Postmodernism/Metafiction

What is postmodernism?

The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain tendencies in post-World War II literature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature. Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. However, unifying features often coincide with Jean-François Lyotard's concept of the "meta-narrative" and "little narrative," Jacques Derrida's concept of "play," and Jean Baudrillard's "simulacra." For example, instead of the modernist quest for meaning in a chaotic world, the postmodern author eschews, often playfully, the possibility of meaning, and the postmodern novel is often a parody of this quest. This distrust of totalizing mechanisms extends even to the author; thus postmodern writers often celebrate chance over craft and employ metafiction to undermine the author's "univocal" control (the control of only one voice). The distinction between high and low culture is also attacked with the employment of pastiche, the combination of multiple cultural elements including subjects and genres not previously deemed fit for literature. A list of postmodern authors often varies; the following are some names of authors often so classified, most of them belonging to the generation born in the interwar period: William Burroughs (1914-1997), Alexander Trocchi (1925-1984), Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), John Barth (b. 1930), Donald Barthelme (1931-1989), E. L. Doctorow (b. 1931), Robert Coover (1932), Jerzy Kosinski (1933-1991) Don DeLillo (b. 1936), Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937), Ishmael Reed (1938), Kathy Acker (1947-1997), Paul Auster (b. 1947)^[1], Orhan Pamuk (b. 1952).

Metafiction is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion. It is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually using irony and self-reflection. It can be compared to presentational theatre, which does not let the audience forget it is viewing a play; metafiction does not let the reader forget he or she is reading a fictional work.



Metafiction is primarily associated with Modernist and Postmodernist literature, but is found at least as early as the 9th-century One Thousand and One Nights and Chaucer's 14th-century Canterbury Tales. Cervantes' Don Quixote is a metafictional novel, as is James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824). In the 1950s several French novelists published works whose styles were collectively dubbed "nouveau roman". These "new novels" were characterized by their bending of genre and style and often included elements of metafiction. It became prominent in the 1960s, with authors and works such as John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, Robert Coover's The Babysitter and The Magic Poker, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and William H. Gass's Willie Master's Lonesome Wife. William H. Gass coined the term “metafiction” in a 1970 essay entitled “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction”. Unlike the antinovel, or anti-fiction, metafiction is specifically fiction about fiction, i.e. fiction which self-consciously reflects upon itself.

Shakespeare's HAMLET

As we read Hamlet, consider the following major themes:


• Revenge: Hamlet searches continuously for the answer to the question of whether or not he should avenge his father’s death. His concern with right and wrong in religious, moral, and political terms causes him much inner turmoil.
(Journal Topics 1, 2)
• Appearance vs. Reality: The play contains many situations in which the surface appearance of things does not always match reality. Hamlet struggles to determine who his true friends are; the players in the acting troupe assume new identities; Claudius appears to be a true and just king and Gertrude his virtuous queen. (Journal Topics 4, 8, 10, 11)
• Sanity vs. Insanity: In many ways this conflict is intertwined with the theme of appearance vs. reality. Hamlet’s sanity or insanity has baffled critics for years. Even the characters in the play discuss inconsistencies in Hamlet’s behavior,sometimes assuming he is really insane, at other times amazed by his clarity of thought. (Journal Topics 3, 9)
• : Among the most powerful images of the play are those which reveal disintegrating situations, both in personal terms for Prince Hamlet, and in political terms for Denmark. (Journal Topics 1, 2, 9, 12)

Journal Topics

Journal Topics
• How common do you believe the act of revenge is in everyday life? Write about specific incidents, including any in which you were involved or have witnessed.
• Find magazine/newspaper articles, short stories, plays, poems, or novels containing events motivated by revenge. How might events have been changed had someone not sought revenge?
• Characterize yourself as a "thinker" or a "doer." In this respect what character in the play are you most like? How would you like to be different, or would you like to be different?
• Have you or anyone you have known ever seen or claimed to have witnessed some kind of supernatural being? Explain the circumstances surrounding the event. Do you believe in the supernatural? Explain.
• In Act I, scene iii of Hamlet, Polonius gives Laertes a great deal of "fatherly advice" about how to live his life. Look at this section and find advice you have heard from your own parents. How valuable is this advice? Have you used it? Have you been involved in any situation to which this advice was applicable?
• To what extent do parents have the right to "spy" or check up on their children? What circumstance might allow or prevent this?
• How are relationships between stepparents and stepchildren generally depicted in fiction or film? Do you have any experience with or knowledge of step-relationships? What conflicts and barriers must be overcome? What are the advantages, the positive aspects of these relationships?
• Are parents generally blind to their children’s faults? Why or why not?
• King Claudius states "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go." (III, i) How is this true in any age? What evidence can you find in recent news stories to support this statement? How do societies keep checks and balances on their "great ones?"
• So you know what an "apple polisher" is? Have you every known one or been one yourself? Why do you think people do this? How do you feel about it?
• Have you ever been the victim of unrequited love? How did you feel? Have you ever been the recipient of affection from someone whom you did not care about? How did you feel about this situation?
• Write about a time when you discovered that someone was purposefully plotting against you for some reason. Explain the situation—how you felt, how it turned out.

House of Seven Gables Discussion questions

Post an individual response to 3 of these questions or essay topics for individual credit.

Your post should show evidence of critical thinking and reference to the text.
Your 3 posts are due on Monday, May 24, for full credit.


1. Who would you say is the principal protagonist of The House of the Seven Gables? Who is the principal antagonist?

2. In the Preface, Hawthorne claims his book is a romance rather than a novel. Romances need not deal with “everyday, ordinary things” and usually incorporate fantastic elements. Do you think that The House of the Seven Gables is more of a romance or a novel? Should it be classified as another genre altogether?

The House of the Seven Gables is, in fact, a skillful blending of both narrative approaches. The book contains some fantastic elements, but most of these never stray far from reality. Two scenes—the two Maule ghosts restraining the spirit of Colonel Pyncheon and the ghosts parading in front of the dead Judge—are too fantastical to have actually occurred, but one is presented as a vision of Alice Pyncheon’s and the other as speculation on the narrator’s part. The hypnotic powers of the young Matthew Maule and Holgrave are certainly eerie and mystical, but hypnosis does exist, and therefore these scenes are not entirely fantastical. While The House of the Seven Gables does not belong to the horror genre, it does incorporate many elements of horror, sharing with the horror genre the realization that the greatest shock value can be created by making things too horrible to be true but not so awful that they can’t be believed. By straddling the line between the romance and the novel, and by refusing to commit entirely to any genre, Hawthorne makes his work shocking but also thought-provoking. He creates a work of fiction that entertains and teaches with a fantastical plot that is also rich with literary and historical themes.

Close

3. Discuss the role of “fate” in the novel. How much of the Pyncheons’ bad luck is caused by fate, and how much results from their own actions and choices?

At the beginning of The House of the Seven Gables, fate is believed to direct the fortunes of Hepzibah and Clifford. The novel indulges this belief with its graphic descriptions of a curse that has worked itself into the very walls of the house. As the story progresses, however, we begin to wonder if other elements are not also at work. Holgrave’s revolutionary doctrine of tearing down the houses of the dead implies that Clifford and Hepzibah become complicit in their persecution by being passive. They accept the cruelty they are handed with a meekness that borders on irresponsibility. The rest of the Pyncheons also appear to be partly responsible for their own bad luck: Maule’s curse seems to affect only those who are driven by excessive ambition and greed, while the more docile members of the family seem to lead happy lives. To a certain extent, the novel does put a lot of stock in fate, which is demonstrated by its eloquent passages depicting the house as an inescapable prison. Nonetheless, the story also suggests repeatedly that fate is simply another obstacle to overcome, and that our ultimate destiny always remains ours to determine.

Close

Suggested Essay Topics

1. Discuss the presence of decay and decaying things in The House of the Seven Gables. What does decay symbolize in the novel?
2. Can Clifford be considered a good person? How is his goodness or malice reflected in the way he treats Phoebe and Hepzibah?
3. Discuss the role of hypnotism and mesmerism in The House of the Seven Gables.
4. How is Phoebe different from all the other characters in the novel? Does she resemble any one character more than the others? If so, why?
5. Why does Hepzibah continue to refuse the Judge’s offers of financial help? Can these offers be viewed as genuine, or are there by ulterior motives?

House of Seven Gables Study guide

www.searchlit.org/novels/499.php
www.searchlit.org/novels/499.php

Go to website, use study questions for discussion, post a group comment

Scarlet Letter Study questions

www.studyguide.org/scarlet_letter_guide.htm

Go to website, discuss questions, post a group response.

The Scarlet Letter Questions for Study and Discussion

The Scarlet Letter is one of the greatest works by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here are a few questions for study and discussion.

* What is important about the title?

* What are the conflicts in The Scarlet Letter? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) are in this novel?

* How does Nathaniel Hawthorne reveal character in The Scarlet Letter?

* What are some themes in the story? How do they relate to the plot and characters?

* What are some symbols in The Scarlet Letter? How do they relate to the plot and characters?

* Is Hester consistent in her actions? Is she a fully developed character? How? Why?

* Do you find the characters likable? Are the characters persons you would want to meet?

* Does the story end the way you expected? How? Why?

* What is the central/primary purpose of the story? Is the purpose important or meaningful?

* How does this novel relate to feminist literature? Is Hester a strong female character?

* How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?

* What is the role of women in the text? How are mothers represented? What about single/independent women?

* Would you recommend this novel to a friend?

May 10-Study Literary Terms/Reduced Shakespeare

View Reduced Shakespeare Company video

Study for Wednesday's AP exam---literary terms

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Pick up Scarlet Letter or House of the Seven Gables

The House of the Seven Gables

On Rochester:
www.eldritchpress.org/nh/roch.html#g03

Link to Rappacini's Daughter:

www.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/authors/Hawthorne/Rappaccini.htm

Link to "Young Goodman Brown":

www.online-literature.com/poe/158/

Link to "The Birthmark":

www.online-literature.com/poe/125/

Quiz on Transcendentalism Wednesday--STUDY

Be sure you know the definition of American Transcendentalism, its primary authors, and its essential beliefs. 

Who is Ralph Waldo Emerson?  What is his background, his philosophy, and his important works?

Who is Henry David Thoreau?  What is his background, his philosophy, and important works?

Who is Walt Whitman?  What is his background, his important works, and the major themes of these works?

The Current Costs of War

In case you were interested:


www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933935.html

Week 4/12

Be sure you turned in your packet from last week for credit.

Work on handout on SYNTAX!!!!
Simple, compound, complex sentences:
www.eslbee.com/sentences.htm

On Civil Disobedience Excerpts

www.powayusd.com/teachers/clewis/civil_disobedience.htm

Lives of Quiet Desperation

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

Henry David Thoreau quotes (American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher, 1817-1862)

Henry David Thoreau Walden

Chapter One: ‘‘Economy’’
Thoreau begins by telling readers that he is writing to answer why he chose to live alone for more than two years in a small, simple cabin near Walden Pond. Much of the chapter is devoted to explaining that the way most people live, spending all their time and energy working to acquire luxuries, does not lead to human happiness and wellbeing. Thoreau writes that he prefers having time to walk in nature and to think much more than working long hours to pay for big houses, large tracts of land, herds of animals, or other property. He goes so far as to say that the ownership of such things is actually a disadvantage, as one who owns them must take care of them, while one who owns little has more freedom to do as he or she pleases. This is why Thoreau chose to live simply and cheaply in a house he built for himself: in simplicity and economy he found freedom. Finally, Thoreau describes how he built his house. He includes exact figures showing how much he spent on materials (twenty-eight dollars and twelve and one-half cents).

Chapter Two: ‘‘Where I Lived, and What I Lived For’’
Continuing the idea set forth in the first chapter, Thoreau writes that he once considered buying a farm. He realized, though, that a person did not have to own a farm to enjoy those things about it that are most valuable, such as the beauty of its landscape. Thoreau concludes: ‘‘But I would say to my fellows, once for all, as long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.’’ He urges his readers to simplify their lives as well so that they may live fully and freely.

Thoreau describes the area around his cabin and how much he enjoyed the peaceful natural surroundings. He answers the question why he lived there:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Chapter Three: ‘‘Reading’’
Here Thoreau makes a case for reading good books. He points out that the best books are ‘‘the noblest recorded thoughts of man’’ and that such books can take readers nearer to heaven. He complains that hardly anyone reads these books. Instead, he writes, people who are perfectly capable of reading the classics waste their time on unchallenging and worthless popular stories. He calls society to task for failing to be a ‘‘patron of the fine arts.’’

Chapter Four: ‘‘Sounds’’
Thoreau writes that reading must be complemented by direct experience. This is in keeping with his transcendentalist philosophy, which emphasizes direct, intuitive experience of nature, truth and the divine.

In this chapter, Thoreau focuses on the sounds he experiences at Walden, from the singing of birds to the whistle of a train, and on how these sounds affect his mood. The sounds of animals especially cause him to feel the unity and joy of all things.

Chapter Five: ‘‘Solitude’’
Thoreau makes his case that the companionship of nature is more fulfilling than that of humans, and that he could not possibly be lonely in nature because he is a part of it. The plants and animals are his friends and, amid the peace of nature, God himself is the author’s visitor:

I have occasional visits . . . from an old settler and original proprietor, who is reported to have dug Walden Pond, and stoned it, and fringed it with pine woods; who tells me stories of old time and of new eternity; and between us we manage to pass a cheerful evening with social mirth and pleasant views of things.

Chapter Six: ‘‘Visitors’’
Calling himself ‘‘no hermit,’’ Thoreau writes that he did have visitors during his years at Walden. He describes at length a Canadian woodchopper who often did his work in the woods around Thoreau’s cabin. Thoreau got to know the man and liked him because he lived simply and in harmony with nature. However, Thoreau eventually realized that ‘‘the intellectual and what is called spiritual man in him were slumbering as in an infant.’’

Other visitors included children, whom Thoreau liked for their innocence and enthusiasm, and ‘‘half-witted men from the almshouse.’’ The latter, Thoreau writes, were in many cases wiser than the men who were running the town, and he ‘‘thought it was time that the tables were turned.’’

Chapter Seven: ‘‘The Bean Field’’
The author describes his bean field and how he worked it. As usual, Thoreau gives both practical details and a mystical report of his agricultural project. He explains just how he worked his field and how much profit he made from it. He also asserts that the sun and the rain are the true cultivators and that woodchucks and birds have as much right to their share of the harvest as Thoreau has to his.

Chapter Eight: ‘‘The Village’’
Thoreau often walked into the village, he reports, to hear just a little of its incessant gossip. A little news and gossip, he found, was entertaining, while more than a little numbed the soul. He did not like to stay long or to partake in too much of village life.

He reports that on one visit to the village he was arrested and put in jail (but soon released) for failing to pay taxes. He refused to pay, he explains, as a protest against the legality of slavery.

Chapter Nine: ‘‘The Ponds’’
Most of this chapter is devoted to a detailed description of Walden Pond and the idyllic times Thoreau enjoyed in and around it. The author again describes the unity of nature, self, and divinity that he experiences there. He makes clear that the pond has a special kind of spiritual purity, calling it ‘‘God’s Drop.’’ He also describes other nearby ponds.

Chapter Ten: ‘‘Baker Farm’’
This chapter contrasts Thoreau’s joyful, contented, and easy life with the life of one of his neighbors in the woods, John Field. Field is an Irish laborer who works long days turning the soil for area farmers. Thoreau sees that Field works himself to exhaustion to pay the rent on his rustic hut and to feed his family. He explains to Field that there is another way to live—the way that Thoreau has chosen. Thoreau can see, though, that Field is not willing to give up the chase for ‘‘luxuries’’ such as coffee and beef, so he leaves Field alone, grateful that he himself has found a better way to live.

Chapter Eleven: ‘‘Higher Laws’’
Like the last chapter, this one presents a basic contrast. First, Thoreau acknowledges his own animal instincts, apparent, for example, when he sees a woodchuck and is ‘‘strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw.’’ Then he describes his spiritual instinct toward ‘‘higher’’ things. Both are to be accepted as part of human nature, he says, but as a person matures, the spiritual should wax while the animal wanes. In fact, Thoreau believes that the entire human race is evolving from animal to spiritual consciousness. Because killing and eating animals is an expression of the lower, animal instinct, Thoreau stopped hunting and ate very little meat or fish. ‘‘I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals,’’ he writes.

Chapter Twelve: ‘‘Brute Neighbors’’
Following what has become a pattern, Thoreau again takes up the same idea explored in the previous chapter, but explores it in a new way. This chapter begins with a dialogue between a Hermit and a Poet. Thoreau makes clear that these two characters represent himself and a visitor who used to come to his cabin. The gist of the dialogue is that the Poet—the visitor—tempts the Hermit to leave his meditations and go fishing. The Hermit wonders, ‘‘Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing?’’ and ends by going fishing. In this battle between the animal and the spiritual natures of man, the animal has won.

The rest of the chapter describes many animals that lived around Thoreau. In observing them, Thoreau concludes that both the animal and the spiritual natures coexist in animals and that animals experience no conflict between the two.

Chapter Thirteen: ‘‘House-Warming’’
Thoreau prepared for winter by collecting wild apples, grapes, and nuts and by winterizing his house. He built a chimney (he had been cooking on a fire outdoors) and plastered his cabin to keep out the cold wind. By the time this work was finished, the pond was frozen, and Thoreau delighted in observing the ice itself and the bottom of the pond, which he could clearly see through the ice.

Chapter Fourteen: ‘‘Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors’’
In deep winter, nature slept and visitors rarely came to Thoreau’s cabin. He acknowledges that this extreme solitude was a challenge. ‘‘For human society I was obliged to conjure up the former occupants of these woods,’’ he writes.

The author tells about three former slaves and their homes in the woods; about the Stratton and Breed families, the latter ruined by rum; and about Wyman the potter and Hugh Quoil, an alcoholic who was said to have fought at the Battle of Waterloo. Walks in the dark, quiet winter woods, and the infrequent human visitors of winter are also recalled.

Chapter Fifteen: ‘‘Winter Animals’’
Thoreau describes walking on the frozen ponds, from which he could see the woods at new angles, and his observations of wildlife in winter. Squirrels, rabbits, and other creatures lived around, under, and above his cabin, and he threw them corn and potato peels to help them through the winter.

Chapter Sixteen: ‘‘The Pond in Winter’’
Thoreau recalls using his surveying skills to map Walden Pond and to measure its depth—one hundred seven feet. He tells of a large crew of laborers coming to harvest the pond’s ice, which would be shipped to faraway places and sold. This idea of Walden being spread over the Earth is mirrored in Thoreau’s writing. He read the Bhagavad Gita (a Hindu scripture) in the mornings, which made him think of ‘‘pure Walden water mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.’’

Chapter Seventeen: ‘‘Spring’’
The thawing of the pond and the stirring of animals signaled spring, and Thoreau reports that he felt in himself the same revitalization that he saw taking place all around him. Once again, he exults in nature. At the end of this chapter, Thoreau gives the date on which he left his life in the woods but does not say why he left.

Chapter Eighteen: ‘‘Conclusion’’
Near the beginning of this chapter, Thoreau summarizes what he learned during his time in the woods:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him. . . . In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty, nor weakness weakness.

Thoreau ends his narrative by urging readers to apply to their own lives what he has shared with them. He counsels them to explore inner, rather than outer, worlds: ‘‘Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.’’ He is confident that new ways of thinking will lead to new, fulfilling ways of living.

AP Practice

Go to:

www.shmoop.com/ap-english-language/

Self-Reliance Emerson/The Poet

"Self-Reliance"
How does (and should) a person define his/her place in society? (what does Emerson mean by "society" anyhow?)

What are the two major barriers to self-reliance (in your own words)? Who is the "aboriginal Self," the "Trustee"? How does this concept modify the egotism of self-reliance?

What are the implications of self-reliance for business? for religion (prayers, creeds)? for travelling? for art? for property ownership and government?

Here are some of the key sentences marked in context. How would you put any of them in your own words?

"Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense...."

"We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents."

"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members."

"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

""What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think."

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statemens and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do."

"The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul."

"Life only avails, not the having lived. Power ceases in the instant of repose."

"Just as men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect."

"Travelling is a fool's paradise."

"In the Will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance, and shalt sit thereafter out of fear from her rotations....Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

Emerson--Self-Reliance

Whati s transcendentallism?

www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html



Go to Emerson Self-Reliance website:

www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The American Scholar

www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm

Books and Man Thinking: Edification or False Idolatry?
A Caution in Emerson's "The American Scholar"

by Nancy Haines


Commencement speeches are customarily routine, pedantic, platitude filled, mildly inspiring lectures. This description, however, was never applied to Ralph Waldo Emerson's oration, "The American Scholar," delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard in 1837. Oliver Wendell Holmes called this speech America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence." In addition to being a call for literary independence from Europe and past traditions, the speech was a blueprint for how humans should live their lives. Emerson believed that the way to reunite with the Over-Soul was to become "The American Scholar." He would do this by observing nature, by studying the past through books, and by taking action. To become a scholar, humans also needed to develop self trust, espouse freedom and bravery, and value the individual over the masses.

Because this speech is so pregnant with discussion topics, an intrinsic part of the blueprint may not catch the reader's attention or receive the analysis it deserves. It delivers a message that contemporary humans still need to receive. The startling, heretical admonition not to worship or make false idols of books and other objects of art, given in Emerson's "The American Scholar," demonstrates his belief in the vital necessity for self-reliance and active, creative reading and writing. When he exhorts us to live as a scholar, as "Man Thinking," rather than "a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking" (1530), he is cautioning us against the false idolatry of book or Bible worship.

When Emerson introduces the second great influence on the spirit of the scholar, he at first praises books. He expounds on "the mind of the Past,--in whatever form, whether of literature, of art, of institutions, that mind is inscribed. Books are the best type of the influence of the past" (1532). Emerson is saying that books are the best vehicle available to the scholar for studying the ideas and accomplishments of past men and ages. But after affirming that "the theory of books is noble" (1532) and presenting an idealized way of reading and reusing books from past ages by which "business" and "dead facts" come out as "poetry" and "quick thought" when read and rewritten in a new age, Emerson
begins to show doubts that reuse is possible and states that "Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this" (1532).

The preceding quotation could be used in 1837 and still today to attack the teachers and professors in secondary schools and universities who woship the literary canon. Although few, if any, of the Harvard Phi Beta Kappas realized it at the time of hearing, Emerson's "The American Scholar" also delivers a powerful upper-cut to unaware, Bible worshipping idolaters. In addition to the Christian Bible, his caution against idolizing books from other ages would include all the sacred books from the world's religions such as the Jewish Torah, the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, the Islamic Koran and the Veda of India. Emerson delineates how man replaces a real event or action with its image or record which then becomes an object to be worshipped and defended against attacks from heretics:

The sacredness which attaches to the act of creation,--the act of thought,--is transferred to the record. The poet chanting, was felt to be a divine man: henceforth the chant is divine also. The writer was a just and wise spirit: henceforward it is settled, the book is perfect; as love of the hero corrupts into worship of his statue. Instantly, the book becomes noxious: the guide is a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the multitude, slow to open to the incursions of Reason, having once so opened, having once received this book, stands upon it, and makes an outcry, if it is disparaged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking; by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles . . . . (1532)

People in organized religion who blindly accept books from the past as sacred dogma not to be questioned will not entertain the idea that the writers were only men, asking questions and seeking union with the Over-Soul just as "Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries" (1532) when they wrote their books.

Bible worshippers or even modern worshippers of technology are not self-reliant. As Emerson suggests, by making idols of tools, they have become "subdued by their instruments" (1533). They do not think for themselves or read creatively. They are not making "life their dictionary" (1535). They have been "warped by its attraction clean out of their own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system" (1532-33). By relying on the idol they have stopped searching for their own truth. No new canons are accepted. This is what Emerson was cautioning against when he said, "Books are the best of things, well used; abused among the worst" (1532).

In spite of his doubts and foreboding about The American Scholar's misuses of books, Emerson loved books and considered them to be a great resource. He said, "It is remarkable the pleasure we derive from the best books" (1533) and admitted that "there is a portion of reading quite indispensable to a wise man. History and exact science he must learn by laborious reading" (1534). But he still thought that "books are for the scholar's idle time" and "when the intervals of darkness come" (1533). Emerson demonstrates his belief that when he can, the scholar should be seeking action and studying nature, thus making "life his dictionary": "When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings" (1533).

Transcendentalists asked the questions "What is authority?" and "What defines truth?" In "The American Scholar," Emerson cautions Man Thinking to be careful, to not let any book be the authority but to read, think and decide for himself. There is a fine line between study, appreciation and assimilation of books and ideas from the past and idolizing these books and ideas. We must examine, rewrite, create, learn from the old but write our own books from our own time and experience.

Work Cited

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The American Scholar." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. 2nd. ed. Vol I. Lexington: Heath, 1994. 1529-1541.

Discussion Questions Song of Myself

Post a response to these questions here:

Questions on "Song of Myself"

1. Who is this poet and what happens to him? Also consider in stanza #5, what is happening to the poet's body and soul. What wisdom comes from this transformation?

2. His subject matter: what does it include? What seems most important.

3. The form: grass as symbol. What other characteristics of the form of the poem do you see as unusual (and romantic?)?

4. The reader: promises and projection. Also consider what relationship the poet establishes initially with "you," his reader? What sort of person does he seem to be? What does he reject and what does he embrace? What promises does he make?

Consider the stylistic characteristics of the poem: the catalogues (such as #15); the repetitions of syntactic structures; the frequent participial verbs (-ing endings); any others that strike you. Perhaps more than any other writer, Whitman subscribed to the organic theory of writing: that the style must be organically part of the meaning (not imposed mechanically in any way). Think about how any of these stylistic characteristics are essential to his meaning.

By the end of the poem, where is Whitman in regard to the reader? How has the "I" changed in the poem through its experiences? How is the reader supposed to finally understand the "I"?

Walt Whitman

Visit poets.org for more about Whitman:

Whitman's greatest legacy is his invention of a truly American free verse. His groundbreaking, open, inclusive, and optimistic poems are written in long, sprawling lines and span an astonishing variety of subject matter and points of view--embodying the democratic spirit of his new America. He uses a number of literary devices to accomplish his work. Although written in free verse, meaning that it is not strictly metered or rhymed, sections of Leaves of Grass approach iambic meter, which is the same meter as in a traditional sonnet (as in, "Come live with me and be my love"). Since iambics closely mimic the patterns of natural speech and are pleasing to the ear, Whitman used them for sections of his poems, without exclusively writing metered verse. Whitman's "catalogs," or lists, are used in many of his poems to indicate the breadth of types of people, situation, or objects in a particular poem. Whitman's mastery of the catalog has caused critics to praise his endless generative powers, his seeming ability to cycle through hundreds of images while avoiding repetition and producing astounding variety and newness. Anaphora is a literary device used by Whitman which employs the repetition of a first word in each phrase; for example, each line will begin with "and." Whitman uses anaphora to mimic biblical syntax and give his work a weighty, epic feeling, but also to create the hypnotic rhythms that take the place of more formal verse. Whitman's poetics also rely on careful control of the indicative and imperative moods (described in a recommended essay by Galway Kinnell; see the Suggested Reading).

The critical and popular response to Leaves of Grass was mixed and bewildered. Leaves of Grass was most harshly criticized because Whitman's free verse didn't fit into the existing British model of poetry, which was a tradition of rhyme, meter and structure. One critic noted, in an 1855 review in Life Illustrated, "It is like no other book that ever was written, and therefore, the language usually employed in notices of new publications is unavailable in describing it." Henry David Thoreau wrote, "Since I have seen him, I find that I am not disturbed by any brag or egoism in his book. He may turn out the least of a braggart of all, having a better right to be confident." Matthew Arnold wrote, "...while you think it is his highest merit that he is so unlike everyone else, to me this seems to be his demerit." In the early 20th century, Ezra Pound expressed his admiration in mixed terms: "[Whitman] is America. His crudity is an exceeding great stench, but it is America. He is the hollow place in the rock that echoes with the time. He does 'chant the crucial stage' and he is the 'voice triumphant.' He is disgusting. He is an exceedingly nauseating pill, but he accomplishes his mission." Since then, reactions to Whitman have been at both extremes: his book has been banned for sensuality one decade, and then praised as the cornerstone of American poetics the next. With the upcoming 150th anniversary, America's poets and critics have found unmediated love for our most American poet, the man who came to shape our ideas of nationhood, democracy, and freedom.

Walt Whitman Song of Myself

We begin reading Walt Whitman in class.

Walt Whitman links:

www.whitmanarchive.org/

www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126

Week of 3/15-3/19 Poet Presentations

Please be sure your presentations have an audio and visual component. Make sure we can read a poem by your poet.

Handouts are due on Monday. We will go in reverse alphabetical order for the presentations.

Links for Poet project

Poets.org


www.poets.org/poets

Modern American Poetry

www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets.htm

Poetry Society of America:
www.poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/crossroads/qa_american_poetry/


Geraldine dodge readings:

www.dodgepoetry.org/past-festivals/


www.pbs.org/wnet/foolingwithwords/main_festival.html

CHECK WITH Ms. Gamzon for recordings of poets reading their poems

Diary of Adam and Eve

Discuss "Diary of Adam and Eve"

HWK: BEDFORD READER
Read Armin Brott's "Not all Men are Sly Foxes" pg. 293
Read Stephanie Ericsson's "The Ways We Lie" pg. 337 or 335
Read Mark Twain's "My First Lie..."

Work on Poet Project
View more Ken Burns?

Poet Presentation Handout for Class Presentation


*Information needed in your poet presentation:
Due Date: Mon, 3/15 Begin presentations in class
* Birth Date and Birthplace
* Death Date/Place of Death
* Early Influences:
* You must include at least three events or people that influenced your poet.
* Education:
You must include the role or significance that this education had in later life for your poet.


* Major Accomplishments your poet has made:
Awards, etc. This must include the dates.







*Significance to the field of Poetry:
You must explain why this poet is worthy of note in his field of expertise.







*Contemporaries:
You must include the names of at least three other poets who wrote at the same time as your poet. Please include their roles.





*Famous Poems:

Diary of Adam and Eve

Read the extracts from the Diary of Adam and Eve

classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-exadam-1.htm


Go over "Roughing It" handout

Adam and Eve video link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMIzhxcXnxA&feature=related

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses/Roughing It

Link to Fenimore Cooper information:

www.online-literature.com/cooperj/

Discuss yesterday's reading and "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"

"Roughing It" with multiple choice exercise for AP.

Mark Twain "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

Students should go to the blog for today’s agenda. They should click on the link to the Mark Twain PBS website from the previous post.

Read aloud and discuss “Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog” (otherwise known as "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" or "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

Structure
The frame tale structure of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is one of its most important parts. In a frame tale, one story appears in—that is, it is framed by—another story. In "Jumping Frog" the outer tale focuses on Mark Twain and his meeting with the talkative old storyteller, Simon Wheeler. This meeting occurs at the request of a friend of Twain's, identified in some versions of the tale as A. Ward, who supposedly wants to find out about an old acquaintance named Leonidas Smiley. Twain reveals, however, that he suspects his friend's request was merely a practical joke designed to waste his time. Twain's suspicions about the meeting and his descriptions of Wheeler appear in the few paragraphs that open and close the entire story. Twain speaks in the first-person in these passages. Because this portion of the tale first appeared in the form of a letter, the entire story also can be considered an epistolary tale.

The inner tale is the one Wheeler tells about Jim Smiley, his betting ways, and his run-in with the Stranger. Wheeler's stories seem largely exaggerated, and can be viewed as examples of a tall tale. Wheeler tells his tale in a third-person narrative voice.

Setting
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" takes place in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, shortly after the California Gold Rush of 1849. Mark Twain's experience with Simon Wheeler and Wheeler's stories about Jim Smiley both occur in Angel's Camp, a mining camp located in Calaveras County, California. Wheeler tells Twain his stories in a local bar, the type of place where stories are often shared.

Satire
Satire is an essential component of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Satire is a technique that involves the manipulation of stereotypes and the use of exaggeration to point out the folly of a person or situation. In "Jumping Frog" Twain pokes fun at several things, including the tall tale genre, the American West, and the American East. Instead of merely using the tall tale for humorous effect, Twain also uses it to challenge various stereotypes held by many Americans at the time. According to these stereotypes, individuals living in the western United States were often uneducated, gullible fools. By contrast, Americans living in the eastern part of the United States were supposed to be well-educated, sophisticated, and cultured. In a satirical twist, Twain's sophisticated Easterner actually comes across as an impatient and self-absorbed snob who gets fooled by both his friend and the garrulous Wheeler. Likewise, Wheeler is ultimately revealed to be not a rube, but a good-natured and experienced storyteller whose deadpan delivery is merely a front used to fool his supposedly sophisticated listener.

Tall Tale
A tall tale features exaggerated, fabulous events. Characters in tall tales are often considered "larger than life," meaning they exhibit extraordinary qualities. Simon Wheeler's stories about Jim Smiley and his pets feature many such exaggerations, and thus fall into the tall tale category. For example, Wheeler describes Smiley as a man who will make a bet on anything, even something as mundane as which of two birds will fly off a fence first. Smiley's frog, Dan'l Webster, practically flies through the air when jumping and uses his legs like a cat to scratch himself. Finally, Andrew Jackson, Smiley's dog, will hold on to another dog—his preferred technique for fighting—for as long as a year to win a fight.

Anthropomorphism
Twain gives the animals in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'' human traits, a technique called anthropomorphism. Andrew Jackson, Jim Smiley's dog, is described as proud, ornery, and determined. He likes to fight and likes to win his battles. When he fights a dog that he can't beat, he eventually dies from the humiliation. Both Andrew Jackson and the frog named Dan'l Webster are described as gifted. Dan'l Webster is additionally described as being modest and straightforward.

Diction
Authors frequently use dialect and vernacular language to establish the setting of their tales, as well as their characters' identities. In "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Twain uses language to highlight the differences between his characters. For example, when Twain speaks, he uses grammatically proper English. Simon Wheeler, however, tells his tale in the vernacular, or common-day language, of the American West. Wheeler ignores many grammatical rules, and speaks with an "accent'' of sorts. He says "feller'' instead of "fellow," "reg'lar" instead of "regular," and even "Dan'l" for "Daniel."

HW: Read “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”

Mark Twain

Discuss readings in class.

Go to pbs website:

www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings.html

Week of Feb. 22/March 1

Present papers to your group. Comment on individual papers.

Handouts today:
Poetry Project--start thinking about which poet you want to sign up for


Mark Twain---read for class tomorrow

www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/

Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Follow this link:


www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html

More on literary approaches

Here is a very good link for critical approaches:

www1.assumption.edu/users/ady/hhgateway/gateway/approaches.html#New Criticism/Formalism

More reading group work today!

The Story of an Hour

Thank you for all your comments from yesterday!

Today we're going to read and discuss Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. Continue doing your group readings and keep thinking about your "paper" for presentation to your group.

Here is the link for the story:

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/storyofhour.html

Group discussions

Please POST a summary of your group's discussion today. Group leader gets credit for the post.

*****Please post for credit a short response about the literary approach you can most identify with. Why do you like this approach? What is interesting about this way of looking at fiction, poetry, and prose?

I will use these posts to provide you with daily participation credit and more grades this marking period.

Thurs. Reading/Discussion Groups

Please POST a summary of your group's discussion today. Group leader gets credit for the post.

*****Please post for credit a short response about the literary approach you can most identify with. Why do you like this approach? What is interesting about this way of looking at fiction, poetry, and prose?

I will use these posts to provide you with daily participation credit and more grades this marking period.

Wharton/ Cather/ Chopin

continue working in groups, discussing the books you have selected.

Literary criticism:

Look up

Formalism
Feminist criticism
Marxist criticism
Psychoanalytic criticism
Historicism
New Criticism
Practical criticism

Wallwisher and Prezi presentations

Today, we will work on the synthesis essay timed in class.

Turn in your packets.



Homework:

Please post the title of your group presentation, the members of the group, and a brief reflection about your project here.

Ragtime E. L. Doctorow

Look over handouts for RAGTIME

Wallwisher topics:

historical Events

Historical figures

Race

Gender

Class

Culture

Technology

Please post your wallwisher pages as comments here!