Archetypes

While we are working on archetypes and reading Gilgamesh, make sure you are working on your narrative poem. I will attempt to get your draft narratives to you by Friday.

Archetypes are a common form of literary analysis. The are offspring of the work done by Carl Jung - literary types noticed that as with dreams literature had patterns that were re-occurring. Archetypes are universal and primordial - they result from what Jung called the collective unconscious. Make sure you know the two categories, character and symbol/situation, and the five archetypes in each category. There will be a quiz on Thursday. The two brief articles we read today will also be on the quiz. Remember that Gilgamesh was eventually written in cuneiform after developing in an oral tradition for a 1000 years. The epic is the first recorded epic and its conventions were followed by successors. In an epic the hero is the center of the story. Epics are about a person/people not a culture or kingdom. Epics are also designed to be entertaining - with all the violence and sex that you see in today's movies and TV. Please remember that Gilgamesh was a real king and the dreams he had were interpreted as messages from the gods. Keep in mind that we are dealing with a polytheistic culture.

For an extra two points toward a quiz - define poly and monotheism in the comments section. This is only good until tomorrow's class. No credit unless if you use your real name - use the one you gave me.

Our featured artist was Peter Bruegel and his painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus."

Myth, Genre

Are myths true or false? This was the initial question discussed today. Myths are generally rooted in some historical event or person and are then exaggerated for entertainment or to fit the purpose of the culture. Myths often explain the world around us and are used to explain the unanswerable. There are four types f myth: Divine, with gods as the central characters; Legend, with heroes (many times partially divine) at the center; folklore, with average people as the focus; and fables, with animals having human characteristics.

We also discussed Genre, which means type or sort. There are used to categorize literature and allow us to organize, analyze and make judgments as to quality. The main genres are: poetry, prose and drama, with multiple sub genres.

Your personal narrative drafts should have been handed in. The poem will be due on Friday - a day later than I said earlier. I'll give you the weekend for the narratives.

Homework: study, work on final narrative and poem

Our featured sculpture is the Laocoon, which you must keep in mind when we read Homer.

Langston and the Lady with an Ermine

We ended the week by reading about personal narratives in Element of Language. Students were given copies of a brief biography of Langston Hughes and his wonderful, narrative poem, “Theme for English B.”

Your task over the weekend is to write the draft of your personal narrative. I want you to focus on one or two events that influenced who you are today. In the biography of Hughes, the writer focused on several events that seemed to define the writer. I’m asking you to do the same thing with your narrative.

The narrative is to be at least two pages, double space, 12 font, Arial or Times.

We will edit on Monday and begin preparing for our first text, Gilgamesh.

Homework: Draft of personal narrative.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve included “Lady with an Ermine.” I was pleased to find new information about one of da Vinci’s work. You will find that I always show and discuss painting and sculpture in my class. I do so because art is an important part of my life and because it is simply another expression of the art that we are reading. Feel free to introduce new artists you love to me and I will give you the opportunity to discuss their work in class.

Week one

OK…so much for week one. Sorry for the lack of blogs -this should not happen again.

By now, you should understand the purpose and expectations of the course. You have read and signed the Procedures and have a copy of the syllabus.

We discussed the purpose of literature and how some define literature. Literature is written art. It is any piece of writing that can claim that is has “artistic beauty.” The big issue, as we discussed, is who defines what is artistic and what is beauty. That is where you come in – you need to be able to apply standard concepts to define what is artistic and beautiful.

We also read a brief history of writing. Early works were not written but part of the ‘oral’ tradition – they were composed and presented orally. Then the best works were stamped in clay tablets. Cultures evolved and Papyrus became common, them paper arrived, and then Gutenberg perfected movable type and the world was off and running with reading, writing and democracy. We discussed if television was the next great frontier, and what effect will the Internet have on literature. It’s all very exciting and unfolding before us.

Welcome to Literature in the New Global Age.

The purpose of this course is to explore the great literature of our world. We will read major works from different eras and cultures - texts that provide a basis of much of the world’s literature. While we are reading the texts, we will also look at literary terms, ideas, and concepts and then apply them to the texts. Every week, we will work on SAT questions, grammar, and writing. We will read poetry, short stories, and novel(s). You will write a resume, an autobiography, sonnets, haiku, essays, and create and present PowerPoint presentations on myths and Dante’s Inferno.

We begin by reviewing class procedures. The basis of the procedures is to treat others as you would wish to be treated. ‘Others’ include your classmates and me. Please be on time and prepared to learn. Please act respectfully in class. Please open your mind to the wonderful words that will rush out of our readings and wash over you. If you allow them, the words will change you and help you in the pursuit of your future dreams.

We will begin to build an understanding of each other. You will learn about me by looking around the classroom. I will learn about you via your writing assignments this week and next.

Today, you will begin to build a resume (when you see a word highlighted, click on it), and this resume will be the outline for your autobiography. The activity includes interviewing each other and developing an organizer that will build your resume. Think about the way you think and use that in your writing.

Welcome and good luck…

Homework: Parent/guardian sign Procedure form (5); complete resume for publication (10); make up a short name for yourself and leave a one line comment with the name of your favorite book (3). Do not use your real name. The comment name must be less than 6 letters.

Tests and tasks

Mr. Little and his students, oops...I mean Charon, boatman of the Acheron

Welcome to Finals Week. Class is winding down and it is time to prepare for the final assessment, make sure everything owed is delivered, and bring everything we’ve learned together. It is also a time of reflection.

We will review the texts we’ve read and concepts studied today via PowerPoint reviews. Please take notes on those items you do not know. The final covers a lot: genre, characterization, plot, archetypes, grammar, point of view, setting, Gilgamesh, Genesis, Odyssey, Inferno, Henry V and the poems and short stories we read. Keep special note of the vocabulary and special terms associated with each text such as nostos, kleos, xenia, etc.

Review your electronic portfolio. We’ll sit down and look at it together. It should have your: autobiography, resume, sonnets, haiku, essays and, if desired, the Myth and Dante PowerPoint presentations. I will grade the portfolio based on its completeness.

Short Story

Sorry for the short story confusion.

I fixed the link for Classic Short Stories. Go to the previous post and select one of the stories, or see me if you want to select another story. The purpose of this assessment is to read the story, identify point of view, complication, climax and characterization, and write an organized, interesting response concerning the concepts. I want you to take your time and be careful with your writing - my interest is quality vs. quantity. I would like you to create a one page gem, as opposed to several pages of mush.

The answer should be one page, single space. Please use quotes and references to the text to support your answers.

Direct and Indirect characterization

In working on your Shakespeare essays, I keep finding misunderstandings regarding direct and indirect characterization.

When a character describes another character, as the Chorus or bishops describe Henry and his maturity, it is direct characterization. The author is using a character to directly tell the audience about the other character. [In a work in which there is a narrator, such a novel or short story, direct characterization is often provided by the narrator, not another character.] Now, you must be careful to make sure that character who is speaking is believable. For example, when the Dauphin speaks of Henry being weak, other characters contradict him, so we know that he is not to be believed. Both bishops agree that a change has occurred and there is no reason to doubt them since they are scheming together.

When we make judgments about a character because their words or action, it is indirect characterization. Shakespeare reinforces the bishops comments with multiple examples of Henry's strong character (tennis ball response, traitors and Bardolph's execution, speeches). Another example of indirect characterization is the conversation the bishops have between themselves. Their desire to keep their wealth, even to the extent of bribing the king, speaks volumes about their character.

The other issue concerns your understanding of character types. Round, Flat, Static and Dynamic are literary terms, not actual descriptions of people. Many appear to confuse the literary idea that Shakespeare crafted Henry as a round (i.e. complex and contradictory) character with the historical Henry V. Keep in mind that we use these terms as literary analysis tools.

Paragraph and Short Story

While I am out today...

E-mail or print the weekend’s homework.

Read pages 346-369 in Elements of Language. Complete exercises 1, 3 and 4 and hand in today.

Review the Opening paragraph and the first body paragraph of your Dante essay and edit and revise based on the Elements of Language chapter’s information (i.e. what you read today). See if you can improve the essay’s opening. Please don’t e-mail - make a copy and hand it in. If you prefer, you may use your Shakespeare essay instead. The idea is to apply the ideas of the chapter to your own writing.

You may work in pairs for the purpose of reviewing answers or peer editing.

You must work in silence - do not distrupt others who are trying to work.

Go to the link for Classic Short Stories, select one of the following: “The Cask of Amontillado,” “Death Makes a Comeback,” or “The Sniper.” Read the story and, in paragraph form, identify the point of view, the complication and climax of the story, and one example of characterization.

We will continue this tomorrow, have a quiz on plot elements and point of view, and start the review of the Dante section of the final exam.

Weekend work

Schema: SAT and quiz on xenia

Lesson: We followed up on our recent sentence fragment and run on sentence study by correcting real life sentences found in student papers. I was pleased with how adept most of you were at this task. As Emily stated, the issue is not your ability to edit, it is the fact that most students do not allocate enough time to edit properly. Nice job by many in A Block for good work on this assessment. C Block also did a great job with sentence revision.

We discussed the different characters in “A Jury of Her Peer.” Even though they are not present in the house during the story, we know a lot about Mr. and Mrs. Wright. One could argue that Minnie Wright, nee Foster, is the central character, even though we don’t meet her. Please note the use of direct and indirect characterization to develop the characters. Mrs. Hale and Peters are our primary source of information about Mrs. Wright; this is direct characterization. The state of her house, cloths, and the canary are forms of indirect characterization.

Homework: What is the point of view of “A Jury of Her Peers?” Identify examples of direct and indirect characterization. Explain whether setting is important to the story. Please type your response and email to me on Monday

Be prepared for a quiz on plot elements and story elements.

Odyssey

Schema: Archetype/Genre quiz
SAT

Lesson: Review Odyssey and xenia. Xenia is the ancient Greek idea of hospitality. The concept is different than ours. The five xenos are: guest, host, friend, foreigner and stranger. The god of xenia is Zeus, which tells you how important it was to the Greeks. We examined how understanding xenia helped us understand the characters and what happens to them. The other concepts discussed were the epic ideas of nostos and kleos. Achilles is a hero of kleos, war and reputation, while Odysseus is a hero of kleos and nostos, peace and homecoming. The Iliad is and epic of war, kleos, and the Odyssey is an epic of peace, nostos. Keep in mind some of the famous characters, Kalypso, Kyklopes, Kirke, Telemachos and Penelope. Also, keep in mind that Agamemnon is a mirror of Odysseus, a hero of kleos who returned to a bad homecoming.

Archetype

Today we reviewed archetypes and the five stages of grief. Some points to remember: we look at archetypes as a form of literary analysis; they are universal patterns that are copied and are primordial; they were identified by Carl Jung and exist in the collective unconscious. We have broken them into two categories, character and symbol/situation and we looked at five archetypes in each category.

The most common archetypes in the texts we’ve read were hero, quest, task and water. Try to attach these archetypes to plot events.

We also reviewed Kubler-Ross’ 5 Stages of Grief. The must be put in order: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. The clearest example of these stages is found in Gilgamesh, after Enkidu’s death. Gilgamesh is driven to a quest for immortality, but he fails. The message is that his failure teaches him to accept his fate, and he turns for a selfish brute to the wise king that inspired the epic.

Homework: finish “A Jury of Her Peers” and complete the character and plot event tasks. Also, study for the quiz on genre and archetype.

Death on Wright's Farm

Yesterday, we reviewed the three major genres (poetry, drama and prose) and multiple sub-genres. Our focus was the short story. For the final exam, I will expect you to be able to identify genre and sub-genre. I will also expect you to be able to correctly categorize the texts we've read this semester, as well as other texts or writing.

Continue to create your character and event lists for "A Jury of Her Peers." Some questions to ponder: Do we ever meet John and Minnie Wright? Do we have a good portrait of them? Why are Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale important to the story? What is their relationship? What about the canary - is it important?

Our exam review will be on literary archetypes and stages of grief. We will also look at the Odyssey.

Today we will review the parts of speech and then examine sentence structure. Please go to page 320 of Elements of Language and read to page 329. As always, keep notes on the definitions and we will review the examples as a class.

Final days.

Schema: SAT

Genre - short story

Lesson: There are only 10 days before final exams begin. We will do a number of things in this period. First, we will look at the prose genre, short story. Second, we will review sentence structure and mechanic issues related to sentences. Third, we will review the texts we’ve read this semester and the literary concepts used to examine the texts; this will be for the final exam. While we are doing this, you will complete your electronic portfolio. For some students, it will be necessary that they revise and edit their Dante essays. I will have the Shakespeare essays graded by next Monday, and I suspect there will be a need for some students to revise and edit this essay. I will be available to meet after school this week to work with you on essay edits.

Today, let’s look at the short story. This will be independent work. Go to “What Makes a Good Short Story” and follow the instructions. The site uses a short story to explore five elements of a short story. Your task is to read the story, create a list of characters and plot events, and take notes on the story elements explained in the site. Provide character detail and description when you make your character list. I suggest you begin by reviewing the elements of a short story and then read the story. As you read the story, the site will allow you to link to the elements to reinforce your learning.

I will be available if you wish to discuss your Dante essays during class. This lesson will continue tomorrow.

Homework: Work on character list and plot events. Revise and edit Dante essay. Organize notes and begin final exam review.