January 14

AGENDA:

1. Questions on Dante assignment
2. A personal journey
3. Relevance? 
4. If time, go over vocab


 Resources on Dante:

- A Dante Internet Primer by Lisa Hudgins:
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis710/StudentWebGuides/Danteprimer.htm
- Dante's Inferno: Interactive Map: http://www.allectomedia.com/dante/dante_map.cfm
- Digital Dante at Columbia University: http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/new/
- Prose Paraphrase: Inferno-Dr.Goëtes: http://24.24.31.212/literature/POL-DC-TEXT-Inferno.htm
- Danteworlds- U. of Texas,Austin: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/utopia/index2.html
- The Inferno: Translated by James Finn Cotter http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/Inferno_int.htm
Helpful Introduction and convenient arrangement by Canto, with notes right beside the text
- Dante in SparkNotes: http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/inferno/
- Dante World Lit Homepage: includes great links to Dante-inspired visual art, John Ciardi’s summary
of The Inferno, etc: http://jade.ccccd.edu/Andrade/WorldLitI2332/Dante/dante/DanteHomePage.html


HW: Vocab Friday; Column next Tuesday; 

January 13

AGENDA:

1. Registration presentation
2. if time, go over vocabulary for the week
3. Turn in your columnists summary, analysis

HW: Vocab Friday, Columnists next week (Monday); Dante's assigned cantos; building your own Modern Hell

January 10

AGENDA:

1. New seating and groups
2. Go over poems from Wednesday/Thursday
3. Apostrophe and Invocation - Literary Terms
4. Hand out Dante's Inferno novels
5. Discuss plan for Dante's Inferno + Handouts

SOAPSTONE

Subject
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Speaker
TONE



HW: Introduction to Dante's Inferno read by Monday - take notes and be ready to discuss; Passage to India extra credit due by midnight tonight.
Vocab next week - see blog under Vocab; Another columnists article due Monday

January 9

AGENDA:


1. My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell. - Emily Dickinson


2. Understanding the poem and analyzing techniques


HW: Vocabulary next Friday - words are in vocabulary section of the blog. Start studying!


Background on Emily Dickinson:


Almost unknown as a poet in her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is now recognized as one of America's greatest poets and, in the view of some, as one of the greatest lyric poets of all time. The past fifty years or so have seen an outpouring of books and essays attempting to explain her poetry and her life. Some critics have used her life to try to explain her poetry, and others have tried to explain her life by referring to her poems, which they assume are autobiographical. Psychologically-oriented readers have subjected her to psychoanalytical diagnoses and labels, such as "a helpless agoraphobic trapped in her father's house"; her poetry has been interpreted as the last gasp of New England Puritanism; feminist critics see her as a victim of patriarchy in general or her father in particular; gender critics find homosexuality in her life and writings. These are just a few examples of the theorizing which Emily Dickinson and her poetry have inspired.

The large number of poems she wrote (over 1700 of them) makes it easy for critics to find support for their theories. And the fact that her life, her poems, and her letters are often difficult, if not impossible to understand invites speculation.

Emily Dickinson can be seen as eccentric or as psychologically unbalanced or even crazy. For example, from her late teens through her twenties she adopted the more childish spelling of her name, "Emilie"; her letters repeatedly express the wish to remain a child. She didn't learn to tell time until her mid-teens, because, she claimed, as a child she hadn't understood her father's explanation and didn't want him to know. She wore only white for almost her entire adult life. Of course there is a great deal of conjecture about her love life and her never marrying: are the references in her poems and letters to actual men whom she was in love with, or are the men and love imaginary? She became increasingly reclusive in her thirties until finally she almost never left the house. Her behavior at social gatherings in the Dickinson home, while she still attended them, was distinct. She asked whether a guest would rather have a glass of wine or a rose. One guest described her manner of appearing at such occasions: "a moment when conversation lagged a little, she would sweep in, clad in immaculate white, pass through the rooms, silently curtseying and saluting right and left, and sweep out again."

As a recluse, she occasionally stayed in her room rather than meet even close friends and rushed away when strangers visited; sometimes she talked with friends while hidden behind a partially open door. She stayed in her room and listened to her father's funeral service, which was held on the lawn of her home. She stayed in the next room to listen to a young woman play her piano and then sent her notes of appreciation. Even when ill, including when she was dying, she kept aloof; her doctor had to diagnose her as she walked by an open door. This does not mean that she cut herself off entirely from people; she had an extensive and active correspondence and saw an occasional, special visitor; she loved her brother's children and lowered baskets of baked goods via a pulley outside her window for neighborhood children.
And throughout her seclusion, Dickinson wrote poetry in her room. Some critics speculate that her withdrawal enabled her to write her poetry; it gave her both the space to write (her room) and the time to write by freeing her from woman's duties. Not even her sister Lavinia, on whom she depended, knew the extent of Emily's writing, not until she came across over 1700 poems after Emily's death.
Only a few of Dickinson's poems were published during her lifetime. For an editor preparing her poems for publication, determining the text of many poems presents problems.

Some poems are unfinished; a few even seem to be rough drafts.
More than one version exists of a number of poems. Because she did not publish these poems, she did not have to make a final decision about which word, line, or stanza she preferred. Also, she included poems in her letters, changing them to fit her correspondent or the subject of the letter. In her letters, she sometimes writes poems as prose and prose as poetry, so that it is hard to distinguish them. Her occasionally idiosyncratic spelling, punctuation, and word choice can be distracting to readers, so that editors have to decide whether to change her text to conform to modern usage.
But what matters is that Emily Dickinson's poetry speaks powerfully to us, the reader. It captures her insights and recreates meaningful events in living; it helps us to understand and even to re-live our own experiences through her intensity and with her emotional and intellectual clarity.

Note: Emily Dickinson did not name her poems; the titles were assigned by early editors of her poems. In her poems, Emily Dickinson used a variety of personas, including a little girl, a queen, a bride, a bridegroom, a wife, a dying woman, a nun, a boy, and a bee. Though nearly 150 of her poems begin with "I," the speaker is probably fictional, and the poem should not automatically be read as autobiography. Dickinson insisted on the distinction between her poetry and her life: "When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse, it does not mean--me--but a supposed person."

January 8

WELCOME BACK

AGENDA:

1. Journal Write - 
    What is it you hope to accomplish this second semester of English Honors - what are your goals in this class? What has worked well and what has not? How can I help you do better and become a stronger critical thinker/writer/reader? Consider what growth do you see in yourself as a writer? As a reader? As a thinker? Based on comments by me and your peers, what are the weaknesses in your writing and what do you perceive as your weaknesses? Pick an essay or analysis that you have written so far this year and tell me what worked, what didn't.
NO cop outs on this - give specifics and think it through. (20mins)

2. Read Dante Alighieri's poem, "Because you know you're young in beauty yet" and answer questions. Due at end of class. (30 mins)




HW: * Extra credit assignment on Passage to India due January 10th via email to dbyrne@righetti.us. Write a critical analysis on the following two separate questions.
      Assert a big idea

Argue it

Give specifics

Respond to the prompt?
1. What is the role of satire in the movie? How does it function in the movie? 2. Do you think cultures can ever really find understanding? Explain and site references to the movie.

Spring Semester Literature Analysis

Each student must complete three Literature Analyses each semester; you may do as many as you can for extra credit. (each additional L.A. will be worth 50 points, not to exceed 200 points)

LITERATURE ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

Please answer the following questions about the book you selected.

Make sure to provide appropriate examples to support your ideas.

Author/Title

1.       Genre

2.       Historical information about the period of publication if applicable

Looking Closer at a Character

1.       Five fun facts about the character

2.       Three questions you would like to ask this character

3.       What would the character recommend for you to read? Why?

4.      Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

5.       After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

Meeting the Author

1.       If you could meet the author, three questions you would ask the author? Why?

2.       What gift would you give the author? (Think of something that would be meaningful to them)

3.       A picture of the author and an image that reflects their accomplishments, things they are known for, era, etc.

Tone

1.       Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

Creating your own analysis of the novel

1. Identify a question about the book that could drive a paper, i.e. What was the author trying to accomplish in writing this novel? Why?; Why does the author use such complex characters and what purpose does it serve? In the end, did Beckett shape my views on man’s purpose? Does Beckett really accomplish anything? Etc…..

2. Create a thesis or assertion about the novel (answer the questions above) using our complex thesis formula to answer the question.

Although clause, (other words work just as well here – despite,  admittedly, notwithstanding, granted, in spite of, etc.)
assertion clause;   (what do you believe to be true and why)
therefore, (other words work just as well here - so that, with the result that, thus, consequently, hence, accordingly, for this reason, so, because, since, due to, as a result, in other words, then, finally, consequently, in short, as a result, accordingly, for this purpose, to this end, with this in mind, with this purpose in mind.)
call to action.  (this needs to be to all, society, individuals, we (collectively).