Modernism and Media

English 10LC - Fall 2008

Notes

last assignments

Please read here and here for details on the last two online assignments for the class, one of which is meant to replace the class we are missing due to the holiday. You should do at least one of these assignments during the holiday weekend (before Monday), and should respond to other students' thoughts in addition to writing your own post. Cre… Continue

Created by mike Nov 24, 2008 at 7:34pm. Last updated by mike Nov. 25, 2008.

one more note

You should also feel free to read and comment on each others close reading posts in addition to writing your own posts, in part so that you may avoid picking duplicate passages, but also to spark discussion (but be respectful of course). As I wrote earlier, look for passages where it seems like Woolf is really making a point about gender, sexuality or pre-World War I society in Britain. Look for passages where you can exercise skills in "reading between the lines."
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Created by mike Nov 7, 2008 at 11:10am. Last updated by mike Nov. 9, 2008.

this week's assignment

Please choose one fragment (one section within a chapter) from Jacob's Room and write a post on your own blog within Ning to give a close reading of the passage. Analyze shifts in narrative point of view (use of free indirect discourse) and other poetic and literary techniques. Try to read in between the lines to discover what the fragment says about Jacob, any of the other characters, their relationships, or pre-World War I British society. Al… Continue

Created by mike Nov 5, 2008 at 2:06pm. Last updated by mike Nov. 5, 2008.

new terms

Also note that I additionally posted two larger terms that you should be able to define from this week's reading in the Forum for more extensive commentary and discussion.
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Created by mike Oct 16, 2008 at 2:50pm. Last updated by mike Oct. 16, 2008.

more terms assignment

As I mentioned in class, this weekend, please comment on the "film terms" post by choosing one term and defining it in a comment. You should be able to understand the terms in such a way that you could use them in a close reading paper to analyze a short film or scene from a film. Feel free to give examples, and please list any sources you use (texts or websites). If any terms remain unclear, you may also continue to post comments that ask questions or attempt to clarify.
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Created by mike Oct 16, 2008 at 2:45pm. Last updated by mike Oct. 16, 2008.

assignment this week

Please contribute towards the definition of at least one course term listed under the "forum" portion of the website. When you define, also give examples relevant to course material. You may add your opinion about the significance of the term to whatever anyone else has posted, and you may also add information from outside sources, so long as you cite them. If someone posts information from a source you disagree with, or you think is incomplete, please say so. Think of this as practice for t… Continue

Created by mike Oct 6, 2008 at 2:42pm. Last updated by mike Oct. 6, 2008.

delicious

Remember to also make an account on delicious.com. Once you do you may email me the username and I will add you to the course network, which I will add to the ning page shortly.
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Created by mike Oct 1, 2008 at 1:43am. Last updated by mike Oct. 1, 2008.

profile and content guidelines

One thing to remember: online participation is an extension of classroom participation, and our online community is an extension of our classroom community. So please keep the same general considerations in mind that you would for any interaction in our actual classroom.
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Created by mike Sep 29, 2008 at 7:59pm. Last updated by mike Sep. 30, 2008.

welcome

Once you've joined, please add profile information and tell us who you are. Feel free to add as much to your own page as you like, and start your own blog posts. Be as creative as you can. Of course you can continue to add to and modify your profiles throughout the quarter.
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Created by mike Sep 29, 2008 at 2:18pm. Last updated by mike Sep. 29, 2008.

Notes Home

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Created by mike Sep 29, 2008 at 10:38am. Last updated by mike Sep. 29, 2008.

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critical appreciation

19 discussions

poetry/media

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final exam review

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final exam

Here are more precise specifications for the final exam:

Date: Saturday, December 13, 12-3pm. NH 1111.

Please bring at least one blue book.

Format: The exam will consist of 10 passage identifications drawn from course material. Please review all course readings in addition to the film clips archived on the course website. You will be expected to provide accurate title and author information for all texts (2 points). Then you will be expected to provide a close reading of approxi… Continue

Posted by mike on December 5, 2008 at 10:19am

belle and sebastian

Here is a version of "The Stars of Track and Field" by Belle and Sebastian. I will also play the album version in class. Listen to this and also read the lyrics by clicking here.

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Posted by mike on December 2, 2008 at 10:07am

postmodernism and media

One aspect of postmodern literature is its increasing reliance on popular culture. Please choose a poem by Elizabeth Willis or John Yau and watch one of the following media associated with it excerpted on Youtube (optional watch the whole thing). Do a small amount of research about the film you choose, and write a discussion forum post about what you think the author of the poem is getting out of the piece of popular culture he or she is appropriating. Why borrow from popular culture in this way… Continue

Posted by mike on November 24, 2008 at 2:52pm

critical appreciation

Over the holiday weekend, choose one poem by a postmodern/contemporary poet in the reader and write a "critical appreciation" in the discussion forum section of the website: John Ashbery, Robert Creeley, Barbara Guest, Jack Spicer, Peter Gizzi, Elizabeth Willis, Bernadette Mayer or John Yau. What I mean by this is to use techniques and themes we have discussed in class to assess or critique the importance, enjoyability, or innovative-ness of a recent poet. Use close reading techniques to make a… Continue

Posted by mike on November 24, 2008 at 2:39pm

second paper topics

Fall 2008
English 10LC
Mike Frangos

Second Paper – Paper Topics

Due: Wednesday, November 26 (by email)

Length: 5 pages

Format: MLA Style (12 point font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, double spaced)

1) Take one fragment from Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room. Give a close reading analyzing Woolf’s commentary on pre-World War I British society. Pay careful attention to the gender dynamics, the portrayal of sexuality, and the treatment of character psychology. What does the… Continue

Posted by mike on November 24, 2008 at 2:26pm

research paper

English 10LC
Fall 2008
Mike Frangos

Research Paper

Due: Saturday, December 13th by email

Proposal: Monday, December 1st by email

Length: 10-15pages

Format: MLA style (see research guide)

Purpose: in lieu of a final exam, you may choose to write a research paper treating any specific text from class in its historical context. The goal of this assignment is twofold. First, it assesses your ability to discover primary sources related to a topic of your choos… Continue

Posted by mike on November 19, 2008 at 2:34pm

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

This poem was somehow left out of the reader.

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS
By Langston Hughes

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow
of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing… Continue

Posted by mike on November 17, 2008 at 2:37pm

Tell Me

This GLBTQ culture encyclopedia entry on Langston Hughes gives a very good overview of issues surrounding his life and work, and the controversy regarding his homosexuality. I've been looking for a digital image of the poster described here. Perhaps locating the LA Times article referred to would be a good research assignment.

On June 13, 1991, The Los Angeles Times ran an article entitled "Battle Lines" reporting on the co

… Continue

Posted by mike on November 17, 2008 at 2:32pm

more difficulty

To be honest with you, I really can't get enough of James Joyce. Read the first couple pages of his first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1914).

What are some of the ways we have understood modernist difficulty so far?

-- the pleasure of nonsense, baby talk (Gertrude Stein, James Joyce)

-- experimentation, play with language, language itself as a "new sensation" (nearly all modernists)

-- deceptive simpli… Continue

Posted by mike on November 5, 2008 at 2:22pm

difficulty

As you realize by now, especially from reading Woolf, many works of literary modernism are difficult. What makes them difficult? Why choose difficulty as a way of writing, or even more basically, presenting oneself?

Jacob's Room was published in 1922, considered a banner year for modernism because it also saw the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland.

Major "difficult" modern texts:

Gertrude Stein, Tende… Continue

Posted by mike on November 3, 2008 at 2:26pm