Need extra credit? Click here for information on our extra credit assignment.

Welcome to the end of the semester!  We’ve covered a lot of territory over the past four months – - from Irving to Soto.  We’ve also experimented with some new ways to write and represent your knowledge.

In the final piece of writing for this semester, you will reflect on the uses of new media and technology in the class.  This will help me (and Viola and Jordan) to think about what things we might change and/or preserve for our next version of English 158.  It might also help you to sum up and reflect on what you’re taking away from the class.   To help you focus your reflections, think about the following questions:

-    How convenient and or easy was it to create and sustain your blog?
-    Did the blog writing seem to help you better understand the stories, poems, and other texts we read?  If yes, how so?  If not, why not?
-    How does blog writing differ from other kinds of writing you do in classes?  Does it differ in more pleasant or unpleasant ways? Do you think the blogging might help with your writing in this class or other classes?
-    Describe what you did for the Facebook project.
-    Did the Facebook project help you to better understand Sister Carrie? Did it help you to keep up with the reading? The class discussion?
-    What would you change about the blogging or the Facebooking?  Why?

You don’t have to answer each of these questions – - they’re intended to help you think about the blogging and the Facebooking.  You will not be graded on your writing.  However, the more seriously you reflect on things, the more helpful your work will be.

Your final writing piece should be no more than two pages, typed.  Hand the assignment in on Friday, May 15, at the beginning of the class.

For Monday (May 11):

1) choose a motif (madness, starvation/hunger, the body, geography, drugs, suicide);

2) re-read Ginsberg’s “Howl” – -  making sure to note every version of the motif that you encounter;

3) write a blog post that lists all the examples you can find of your motif;

4) in your blog post, answer the following questions: how does the meaning of the motif change over the course of the poem?  e.g. are there different meanings for the motif and what are they?  why does Ginsberg use this motif?  what is he trying to say by repeating and developing this motif?

PS Don’t forget, Philip Levine’s “They Feed They Lion” for Friday, May 8.

Eddie Carbone’s tragedy hinges on the idea of “loyalty.”  What makes loyalty so tragic in the play?  To think about this question, consider some ways of looking at the idea of loyalty in the play: Why do you think loyalty is so important to the blue-collar, ethnic community that Miller portrays in his play?  Why do you think loyalty might have been a complicated issue to Miller in the 1950s?  What makes loyalty such a difficult value for Eddie? And, finally, has your notion of loyalty ever been tested in ways similar to Eddie’s?  Blog three or four good paragraphs for Wed., May 6.

AmLit 158:  Great work today in class; everyone’s comments were very helpful!

So we took a quick look at Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and “Indian Camp”… Here are two prompts that I would like you to consider in a blog post that allows you to extend the class discussion.  Please choose one prompt or post your own take on one of the stories

Hills… Our reading touched upon these lines, and noted that, in our culture, feeling or emotion generally gives way to knowledge, logic, or reason.

“Come on back in the shade,” he said.  “You mustn’t

feel that way.”

“I don’t feel any way,” the girl said.  “I just know things.”

“I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do –”

In light of this discussion, please offer your interpretation of the story’s ending that accounts for the meaning or importance of the word “feel” in the story’s final lines:

He went out through the bead curtain.  She was sitting at the table and smiled at him.

“Do you feel better?” he asked.

 “I feel fine,” she said.  “There’s nothing wrong with me.  I feel fine.”

(References back to “The Yellow Wallpaper” or any other work we have studied together are welcome!)

Indian Camp… We took a look at Marsden Hartley’s paintings “Still Life, No.1” (as seen in the 1913 Armory Show) and “Indian Fantasy” (painted in 1914).  We also glanced at one of the essays attached to the website:

 The MOMA exhibition that was unmistakably invested in identifying  a foundation for modern art that was ‘primitive’ and thus provided  authentic, direct expression (Staples “I Prefer the Navajo  Rug: Locating an American Primitive”)

Please assess Hemingway’s use of Native American characters in the “Indian Camp” with this passage in mind:  Does “Indian Camp” depict Native Americans as being somehow primitive and/or authentic? Explain your position… I’m especially curious about your view of the husband as a possible opposite to Nick’s Dad, who can ignore the woman’s screams of pain.  Try to help me understand your answer by quoting a passage or two from the text that proves your point. 

From our (too) brief excursion into literary modernism, we’ve discovered a few basic principles of modernist art:  1) modernists are not so much interested in the thing represented, as representing how we perceive the thing; that is, modernists are interested in how our perception and consciousness work, rather than how the world works; 2) modernists challenge readers and viewers; in class, I referred to the idea of “defamiliarization” – - the way that modernist art defamiliarizes our understanding of what poetry or art means and how we engage with works of art; 3) modernists are tricky; even a poet like Frost, whom many consider a familiar figure in poetry, asks his readers to do work – - to pay attention and to fill in gaps in interpretation and meaning; likewise with Hemingway’s narration, which typically refuses to interpret or tell the reader the meaning of characters or narrative (unlike Dreiser’s narrator).

Many historians point to the Armory Show of 1913 as an authentic starting point for American modernism. From February 17th to March 15th, 1913, organizers presented an exhibition of about 1250 paintings, sculptures, and other works in the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue in New York City. Many critics and viewers were shocked by the show; many, especially younger, artists and critics were energized and inspired by the show.

For next class, instead of meeting in the Humanities building. We’ll meet in the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue. Virtually, of course. Instead of coming to class on Friday, April 24, point your browser to: the Armory galleries. Take a tour of the show – - be sure to include at least one European picture gallery and one sculpture gallery. Afterward, write a review of the show. Address your review to a friend who asks the question: what makes this stuff modern? Blog the review by Sunday, April 26.  Write at least four or five substantial paragraphs.

You have two pieces of work to complete to finish our study of Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (click on the links for complete information):

1) a Facebook project

2) a final two-page essay

Both of these are due on Monday, April 20.

Nota Bene: for tomorrow (Wed., April 15), you want to read the excerpts from W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk.  These are linked to the syllabus – - which as always you will find by clicking on the link below the blogroll.  Our syllabus has now been resynchronized with calendrical time and should provide a fairly reliable guide to what’s due on what date.

Finish Sister Carrie!