:
Debriefing the First Drafts of the Setting and Context Research EssaysDebriefing is when I give general feedback to you guys. I wanted to start the week off pinpointing a few specific struggles that I saw more than once in our first drafts. These are things I want all of us to keep in mind as we develop our second drafts. So here we go:
Setting CreationThis week, we get to add to my other favorite thing to grade and teach—the creative piece of the class. Remember how the last week of Unit 1 you developed a main character? You gave them a name, a family, a job, and a place to live. Now we're really going to think about that place a little harder. These are the questions you'll be addressing in your Blackboard assignment. I recommend going back and rereading your Character Notes that you submitted and going from there. Remember, it is absolutely 100 percent okay to change up your setting.
Setting and Cultural Context Essay Final Draft RubricI will be assessing these elements that I looked at in your first drafts:
And I will also be assessing for:
Unit 2 PoetryWhen I'm designing our Units, I think of them visually. Kind of like an outline for a paper, I guess. If you really spend some time gazing intently at the calendar section of our syllabus, you will notice there is a kind of order to things, and the order is this:
Within those four weeks, each Unit is divided like so:
Everybody's brain is different, but I, personally, derive probably too much satisfaction from the symmetry of it all. Anyways, I want to give a little blog space to the poems from this Unit that we've looked at in class. They can also be found in the Readings folder in Blackboard (same goes for the Unit 1 poems we looked at). Just in case you ever desperately need to revisit one. We talked about how the very specific setting of the poem, a field of daffodils in the Lake District of England, helped the speaker of the poem redefine was solitude meant for him and awakened beauty in the still moments of his life long after he was no longer physically in the daffodil field. Then we talked just a little about Romanticism as a artistic and literary movement, and how one of its tenants was the celebration of beauty in nature. We looked at the lyrics of this song, noticed how they also seemed to celebrate nature, and picked up on a tone of nostalgia, wistfulness, also solitude, even sorrow. We checked out the explicit shout out to Wordsworth himself. Then we considered the cultural context and discussed how knowing that the song was written in the summer of 2020 when COVID lockdowns were in full swing changed or deepened or altered the meaning of the lyrics. These are the same skills you are focusing on in your papers, but at a bigger scale. This week we are going to look at a British ex-pat living in France. We are going to visit another cafe (just now realizing I definitely have a thing for European cafes and it shows). But instead of being presented as a haven, like in Hemingway's "Clean Well-Lighted Place," this cafe is basically a horror show. Where could this gruesomeness come from I wonder? How would it have been perceived differently by the original readers in 1914? (spoiler alert: war. again.) Nobody in this world is going to convince me that "Hotel California" isn't a 1970's glamor gothic reimagining of Stoker's "Dracula" and also Milton's "Paradise Lost," but I sure wish someone would try. Since that doesn't seem very likely, I'm going to tell you guys all about it, and we'll look especially at how the setting transforms the speaker. Songs are poems, turns out. Hi guys! This week we'll be organizing and gearing up to draft our research papers. This week, I want to talk about:
Quote IntegrationGuys, take a good, hard look at the 2 images above. What changes between the first and second photograph? I'll tell you: the pine branch in taken apart so that we can see all the separate pieces individually. There's a word for this process: analysis. To analyze is to take something apart and look at the separate elements in order to understand it. In this class, we are in the business of analyzing literature. We do it every day. There's also a word for the process of taking these separate things and putting them together to make a whole. The word for this, for going from pine needles and sticks to a complete branch, for taking little things and making a whole, is synthesis. For our research paper, you will be synthesizing information from your three sources and your chosen short story to make one, whole, cohesive essay. On a practical craft level, you will be synthesizing the words, facts, and ideas from your sources with your ideas by integrating your quotes into your paper. Here are some general guidelines to help you do this as effectively as possible. 1. Choose Relevant Quotes
2. Introduce the Quote
3. Integrate the Quote into Your Sentence Structure
4. Use Signal Phrases
5. Quote Only as Much as Necessary
6. Comment on the Quote
7. Use Proper Punctuation and Formatting
8. Balance Quotes with Your Own Voice
Remember, quotes are a powerful tool in academic writing but should be used strategically and sparingly. Overuse of quotes can overshadow your own voice and ideas, while the effective integration of quotes can strengthen your arguments and add credibility to your paper. If you want to see some of these principles in action, and get a few extra punctuation strategies, I recommend checking out this video: Outline and Thesis NotesEverything I wrote about in my last post on outlines is still valid and relevant, including the blueprint. There is really only one major change: For your outline, I want you to include all the relevant quotes you've culled from the short story as well as your three sources. So all four of these documents need to represented on your outline. We already know that our thesis is the most important structural component of our essays. Everything in the essay must connect back to the thesis in some kind of way. On Monday, we'll have another thesis development workshop. Our goal will be that everyone walks out of class with a thesis strong enough to build an essay around. As you start crafting your thesis, it might help to consider one or two of the following questions:
First Draft Rubric and GuidelinesThe first draft of your essay should be between 500-1,000 words. It's possible that you might find it easier in the case of the research paper to write a longer first draft. If that's the case for you, bring it on. I will be assessing the following elements for your first drafts:
And just like that, it's time to start thinking about our essays for Unit 2. The first draft of your cultural context essays are due until next week, but this Saturday you will turn in your Annotated Bibliographies. In this post I cover:
A (Very) Few Words About the Cultural Context for "Jury of Her Peers"Perhaps you would like to write about Susan Glaspell and women's suffrage. We'll talk more about this story in class, but if do decide to look into this setting, here's a link to a video with background information to get you started. Annotated Bibliography GuidelinesConscientiously done, an good annotated bibliography can make for very easy essay drafting. Personally, I find this to be the most time-intensive step of the essay. For me, drafting a research essay comes easier than drafting an analytical essay because I've already assembled my material. This material assembling is what the Annotated Bibliography is all about. Just so you know, we will be writing one other research essay this semester. So it behooves us all to really attempt to get our heads around these research skills because we will be doing them all over again soon. Writing an annotated bibliography involves several steps. Each annotation typically consists of a citation followed by a brief paragraph that describes and sometimes evaluates the source. Here's a step-by-step guide: Step 1: Choose Your Sources Begin by selecting the sources that you will annotate in your bibliography. These should be sources that provide valuable information related to your topic or research question. You will need to have three sources for your essay in addition to the short story. That means your Annotated Bibliography will include three entries. Please reference the Research Folder in Blackboard. I have arranged databases and websites in descending order of usefulness. National Geographic is the first entry. I would be delighted if every student had at least one source from National Geographic. Step 2: Review Your Sources Read and evaluate your sources to understand their content, arguments, and relevance to your topic. Take notes as you go, especially on aspects that you want to highlight in your annotation. Just like with our dialectical journals, if you see any promising quotes, bookmark them somehow. This will make the next steps of your research paper (outline, 1st draft, final draft) way easier. Step 3: Cite the Source Start each entry with a full bibliographic citation in the appropriate style. For our purposes, this means MLA. Here is a link to the Purdue style guide we've been referencing. Also very helpful is a website like MyBib that saves and formats your sources for free. Step 4: Summarize the Source Write a concise summary of the main argument or purpose of the work. Include the main points, topics, and any conclusions drawn by the author. Aim for a neutral and objective tone. Each of your three annotations should be 100-200 words long. Step 5: Reflect on the Source's Relevance and Use Reflect on how the source fits into your research. You need to include at least one sentence that explains how it will be useful to your essay. Discuss how it changed your thinking on the topic, or how it might influence your paper or the way you will present your information. Annotated Bibliography Example EntrySmith, John. "Renewable Energy in the 21st Century." _Energy Journal_, vol. 35, no. 4, 2020, pp. 123- 145.
Smith's article offers a thorough analysis of the progress and potential of renewable energy technologies, such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power. He reviews a range of recent studies and forecasts that these technologies could become the dominant energy sources by the middle of the century. Smith, an environmental scientist, argues for essential policy changes to promote renewable energy adoption. His article will significantly contribute to the literature review on renewable energy, providing a forward-looking perspective supported by recent studies. Moreover, Smith's detailed examination of the policy changes necessary for this energy shift will be instrumental in framing the discussion on renewable energy adoption in my research. This source is particularly valuable for its in-depth analysis and its focus on future implications within the field. Y'all finished up your first unit! Turned in your first 1,000 word essay! Created your own main characters out of thin air! Congratulations! And now we're going to buckle in and do it all over again. This blog post covers:
Let's Talk about SettingI think we all know a setting is: the place and time in which a story is set. In the state of Texas, the first time you are officially tested on your knowledge of setting is in the 4th grade. Of course, how we think about the setting of work of literature is different. In this Unit, I want us to use this question to shape how we learn and think about the setting of a work of literature: How does the cultural context of a work change our understanding of it? We are going to consider the setting present within each literary work we study, but we are also going to consider the cultural context in which the work itself was created. So what I'm telling you is that we have arrived to our first research unit! And I am very, very excited about this. Y'all, I truly love research. As I was working on my novel that I'm revising this past week, I realized there is a section about a quarter of the way through that needed more research. I was delighted. But I never realized that I loved research until I started doing it for myself to answer my own questions. (What the heck was it like to ride on an ocean liner in the 1950's?) So, I wasn't that big of a fan of research in high school. It was just something necessary that I had to do. There will be an element of student choice involved in every research project we do because I'm hoping that you will be able to enjoy research earlier than I did. We are reading three different short stories set in four different places written by four different authors. Each story represents a different research path, because your essay for this Unit will be comparing the cultural context of a work of literature to the setting and themes present within the story. Here are the three stories we will read and their contexts:
We are, of course, always limited by time. So, in order to expand your choices, you may also explore the context and setting of these two short stories we read from Unit 1, as long as you didn't write about them in your Character Analysis essay.
"The Allegory of the Cave" by PlatoAll three of the short stories from our first Unit were realistic literary fiction. Our two stories this week represent two different genres of writing. The "Allegory of the Cave," for example, is in fact an allegory. An allegory is the expression of truths or generalizations about human existence by means of symbolic fictional figures and their actions (Merriam-Webster). Although all literature on some level is engaged with understanding the world more deeply, allegories are specific tools that use story for the express purpose of trying to expand the readers' understanding of the world. If you are drawn to philosophy, this might be the story for you to write about. I first read it when I was in high school, and I've thought about it approximately 1 million times in the years since then. In a way, it is a story that engages the question that we will engage (how do our cultural contexts affect the way we perceive the world?), but it did so about 2,400 years ago. Here's a video that gives us an accessible entryway into "An Allegory of the Cave:" And here's a video that gives us a small taste of Ancient Greece: "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia MarquezAgain, the title of this story kind of gives away the new genre. Marquez is famous for writing magical realism, and we get a little taste of it in this story. Magical realism is related to fantasy and sci-fi because the events in the story diverge from reality. Old men don't have wings, for example. But otherwise, the setting remains generally realistic. The genre seems to explore the question: what if one strange otherworldly thing was introduced into our world? How would we react? What would we learn about ourselves? Magical realism draws heavily from myth. If you are interested in ways that myth and fantasy reflect our lives, this might be the story for you to research. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the second Nobel Prize recipient whose work we're looking at. Here's a video that gives us some information about Marquez's life filmed at the Harry Ransom Center right here in Austin: Here's an old travel film about Colombia from the 1940's: And here is a short film with footage of Colombia in the 1950's: |
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