Post-Modernism:

The often disputed term postmodernism is applied to the literature and art produced after World War II, when the disastrous effects on Western morale of the first war were greatly exacerbated by the experience of Nazi Totalitarianism and European Fascism, the mass exterminations and horror of WWII, the threat of total destruction by the atom bomb, the devastation of the natural environment, the space age, and the ominous threats of overpopulation and starvation.  The term generally applies to a cultural condition prevailing in advanced, industrialized capitalist western societies since the 1960s, characterized by a superabundance of disconnected images and styles, most noticeably in television, advertising, commercial design, and pop video.  In this sense, postmodernism is said to be a culture or aesthetic sense of fragmentary sensations, eclectic nostalgia, and promiscuous and random superficiality, in which the traditional values of depth, coherence, meaning, originality, and structure are evacuated or dissolved in a colorful chaos of signals.  Postmodernism involves not only a continuation, carried to an extreme, of the counter-traditional experiments of modernism, but also diverse attempts to break away from modernist forms that had become conventional and familiar by the latter half of the twentieth century.  A familiar undertaking in postmodernist writings is to subvert the foundations of our accepted modes of thought and experience so as to reveal the meaninglessness of existence and the underlying abyss or void (or nothingness) on which our supposed security is precariously suspended.  In recent developments in linguistic and literary theory, there is an effort to subvert the foundations of language itself, so as to demonstrate that its seeming meaningfulness dissipates into a play of indeterminacies.  In the most basic (and crude) terms, a postmodern writer or artist does not attempt to wrest meaning from the world through the traditional methods of myth, symbol, and artistic complexity but instead embraces the meaningless confusion and absurdity of contemporary existence with either indifference or flippant enthusiasm.  Often postmodern writers write about writing itself (metafiction, or fiction about fiction), in which a narrator reflects critically on the lack of coherence in his or her own writing.  Postmodernism as a term is generally not applied to poetry or drama but more often to fiction and art.  Some writers often discussed as postmodern are Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Italo Calvino, Gunter Grass, Angela Carter, Vladimir Nabokov, William S. Burroughs, and William Golding.

Hemingway’s Prose Style:

Most critics agree that Hemingway’s fame depends as much on his prose style as on his content and subjects. His early style is lean, laconic, and devoid of strings of adjectives and adverbs. Lacking excessive modifiers, his sentences tend to be simple or compound declarative clauses; conjunctions are coordinating, rarely subordinating, so that items are arranged spatially or sequentially (not by cause or logic—Hemingway’s world is ruled more by fate and luck than by cause and effect and logic). The prose depends on nouns (many monosyllabic) for concrete imagery. There is a poetic use of repetition (learned in part from the Bible and in part from Gertrude Stein) and a concentration on surface detail, on suggesting character through things said and done rather than through authorial asides and psychological analysis. Like his Imagist contemporaries, especially Ezra Pound, Hemingway sought the concrete detail that would capture the essence of the moment and convey its emotional content to readers. His bare-bones style is in part a reaction to the over-ornate Victorian prose and to the political rhetoric surrounding World War I. Obviously influenced by the techniques of journalism, it is also an attempt to strip away all that is false, misleading, and unessential. Among the elements that Hemingway shares with other Modernist writers are alienated characters and their rejection of conventional moral standards, a manner of presentation that, in its incomplete and fragmented manner, echoes the sense of a pervasive social disintegration. Often cited is Hemingway’s “iceberg” technique, where vital elements of a story are left out in order to force greater reader engagement (even rereading). The actual text read by readers is only the tip of the “iceberg”: readers are left to ponder what lies beneath.

Hemingway on his iceberg technique:

If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows, and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have the feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer has stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.

I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg.

The Myth of Antaeus:

Antaeus was the son of Poseidon and Ge (mother earth). He was a giant who wrestled Hercules. Whenever he was thrown to the ground, he arose stronger than before from the contact with his mother. Perceiving this, Hercules finally lifted Antaeus into the air and crushed him to death. The myth of Antaeus simply refers to anyone who is replenished, and restored by returning to nature. As a romantic notion, the myth is used to refer to a process of revitalization whereby an individual, once oppressed and overwhelmed by society, seeks solace in nature. Hemingway’s characters often seek such restoration in nature through the simple rituals of hunting, fishing, and camping.

Modernism:

As a term, modernism is most often used to identify the most distinctive forms, styles, concepts, and sensibilities in literature and art from roughly WWI to the post-WWII years. Since it is a broad intellectual movement, modernism varies widely in specific features, but most critics agree that it involves a deliberate and radical break with the traditional bases of both Western culture and Western art. Modernists were writers and artists who questioned the certainties and standard truths that had previously provided support systems for all social organization, religion, morality, and the conception of the human self. Modernists were influenced by late 19^th century thinkers, such as Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, and Darwin. They were especially influenced by the savagery and slaughter of WWI.

The modernist revolt against traditional literary and artistic forms and subjects manifested itself strongly after the catastrophe of WWI, which shook human faith in the continuity and foundations of Western culture. The inherited mode of ordering a literary or artistic work—and for that matter of ordering the world—assumed a relatively stable and coherent worldview. But there was a general shattering of traditional beliefs and foundational truths after WWI, and there was a general emergence of a belief in the futility and meaningless of life, that the world was characterized by disorder rather than order, by anarchy rather than stability. Experimenting with new forms and styles, modernists explored the dislocation and fragmentation of parts rather than the traditional artistic concept of unity. Modernist writers subverted the conventions of earlier prose fiction by breaking up narrative continuity, departing from standard ways of representing characters, and violating the traditional syntax and coherence of narrative language. Such techniques have obvious parallels in the violation of representational conventions in the modernist paintings of Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism as well as in the violations of standard conventions of melody, harmony, and rhythm by the modernist composers (Stravinsky, Copeland).

A prominent feature of modernism is the attempt to be “avant-garde,” a military term for “advance-guard.” Quite self-consciously, authors and artists attempted to, in Pound’s famous phrase, “make it new.” By violating accepted conventions and decorums, they undertook to create new artistic forms and styles and to introduce neglected, often forbidden subjects. Frequently avant-garde artists represent themselves as alienated from the established order, against which they assert their own autonomy. Their aim is often to shock the sensibilities of their audiences and to challenge the norms and pieties of bourgeois culture.

Literary Characteristics: free verse, stream-of-consciousness, objective correlative, imagism, multiple points-of-view, broken or fragmentary narratives, iceberg narratives, alienated characters, defiance of traditional values, taboo subjects, complexity.

The Lesson: Drawing a Life Map

In my class, I use this "life map" activity as a prewriting exercise. My students' life maps serve as graphic organizers that they use as they write their autobiographies. This activity could also be used successfully as a standalone activity.
Before the Lesson 
You might prepare a sample "life map" that illustrates your own life. A life map is a series of symbols that represent important things/events or goals in your life.

On my life map, I drew a set of bells to represent the day I got married. I drew an apple to represent day I became a teacher
In other words, a life map is a "symbol timeline" of your life. There are no words on a life map -- just pictures/symbols and arrows. Arrows connect the symbols in the sequence they happened in your life.
If you create a life map of your life you will be able to share it with students; it will serve as a model they can use as they create their own life maps.
Teaching the Lesson 
As mentioned above, I use this lesson as a prewriting exercise to having students write their autobiographies. For that reason, I have already read aloud to students a couple autobiographies so they understand the concept of an autobiography. You might begin this lesson by reading aloud an autobiography, or a chapter from one.
Talk about some of the important events that the author shared in the autobiography about his or her life.
Discuss with students the kinds of important events that they might tell about if they were to write their autobiographies. Have students share those "most memorable" or "most important" events from their lives. Write the events on a sheet of chart paper as students call them out. Some of the events students might share include
their birth
a special trip
a favorite meaningful thing/object they received from someone special
the first time took a step/learned to walk
a time they hurt themselves
a very funny event
a time they cried
the first bike ride
a memorable/favorite book
joining Little League
a hospital stay
the first plane flight
a day they met someone famous
a death in the family
their first dog
their first time at a pro football game The list could be endless. That's fine! The more ideas that are shared, the more likely students will be reminded of the most important events in their young lives.
Once you have a list (at least 15-20 ideas is good), review the list with the students and talk about a picture or symbol that might represent each of the events that has been shared. For example
their birth (a rattle or a pacifier)
their first step (a baby shoe)
a time they hurt themselves (a bandage)
their first bike ride (a bike)
joining Little League (a baseball and a mitt)
a hospital stay (a thermometer, the kind that takes your body temperature)
the first time they flew in a plane (a jet)
the first time they went to a pro football game (a football helmet)
Next, have students come up with eight (the number might vary by grade level) "most important" events in their lives. They can draw from the list they and their classmates created, or they can use events that were not shared before. Then students need to decide on the eight symbols that represent their chosen events on their life maps. Encourage students to choose a variety of events/symbols. The events should span their lives and the symbols should represent a variety of accomplishments, interests, activities, and experiences. Students might draw their symbols, cut the symbols out of magazines, search online for an illustration that can be used as a symbol, take a photograph All that appears on the students' life map are
• their names,
• their symbols, and
• arrows to connect those symbols in the order they happened.
There are no words on a life map.
When students have created their life maps, you might set aside time for them to share them with their classmates.
Students' life maps can serve as a graphic organizer they can use as they write their autobiographies. Each event/symbol will serve as a "chapter" in their autobiography. That symbol can also appear as an illustration for that chapter in their book. The chapters follow the sequence of events in their lives/life maps.



Drawing a ‘‘Life Map’’ _______________________________

An autobiography is a written account of a person’s life by that person.

A Life Map is a pictorial representation of your life using pictures (symbols) to represent events and goals in your life.
Think about the kinds of important events, "most memorable" or "most important" that you remember.

your birth a special trip a favorite meaningful thing/object you received from someone special the first time took a step/learned to walk a time you hurt themselves a very funny event a time you cried the first bike ride a memorable/favorite book joining junior sport a hospital stay the first plane flight a day you met someone famous a death in the family your first dog their first time at a AFL football game
The symbols could be for example... your birth (a rattle or a pacifier) your first step (a baby shoe) a time you hurt yourself (a bandage) your first bike ride (a bike)
joining Junior footy (a football or goals) a hospital stay (a thermometer, the kind that takes your body temperature) the first time you flew in a plane (a jet)

You can draw, cut out of a magazine, newspaper or find/print off the computer. All that appears on the life map are:

your name, your symbols, and arrows to connect those symbols in the order they happened.


Writing a Coming-of-Age Story

Plan the character arc. If the major thing motivating you to write this particular story is the desire to demonstrate how a character changes from child to young adult, you will want to spend considerable time mapping out that character change. That change will be key to your story. The road of change a character follows during the course of a story/plot is usually referred to as character arc. For instance, Luke Skywalker starts out as a wimp and ends up a Jedi thanks to the different events and people he encounters during the various Star Wars movies. When you start to put together your story, think first of who this character is to begin with and what makes her immature: Is she selfish or scared or has no luck with boys? Think of who is she at the end: mature, giving, socially poised, etc.? After you know your point A and point B, you'll have to do the much tougher work of figuring out how she gets there. Make sure the changes are incremental and not instantaneous - few coming-of-age stories take place overnight even if the inciting event that pushes the character toward adulthood does occur within that span.
• Consider rites of passage - and put your own spin on one. If you're trying to find events that a character may experience which could help her grow up, consider traditional rites of passage. These could be religious ceremonies like bat mitzvah or confirmation. These could be ethnic events like a quinceanera. These could be cultural - like the American tradition of moving out of your parents' house for college or a job. Could your story revolve around one of these events? If so, be sure not to give your reader or audience the "same old, same old" - put your own spin on these events - make the scenario original, specific and unforgettable.
• Consider what events in life may force a person to grow up. A lot of times, people go from child to young adult because events in their life force them to. Say a parent dies, the family goes bankrupt, someone gets sick. Things that happen make a young person take additional responsibilities or that make a young person deal with new and intense emotions can be good things to include in your story.
• Consider your own life. If you're an adult (even if only in name...), you may be able to pinpoint the year or the time of your life when you feel you passed from youth to adulthood. While your personal story itself may not work in the story you're creating, consider how you felt, what you did, how other people reacted to the changes you underwent, and even how those "coming-of-age" events may still affect you now. These real emotions can potentially add truth and authenticity to your story even if they come from different fictional circumstances in your actual work. 


The coming-of-age story has probably been around since the first storytelling humans were old enough to reflect on their childhoods. Good luck with creating another great story in this very traditional writing category.
Quick Tips:
• Character arc is important: Who is your character at the start and who is she at the end?
• Consider personal and cultural events that push people toward adulthood--will one fit in your story?


How to Write a Coming-of-Age Story
Coming-of-age stories are one of the most popular genres in literary fiction. Such stories can be directed to teenage or to adult readers. Either way, they offer familiar themes of growing up. But writing a good coming-of-age story, especially one that doesn’t fall into the usual clichés, can be just as challenging as writing any story. Here are some key steps to help you write an effective coming-of-age story for either teen or adult readers.
Instructions
◦ 1
All coming-of-age stories are about characters who move from innocence to experience. As your teen characters move through the plot of your tale, they gain insight and wisdom about themselves and the world they live in. Consider how you want to tell this narrative arc for your coming-of-age tale. What are the circumstances in which your character finds herself? Does your character come from a poor environment? Is she rich, self-absorbed, confused or angry?


◦ 2
Where do you want to take your character at the end of her narrative arc? If she is a spoiled, self-absorbed rich girl, for instance, then you want to put her in circumstances that force her to gain insight about her world and herself. Perhaps your character, because of her self-absorption, ends up getting into trouble with the law and is forced to do community service at a nursing home. Her experiences, for instance, working with the elderly forces her to gain greater insight about herself and her attitudes toward life.


◦ 3
Create strong and interesting characters. This is true for all fiction. Make your teen characters believable. They should think and act like real teens. They shouldn’t think and act like middle-aged characters with half their lives behind them. But don’t use clichés or stereotypes, either. Your teen character can be thoughtful, intelligent and witty. But create a character that is still believable to his or her circumstances. Avoid writing squeaky-clean characters as well. Give them equal amounts of strengths and flaws.


◦ 4
Avoid using slang or any of the current hip jargon. While slang and jargon might make your characters sound contemporary, it can also date your story rather quickly. Words such as “cool” or “hip” are exceptions because they have become more mainstream in colloquial language.


◦ 5
If you’re writing about controversial issues---drug use, teen sex, incest, rape, gang violence, etc.---approach the subject in new and inventive ways. There are plenty of young adult fiction which probe the uglier side of teen life. A story about teen pregnancy, for instance, can end up being clichéd if you don’t approach it in a different way. Find out what has already been written about the subject and see if there are different ways you can approach it. For instance, a story about a Christian girl who gets pregnant after pledging to be “abstinent only” might be a different way to approach the subject. Perhaps that girl grows up in a war-torn area like Iraq. Her attitudes toward life and death will greatly affect the way you can approach her pregnancy.


◦ 6
But don’t be gratuitous either. Don’t throw in drug use, teen sex, rape, violence, incest, etc. if you think it will make your story hipper or grab a publisher’s attention. Again, these issues have already been mined and most publishers might want to move in another direction. Rather use them because they are inherent to your story. For instance, if you’re writing about teens living in a war-torn area, then drug use, rape and death will be things they might have to navigate on their way to adulthood.

Memory Quotes

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

--Socrates

“Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen.”
--Willa Cather

“Nobody belongs to us except in memory.”
--John Updike

“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December”
--James M. Barrie

“I did this,” says my memory/. “I cannot have done this,” says my pride, remaining inexorable. Eventually, my memory yields.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

“Time, which changes people, does not change the image we have of them.”
--Marcel Proust

“Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.”
--Seneca

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
--F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness . . . Those who are ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat it.”
--George Santayana

“What’s past is prologue.”
--Shakespeare

“We are not free to use today, or to promise tomorrow, because we are already mortgaged to yesterday.”
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind.”
--W. H. Auden

“Don’t look back. Something may be gaining on you.”
--Leroy “Satchel” Paige

Pivotal Moments

A Meaningful Moment in My Life

The purpose of this assignment is to write a well-crafted story about a pivotal event in your life.

By pivotal event, I mean an incident (or closely related series of incidents) that resulted in a significant transition in your life, something that you would define as a coming-of-age experience. All of us have experienced moments or events that clearly changed us, or marked our transition into a new phase. You might think of these as stepping stones, or chapter markers, in your life. Your task is to take one of these pivotal events and shape your experiences into a story.

By story, I mean a literary text that loosely follows the structural conventions of initiation, problem development, crisis, climax, and realization (beginning, middle, and end). Although such organization is imposed on the chaos of experience, your task is to create a textual structure around your pivotal event in order to reveal its significance in your life. You will need to portray the events that led up to your stepping stone, and you will also need to demonstrate how this transition changed you. [Remember: show; don't tell.]

Your first task is to consider possible pivotal events (you might even want to make a list). What do you think are the most important turning points, stepping stones, and/or transitions in your life? These should be changes that you experienced within you, not merely external events (such as high school graduation). You can write about an external event, but you must use it as a catalyst to an internal change.

After considering the possibilities, you need to choose one pivotal event that you think would make the best story. You should not only consider what has the most potential for drama and resolution, but also what would lend itself best to a story's structure. You might want to eliminate what would be too complicated , or too difficult, to write about. Always choose a subject that you can control!

Your pivotal event is actually the climax of your story, but it is also your beginning, since it is the point you will begin writing about. In a free writing exercise, you might want to list quickly everything you can remember about your pivotal event--details of the actual scene, event, or moment; other people that were involved; thoughts and feelings that you had; experiences or issues that led up to the event; and the ways the event changes you.

In discovering a structure for story, you will need to work backwards from your pivotal event. If a conflict, tension, problem, crisis, issue, question, or desire was somehow resolved by your pivotal event, work backwards to the point when it (whatever it is) began to develop in your life as a concern. This point is your initiation into the story. You might simply ask yourself when was the first time you became aware of the conflict that the pivotal event resolved. Was there a series of connected incidents that incited a problem or desire the led eventually to the final pivotal event[s]?

Once you have a beginning and an end, you can focus on the movement between the two. Here selection and arrangement of material is most important. Write about only what is involved in a progressive narrative movement from the beginning to the end. Was there a person or power that stood in the way your reaching the pivotal event, and how did you get around such an obstacle[s]? How did your emotions or attitudes change along the way? Was there an unexpected event or complication that forced you into a crisis and that precipitated your pivotal event? Were there low points or high points along the way?

The climax is the moment[s] of transition when you actually experienced a change from "the old me" to "the new me." You might consider this a time of death and rebirth. Were there particular feelings, needs, perspectives, or beliefs that died or gave way to something entirely (or I suppose partially) new? Where were you, and what exactly were you doing, when the transformation took place? Did you realize that a change was taking place?

The resolution or conclusion should briefly note the consequences of the changes. Did your life change outwardly? Did you develop new ways of seeing the world? In what way were the internal changes apparent externally? How, and if, is "the new me" better than "the old me."

Good Thoughts


For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?--Matthew 16:26

What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what people think . . . It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion. It is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he, who in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.--Henry David Thoreau

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. –Henry David Thoreau

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter. It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.--Last words of Crowfoot, a Blackfoot Warrior

If you would be loved, love and be loveable.--Ben Franklin

Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.--Ben Franklin

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle.
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle. --Walt Whitman

A faithful friend is an elixir of life.--Ecclesiastics 6:16

Love is anterior to life—
Posterior to death—
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of earth.
--Emily Dickinson

There remain then, faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. --I Corinthians 13

Make love thy great quest; then desire spiritual gifts.--I Corinthians 14

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. –Anonymous

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not themselves. --Abraham Lincoln

The day will come when no badge or uniform or star will be worn. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dare to love god without mediator or veil. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enlightenment?

Becoming Enlightened

The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a vast intellectual movement that took place during the 17th and 18th centuries and profoundly influenced how people (particularly intellectuals) perceived both the world and humanity’s place in the world. As a way of perceiving, the Enlightenment was manifested in art, politics, religion, education, science, and economics. The movement advocated rationality—the use of reason—as a means to discover knowledge, ethics, and aesthetics. Believing that the world had for too long suffered in ignorance, superstition, and tyranny, Enlightenment thinkers urged to use of reason to move humanity out of fear and irrationality.

Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, Europe had been ravaged by religious wars. After so much suffering caused by religious sectarianism, there was an upheaval which overturned the notions of mysticism and faith in individual revelation as the primary source of knowledge and wisdom. By using reason, human beings could discover knowledge for themselves. Creation was not perceived as being mysterious and unknowable. Thus the Enlightenment was an age of optimism, believing that progress was inevitable.

Sir Isaac Newton became the great hero of the Enlightenment. Using scientific observation and experimentation, Newton popularized the notion that there were “natural laws” that governed the universe—and that by using reason individuals could discover these laws. The Enlightenment stressed that the world was comprehensible and orderly. As a religious philosophy, deism stressed that the Creator could best be perceived by studying creation—not through centuries-old revelations. God was perceived as the divine and benevolent clockmaker.

In his 1784 essay, “What is Enlightenment?” Immanuel Kant stated:

Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the
incapacity to use one’s own understanding without guidance of another. Such
immaturity is self-caused if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but by lack of
determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by
another.

In his Age of Reason (1794), Paine stated:

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

Engl 20923, Literature and Civilization II, sec. 674
Spring 2012, MW, 3:30-4:50 PM, Scharbauer 1011

Literature and Civilization II is a course intended to explore the role of literary, rhetorical, and dramatic expression in the development of cultural ideas, institutions, and roles. As it is vetted for global awareness credit (GA), the course is intended to help students develop a critical awareness of global perspectives. As it is also vetted for Humanities credit (Hum), the course is intended to help students analyze texts, examine the nature and value of human life, and construct relevant arguments.

01/18, W
introduction

01/23, M
What is literature? What is civilization?

01/25, W
class cancelled

01/30, M
Candide, Voltaire

02/01, W
Candide, Voltaire

02/06, M
Creating a Life Map
Writing Coming of Age Stories

02/08, W
library research: coming of age in the 1920s and 1930s

02/13, M
Valentine’s Day Celebration

02/15, W
Huck Finn, Mark Twain

02/20, M
Huck Finn, Mark Twain

02/22, W
Huck Finn, Mark Twain

02/27, M
“The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” Richard Wright

02/29, W
Film Adaptation, Almos’ a Man

03/05, M
“Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway

03/07, W
“Indian Camp” and “Ten Indians,” Ernest Hemingway

03/12, M
“The End of Something” and “The Three-Day Blow,” Ernest Hemingway

03/14, W
“Up in Michigan” and “The Sea Change,” Ernest Hemingway

03/19, M
Spring Break

03/21, W
Spring Break

03/26, M
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

03/28, W
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

04/02, M
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

04/04, W
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962 film)

04/09, M
library research: coming of age in the 1950s and 1960s

04/11, W
The House on Mango Street

04/16, M
The House on Mango Street

04/18, W
The House on Mango Street

04/23, M
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates

04/25, W
Smooth Talk (film adaptation of “Where Are You Going . . .”)

04/30, M
final presentations

05/02, W
final presentations

Requirements:

1) Service Learning: Service learning is one of the primary course components and is required of all students. The basic assumption behind service learning is that, by performing some type of community-engaged service, students can gain significant experience in their specific subject areas—and into their own lives. Together we will take on a class project helping international ESL students. At the beginning of the semester you will be paired with an ESL student as a conversation partner. You will be required to meet with you conversation partner a minimum of 6 times during the semester. You must meet three times before midterm grades are due (03/07), and three times after this date.

2) Blogging: In Three Parts.

Part I. To document your service-learning experiences, and as well to comment on your reading, you are required to keep an online journal or weblog. With the help of technology at Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), you will build your own web log, or “blog,” and keep an electronic journal of your experiences as a conversation partner, as a reader, and more generally as an individual living in a complicated world. You will be expected to write 6 one- to two-page reflections of your meetings with your conversation partner. These reflections should not only describe what you did but also your thoughts and reactions. Since conversation is obviously a two-way street, you will learn a lot about your partners as they learn from you, and you are asked to write about this process of learning and sharing in your blogs. Also, since one of the best ways to learn about a subject is to have to teach it, you will—hopefully—gain insight and sensitivity into English rhetorical practices, and you will be expected to comment on these insights.

Part II. You are also asked to write 4 one- to two-page reflections commenting on your reading experiences. These reading reflections must comment on each of the four novels (Candide, Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The House on Mango Street). If you wish, you may replace one of the novels with one of the eight assigned stories (blogs on 3 novels and 1 story). I encourage you to reflect on passages, issues, and writing that, in some way, moved you, or engaged your attention. What you write is up to you. You do not have to write a literary analysis, critically analyzing the relationships of plot, character, and setting. I would prefer that you examine your reading experience. What happened when you read the story? How did you respond to what you read, and why did you respond this way? Please make sure that you post your blogs on the day[s] the text is discussed in class.

Part III. Since our focus this semester is to explore the themes and issues portrayed in coming-of-age stories, you are further required to explore these same themes and issues in your own life. You are required to write 6 one- to two-page sketches based on the distributed coming-of-age prompts. You are free to choose any of the prompts, but I suggest that you choose 6 prompts that will somehow relate to coming-of-age experiences in your life. These sketches should be specific and descriptive. The more closely detailed and vivid these sketches are, the better. These sketches should provide the materials for your final coming-of-age story.

(You are also welcome to use your blog to reflect on any of your experiences throughout the semester, commenting on whatever moves you to write.)

Blogging is a less formal form of writing than an essay, and thus blogs are a good forum to reflect, analyze, vent, explore, and consider. But blogs are also a more public form of writing and, because of the technology, an excellent way of sharing, collaborating, and responding. In addition to posting your own blog entries, you will also be required to post brief responses of around 50 to 75 words to a minimum of 8 other course blogs throughout the semester. You are welcome to comment on any of the other course blogs, but please vary the blogs you respond to. Please do not respond to the same blog (and person).

Please keep in mind that blogs are a public forum, accessible to anyone who has internet access, so please do not post anything that you would not share with the classroom and internet communities.

You are required to post half of your blog assignments before midterm grades are due (03/07), and the final half before the last day of class (05/02).

3) Quizzes. In most classes there will be short quizzes. The questions will serve as a reading check, but they will also be used to generate discussion. The quizzes will be graded on a point scale, with 3 for excellent, 2 for good, and 1 for acceptable. At the end of the semester you will receive a cumulative score for your quizzes. Quizzes will be collected and returned.

4) Lead Respondent Assignment: Throughout the semester students will be asked to help lead our discussions, and these discussion-leader assignments may be undertaken individually or in small groups (maximum of 3). Each individual or group will choose a specific class day and will be expected to make a presentation on the primary text[s] assigned for that day. These presentations may include biographical or historical information about author, the composition and structure of the text[s], summaries of significant material, and analysis of themes and issues. More importantly, these presentations should also include a brief discussion of what the individual (or group) thinks is relevant in the text and a list of questions for discussion. These presentations should be informative and provocative. Yet at the same time they should also be enjoyable! I encourage you to consider creative suggestions for stimulating interest and arousing attention. Dramatizations may be videotaped, parts of texts acted out, and character roles performed. Multimedia presentations are always welcome.

A brief handout summarizing key points, pertinent information, and listing the questions
for discussion is required.

5) Library Research: To replace the classes on 02/08 and 04/09, you will be asked to conduct original research in the library by reading and commenting upon an early twentieth-century magazine (such as Life, Vogue, Time, Saturday Evening Post). I ask that you glance through several issues of an original magazine from the 20s or 30s, and then later from the 50s and 60s, and find a story, feature, or article that is somehow related to a coming-of-age theme; one you have found something related to a coming-of-age theme, I would then like you to write 2 one- to two-page responses about what this particular story, feature, or article (one for the 20s and 30s, and one for the 50s and 60s). But I also encourage you to comment on what the entire issue was like. What were the articles and advertisements like? What kind of world did they depict? From what you have read and observed, what was coming-of-age like in the 1920s and 1930s, and the 1950s and 1960s? How was it different then than it is now? You must post your responses by the following class (02/13 and 04/11). Late responses will not be accepted.

6) Final Presentations: For your final presentation, I would like you to put together a multimodal project that presents a reflection of your thoughts, observations, and experiences throughout the semester. Consider what you have learned that was interesting, striking, or memorable. These projects may include photographs, videos, sketches, recordings, music, prose, and poetry. You may use Power Point or present a video, or use other forms of multimodal presentation. Please be as creative as you like. As with the lead respondent assignments, please consider how to engage your audience’s attention. Along with your presentation, you must submit a one- to two-page justification of your presentation. These projects may be done individually or in small groups (maximum of 3). If done as a group project, each person's individual contributions must be apparent.

What you do in your final presentations is up to you, and part of the assignment is figuring out what to do. You can focus on a specific story, or on a combination of stories, or even on an entire series or theme that you found informative and interesting. This should be an opportunity to assess what you have learned.

7) Final Coming-of-Age Project: There will be a final project requiring you to submit a coming-of-age story. Your story could be—and probably should be—developed from one of your blog sketches, expanding, enhancing, and refining something you previously posted on your blog. Your story should be 5 to 10 pages and should be vivid, engaging, well written, and well structured. Your story should also reflect what you have learned about the coming-of-age genre throughout the semester.

8) Participation and Attendance: I am not formally setting an attendance policy, and you are responsible for your own attendance. I caution you, however, to keep in mind that the blog entries and quizzes cannot be made up or turned in late. I also caution you that work must be submitted on time. Points will be taken off for work submitted late. Finally, please keep in mind that active participation is a course requirement and weak participation will lower your final grade. Both written and verbal contributions will count towards participation.

9) Sense of Humor and An Appreciation of Irony: I also ask for your patience, understanding, and good humor. I sincerely wish that all of us enjoy our work together this semester, and I ask for your help in making this course a success.

Grading Scale:

ESL/ESL Blogs 15%
Reading Response Blogs 10%
Coming-of-Age Blogs 15%
Quizzes 10%
Library Research 10%
Lead Respondent Assignment 10%
Final Presentations 15%
Final Coming-of-Age Project 15%

Grading will be based on a scale of 100 points.

Dan Williams
Reed 414D and TCU Press (3000 Sandage)
817-257-6250, 817-257-7822
Office Hours: Friday, 10 to 12 AM, and by appointment
d.e.williams@tcu.edu

Course Outcomes:

--Students will analyze representative texts of significance and practice critical analysis of these texts
--Students will explore texts in terms of multiple cultural heritages, aesthetic approaches, and ideological perspectives
--Students will demonstrate critical awareness that problem solving in the global community requires the integration of a variety of perspectives
--Students will learn how to evaluate sources from a variety of perspectives and to use those sources
--Students will demonstrate through reading responses, informal writing, and class discussion a critical engagement with intellectually challenging texts
--Students will incorporate additional media into the composing products produced
--Students will demonstrate strategies of literary analysis through writing about the assigned texts in class
--Students will identify representative authors and works in a particular literary tradition
--Students will gain an appreciation of the development of the short story in a global perspective
--Students will gain pedagogical experience, and develop greater sensitivity to significant cultural issues

Academic Conduct: An academic community requires the highest standards of honor and integrity in all of its participants if it is to fulfill its missions. In such a community faculty, students, and staff are expected to maintain high standards of academic conduct. The purpose of this policy is to make all aware of these expectations. Additionally, the policy outlines some, but not all, of the situations which can arise that violate these standards. Further, the policy sets forth a set of procedures, characterized by a "sense of fair play," which will be used when these standards are violated. In this spirit, definitions of academic misconduct are listed below. These are not meant to be exhaustive. I. ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT Any act that violates the spirit of the academic conduct policy is considered academic misconduct. Specific examples include, but are not limited to: A. Cheating. Includes, but is not limited to: 1. Copying from another student's test paper, laboratory report, other report, or computer files and listings. 2. Using in any academic exercise or academic setting, material and/or devices not authorized by the person in charge of the test. 3. Collaborating with or seeking aid from another student during an academic exercise without the permission of the person in charge of the exercise. 4. Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release. 5. Substituting for another student, or permitting another student to substitute for oneself, in a manner that leads to misrepresentation of either or both students work. B. Plagiarism. The appropriation, theft, purchase, or obtaining by any means another's work, and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of that work as one's own offered for credit. Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another's work without giving credit therefore. C. Collusion. The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing work offered for credit. D. Abuse of resource materials. Mutilating, destroying, concealing, or stealing such materials. E. Computer misuse. Unauthorized or illegal use of computer software or hardware through the TCU Computer Center or through any programs, terminals, or freestanding computers owned, leased, or operated by TCU or any of its academic units for the purpose of affecting the academic standing of a student. F. Fabrication and falsification. Unauthorized alteration or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise. Falsification involves altering information for use in any academic exercise. Fabrication involves inventing or counterfeiting information for use in any academic exercise. G. Multiple submission. The submission by the same individual of substantial portions of the same academic work (including oral reports) for credit more than once in the same or another class without authorization. H. Complicity in academic misconduct. Helping another to commit an act of academic misconduct. I. Bearing false witness. Knowingly and falsely accusing another student of academic misconduct.

Disabilities Statement:

Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services located in Sadler Hall, 11. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-7486.

Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/DISABILITY.HTM.

Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.