Response to How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Please comment on any or all of the three chapters assigned. Try to connect them to Mrs. Dalloway or Othello if possible. Remember, the point is to get a conversation going, not write a mini essay. Happy Thanksgiving!

Othello Criticisms

Hi everyone--
Read these two literary criticisms for discussion tomorrow. If you can't get both done completely, at least get the main arguments and finish for Thursday. The "Put Out the Light" essay is an example of writing a 5 page paper on one line of a play. See which interpretation you agree with.

The other one...well, perhaps a bit "out there" but interesting. Decide whether or not you think the argument's evidence is legitimate.

Criticism #1

Criticism #2

Common Core State Standards Discussion

Please post your reactions, questions and comments about CCSS here. We will continue the discussion in a Socratic seminar tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say!

MLA Format

Go to the Purdue Online Writing Lab and learn MLA Format.

Streetcar Named Desire links

Click here for a New Haven Register article.

Click here for a NY Daily News article

Click here for Joe's interview with Playbill.com

Video interview with Broadway.com

How To Outline a Paper

How to Outline a Paper

I.             Introduction, including thesis statement 

II.           Topic sentence (first body paragraph)

A.   First point

1.   e vidence

2.    Analysis

B.   Second point

1.    evidence

2.    Analysis

III.          Topic sentence (second body paragraph)

A.   First point

                             1. evidence

                             2. Analysis

                   B. Second point

                             1. evidence

                             2. Analysis

IV.     Topic Sentence (third body paragraph)

                   A. First point

                             1. evidence

                             2. Analysis

                   B. Second point

                             1. evidence

                             2. Analysis

V. Conclusion: should answer the questions, so what? who cares? what's the big picture?

                             

Chapter 8 Pumblechook Prompt Theses

Block 2: Please post your revised thesis from today's prompt here.
Thank you!

Great Expectations thesis statements

Block one:
Please post your thesis statement here.
Thanks!

Socratic Seminar make-up

Kelly, Spencer and Shelby,
Please discuss your literary criticisms and/or the Great Expectations discussion questions. Post at least two comments and try to engage with one another in conversation.
Enjoy! :)

Crime and Punishment Discussion

Discuss the following topics in preparation for your test on Monday.

• How does the motif of duality function in the novel?
• What is Dostoevsky's view of the relationship between crime and punishment? (consider points about suffering, law, morality, existentialism, nihilism, and religion)

Welcome Back!

Hello everyone--
I hope you have all enjoyed your beach reading this summer and are ready to start AP Literature. Before school starts, I'd like all of you to post here so we can get the discussion started as soon as possible.
In your post, please identify the book you are discussing and if you don't create an account and post as a guest, please put your name in the post. You only have to post once, but please feel free to post more than once and try to respond to the comments of your peers.

Topics for discussion:
What is the author's purpose? How did he/she achieve it?
To what extent does the author's style affect the meaning of the text?
What questions do you have about any of the books?
Which book delivered its message most effectively? Why?


I'll check in throughout the week and see how the discussion is going. See you soon!
Miss B/Mrs. Dwyer (I'm still transitioning to the new name...) :)

MLA Format

Go to the Purdue Online Writing Lab and learn MLA Format. This will be on the exam in the multiple choice section.

1920s Text Comparisons

We've read three novels from the 1920s and seen the different perspectives each illustrates. Another essential part of the 1920s in art and literature was the Harlem Renaissance. Below I have listed a number of poems from famous poets of the movement. I've also included links to artwork and music of the time.

Your task: Review the poems, music and artwork. Write a journal entry comparing, contrasting, or commenting on the different pieces. You can also include Gatsby, Sun Also Rises and Dalloway. Discuss at least two or three different pieces. They can mix and match from any category, or they can all be from one category. It's up to you-- write about whatever strikes you.


POETRY

America

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand. 

Claude McKay

I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America. 

by Langston Hughes

A Black Man Talks of Reaping

BY ARNA BONTEMPS

I have sown beside all waters in my day.

I planted deep, within my heart the fear

that wind or fowl would take the grain away.

I planted safe against this stark, lean year.   

I scattered seed enough to plant the land

in rows from Canada to Mexico

but for my reaping only what the hand

can hold at once is all that I can show.

Yet what I sowed and what the orchard yields

my brother's sons are gathering stalk and root;

small wonder then my children glean in fields

they have not sown, and feed on bitter fruit.

Yet Do I Marvel

BY COUNTEE CULLEN

I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,

And did He stoop to quibble could tell why

The little buried mole continues blind,   

Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,

Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus

Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare   

If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus

To struggle up a never-ending stair.   

Inscrutable His ways are, and immune   

To catechism by a mind too strewn   

With petty cares to slightly understand   

What awful brain compels His awful hand.   

Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:   

To make a poet black, and bid him sing!

We Wear the Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile And mouth with myriad subtleties,   Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while      We wear the mask.   We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile, But let the world dream otherwise,      We wear the mask!

ARTWORK

Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series (Click on "Experience the Migration Series" for the slide show)

Aaron Douglas: Song of the Towers and Into Bondage

James Vanderzee photography

MUSIC

Duke Ellington
Cab Calloway
Ella Fitzgerald
Louis Armstrong
Fats Waller (notice the speakeasy setting)