Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Two quick notes about hebdomadals, and one quick note about office hours

Hi! I forgot to say one important thing about hebdomadals to my first section, and I forgot a different important thing for my second section:
  1. You must turn in a hebdomadal before discussion on Friday February 9th. This first hebdomadal replaces the one-page paper assignment Prof. Ortiz-Robles has been mentioning in class. For this first hebdomadal, I ask that you please stick fairly close to the topics I post online, if only so you get a sense of how I'm asking you ta tackle texts.
  2. If you write more than the required 5 hebdomadals, you will be able to accrue extra credit. I will keep counting hebdomadals until you reach 15 points -- that's 5 points over the amount set aside for hebdomadals.
Remember that my office hours are today after lecture (12:30 to 2:30 pm) at the Steep & Brew on State Street. Come visit me! I'd love to get a chance to meet you.
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Friday, January 26, 2007

Hebdomadal topic (week 2)

All hebdomadal topics are suggestions; feel free to write on a variation of this topic or on a topic entirely of your own devising. All hebdomadals, written on whatever topic, must be at least 300 words and must include
  1. An original argument backed up by
  2. A persuasive close reading subjected to
  3. Risky and interesting analysis.
Risky readings and claims are rewarded.

Hebdomadal topic (week 2)
On 1/25, Prof. Ortiz-Robles demonstrated an exceptionally close reading by spending an hour looking at the first 110 lines of "Tintern." Imitate that lecture by reading a small chunk of "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" or Middlemarch as closely as you can. (You should choose a chunk that Prof. Ortiz-Robles hasn't discussed in lecture and which we haven't discussed in section.) Work with at most 8 lines of the "Ode" or four sentences of Middlemarch. You should consider -- but not necessarily write about -- the following points:
  1. What is the surface meaning of this passage? (This question is more relevant if you're reading the "Ode.")
  2. What words carry multiple meanings and how are those multiple meanings important?
  3. What rhetorical tricks does the author use in the passage? (E.g. symbols, simile, metaphor, allusion, oxymoron, and other lingual tricks that have to do with word choice.)
  4. What formal tricks does the author use in this passage? (E.g. assonance, alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, repeated words, and other lingual tricks that have to do with word order.)
  5. What is the structure of the passage and how is that structure significant?
Alternate topic:
Ask a question of one of the texts we have read. These should be questions that can't be easily answered. Two quick examples:
  1. Why does Wordsworth footnote -- albeit vaguely -- the Edward Young allusion in line 106 of "Tintern"? He doesn't footnote his many other allusions (e.g. the allusion to Milton at 128f).
  2. Why does George Eliot begin Middlemarch with that scene about the Brooke sisters' late mother's jewelry? The jewelry plays no role in the plot of the novel, but yet it is given rather a good deal of narrative importance at the beginning of the book. You might reframe this question as one about symbol: given that GE is probably trying to introduce the sisters' personalities, why does she use a dispute over jewelry (and not over money, philosophy, religion, politics, science, or the other major themes of the text) to accomplish this?
Your goal in this hebdomadal is not only to suggest possible answers to the question you ask (if it can be answered) but to use your focused, narrow question as a way of way of getting at the larger questions of the text.
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

From the archives

In the past few semesters I have accumulated around 200 posts on my class blogs. Although these were introductory literature courses and my comments subsequently geared towards a somewhat less experienced level of student, these posts nonetheless offer concrete examples and baseline advice about what I'm looking for. If you have a few minutes to kill and you're looking to kill them productively, you might click through one or two of these posts:



Prof. Ortiz-Robles taught both the English 167 classes listed above; the examples from those particular archives might therefore be the most immediately relevant.

(An earlier version of this post appeared here.)
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