In the late 1800s, Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared, “God is dead, and we have killed him.” His statement is not meant literally, as if God had passed away; instead, it is meant as a comment on culture. Arthur Miller borrows this famous phrase for the climax of The Crucible, putting it in the mouth of a furious John Proctor as he condemns the court’s continued support of Abigail (“you are pulling down Heaven and raising up a whore!”) When one writer refers directly "speaks to" another in their work, literary critics call this intertextuality: the “shaping” of one text by another. Think of it like a chemical reaction, except with ideas. What kind of intertextual “reaction” does Miller create by mixing Nietzsche’s words with his own? Knowing as he did that most readers would associate this phrase with Nietzsche’s writings, what was Miller trying to tell them? How do you interpret Nietzsche’s point, and how is Miller making a similar point in his play? These are the questions you will address in your post. Start by reading Nietzsche’s original “death of God” text, The Parable of the Madman, here: http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/friedrich_nietzsche_quotes.html Then, if you want, check out these links for some additional information: http://www.philosophy-index.com/nietzsche/god-is-dead/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrI5WQ4u7MY And when you feel ready, write a paragraph giving your interpretation of Nietzsche’s statement and its thematic relation to Miller’s play in general, and Act III’s climax in particular.
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One way to think about the style of literary analysis we employ in English II Honors is that we see writing as a form of cultural criticism. It's not about the individual author so much as the cultural environment that produced them and their works. Culture is what we do with nature, the world we create by attaching shared human meanings to . All of us are a product of the intersecting ideological beliefs and social patterns which make up a culture. This doesn't mean we aren't individuals as well, but we share a common space of meaning, in the same way fish share the ocean. Just as fish don't notice the water after a while, so we come to take culture as "normal," the one proper way to be a human. This writing exercise is about becoming aware of the ways culture shapes so we can critically interrogate it.
For this post, you can do one of two things: -Give your own take on how culture has shaped you. Examples are key here. -Respond to someone else's take with a comment and an open-ended question. Either way, you should write a full paragraph demonstrating your ability to critically analyze cultural influences.This is worth ten points. Your job for this post is to identify two opposing forces in one of the summer reading books that is NOT Fahrenheit 451, and explain how the contradiction between the forces is resolved. To give an example, you might see a conflict between Lenina's happiness with the Brave New World versus Bernard's misery. How does that conflict play out in the novel, and how does it ? You need two quotations for this. One should show the conflict, and the other the "synthesis," meaning resolution or outcome - in other words, what changes?
This is inspired by something called the Dialectic, which is a method of argument. One person puts forth a thesis, and the person arguing against them responds with the anti-thesis, i.e. the opposite of that thesis. So if I said, "Cuckoo's Nest is between than Brave New World," and someone said, "No, it's the other way around," we'd be engaged in the Dialectic. However, since there is no "right answer" here, the only way to resolve the argument is with a synthesis that integrates elements of both views: "Ok, let's agree that both are great novels." But if one person argued better, the final synthesis might be more like, "Ok, fine, Cuckoo's Nest is better in a lot of ways, but BNW has a lot of value as well." Hey Honors English Sophomores,
There are going to be more writing workshops from August 11th to 15th, again in room 208 from 2-4 pm. (Note that there are NO writing workshops next week, August 4-8. I have gotten emails asking about this.) If you didn't attend the first set of workshops, it's strongly encouraged that you come to at least a few of these sessions. Not only will it help you get used to the more rigorous requirements of Honors English, it will provide an opportunity to work on your final blog post and summer reading essays with guidance from me and experienced juniors who excelled in the course last year. While these sessions are not mandatory, I consistently notice that students who attend do better in the first marking period. It would be a good idea to have a sense of what you book(s) you plan to use for your essay before you come to the workshop. You only need to write about one book, and the essay only needs to be two pages, but you are free to compare/contrast elements in two different works. Fahrenheit 451 + Brave New World is a great combination, as is Cuckoo's Nest + Prisons We Choose to Live Inside. Finally, the next blog post will go up on Friday, August 8th, and must be completed by August 22nd. You need to have read not only F451 but one other book in order to answer this post, so please use the coming week to read if you haven't already. Or, if you're finished with the reading and you want some things to read that will help you get used to Honors-level reading, you can email me and I'll send you some articles. Don't worry, I don't expect you to do that! I just like to offer enrichment to anyone who's interested. You can post any questions in the comments below and I will answer them within a day. This post is challenging, but hopefully it will get you thinking in the more philosophical, thematic way we need in order to take your writing to the next level. Your assignment is to pose a philosophical question based on Fahrenheit 451, and give an example of where in the text Bradbury might be addressing the issues it raises (you must use a quote). Then, you have to briefly respond to two classmates' questions with your own opinion. (Note you do NOT need a quote in your responses, but you DO need to do two of them.)
How should you get started on this tricky assignment? The first step is to formulate a good question. That's also the first step in writing a good essay now that you have the freedom, and thus the responsibility, to choose your own topics. We'll be discussing question generation at this week's workshops, but here are some characteristics of a good question: -It's open ended, allowing for many different answers instead of having a "right" one -It requires critical thinking to answer, which means it is open to interpretation -It address something that really matters in human life - our nature, right and wrong, death, etc. -It makes people re-examine their biases or assumptions so that they can think new thoughts Start your post with your question, in bold, then follow it up with some further questions or commentary that integrates evidence from the text. For example: "What is the role of faith in sustaining human existence? Bradbury has Montag read the poem 'Dover Beach,' which is about a loss of faith, to Mildred and her friends, one of whom breaks into tears. What is Bradbury suggesting they have lost faith in? Is this religious faith, or something different?" From there, I'd probably quote from book guy Granger's speech at the end of the novel where he talks about being faithful to the past. Then I would leave my readers with a restatement of the question: "In your response, please give your opinion on what Bradbury is saying, and/or share your own perspective on the positive or negative aspects of faith in human life." Good luck! FIRST OFF, welcome to my blog! There has been some confusion about the summer reading assignment, so here is what you need to complete during the time off: A. Everyone is reading Fahrenheit 451 and completing a blog post on it here. You're also completing a short (2 page max) paper on any topic relating Fahrenheit and one other book. B. Then everyone is reading two other works and posting about them on here next month. These can include -One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -Prisons we Choose to Live Inside -Streetcar Named Desire -Brave New World So, this is our virtual classroom for the summer, although I hope to see many of you at our two writing workshops in the actual classroom as well! English II Honors is a challenging course because it requires you to develop a new style of reading, thinking, and writing which is more sophisticated and academic. These posts, as well as the workshops, are about preparing you for that so you can produce a strong reaction paper, which is your first big grade. My main goal for the year is to get you... Reading CLOSELY, meaning paying attention to particular words and phrases to determine their effects Thinking CRITICALLY, meaning posing questions and problems instead of finding "right" answers Writing CAREFULLY, meaning caring what you're writing about and taking time to say it well So, for the first post, I would like you to closely read a scene from Fahrenheit 451 of at least one page, think critically about word choices and their purpose, and write a careful 1-2 paragraph explanation of its effects on the reader and overall significance for the larger work. (A paragraph is at least 6 sentences and one big quotation or a series of small phrase quotes - make sure you explain the quotations and cite them correctly!) There will be a second blog post in two weeks, before the first workshop, and then one in August after the first workshop. Please complete this blog post before Wednesday, July 16th, and look for the second one then. Each of these posts are worth 20 points of the roughly 400 you can earn each MP. Here are a few suggestions to get you started: -Scenes worth analyzing include Montag's talks with Clarisse and Faber, Mildred's reaction to her suicide attempt, the poetry reading, anything with Beatty, or various sections of the ending, esp. the phoenix -You should begin your post with a topic sentence, introducing the novel, scene and point you'll make -Make sure you note some kind of specific theme in the novel to which your scene relates Good luck! Post your response by hitting "comments" and then typing your name and pasting it in the box. Now that we've begun reading Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, I'd like to get your thoughts on some of the themes she explores. In particular, I'm interested in your thoughts about how she portrays the experience of racism, as well as gender discrimination, and its effect on individual dreams. So in a paragraph, answer two of the following under the comments section: a. What does Hansberry reveal about the impact of discrimination on its individual victims? How? b. How do the characters' responses to discrimination either show Transcendentalist values (i.e., Beneatha) or contradict those values (i.e., Walter)? c. Why do you think Hansberry used a plant to represent the family's dreams? Any connection to the Transcendentalist notion of nature here? ASSIGNMENT:
I. Read Chapters 7, 8 and 9 on your own, continuing to highlight and mark the text II. Complete a Literary Response Journal for each chapter, choosing 5 of the options on the sheet. III. Blog your reaction to the end of the novel on this thread (minimum one paragraph, with one Ch.9 quote) IV. Write a potential thesis statement for your essay on the novel. The available "lenses" are: VISUAL-CINEMATIC: Imagery, Symbolism and Connections to the Film version HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL: The Jazz Age, Prohibition, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc. EXISTENTIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL: Philosophical themes focusing on identity, meaning, dreams MARXIST-FEMINIST: Issues of Class and Gender in the novel Remember to go from the Lens to a Question to an Answer, which becomes your Thesis Statement! And be original. There have been a million essays written about this book - What do YOU have to say? For homework you read the article "We are Radicals at Heart: A New History Gets America Wrong." The author defends the Enlightenment legacy against the another writer, Yuval Levin, who sides with Edmund Burke's critique of the Age of Reason.
The "great debate" between Enlightenment "liberal" Thomas Paine and "conservative" Edmund Burke centered on politics revolution. Paine championed individualism and democracy, while Burke supported social tradition and wanted to maintain order. The author of the article you read, says America's legacy is to keep Paine's radicalism alive. Why does he think this, and whom do you agree with? Your assignment (20 points): A.) Choose a thinker you didn't study for this project. Watch at least two presentations on that thinker's critique of the Enlightenment. B.) Write a one-paragraph (minimum 5 sentences) evaluation of that critique. Want extra credit? Respond to someone, substantively. <Note: They should all be up by 4:30 Friday.> EDMUND BURKE - The Conservative Critique http://prezi.com/c9aqqvlll6lx/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share http://prezi.com/3noxpkl11vyq/edit/ KARL MARX - The Capitalism Critique karl-marx-ufq3-cv-cnxj.ziphttp://prezi.com/wzrakd0vlpdv/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share http://prezi.com/jlzz0v7idnrc/copy-of-karl-marx/# MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT - The Feminist Critique http://prezi.com/wggd4-or7lgm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy MICHEL FOUCAULT - The Postmodern Critique http://prezi.com/b8vize4p1zex/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share http://prezi.com/g_kmkjq-1ycg/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy http://prezi.com/1beh6sj-xh4-/untitled-prezi/ THEODORE ADORNO - The Cultural Critique http://prezi.com/wxh7va5hc3dq/adorno/
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