Analysis of LIterary Texts II (EN)
Section outline
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This course is based in the chronological syllabus below. See, please, the description and conditions of the course in the Student Information System, too. The reading list that will be examined in the final exam contains all the discussed literary texts that are listed in the MOODLE syllabus below plus included study materials in it. The recommended theoretical literarure in the SIS is welcome, but not obligatory.
In preparing your answers to the given questions for sessions in the syllabus below, please don´t use any given interpretations on the internet (wikipedia, Spark Notes etc.) In this course, you should have a possibility to analyse literary texts on your own, employing your own literary and language knowledge and your own imagination. If using ready-made interpretations, do it only in discussion with them, after forming your own answers.
- the programme of the course is outlined in MOODLE below. Please, follow the instructions for the preparation for individual sessions.
- as there are many people in the course, I would like you to split into 5-6 groups of 4-6 people ( I hope that thus you will be able to create some collective platforms for this task). I would like to ask the groups to prepare for sessions collectively or on Zoom or Google Meet..., to discuss the assigned tasks and to prepare 1-2 questions related to the given task for the class. It´ll be ideal, if the groups nominate some co-ordinator of their work.
FOR THE SESSION ON MARCH 14 IT IS NECESSARY THAT YOU HAVE READ THE WHOLE NOVEL THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY BY MARK TWAIN.
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Edgar Allan Poe: his life and aspects of his work in a broader cultural context. Read Poe´s poem "To Zante" (at the end of the enclosed document "Poe and the context), ideally before this session. In the document, you will also find poems of some oh his contemporaries - they are included for a possibility of (voluntary) comparison.
Prepare for the next session:
"The Purloined Letter", a short story by E. A. Poe: use this internet version, please:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2148/2148-h/2148-h.htm
We will discuss these aspects of the story: genre, the narrator and his language, the progress of solving a mystery. In groups, prepare notes in relation to these aspects in English (10-15 lines) and prepare your own question (1) for the class - , based on what you find worth discussing.
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We will discuss "The Purloined Letter", on the basis of your preparation and with references to the preceding session.
Prepare for the next session: Please, prepare in groups of 4-6 people for the discussion in class
Walt Whitman, yes, more poetry, but of a very different kind from Poe´s.
Please, read this internet copy of the first, anonymously published edition of his Leaves of Grass (1855): http://faculty.wiu.edu/M-Cole/WaltWhitmanLeavesofGrass1855.pdf
The Preface is not obligatory, but I recommend it. We will discuss a part of the central poem of the collection, Song of Myself (pages 18-24 up to the line "They do not think whom they souse with spray").
1/ Think of the differences of this poetry from Poe´s, in themes, tone, and form, and prepare notes for the discussion (10 lines).
2/ As a GROUP - find some part of at least 5 verses or longer = sections resembling paragraphs that you think worth interpreting for the message of Song of Myself, and prepare it as a question for the class. If it seems to you that you can´t grasp the sense of lines, write down a sort of "podstročnik" - a literal translation of words in lines, in your own language; the poetic lines contain grammar, of course ! "Podstročnik" (used historically and possibly written by someone else for the translator) has been a translation device for poets who have wanted to recreate poems written in a language unknown to them.
Entrust someone from the group to write down the group´s conclusions about 1/, and the question about 2/ into the "forums" prepared in the section for the next week. Please add the names of the members of the group.
SEE THE STUDY MATERIALS RELATED TO WHITMAN IN THE WEEK BELOW.
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We will discuss Whitman´s Song of Myself
You find some study materials related to Whitman in this week´s section below.
- in "Walt Whitman´s preface to Leaves of Grass", you find some passages, which underline Whitman´s adherence to transcendentalist ideas. (You may look into any of the texts recommended in SIS: Cunliffe; Bradbury-Ruland; Elliot; Hart; Marcus-Sollors.) There´ s unbeatable optimism in Whitman, about America. This is not shared any longer by modernist and modern American poets who were inspired by Whitman´s all-embracing American poetic in the 20th century (see the ppt "Whitman and the Whitmasque Line"). However, in a commentary to this document, I added a link to Amanda Gorman´s reading of her poem at the inauguration of President Joe Biden: it is an extraordinary example of American-bound poetic optimism (though not "whitmanesque" in poetic style) at present.
Prepare for the next session:
The next session will take place on the 14th March. The topic will be The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I hope you will have enough time and be able to finish reading the novel by the time of the session. I supply study material (ppt presentation) about Twain and his work that can help.
Use the Project Gutenberg version, which will be easy to share in class: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm (SEE also the period illustrations in it)
You will again work in groups while preparating for the session, answering the 3 questions stated below, but everyone in a group will choose an identified chapter, or chapters of the novel to prepare a question for the whole class. Please, emphasize the relation of your individully chosen chapters to the development of the whole story and to its themes.
Questions for the groups:
- facts of life along the Mississippi that are depicted
- the effects of the narrative that uses the voice of the teenage narrator, in his observations, in the relation of various incidents and happenings
- The main hero(es)
You can use a Czech translation as a help for clarifying some more difficult content.
Please, write some summaries of the group discussions into the forum prepared in the section for next week.
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The programme is the discussion of Mark Twain´s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The character od the discussion is described in the week above.
Prepare for the next session:
Read a short story by Edith Wharton, "The Other Two": https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4519/4519-h/4519-h.htm
What is the point of the story? Think of the relevance of the title to the main characters. Think of the differences of this type of narrative from the narrative Twain used in Huck Finn. Think of the point view used in the narrative, and its effect. Prepare notes, in groups.
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Class discussion of the short story by Edith Wharton, "The Other Two" based on the preparation of the groups. I would like every group to prepare a question about the story for the class.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4519/4519-h/4519-h.htm
What is the point of the story? Think of the relevance of the title to the main characters. Think of the differences of the type of narrative from the narrative Twain used in Huck Finn. Think of the point view used in the narrative, and its effect.
Prepare for the next session - SEE MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS IN THE WEEK BELOW:
- read Gertrude Stein, "Ada": http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33403/33403-h/33403-h.htm What sense does it make in your opinion? Compare with the narrative in "The Other Two".
- read E. Hemingway´s short stories "Soldier´s Home" and "Up in Michigan".
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We will discuss Gertrude Stein, "Ada": http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33403/33403-h/33403-h.htm; and two stories by Ernest Hemingway.
Please read the English entry on Gertrude Stein on Wikipedia, and the document "modernism_lecture" in tne week above. G. Stein, even though she was an avid reader of the writers of the 19th century, decided to break from all traditions and literary conventions, and write literature anew, from the scratch. Prepare notes in groups on the basis of the following questions, after this session, put the notes into the "forum" (one longer paragraph about each writer is enough ):
- try to analyze the style of Ada. As suggested above, compare with the narrative in "The Other Two". What are the means of narration in Ada? How does it work? You´ll probably have an impression of repetitions - watch closely for what is really repeated and what is not (in sentences). Can it have any purpose? What effect/s does it make? Does the "story" make any sense to you? Does it have any plot?
- As for Hemingway:
- Read Hemingway´s stories: Up in Michigan, Soldier´s Home, Prepare notes on the narrative and its effects upon the reader´s - your - impression. Try to differentiate between the two stories, their themes and tone. Try to compare their style with Gertrude Stein´s.
In groups, prepare a question for the class about one of the three texts for this session.
Prepare for the next session:
Read poems by Emily Dickinson: I´m Nobody, The Soul Selects her own Society, Wild Nights, If Your Nerve Deny You (see internet sources)
Try to read through the metophorics of the poems and imagine the message on the basis of both literal and figurative meanings together (remember our discussion of metaphor and tropes in the 1st year course "Překladatelská propedeutika"; I post that chapter on metaphor below again). Pay attention to the form of the poems as well.
Try to work in groups and find collective answers.
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We will discuss the poems by Emily Dickinson: I´m Nobody, The Soul Selects her own Society, Wild Nights, If Your Nerve Deny You (see internet sources).
Prepare for the next session:
Ezra Pound (In a Station of the Metro, N. Y., A Pact), Marianne Moore (An Egyptian Pulled Glass Bottle in the Shape of a Fish - for this poem, see also this page: https://moore123.com/2010/06/04/egyptian-fish-for-scofield-thayer/), and Allen Ginsberg (A Supermarket in California). All the poems can be easily found on the internet.
Please, discuss the poems together in your GROUPS before, choose 2 poems and write down your shared reflections upon them: on the sound of the poems (rhyme, rhythm, other poetic devices that create sound, metaphors - if you find them - and what they stand for, impact the poems make upon you, etc.) Post your collaborative reflections in writing into "forum" (below) by the time of the session.
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We will discuss the poems of Pound, Moore, and Ginsberg. Please prepare in groups.
- Also, there is a specific question: What is the impact of the middle verse (in italics) in Pound´s N.Y. like? And why?
Prepare for the next session:
WE will discuss 2 short stories written in the 2nd half of the 20th century. I/you will propose 4 and you will choose, in a poll. Work on the analysis in groups and prepare a question on each story for he class.
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1/ In the first 15 minutes of the class, we will discuss the poems by M. Moore and A. Ginsberg for which we didn´t have time last week.
2/ We will discuss two short stories chosen by the class:
- The Music of Erich Zann, H. P. Lovecraft
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mez.aspx
- The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, by Ursula LeGuin
https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf
Please, prepare notes about the genre, the narrative, the mystery and its construction - in groups. Also, look up information about the authors. And prepare a question about each story for the class.
BESIDES THESE TWO STORIES THAT YOU CHOSE FOR THE CLASS, PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THE TWO STORIES FROM THE NEW YORKER (THAT I PROPOSED - SEE THE FORUM BELOW) FOR CLOSE READING - IT WILL BE A COMPULSORY ITEM OF YOUR READING LIST (CONTAINING JUST THE WORKS WE HAVE DISCUSSED IN THE CLASS), SERVING AS AN EXAMPLE OF CONTEMPORARY WRITING.
Prepare for the next session:
- William Faulkner: "Mountain Victory" (a short story): https://www.shortstoryguide.com/william-faulkner-short-stories/#:~:text=%20William%20Faulkner%20Short%20Stories%20%201%20%E2%80%9CBarn,to%20dispose%20of%20the%20body%20and...%20More
- Work in groups. Try to create a sort of "mind map" (myšlenková mapa) for interpretation. The "map" might contain as points connected by mental arrrows: the plot - the characters - the time and place setting - the narrative and how it leads to comprehending the characters - the sense of the story in relation to the title. You will be expected to present your shared interpretation supported by some examples from the story in eight-minute presentations (it is desirable that your group can show it in a digitalized version).
Please, use some study material on Faulkner (and Wright - the following topic) below.
- Read about modernism (my essay enclosed below; in Czech, and in English), and prepare some two or three comments on what might be unclear, new, useful, disputable etc.
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We will discuss William Faulkner and his short story.
Prepare for the next session:Richard Wright and his short story "Big Boy Leaves Home"
Richard Wright (African American writer): "Big Boy Leaves Home" (a short story from Uncle Tom´s Children, 1938):
find a full text of the story either in the library of the Institute of Translation Studies, or on the internet.
Prepare answers to questions:
- what is the effect of the overall point of view of the story?
- what is the effect of the narrative of the story using the direct speeches of the characters? use examples of the narrative and language of the story.
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We will discuss Richard Wright´s short story.