I have changed the schedule again so that on Tuesday we will be able to spend the whole class talking about essay writing.
You can prepare for the class by looking at the essay topics and deciding which story you are interested in writing about.
On Tuesday we will talk about formulating your ideas, gathering evidence, developing a thesis statement, and organizing the structure of your essay. I also want to talk about how to evaluate and use evidence effectively.
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Text Books Are Here
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction has finally arrived. You will need to have these for the "Death by Landscape" by Margaret Atwood, which we will discuss on Thursday (22 Jan)
Thursday, January 15, 2004
No Class Today & Thoughts on Readings
I am sorry, but I have to cancel today's class. This will mean an adjustment in our schedule, pushing everything back by a class, including readings and essay due dates.
I was wanting to talk more today about the themes found in stories patterned on the descent type of story we have been discussing. One of the characteristics I want to talk more about is the loss of rationality or the dissolving border between normal rationality and madness. Zaroff in "The Most Dangerous Game" says he has found the most dangerous game in an animal capable of reason, and yet, when Rainsford confronts him at the end of the story it is not as a rational animal, but as "a beast at bay"--he has lost (for the moment anyway) his reason.
For Jane, if that is the name of the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper," her actions appear to her to be perfectly reasonable, although to us they do not. However, we need to spend some time at the beginning of next class considering the other patterns of irrationality in the story.
Similarly in "The Secret Sharer" the moment when Leggatt is almost discovered pushes the narrator on the very brink of madness:
Are there other patterns of madness or irrationality in "The Secret Sharer"?
I was wanting to talk more today about the themes found in stories patterned on the descent type of story we have been discussing. One of the characteristics I want to talk more about is the loss of rationality or the dissolving border between normal rationality and madness. Zaroff in "The Most Dangerous Game" says he has found the most dangerous game in an animal capable of reason, and yet, when Rainsford confronts him at the end of the story it is not as a rational animal, but as "a beast at bay"--he has lost (for the moment anyway) his reason.
For Jane, if that is the name of the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper," her actions appear to her to be perfectly reasonable, although to us they do not. However, we need to spend some time at the beginning of next class considering the other patterns of irrationality in the story.
Similarly in "The Secret Sharer" the moment when Leggatt is almost discovered pushes the narrator on the very brink of madness:
Can it be, I asked myself, that he is not visible to other eyes than mine? It was like being haunted. Motionless, with a grave face, he raised his hands slightly at me in a gesture which meant clearly, "Heavens! what a narrow escape!" Narrow indeed. I think I had come creeping quietly as near insanity as any man who has not actually gone over the border.
Are there other patterns of madness or irrationality in "The Secret Sharer"?
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