Poetry Unit Exam: Today is the day of the poetry unit exam. LRJ's must be turned in at the beginning of class. When you are finished with the exam, you should begin reading your assigned short story. See below for assignments.
For Monday, you are required to read your assigned story and annotate it. Bring an annotated printout of your short story to class. You will receive no credit for the annotations assignment if you do not bring your print out to class.
With this short story project I will be introducing you to the SIFT method of literary analysis, which we will be using throughout the upcoming Canterbury Tales unit. The first step in any literary analysis of fiction is understanding the elements of plot (conflict, climax, resolution, etc.), figurative language (metaphor, symbolism, personification, etc.) , and other literary terms (tone, mood, theme, etc.). In order to do this you should know ALL of the terms in the following handout. Download and review if necessary.
Download: Overview of Basic Literary Terms (DOC)
I reserve the right to assess you on any and all of these "basic" literary terms -- their definitions as well as how to apply them, how to recognize them, etc. In fact, you will be using these literary terms to complete the series of assignments you will have relating to your assigned short story and the five Canterbury Tales narratives.
The Short Stories
The following short stories were chosen for this project because of their richness in literary value. For example, they can all be read on different "levels"; they allow ample room for interpretation; they rely on the use of figurative language and ambiguity; they raise important questions for the reader; and they are all of a similar length. Note: Although we are focusing primarily on British literature this year, I have also included some American and continental European authors.
Group One: "The Blue Lenses" by Daphne du Maurier
A2: Wagner, Scott, Taylor, Peloquin
A4: Waldbillig, Smith, Olinger, Gruber
Group Two: "The Enormous Radio" by John Cheever
A2: Hawkins, Schutter, Heister, Collins
A4: Sullivan, Weber, Wermes, Cooper
Group Three:"The Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka
A2: Peed, Harrison, Mendel, Worobetz
A4: Poch, Denoyer, Menke, Fendinger
Group Four: "The Destructors" by Graham Greene
A2: Woodard, Proffitt, Dalton, Cooper
A4: Johnson, Meece, Mulvaney, Shagena
Group Five: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor
A2: Wright, Eippert, Schneider, Glaser
A4: Diesslin, Pappalardo, Herriott, Calahan
Group Six: "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville
A2: Geyer, Spuzzillo, Savarese, Seigert, Ballard
A4: Sanders, Harper, Fowler
In case you forgot what you're suppose to do for Monday, see the second paragraph above. It is important that you read the story WELL before you come to class. Remember to print out your story with your annotations and bring it to class!