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.