In Class

Final Exam.

1. Much Ado about Nothing e-book HERE.
2. Introductory presentation on Much Ado about Nothing HERE.
3. Much Ado about Nothing's Main Characters' Status, Alliances, and Relationships HERE.
4. The Battle of the Sexes: Male and Female Reputation HERE.
5. Happy Endings? Marriage, or The Taming of the Shrew HERE.
6. Print your final exam if you are typing it. Make two copies if you want one for yourself.

Put your name on the signup sheet to meet with me nest week for grades and recitation. Choose ONE poem:

• Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130," 
• Donne's "Holy Sonnet X," 
• Millay's What lips my lips.."

--Week Eleven--

Petruchio forcing Kate to kiss him at their wedding ceremony.
Image from Franco Zefirelli's 1967 film version of
Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew found in TV Tropes

BENEDICK

Peace! I will stop your mouth.
Kissing Beatrice.

*** 

A. Much Ado Jeopardy!:

• Open the Introductory Presentation on Much Ado HERE.
• Open the Literary Terms III: Drama Presentation HERE.

B. How to revise a draft to turn in as Essay 3 (see Guidelines for Revision on page 57-69 of the packet)

C. Work on Journal 10.

For next week

1. Read

• The Battle of the Sexes: Male and Female Reputation HERE.
• Happy Endings? Marriage, or The Taming of the Shrew HERE.

2. *Write Journal 11.

3. Complete the Quiz on Literary Terms III on Blackboard.

Schedule of Last Days
Tuesday Nov. 26, Tuesday Dec. 3-Friday Dec. 6 (inclusive): Meetings for Essay 3

On Friday Dec 6 in class:

• Writing Journal 12 (and other missing journals) 
• Meetings for Essay 3 
• If you did not turn in a draft for Essay 2 today, your only option is to revise Essay 1. 

By Sunday 8 at 9am:  Turn in all Journals (no extensions)

From Dec 9-13: Revise Essay 1 or Essay 2.

• See Guidelines for Revision on page 57-69 of the packet.  If you do not follow these guidelines to the letter, I will not accept your revision.
• Submit your revisions to me or my box in E-103

On Friday, Dec. 13 in class:

• Final In-class Exam
• Turn in Take –home final
• Last Day to turn any/all Essays and/or Revisions (no e-mail submissions, no extensions)

From Tuesday, Dec. 17 to Th. Dec. 19: Meetings for Grades and Poetry Recitation for Extra Credit in M109 H. Choices:

• Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130," 
• Donne's "Holy Sonnet X," 
• Millay's What lips my lips.."

--Week Ten--

If you are turning in Essays 2: When you have completed the writing process, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback
• Draft 2
• Self-Reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

Class Meeting

Original cartoon by Tony Lopes
See more at Stoney Toons
Image from Sophia Literaria

Much Ado about Nothing is the text we will use for the in-class Final Exam, so you need to be very familiar with it. To help, today we will screen Kenneth Branagh's version of play.

If you are/were unable to come to class on Friday, November 15, search the film in our library's Streaming Media Project  HERE. For copyright reasons, you can only watch the film on campus. Otherwise, check the film information so you can rent it, watch it on YouTube, etc. HERE. 

2. Discussing the Final Exam. Once you have decided what question you want to answer, check the work you should complete for Journals 9, 10, and 11. Instructions and Prompts for Journals

For Next Class

Instructions and Prompts for Journals

1. Review an introductory presentation on Much Ado about Nothing HERE.
2. Review Much Ado about Nothing's Main Characters' Status, Alliances, and Relationships HERE.
3. Complete Journal 9. You will need the play for evidence. If you do not have Much Ado about Nothing, check the e-book HERE.

          _______________________________________________

--Week Nine: CLASS CANCELLED--

Photo from Johnson Museum of Art and the American Studies Program

--Week Eight--

Class Meeting

Iron Mask and Collar for Punishing Slaves, Brazil, 1817-1818
Source: Jacques Arago, Souvenirs d'un aveugle. Voyage autour du monde... par M. J. Arago (Paris, 1839-40), 
vol. 1, facing p. 119.
From The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas

by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite

Sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.

"Did you speak to him? Didn't you say anything to him? Something!" [said Sethe.]
"I couldn't, Sethe. I just... couldn't" [said Paul D.]
"Why!"
"I had a bit in my mouth."
   --From Toni Morrison, Beloved (84). 

This image is one of the many representations of a series of masks, bridles, and mouth bits created to silence women and slaves. For more, see the blog U.S. Slave HERE (Warning: nasty images). To see how the tradition continues, if much abated, HERE. (Thanks to HiccupsS for the link!) 

One of the many reasons why Butler's and especially Morrison's storytelling is important, therefore, is that they reclaim the power of language and representation for those who have been denied such a voice. Thus, Kindred touches on many "unspoken" issues that define present American culture.

Workshop for an essay on Kindred

• Instructions for Essay 2 HERE 

Title

kindred>black and white America are kindred>family of choice rather than blood

Plot

whodunit>missing arm-scars>different scars>metaphor of white and black America / the legacy of slavery

• Time traveling

         -juxtaposition of present and past>present not as different (yet different) than past-black time/double consciousness

         -metaphor for Middle Passage>time difference allows for the the normalization of violence and bondage

         -sf's grandfather paradox>symbiosis of slave and master

First person participant narrator

Dana as "author" of Kindred>a subject rather than object> giving voice to the voiceless>appropriating the gaze 

Characters 

-mostly static and so representative of specific worldviews. Quick Character Activity

-set up for comparison>Tom, Rufus, Kevin; Dana and Alice as doppelgangers > argues for environmental causes

Buckner Topsy Turvy 1901 doll.  Image and historical context below from Black Legacy Images.
Oral history of the doll: A slave mother designed this type of doll for her children because slave children were not allowed to play with white dolls. When white people were present slave children always had to play with the black doll. The black doll was the only legal doll black children could play with in America during slave times.

For Next Class (10/15--NO CLASS 10/8)

1. Complete the Quiz on Literary Terms III on Blackboard based on THIS PRESENTATION
2. Work on Essay 2. When you have completed the writing process, turn in
   • Draft 1 
   • Reader Feedback
   • Draft 2
   • Self-Reflection Checklist
   • Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

--Week Seven--

Class Meeting

Houses Workshop on Secondary Readings for Kindred 
For the reading assigned to your House: You will have 15 minutes to discuss the questions assigned HERE. Then you will present your findings to the class as we put together a bigger picture of the ways these readings speak to each other. Have a copy of the readings handy. Left that packet at home? That's okay. Here it is.

If you want, for Essay 2 you can use the podcast featuring Brittney Cooper:   https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=707189797

or any of the readings/podcasts/images in The New York Times 1619 Project:   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

For Next Class

1. Write Journal 8 ("The Storm," "The Rope.")
2. Complete Quiz: Kindred: "The Storm," "The Rope" and Quiz: Literary Terms II
3. Bring in a brief proposal of your topic and angle for Essay 2 to pitch in class. Your proposal must include THREE pieces of evidence from the novel.  Prompt for Essay 2

Ongoing:
Turn in work for Essay 1:

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback for Poetry Paper (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

--Week Six--

Class Meeting

Today we begin exploring the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. This novel is partly set in Maryland before the American Civil War. To really understand the kind of world Dana, our protagonist, is time-traveling to, we need to do a bit of research on slavery in the United States.

“Caution!! Colored People of Boston” Anti-Slavery Poster (1851)
from The Boston Public Library

The modern epoch was founded on European imperialism and African slavery. Both these systems were organized racially. The theft of labor and life, of land and resources, from millions of Africans and Native Americans, and from Asians and Pacific Islanders as well,  financed the rise of Europe and made possible both its subsequent mercantilism and its later industrialism. Conquest, imperial rule, and the chattelization of labor (principally but not entirely African labor) divided humanity into Europeans and "others." Ferocious and unending cultural and psychic energies were expended to sustain this schism, which was also constantly challenged and undermined in innumerable ways.

   --Howard Winant. New Politics of Race : Globalism, Difference, Justice: 205.

A. Backgrounds for Kindred I: Slavery in the United States

Part I:
  1. On the list below, find the topic that matches your assigned number

1. Punishment 
2. Slave Breeding
3. House Slaves 
4. Field Slaves 
5. Education  
6. Family Life  
7. Whipping

2. Visit the Spartacus Educational site Slavery in the United States at http://spartacus-educational.com/USAslavery.htm Scroll down until you see the topic “Slave Life.” Click on your topic.

3. Read the entire page for your topic. On a piece of paper, summarize what you have read. Include any striking details.

Part II:

I will put you in a group so all seven aspects of slavery are represented. Take about 2 minutes to tell the others what you have learned, using the summary to help you remember key ideas. The point is to acquire as much general information about slavery as possible in a short period of time. As you listen, write down the ideas that made the strongest impression on you.

B. Backgrounds for Kindred II: Introductory Lecture on Kindred

As you think of what you would like to do for Essay 2, consider

• For Butler's background as part of her motivation to write the novel:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_(novel)#Background
• Other themes in the novel:   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1miKPKCF67w1sPflCfFTJaFwfgr2fV5wGYobAfSkeWBk/edit?usp=sharing

From Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspaper (2000): 38.
Image from Rad Geek People's Daily

For Next Week

1. Quiz: "The Fight" on Blackboard
2.  *Journal 7 (Kindred--"The Fight" II-sections 11-16)

Ongoing:

1. Quiz: Literary Terms II
2. Next week is the deadline for turning in Essay 1. To do so, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback for Poetry Paper (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

--Week Five--

...to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you.--James Baldwin, from his argument at the Cambridge University debate “Is the American Dream at the Expense of the American Negro?” 

Haven't seen a mill lately? Maybe this will help you understand the metaphor:

Samples of a people that had undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in the mill [...] shivered at every corner, passed in and out at every doorway, looked from every window, fluttered in every vestige of a garment that the wind shook. The mill which had worked them down, was the mill that grinds young people old; the children had ancient faces and grave voices. --Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. 

Class Meeting

Essay 1 Workshop. Essay 1 instructions.

Not sure where to get a biography of your author? Go to LaGuardia Library > Databases to find a good biography of your author. Click on "Citation Tools" to grab the MLA style version of the reference for your Works Cited page.

Before you leave, you may want to ask a classmate to be one of your readers. Just a thought.

For Next Class

1. Read: Extracts from Between the World and Me (2015) by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. Read: Kindred--"The Fight": 1-10
3. *Write: Journal 5 (Coates)
4. Write: Journal 6 (Kindred--"The Fight": 1-10)

When you have completed the writing process for Essay 1, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback for Poetry Paper (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

--Week Four--

Class Meeting

1. Third Houses Workshop. List of House Members HERE.

You will have 15 minutes to prepare your House's presentation of the poem assigned to you last week. As we did last week, I will read the poem out loud, after which both Houses will have 15 minutes to present the poem and answer questions from the class.

Browning /Butler "Because I could not stop for Death"	Morrison/Shakespeare  “Daddy”	Dickinson/Plath “Bitch”
Responses to Poetry Form	Responses to Poetry Form	Responses to Poetry Form

2.  Pitching your Essay Idea to Others

3. How to turn in Essay #1: When you have completed the writing process, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback
• Draft 2
• Self-reflection Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

For Next Class

1. Read Kindred: "The Fall" and complete the Quiz: Kindred: "The Fall" on Blackboard
2. Write: Journal 3 (Kindred--“The Fall”)
3. Read “The American Dream and the American Negro” (1965; a debate starring James Baldwin). Here is a link to a taping of the debate: https://youtu.be/oFeoS41xe7w
4. Write: Journal 4 (Baldwin) 

_______________________________________________

--Week Three--

Class Meeting

1. Houses Workshop. List of House Members HERE.

You will have 20 minutes to prepare your House's presentation of the poem assigned to you last week. The presentation schedule is below. I will read the poem out loud, after which you will have 10 minutes to present the poem and answer questions from the class and me. 

1. Morrison   “Funeral Blues” Responses	2. Dickinson "Those Winter Sundays" Responses	3. Browning   “Her face” Responses
4. Butler  “What lips...” Responses	5. Plath “Holy Sonnet X” Responses	6. Shakespeare  “Sonnet 130” Responses.

2. Discussing Essay 1

By next Friday at 9:00AM:

1.  Write Journal 2 on An extract from The Souls of Black Folk (1930) by W. E. B. Du Bois and “Let America Be America Again” (1935) by Langston Hughes.
• Instructions and Prompts for Journals
2. Read Kindred: "Prologue"-"The Fire” and complete quiz on Blackboard
3. Complete Poetry Analysis Form 2 for the poem assigned to your House. Be prepared to defend your answers to the rest of the House members and the class on Tuesday.

   Dickinson/Plath “Bitch”(p. 27)	Morrison/Shakespeare  “Daddy” (p. 25)	Browning/Butler "Because I could not stop for Death" (p. 22 )
   Poetry Analysis Form 2	Poetry Analysis Form 2	Poetry Analysis Form 2

   
   

--Week Two--

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem  

and hold it up to the light  

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem  

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room  

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski  

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope  

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose  

to find out what it really means.

--Billy Collins

1. Review of online work for Week One. Check:

• My responses to your questions and comments to pages 10-17 of the class packet HERE
• Class responses to Symbol and Allusion HERE. 

     2.  Houses Workshop:

• Seating by Houses. Find your House mates HERE.
• Poetry Analysis: "Song for a Dark Girl" (packet, page 20). Each House will be charge of 2-3 aspects of the poem. Instructions HERE. 
• Class Discussion

     3. Read "Online Writing = 21st Century Writing," "Requirements and Tips to Writing a Good Journal Entry," and "Criteria for the Evaluation of Journal Entries" (packet, pages 7-9).

Homework

By Thursday 9/26 at 9:00am:

1. Complete the Poetry Analysis Form for the poem assigned to your House (below). Be prepared to defend your answers to the rest of the House members and the class on Tuesday!

Shakespeare “Sonnet 130” (p. 19)	Plath  “Holy Sonnet X” (p. 21)	Browning   “Her face”  (p. 21)
Poetry Analysis Form	Poetry Analysis Form	Poetry Analysis Form

Butler “What lips my lips...”  (p. 23)	Morrison “Funeral Blues”(p. 23)	Dickinson  “Those Winter Sundays” (p. 26)
Poetry Analysis Form	Poetry Analysis Form	Poetry Analysis Form

If you have not already:

1. Complete Journal 1 on "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852) by Frederick Douglass

• Instructions and Prompts for Journals

2. Read "Poems for Presentation and Quiz" closely (packet, pages 18-20)
3. Study the Literary Terms for Poetry in this PRESENTATION (or this PDF)
4. Take the Quiz on Literary Terms I and Poems on Blackboard

Ongoing during Poetry Unit: Get and read Octavia E. Butler's Kindred.

P.S. For Dr. X: Slides on Images

__________________________

--Week One--

Welcome to our ENG 102! This blog is our assignment space and network hub. If you have questions, my contact information is on the syllabus as well as under the section titled "About" on this blog.

Class Meeting

1. Read/Discuss: Syllabus/Packets/ Assignments and Grading Form
2. Dr. X Presents Writing (as) Process:   https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LI5NHYXqRwGDWkApEgknHYL7asBbn2UYIMDtCSBLo9k/edit?usp=sharing
3. The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Challenge
4. Fill this information FORM.
5. Join: GoogleDrive/Groups
• Create your Google account HERE, if needed.
• Create a Google Drive Folder and add it to our Shared Class Folder by following the instructions on the whiteboard
6. Follow: How to download Kindred
7. Fill out this Symbol and Allusion FORM 

Homework
By next Friday at 9:00AM: 

1.  Read "Poetic Language" and "10 Steps I follow when analyzing a poem"  (packet,  pages 10-11). See this theory in action in my analysis of Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" (pages 12-17; poem on page 22).  Submit one question or comment about any of the information on these pages to this FORM. We will discuss your questions and more next class.
2. Complete Journal 1 on "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" (1852) by Frederick Douglass.
   

Ongoing until 9/27 by 9:00AM

1. Read "Poems for Presentation and Quiz" closely (packet, pages 18-20)
2. Study the Literary Terms for Poetry in this PRESENTATION (or this PDF)
3. Take the Quiz on Literary Terms I and Poems on Blackboard

Ongoing during Poetry Unit: Get and read Octavia E. Butler's Kindred.

__________________________