Skip to main content

October 17th Class Review and Homework

Class, I hope you enjoyed our visit with Forressa Harrison today, as well as your exposure to Spoken Word poetry. Here's a little history of Spoken Word poetry: Amercian Poet Marc Smith is credited with starting the poetry slam in Novemeber of 1984. In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam took place in Fort Mason, San Francisco. So, this is an American literary movement, much in line with some of our other movements around the same time, like hiphop and rap. Notice the similarities with the way Spoken Word is constructed. Spoken word relies on a heavy use of rhythm, improvisation, word play, and slang. Spoken Word is writing that is meant to be read aloud and performed. 

Next, we spent some time reviewing the War of 1812, some of Jefferson's idiosyncracies, and a very important court case: Marbury vs. Madison. I have a separate post on this with your assignment that is due in two weeks, on Halloween. But this topic of the effects of a powerful judicial review continues to dominate our news today. In fact, I came home today and saw this headline: Federal Judge Blocks Trump's Travel Ban. But this wasn't the only headline discussing the Constitutionality of our branches in power. Here's another headline questioning the purpose and restrictions of the Executive Branch. That's the President's position, if you need a refresher. Check these links out. We will discuss them in class. It is imperative that you understand the roles outlined in our Constitution and recognize the issues that are still under review today. These are two of the articles of our Constitution popping up in a modern debate on the headline news. I didn't even need to search for them. Although, I'm sure we could easily do a quick search and find some kind of debate concerning our Legislative branch. Just look up "filibusters."

As for our literature, you are assigned the Emerson's "Blight" in your OBAP. However, please also read Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown." What similarities do you see with Hawthorne's story and The Crucible? What symbols do you see? What is the THEME? I'd like you to write an INTRODUCTORY paragraph, as if you were writing an essay on "Young Goodman Brown." This must include a thesis statement.


Your Assignment:
Using the four elements discussed today (autobiographical information, bridge, summary, and thesis), write an introductory paragraph of your own. Choose a different theme from the story we read and follow the pattern. Don’t worry; you don’t have to write the entire essay. You just need to write this one introductory paragraph.
If you are having difficulty, refer to the sample essay. 

 For your history, I'm going to simplify it because I want you to focus on your essay. So, each of you will research the cotton gin and the rise of the Northern Industry before the Civil War. I will introduce you to our next literary movement next week: Trancendentalism.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tiny House Living and Transcendentalism

This week's class will explore transcendentalism, Emerson, and Thoreau. But like most of the topics we've studied so far, we can find modern connections. Transcendentalism was a religious movement that grew out of Romanticism between 1836-1860. We can define it as a spiritual, philosophical, literary movement with ties to the Unitarian Church around Boston. Like Romanticism, this movement emphasized individual rights and inspiration, the latter, especially within nature. Transcendentalists believed that individuals can discover truth for themselves, rather than learning it through tradition. It differs from Romanticism in that it focused on God. Transcendentalists believed that God was everywhere and could be discovered through intuition and that all people have a divine inner light. By accessing this light or intuition, they can transcend the ordinary and experience the spiritual. The five tenets of Transcendentalism: 1. Nonconformity 2. Self-Reliance 3. Importanc
Post a Comment
Read more

Flannery O'Connor Analysis on "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

               Grace and Theology: A Necessary Discussion of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Heather Chandler             D.H. Lawrence asserts in his Studies in Classic American Literature, that “the proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it” (8). While this approach is helpful and necessary in many works of literature, it is both misleading and damaging to do so with Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” A popular new way of interpreting her work is to look through a secular lens, but separating her Catholic beliefs and allusions reduces her work to a simplistic ambiguous tale, molded to suit our own postmodern desires; and, this is essentially as misguided as looking at Da Vinci’s Last Supper and refusing to note its religious connotations. Instead, we should look at the larger picture, seeing her clear intentions and accepting that her challenging views on redemption and grace are designed to make us uncomf
Post a Comment
Read more

September 12th Review and Homework

Sorry for the late post. I wanted to have this up last night, but I host a writing group once a month. Yes, I am still working on my own writing. Yesterday, you all read The Declaration of Independence ! That's pretty awesome, right? I think that already puts you above most of the population. And we tackled Phillis Wheatley's "Providence," which is certainly no easy task. Not only are you dabbling in some of America's greatest works, you are learning some very important analysis skills. This is something you will use your entire life! Even if you do not choose to read lots of great literature when you leave my class, (but I hope to convince you otherwise), you will be surrounded by music, advertisements, arguments, and political debates. You must learn to analyze those messages around you in a very critical way. What allusions are they making? Why is that significant? How does it influence their message? Or your stance? We are going to continue working on our
2 comments
Read more