Outlines, Snow Days and Due Dates, Oh My!

Outlines are due Wednesday, February 10 and the pastiche assignment is due in class Thursday, February 11 (use your in-class work time wisely).  If we don’t have school tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10, I will check your outlines when we return to school on Thursday and your pastiche will still be due that day.  Sophomores will be taking the first part of the PLAN exam in class on Thursday and we don’t have class on Friday.   We are running out of class sessions before Agora Days.

Enjoy your early release today, but all due dates remain the same.

Wuthering Heights Pastiche

Choose one of the following two options:

1.  Pick a character from Wuthering Heights whose perspective we do not hear in the novel (Isabella, Joseph, Hareton, Hindley, young Linton) or a situation we do not hear about (what happens during Catherine’s 5 weeks at the Linton’s?  When Heathcliff is gone?) and write their version of events.  The style of the writing should be a pastiche (or Fan Fiction) of Emily Bronte’s style. Decide on your purpose beforehand (humorous, satirical, earnest) and make sure your tone is consistent throughout.  I will be looking for the elements of Bronte’s style that we identified in class.

You may write your pastiche as a short chapter of the novel, as a series of Facebook status updates, or as a series of tweets on Twitter (see historicaltweets.com for inspiration).  If you choose to write via twitter, please follow nellydean1801 (that’s me) so that I can read what you write.

This pastiche need not be long—between a half-page and a single page, typed and double-spaced, will suffice (or 8-10 tweets)—but I am looking for careful attention to detail, tone, and choice of words.

Pastiche is a French word for a PARODY or LITERARY IMITATION. Although the intent is often humorous (ranging from witty satire to gentle, affectionate ribbing), the writer of pastiche sincerely imitates the style, technique, and themes of a writer or work they wish to parody (so there is an element of tribute or homage, as well as parody). The reader should be able to recognize distinctive features of the author’s style in the pastiche.

The Bronte Style Sheets that you developed last week will be particularly helpful to you for this assignment.

2.  Pick a particular episode or passage from Wuthering Heights and transpose it into a modern American context and a contemporary American idiom of your choice. One of your primary goals in writing a transposition will be to create a unified whole that makes sense; I am not asking simply for a passage from Wuthering Heights translated into contemporary American English. I am looking for a believable transfer of style and theme from one place and period to another and for an authentic American idiom to accompany it.   Again, you may compose this as a series of tweets on twitter, status updates on Facebook, IM messages or another context that you imagine.  At the top of your paper, clearly identify the chapter and page you draw your passage from.  One double-spaced page should suffice, but don’t curtail your work until you’ve accomplished what you set out to achieve. Again, I am not looking for quantity, but for quality and attention to details.

Due in class Thursday, February 11—we will have time in class today and tomorrow to work on this assignment so please bring the materials you need with you to class. You will have the opportunity to share your pastiche or transposition in class.

Resources for composing your Compare / Contrast Thesis

We will talk in class today about the specific expectations for a compare / contrast thesis.  The most important thing to remember is that your comparison needs to talk about similarities and differences in a way that answers the question, “So what?”  So what that two books are written in the same time period but have a different perspective on science?  So what if two books portray women differently?  What interesting thing can you say about the comparison?  Answering this questions requires more thought and analysis of your subject than simply creating a superficial list of the similarities and differences between your topics.

If you are having trouble composing an appropriately sophisticated thesis for this paper, here are some websites that may be helpful to you.

University of North Carolina Writing Center handout on comparing and contrasting
UNC Writing Center handout on thesis statements
How to Write a Comparative Analysis from the Harvard Writing Center

Uni students may make individual appointments at the University of Illinois Writers Workshop.  More information available on their web page.

Compare / Contrast Essay

The main purpose of this essay is to develop your ability to compose an argument that meaningfully compares two literary texts. The similarities and differences you identify should illuminate important aspects of both texts – don’t assume that a simple comparison will be interesting in and of itself. Your task is to show why it is interesting to examine these works side-by-side. Remember the work we did on the comparisons between Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and Frakenstein—those are the meaningful types of comparisons that you are looking to make on this assignment. You may choose from one of the following topics:

1.    Write an essay comparing the novel Wuthering Heights with the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s Lysander observes that “the course of true love never did run smooth”— a statement that couldn’t be truer for the characters in Wuthering Heights.  How do these texts compare in their portrayal of romantic love?  Consider focusing on one of the following aspects of love in the two texts:

• How do the relationships between men and women compare in each text?  Do women and men seem to have a more equal level of power and status in one text than the other?  Does one text offer a more optimistic view of romantic love than the other?  What role does social class play in choosing an appropriate mate in each work?

2.    All three of these novels employ a frame narrative to tell their story.  Compare the author’s use of the frame narrative in two of the stories and its usefulness in telling a story; the characters of Walton, Utterson, Lockwood and Mrs. Dean and their respective role in each story; the role of the frame narrative to create suspense in the novel; the reliability of the various narrators…

3.    Compare Wuthering Heights to the recently released young adult novel The Heights, written by Brian James.  Written in the twentieth century and set in San Francisco, The Heights transposes the story of Wuthering Heights to a modern day high school.  Evaluate James’s novel as a companion to Wuthering Heights: does James effectively capture the power of Bronte’s novel? Are the characters recognizable from Wuthering Heights?  Does The Heights take this story in interesting and worthwhile directions, or is it merely redundant with Wuthering Heights?  Compare this story as told from these two different perspectives.  How does the loss of the frame narrative in The Heights change things?  How does each novel reflect differently on the same (or related) characters and events?

4.    Compare the portrayal of women in Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights. Shelley’s female characters seem to be ciphers but the novel could be interpreted as an affirmation of the feminine role in creation given that when Victor usurps the creation of another being, things go horribly awry. Bronte’s women also seem disempowered but have more of a pivotal role in the story and upon closer examination can be seen to assert themselves within the limited range of their gender role.  Are the men in either book given more freedom to shape their destiny?  Examine each book and compare the role of women (or lack their of) and/or the way each represents masculinity.

5.    Heathcliff can be seen as a creature—unattractive, shunned, violent—similar to Frankenstein’s creature or Mr. Hyde.  Consider the perspective on nature vs. nurture that two of the three books we’ve read this quarter present.  Focus in particular on the role that isolation, social rejection, and human nature play in the formation of their respective “creature’s” behavior and reception.  Do the two novels present the same assumptions about nature vs. nurture or do they challenge each other?  Are there ways in which they complement each other?

6.    Choose a comparison topic of your own, using one of the books we’ve read so far this year and another book you think would make an interesting comparison.  If you’re interested in this option, email me with a specific topic by the end of the school day on Thursday 2/4 for approval (slinder@illinois.edu).

Specifications:  Your paper should have an introductory paragraph that mentions the titles (underlined or italicized) and authors of all the texts you plan to discuss and a clearly stated thesis statement somewhere in the first paragraph or two. No comparison is inherently worthwhile for its own sake: the thesis should say specifically what is interesting about this comparison and how it helps us better understand both texts. Cite specific evidence and numerous examples from both texts to support each point throughout the essay (as always, use MLA citation style).  Be sure to develop smooth transitions between paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph that offers a definite sense of closure to your overall argument.  The paper should be about three to four pages long, double-spaced.

•    Sign up for a topic by: Friday 2/5
•    Introductory paragraph and preliminary outline of your argument
with evidence due for in-class workshop: Wednesday 2/10
•    Complete rough draft (typed) due for in-class peer-edit: Tuesday 2/23
•    Final draft due (typed, stapled, including all peer-edited drafts): Friday 2/26

Wuthering Heights Syllabus

Your syllabus for Wuthering Heights is now posted on the current syllabus page.  Check it out!  You have reading and vocabulary for Monday.

Speech Assignment

Your Task: To give an interesting, clear and well-prepared 4 minute speech.  Your speech should be written by Monday, 1/25 and will be delivered on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  The content of the speech should be engaging and well organized, but the bulk of your grade will be focused on your delivery of the speech.

Topic options for your speech:

•    How to do something—get a date, survive at Uni, frustrate your parents, lose friends—any topic is fair game, but this is not a demonstration speech.  While you may use a visual aid, you will not be demonstrating how to do something in class (therefore, no “how to bake a cake” or “how to fold origami” speeches).
•    Imagine you are graduating from Uni this year and have been elected by your class to give the graduation speech.  Imagine your classmates and their families as the audience for a 4-minute graduation speech.
•    Travelogue—give a speech on an amazing place you have visited.  Include interesting information about the location and why it is such an incredible place to visit.  Again, you may have a visual aid, but this should not be a narration of a photo slideshow.
•    Many of you know a lot about topics that we don’t frequently talk about at Uni—skateboarding, swimming, chess, photography, knitting—give an enthusiast’s speech about something you are passionate about.  Give some history, talk about why you find it interesting / rewarding and convince your classmates to try something new.

You should begin by writing out your speech and then move towards being able to deliver it from notes cards.  You cannot read your speech to the class, however, you will need to start with a solid idea of what you are going to say.

Approach writing a speech like you would writing a paper—you need to have a beginning, middle and end, and your points should be clear, organized and interesting to you audience.  Additionally, you will need to have an introduction that captures your classmates’ attention and an ending that lets them know you are done.  Feel free to employ humor along with any of these topics—as long as you can deliver your jokes with a straight face.

Finally, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse—and  make sure you do that rehearsal with a timer.  You speech needs to be between 3 minutes, 45 seconds and 4 minutes, 15 seconds.  Any shorter than 3:45 and you will lose points, longer than 4:15, you will be cut off.

You will have time on Monday, January 25 to deliver your speech to a small group of classmates and get feedback before you deliver it to the full class.

This Week in Class

This week (and next) we will be doing a short public speaking unit.  I’ve updated the syllabus page to let you know what we will be doing each day in class and will be publishing the speech assignment tomorrow.

We will also be doing some preliminary writing for the compare / contrast essays that will be the multi-draft writing assignment this quarter.  This week’s writing task follows:

Compare / Contrast Paragraph Assignment (due Thursday 1/21)

In your assigned small group, trade your writing from last Thursday and read each other’s ideas.  Your goal is to have an idea that goes beyond listing similarities and differences and says something about the comparison between Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Give each other feedback about which idea seems to have the most potential for a rich and interesting comparison.

If all of the ideas that you read are of the listing variety, give the writer some ideas about how they can revise their idea to take it in a more interesting direction.

Once you have received the feedback from your group, choose the idea that you think is most promising and turn that idea into a solid, specific topic sentence.  This topic sentence will serve as the thesis statement for the  compare / contrast paragraph that is due on Thursday.  Your paragraph should be edited, typed, and double-spaced.

Super Short Book Talk Guidelines

By now, you’re all experts at book talks.  You’ve given two, you’ve seen dozens, and you can probably tell a really good book talk from a so-so book talk.  One thing that makes a book talk good is the speaker’s ability to get to the point and convey concisely what the book’s premise is and what he or she likes and dislikes about the book.  This quarter, I am challenging you to get even better at this.  First of all, I am reducing the time a book talk should take from five minutes to four minutes.  Second, unlike quarters past where I’ve allowed people to ramble on past five minutes or read passages that are really too long for a five minute presentation, this quarter I will time you and stop you at the four minute point.  I will also require you to include several elements in your book talk:

1.    You must describe the book’s premise, the basic situation that drives the story or gives the book a reason for being.  This can include setting and time period, but it may not include plot summary.  By now you should be able to tell the difference between premise and plot.

2.     You must briefly tell us what you liked and/or didn’t like about the book – the writing, the characters, the story, the way it lived up to expectations you had of it or didn’t, the extent to which it is a good example of its genre or of the author’s work.  You don’t have to tell us all the reasons you liked or didn’t like a book, but you should include at least a couple of the most important ones.

3.    You must read a short passage to illustrate one or more of the observations you make about the book’s strengths or weaknesses.  Choose carefully, because your time is very limited.  Pick a brief passage, and remember that if you like a longer passage, you may be able to convey what you want to convey with part of that passage.

This new, shorter book talk will require a couple things:

1. You will have to use notes.  You won’t have time to get up there and just spontaneously give your impressions of the book.  A shorter presentation is almost necessarily a slightly more formal presentation because you have to make a few very concise points.

2. You will need to practice your book talk at least once, and time yourself.  If you run out of time and don’t get a chance to include all of the above elements in your book talk, your grade will suffer, and it’s really hard to judge how long a speech is going to take unless you actually time it.  For your purposes this quarter, it’s much better to give a two and a half minute book talk and get all the elements in than to run out of time.  Be especially careful to time your passage.

One thing to bear in mind is that not all three elements of your book talk need to be equal in terms of the time you devote to them.  If you want to read a passage that will take two minutes, you can do that as long as you’re sure to come up with a premise and some observations that are very concise.  You can convey these things in a very brief time if you prepare and use clear, vivid language.  You can also read a very brief passage if you find one that is both short and interesting/illustrative.

Good luck with your shorter book talks!

Sublime

Here is the video example of the Sublime Case Study that I showed in class yesterday.  Thank you Lisa for your permission to share it!

Sublime Case Study

Project due: Monday, December 14

Sublime—a theory and/or attitude toward beauty, nature, and spirituality marked by a combination of awe/pleasure and terror/fear inspired by natural beauty (usually of a huge, dark, and/or dangerous variety).

Your task is to compile a case study of the sublime in art, literature and music.  Your examples should be from historical Romanticism (1780-1830 in England) as well as more recent examples that demonstrate a contemporary understanding of the sublime (this understanding may have evolved).

You should have a minimum of four examples, two from historical Romanticism and two more recent examples (these can be artistic artifacts—photos, poems, songs—from your own life as well as published art, music, and writing).

The nature of your artifacts will dictate the format in which you present your case study.

•    If all of your artifacts are music, you may want to submit a CD with a cover you design (can you make the cover a representation of the sublime?) and liner notes that identify the musical pieces and briefly explain how they illustrate the sublime.

•    If your artifacts are visual, you may want to create scrapbook pages that include the images as well as brief explanations of how the images reflect the sublime.  Can you make the pages look like a representation of the sublime as well as contain information about the sublime?

•    If your artifacts are literary (poetry, passages from other literary works, etc) you may want to produce a small chap book with a cover you design and brief explanations of how the writing reflects an understanding of the sublime.  Can you create a cover that also represents the sublime?

•    If your artifacts are a combination of sound, image and words, you may want to create a wiki entry, webpage, or short movie.  Be sure to include a brief explanation of how the artifacts represent the sublime.

Regardless of how you choose to present your case study, the final object that you submit should be a visual representation of the sublime as well as contain examples of the sublime (form should reflect content).  Additionally, regardless of form, it should contain brief written (or spoken) explanations of how the artifacts illustrate the sublime and you should include your sources for the artifacts.  How you include sources will depend on the format (on a webpage, you would use links, for a CD, scrapbook pages, movie, you would need an MLA formatted list of sources).

I will have some examples of successful case studies in class tomorrow, but there are also some nice ones on the wiki from last year.  Here are links to two in particular that I would recommend checking out: Michael M. and Chris M.