Over break

Read Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." There's a brief intro about Faulkner on p. 77; the story starts on p. 78. Why follow up Gatsby with this? It's coming from the same era, for starters. Faulkner is also a modernist who had a huge impact on American literature. (He would go on to win the Nobel Prize, and we'll look at his acceptance speech when we read his novel As I Lay Dying later in the year.) Another parallel with Gatsby is Faulkner's approach to time; the way past and present (a present which, itself, is often decades before the present moment) interact is of great interest to Faulkner. Additionally, like most modernists, Faulkner took a profound interest in the question of point of view, as you'll see.

Questions (type the answers; have them printed out to hand in):

1. Who is telling the story? Why would Faulkner choose this point of view for this story? (That is, you're considering the relationship between the author's choice about technique and the ideas the writer wants to convey.)

2. Time is disordered in the story. What effect(s) does it have to put the events in this particular order?

3. In the final scene, what is odd about the order in which Faulkner presents the details? Why does he put the details of the scene in this particular sequence?

As always, I'm not looking for a right answer; I'm looking to see whether you're observing closely and commenting on what you've observed.

Gatsby

We're reading The Great Gatsby now. Stay up with the reading (page numbers are on the calendar); annotate. We'll discuss plot, characters, ideas, motifs, and writing style as we go.

Over break

You're to work on the memorization and recitation of your selected poem. Look at that Poetry Out Loud set of sheets I gave you (or go directly to their site) for links that walk you through the way to approach your recitation. I'll largely be paying attention to accuracy, but I want to hear those poems said in a meaningful way—that is, in a way that makes them clear and makes clear that you understand what you're saying (as much as possible).

The other homework is for you to read and annotate pp. 13-22. We'll discuss the story (which most of you have read before), the possible interpretive approaches, and the sample essay.

More poetry!

You'll be memorizing a poem for recitation in class. (And, if you want, you can compete in Poetry Out Loud afterwards.) At the right, there's a link to the poems from among which you can choose; Poetry Out Loud provides a wide array of options. For next class, have a poem selected.

The handout discusses how you'll be judged/graded on your recitation, which will be the week after next.

In addition, you're to read from p. 527 to the middle of p. 540 for next class. The only "writing" I want you to do is to "scan" both "Snapping Beans" and "Those Winter Sundays," marking syllables as either stressed or unstressed.

Alvarez reading and writing

Read pp. 838-863 in the anthology.

Type up your answers to the following questions:

p. 845, questions 2 and 3

pp. 850-1, all three questions

p. 852, question 4

Lastly: What is the place of reading within your family? What kinds of written works have you been exposed to in your household? What kinds of writing have you sought out for yourself?

The Plague

Always check the calendar for the reading assignment in The Plague. There will be the occasional quiz on the book, and, additionally, the occasional piece of writing as we move through the text. Mostly, the focus will be on annotation and discussion. You'll be writing an essay about the book when you're finished reading, so the more you attend to these tasks of keeping up with the reading, joining in discussion, and annotating, the better off you'll be when it comes to writing.

The way we'll approach much of the book is by considering these factors:
 - What does each character believe (about the world, themselves, the plague)?
 - What does each character do?

For next Monday, read to p. 63 (the end of Part One).

Behold: Albert Camus in his best noirish look.

Intertextual assignment

The link to the intertextual assignment, due Thursday, Sept. 27, is at the right.

Calendar

Note that there's now a calendar to link to at the right-hand side of the page. (Let me know if you can't link to it.) Always check the calendar for assignments, as I may say nothing here at the blog.

Hebrew Bible assignment

For next class (typed in the usual format):

Pre-reading

1. What do you know about the Adam and Eve story? (It's okay to know very little of be completely wrong.)

Now read Genesis Chapters 1-9

2. What was surprising and/or unfamiliar about the story of Adam and Eve?

3. What struck you as strange in any of the other stories?

4. What common elements--images, ideas, themes--did you find in multiple sections?

Use a Bible translation, not a biblical paraphrase. (Back in the '70s, a book was published that paraphrased the Christian scriptures: Good News for Modern Man. It made the stories easier to read, but a lot was lost, just as when you read the "No Fear Shakespeare" books.) If you don't have a Bible, the link at the right takes you to a site that breaks the Hebrew scriptures apart book by book and chapter by chapter, but there are other online biblical sources, some of which will show you a range of translations.

Summer reading

Welcome, AP Lit fans!

Over in the list of links on the right appears the link to the summer assignment (in case you've lost yours . . . or in case you'd like the one whose (non-essential) errors I fixed.

If you're a reader (as you should be, else WHY take this class?), check out a few of the additional, suggested books on the sheet. I hope to get a lot of reading done with summer. Come September, we can talk about what we'll have read!

Wishing you all well. See you in a few months.

Mr. Preston