Topics for Final Paper, Module 2

Having reached the end of the term, and finished all other requisites, you are now ready to write the final paper for Module 2. Below you'll find a list of possible topics. In all cases, considering you're close to the end of your undergraduate career, in most cases we have asked for comparative essays: you will choose one of the texts we read in class, and then you will read extensively another one, which suits comparison with the intensive reading. "Promocionales" will choose one topic; "No promocionales" will choose 2.

The final paper should cover 3-5 pages, 1.5-space; Times New Roman/Arial 11. In all cases, you should make reference to the texts through quotations. You may consult critical bibliography, as long as you acknowledge the sources. Try not to use gradesaver or sparknotes, but more academic sources instead, which can be found in www.googlescholar.com
You may consult a dictionary of literary terms if you feel you need it. There is one in the library, in Spanish, whose SID (Sistema Integrado de Bibliotecas UNCuyo, www.sid.uncu.edu.ar) file I have copied here; there are others, in English, on line.
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ubicación: 155-5A Ref D
autor: Ayuso de Vicente, María Victoria; García Gallarín, Consuelo; Solano Santos, Sagrario
título: Diccionario de términos literarios
fecha de publicación: 1997
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Absolutely no plagiarism will be allowed (if it is detected, there will be no chance to write a second version).

The papers will be accepted ONLY IN PRINT (not via e mail). You may bring them to office 226 on Wednesday, August 8th, before 10 a.m. No papers will be accepted AFTER that time and date. If you cannot come on Wednesday, you can leave them BEFORE in the box for American and British Literature. The second paper, for No Promocionales, is due a week later (Wed. August 15th) same time, same place.

We hope you have enjoyed the Modules, and hopefully this will be the beginning of a lifelong relation with literature that will enlighten your existence and free your midns and souls! Nothing better to wish this than Emily Dickinson's words, which we read in her poem:

He ate and drank the precious Words --
His Spirit grew robust --
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was Dust --

He danced along the dingy Days
And this Bequest of Wings
Was but a Book -- What Liberty
A loosened spirit brings --


TOPICS FOR FINAL PAPER

- Analyse deeply the symbol of the fish (marlin) in The Old Man and the Sea, by Hemingway.
- How does Faulkner build and present contrasting characters and social worlds in As I Lay Dying and "Barn Burning"?
- Compare and contrast the role of Nature in The Old Man and the Sea and "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Mc Comber" By Hemingway.
- Analyse in depth the type of society Fitzgeral presents in "Babylon Revisited" and The Great Gatsby.
- Analyse the theme of WAR porttrayed in Bierce's short stories: "Two Military Executions" and "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
- Compare the protagonits' feelings ad reactions to war and what society expects from them in "How to Tell a True War Story" by O'Brien and "Soldier's Home" by Hemingway.
- Prepare a compilation of 10 (ten) poems by any of the authors included in the anthology of contemporary poets we saw in class. Study the 10 poems in depth and write about the author's main themes and style.
- How does Amy Tan deal with the issue of identity in "Half and Half" and "Two Kinds"? (you may read this other chapter from The Joy Luck Club in http://www.angelfire.com/ma/MyGuardianangels/index9.html (remeber to click on "Next" after each page; the story covers several pages)
-Read the poems "Indian Boarding School: The Runaways" and "Family reunion" by Louise Erdrich, and compare the treatment she makes of the issues of family bonds and ethnic identity in these texts and in "The Red Convertible". You may read the poems in http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/louise-erdrich

Ethnic literatures: Louise Erdrich

The idea of a melting pot in which all cultures mix and melt has long been left aside. Instead, the metaphor of the mosaic is more commonly used to refer to American culture: a country where different cultures coexist, side by side; each contributing to the whole, but keeping at the same time their distinctiveness.

This acceptance and respect of diversity has led to the description of America as MULTICULTURAL society. The main ethnic groups that are part of America's multiculturalism are African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. These terms are, of course, quite imprecise, as immigrants from Asia came from different countries, African slaves were brught from several parts of Africa, Hispanics may be of any of many Latin American countries, and Native Americans have very different ancestries, languages, cultures, etc.





Yet, all these groups contribute to the richness and variety of American multiculturalism, in literature as well as in other fields. Their writing came to public notice especially from the 1970s onwards. Much of the literature by ethnic American writers deals with the issue of identity (their social, racial, and individual identity). They write about looking for who they are, where they come from (so another important theme is coming to terms with the past), and what it means to be American, but also something else.

Many use post-modern literary techniques, a colloquial style that relates to the importance of oral cultures in their places / families of origin, and characters that aim at deconstructing the stereotypes that most WASP writers had presented before the 1970s.



The first contemporary novelist we will study is the Native American Louise Erdrich. In the power point presentation we used in class, you may find more information about her, the historical background, postmodern characteristics, main themes and a brief reference to the novel Love Medicine, in which "The Red Convertible" is included.

The Old Man and the Sea, by E. Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea was written in 1952, in the declining years of Ernest Hemingway. Nine years later the author would commit suicide, leaving this work as a testimony of the inner struggle between life and death.
Only a year later its publication, the novel The Old Man and the Sea, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was highly responsible for Hemingway’s Nobel Prize in 1954. The remarkable success of this work is due to the profound issues developed in the story: the simplicity of duty, the dignity of old age, the teaching of experience, the permanent sacrifice of life and the recognition of the wise.
Because he himself lived in Cuba, and met there the strength of the sea, the beauty of the landscape and the nobility of the people, Hemingway is the perfect witness to fictionalize the life of a fishermen he knew well. Aged Santiago sees himself in his last “battle” trying to catch an enormous marlin. In his fight, the protagonist exhibits his wisdom and experience to defeat his big enemy, and he constantly gives himself to the suffering of old age and to the mysterious power of the sea.

Activity: after you finish reading the novel, form groups of four or five students (not more) and complete the following study guide.
You are required to hand in your guide (one per group), in paper, next Friday, June 15th, in class. If you have doubts you may consult Professor Cuervo next Monday in office hours (16.30 to 18.30 off.226)
(For the preparation of this study guide I have used the defintions from Merriam Webster´s Reader´s Handbook. Massachusetts, Merriam Webster Inc.: 1997.)
Study Guide
1.Author (Write brief information about the author, mainly related to The Old Man and the Sea)
2.Point of view (the perspective from which a story is presented to the reader. The three main points of view are first person, third person singular and third person omniscient)
3.Protagonist (brief description)
4.Style (“a distinctive manner of expression”. Consider how ideas are transmitted, the language used, the words chosen, etc.)
5.Climax (retelling of the event)
6.Symbols (explain two symbols present in the story. You may quote the Dictionary of Symbols)
7.Themes (explain deeply two themes you observe in the novel)

A Dream Deferred

The history of African Americans was marked by deep injustices (starting with slavery, which was abolished in 1865; followed by legal segregation, in practice until 1965; and its various manifestations which attempted against the social and civil rights, and even the identity of a whole people.



Against such a negative background, artists among other members of the African American community played an important role in defining identity in positive termns, fighting for recognition of equal rights, and contributiing to the richness, diversity and multi-voiced character of American multicultural art.

Lorraine Hansberry, a playwright commited to the African American cause, wrote her paly A Raisin in the Sun which was produced in 1959 for the first time. The play takes its title from a poem by Langston Hughes. He was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Below you can read Hughes' text:



What happens to a dream deferred?



Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?



Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.



Or does it explode?



This poem plays with the idea of the dream (the American dream, which has been part of American life, history, ideology and society from the very beginning); only that his series of rhetorical questions turn the "dream" inside-out: what happens when people cannot reach their dream? when it is postponed?



Lorraine Hansberry's play is an attempt to answer the question. The dream may take different forms in each character's case, but they're all unified by the desire of equality.

As you read the play, take into consideration the following ideas:

* The dream(s)

* Asagai's role in helping define dreams and identity

* Realism vs. idealism

* Vanished dreams

* Death (real ans symbolic)

* Role of men. Manhood

And think deeply about the following questions:

* Is Lena a nurturing or an overbearing mother?

* How does the nature of the family account for the dreams they have?

* Which economic, social and moral pressures do the characters feel?

Cooperative learning: Poetry

In order to get a general view of the polyphonic character of twentieth- and twenty first- century poetry, we have read a brief anthology from which you chose your favorite poems. For the second mid-term test, and for the colloquy as well, you will read, atudy and analyze all poems. In order to get ready for that, now we'll do two activities.

Activity n° 1
In the "Comments" section below, include a brief note about the author you chose and his/her style or other characteristics you think are relevant (eventually I'll edit the comments, if there's anything to add). VERY IMPORTANT: this morning, many of you had already chosen a poet, so you may write about them. Those of you who had not, please choose the writers that were left out during the class, so that all poets are now discussed in the blog.

Activity n° 2
In a one-page paper (Times New Romans or Arial 11; 1.5 spaces) relate the form and content of the poem you have chosen, and add a conclusion in which you explain what you interpret the message of the poem is (remember that the message stems from the combination of form and content). Hand in your assignment on May 30th. Once I give you back the paper with the feedback, you'll write a clean second version, which you'll share with your classmates. For the colloquy, you are not supposed to repeat what you read in your classmates' papers, but to use those ideas as departing points to develop your own analysis.
In this way, you'll all contribute to each other's learning and understanding poetry.

Cooperative reading: Invisible Man

Invisible Man is Ralph Ellison's masterpiece. The first chapter was originally published as a short story; and if you rhink how it works with unity of effect, it certainly can be read as such (though of course, it is later developed in the rest of the novel).
What you'll find below are the questions which you prepared in class, plus a few I have added, to help you go over "Battle Royal" again. These questions are meant for you to study for the second mid-term test; it is not necessary that you answer and turn them in now.

1. What search was the narrator involved twenty years earlier?
2. What answer has he found? How can you explain it?
3. Why is the narrator ashamed?
4. in the 2nd paragraph, he says "our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days." What does he mean? Which "war" does he refer to? Why has he been a traiytor? Mention examples from the chapter in which we see him as a "traitor."
5. What was the gist fo the speech he delivered on his graduation day?
6. What was the battle royal? How is it relevant to the story's themes?
7. What is the white audience's attitude towards what happens in the ring?
8. What does the battle roal symbolize, in relation to the fighters' attitudes towards each other, and to the attitudes of the audience towards them?
9. Why is it so important for the narrator to deliver his speech?
10. What is meant by "social responsibility" and "social equality" in his speech? How do the white memebrs of the audience react to each of these ideas?
11. Explain the words that the M.C. tells the narrator as he hands him the prize briefcase.
12. What is the relevance of the garndfather's words on his deathbed? And of the dream the narrator has at the end of the chapter?

T. S. Eliot's Ariel Poems: a selection

T. S. Eliot was born in St Louis, MO; but decided to become a British subject. His poetry, drama, criticism and poetics are informed by the love of tradition, in which he found the roots of humanity and the solution to the devastation of the modern world. (This devastation is clearly seen in The Waste Land, especially in the last section: the image of the falling towers, for example, is particularly significant to readers who witnessed WWI, but it also speaks to 21st-century readers who recall contemporary wars or terrorist attacks).

When Eliot speaks of tradition, he refers to literary tradition, but also to the arts in general, to languages, religions, history... All these elements can be found in his poetry. He creates a new work of art with materials derived from a pre-existing tradition, which is resignified from the perspective of the modern world. This is clearly seen in his Ariel Poems, from which we have selected the first two.

(Benozzo Gozzoli's "Journey of the Magi", 15th century)


In class we read and analyzed "Journey of the Magi", in which one of the Three Wise Men recalls the hardships of the journey to find the baby Jesus. Both the popular story's and the biblical account's details are the point of departure for a text which is, in fact, a reflecion on the disappointment of modern man. If you click on the link under "Watch, listen, read and enjoy", you'll be able to listen to Eliot himself reading his poem. It's worth it!

In "A Song for Simeon" we hear another biblical character speak: Simeon was an old man who had been promised that he would not die until he saw the savior. So, when he witnessed Jesus' presentation at the temple, and after telling Mary that a sword would pierce her heart (a direct reference to the crucifixion), he let God know that now he could die, after all, since he had seen Salvation. (Just as the Magi, he had an epiphany, and was able to realize that the baby Jesus was the Saviour). Eliot, once more, recreates the hopeful account of the Bible and transforms it into a disillusioned discourse, the words of an old man who sees not salvation, but a painful future for his descendants. The peace that he asks God is not the biblical Peace, but the peace of death, where he wishes to find forgetfulness (in a way, the last line of "Journey of the Magi", which goes "I should be glad of another death", has an echo in Simeon's poem). And just like in the previous poem, here Simeon, who sees the baby Jesus, has visions of the future (the scourges, lamentations, the time of sorrow...). The "birth season of decease" recalls the similar paradox in "Journey of the Magi". Both speakers are old, tired, disillusioned, and even if their promises have been fulfilled, the results are not what they expected.

(An Armenian icon depicting the meeting of Simeon and the Holy Family in the temple)


That is why we may say these two poems can be read as companions: we may compare the poetic personae, the setting, the allusions, the tone, and several other elements. In both poems, you may see the exotic, Oriental presence (the girls bringing sherbet, or the hyacinths), the desacaralized biblical allusions, which are given a new meaning that speaks of the modern world and its disillusioned inhabitants, and the "small biography" of each poetic persona who speaks about his past, present and future.


Activity:
Write a 1-page essay in which you analyze one of the following topics on BOTH "Journey of the Magi" and "A Song for Simeon":

a. Eliot's use of biblical allusions.

b. The poems' re-writing of biblical stories from a modern perspective.

c. The tone of the poems.

d. The 2 poetic personae's "small biographies" in their dramatic monologues.

Due next Wednesday, May 23rd

“Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
..he suddenly realized the meaning of the word “dissipate” – to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing g out of something.
Being he himself an active participant in the “dissipation” that took place in the US in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald perfectly depicts the high society antics at those times. With his short story “Babylon Revisited” he shows how Americans wasted their time and money and spoiled their families and even their own lives. He narrates how youth closed “the door of the world”, missing every possibility of plans and futures. He denounces the eternal debt, impossible to be paid, left by a whole generation of squanderers.
Waiting for a door to be opened, the writer revisits his Babylonian past only to realize the irreversible damage of his dissipation.
Activity: Write one paragraph explain the title “Babylon Revisited “ in relation to the story. Take into account the biblical allusion to “Babylon”. ( This activity is due on May 25th, and late papers will not be accepted.)

e.e.cummings

Many see e.e.cummings as opposed to Frost. Frost would represent the more traditional tendency of American poetry in the first half of the 20th century, while cummnigs would stay at the other end, the radical experimentalist. Yet, as our guest speaker Prof. Victoria Muñoz showed us yesterday, there is a traditional vein in cummings, too. As well as there is an innovation, within tradition, in Frost's poetry. If you click on the link "Poetry in film", you'll be able to listen and watch to one of the ways in which a poem by e.e.cummnigs became popular through the movies!

An Approach to Poetry

What is Poetry? What is the function of the poet? How does the poet decide to devote his life to writing? Aristotle studies that the poetic art emerges out of two natural gifts: the instinct of imitation and the instinct of harmony. And the pleasure felt in both learning and imitating is UNIVERSAL. However, devoting one’s life to poetry means confronting a solitary and difficult path. Rilke’s Letters to a young poet comments on the crucial decision the artist takes when opting for a poetical career. And Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” gives his view on the hard road chosen by the poet, and how that option makes all the difference.

Activity: Read Rilke’s “Letter One” and Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and explain in one or two paragraphs how both authors see poetry (or the life of the poet). Send your activity to elenitacuervo@hotmail.com. (Due to Friday, 18th . Late activities will not be corrected.)

A Poet's World: Robert Frost

Young Frost

The experienced Frost Still one of the most popular 20th-century poets, Robert Frost's lyrics can be read as metaphors which convey a deep meditation on life and its surroundings. He used "old-fashioned" forms, but in fact he resignified his literary heritage and, using the New England speech he knew, he created a truly American poetic voice. In many of his poems we encounter Nature, isolated individuals, or people who discover either their loneliness is somehow accompanied by invisible presences of other human beings, or their solitude befriended by Nature itself. Activity to hand in in class next Wednesday, May 16th: After you read "The Road Not Taken", "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Ev

ening", and "The tuft of Flowers", write a brief summary in which you comment on Frost's main themes and style.

A new view on women: Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1951-1904) was born and raised in St Louis (Missouri), married at 19 and settled in New Orleans, had six children, and after her husband's death, returned to St.Louis and began a literary career. She believed in spontaneity when writing, so many of her stories strike readers as anecdotes. Her best novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899, though it was not well received in its day. Her writing deals with women's situation in the late 19th century, and her style goes beyond the typical local color of Mid-western writrs of the time, to acieve a deep psychological insight of her characters. As you read "A Pair of Silk Stockings", consider how she portrays "Little Mrs Sommers" and her thoughts, desires, and wishes, in contrast to what is expected from her.

Border Theory

When reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we should pay attention to the context: In the 1840s, Missouri was border land: frontier between the civilized East and the wild west, but also between North and South. Thus, some concepts from Border Theory may help understand aspects of the novel. This theoretical approach has been clearly explained by Professor Gustavo Fares, whose views are expressed in the article “Border Studies' Positionality”. In: Nueva Revista de Lenguas Extranjeras; Facultad de Filosofía y Letras UNCuyo; n 13, 2010: 19-35
* What is a border? “A line that indicates a boundary.”
* Borders can be physical, or imagined (in the sense of being ideas manifested in physical facts as barriers, police patrols, walls, etc.)
* Borders are a nation's territorial limits, while borders are “paradoxically different in location and similar in complexity and diversity, always signaling encounters and interactions between and among the areas they mark.” (21)
* “Border thinking and formations are not in any way the result of 'natural' processes, but of social and political ones and, as such, have histories which are always subject to a variety of interpretations.
* In some of the interpretations, the role of borders is dual and, oftentimes, contradictory: boundaries are there to exclude as well as to allow passing, to segregate, but also to place people beside another.
* Proximity breeds interaction, which in turn produces an hybrid or 'enriched' culture... (21)

In analyzing Huckleberry Finn, we will bear in mind some of the concepts below:
* Border
* Difference
* The Other
* Identity
* Language
* Voice – voiceless –
silence – language –
power
* Interaction
* Colonialism
* Imposed borders

"This is my letter to the world"

Such is the first verse of one of Emily Dickinson's poems. Her poetry, written in her native Amherst (Massachusetts) acquires a universal voice in her preoccupation with the themes of immortality, the soul, God, nature, and human relations, all expressed in a highly personal way. Her poems are brief but intense, charged with emotion and thought. Syntax and punctuation are idiosyncratic, to allow her to express so much in her tight stanzas. In the selection we are reading in this course, many of the poems express her views on poetry, the pot's task and the difficult road to poetry. "To learn the transport by the pain" probably best summarizes the idea that writing poetry is a craft that requieres de poet's pain, effort (you may compare this to Dylan Thomas' "In my craft or sullen art", a beautiful poem). Yet, the words reach readers and they may make a change in our lives, as they did for the man in "He ate and drank the precious words." As we said in class, some of the notions in this poem resemble what we saw in "The fantastic flying books of Mr Morris Lessmore." Her writing amounts to 1775 poems; each of them hides a pearl of beauty. Read and re-read over time, they will certainly tell us something new in every encounter, as they say so much in such few verses. Activity (to be handed in on Wednesday, May 2nd) Choose one of the following poems by Emily Dickinson: * "Much madness is divinest sense" * "The past is such a curious creature" * "Heaven is what I cannot reach!" * "If I can stop one heart from breaking" Write a 100-word paragraph in which you explain the poet's message in relation to life / human existence / human relations / individuality / or the theme you detect. Use your own words, write your own interpretation, without doing any Internet search to guide you. What will be considered in this activity is the way the poem speaks to you, not to anyone else.

The Scarlet Letter. Study Guide

“In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.” (Ch. II)

Hawthorne’s novel represents one of the major novels of American Literature. His romance shows the rigidity and cruelty of Puritanism. The protagonist, Hester Prynne, finds herself in an inescapable suffering after committing a sin. Is there in the whole world such a sin that cannot be pardoned?


Study Guide

1.Who is the narrator of the story?

2.What’s the function of the preface in relation to the whole narrative?

3.Identify the setting in time and place.

4.Compare and contrast Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.

5.Explain Pearl’s wildness. How does she change towards the end of the novel?

6.Why is Roger Chillingworth called a “leech” (1)?
7.Explain the climax (2) of the novel.

8.How does the meaning of the Scarlett Letter change towards the end of the novel?

9.The Scarlet Letter is an historical romance as well and as an allegory, says Luciana Piré in her introduction to the novel. Explain the two characteristics in relation to the novel.(3)

10.Choose one of the following quotations and explain it:

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without getting bewildered as to which may be the true”. (Ch. XX)

“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair Solitude! These had been her teachers –stern and wild ones- and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.” (Ch. XVIII)

“It kept him down, on a level with the lowest; him, the man of ethereal attributes, whose voice the angels might have listened to and answered! But this very burden it was, that gave him sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind” (Ch. XI)

Allegory: a more or less symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a secondary meaning not explicitly set forth in the literal narrative. Literary allegories typically express situations, events or abstract ideas in terms of material objects, persons and actions or interactions.

Notes
1) 1. Any of various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, of which one species (Hirudo medicinalis) was formerly used by physicians to bleed patients and is now sometimes used as a temporary aid to circulation during surgical reattachment of a body part. 2. One that preys on or clings to another; a parasite. 3. Archaic A physician.
2)Climax: crisis, decisive moment. The point of highest dramatic tension or a major turning point in the action of a play, story or other literary composition.
3)Historical novel: a novel that has as its setting a period of history and that attempts to convey the spirit, manners and social conditions of a past age with realistic detail and fidelity to historical fact. The work may deal with actual historical personages […] or it may contain a mixture of fictional and historical characters.


BIBLIOGRAPHY USED:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com
Merriam Webster’s Reader’s Handbook, Massachusetts, Merriam-Webster Incorporated: 1997.
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter. Firenze, Giunti Gruppo Editoriale: 2005. (Edited with and Introduction by Luciana Piré)

Hawthorne: the context and his style

1798, the year of the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads marks the beginning of the Romantic movement in England. The movement, relying strongly on the power of the imagination, euqlity of all men and women, and the belief in the possibility of continuous improvement, was a literary, social, political and artistic response to a background in which industrialization, rationalism, unequal treatment and unfair conditions for many, characterized the turn of the century.

In general terms, Romanticism meant:
*a return to nature
*a renewed interest in the past
*an idealization of the simple, pure states of humanity
*exaltation of the imagination
*rejection of material reality in favor of intuition

American Romanticism was not an imitation of its European counterpart. On the contrary, it developed its own traits. Its novelty lay on the abounding strangeness of this continent. The return to nature was effectively put into practice by people like Henry David Thoreau, who recounted his experience in Walden. The interest in the past was directed not to the distant Medieval Era, but to what Americans considered their own past: the Colonial Period. There was also an idealization of pure life, as seen in Native Americnas. Yet, they were presented in literary works as fictionalized, idealized charcacters, far from the harsh realities that politics and history show. 

The rebellious spirit typical of the Romantics was set to work on reform movements that overflew with optimistic expectations of improvement. At the beginning, there was a belief in the possibility of uninterrupted human progress. Yet, towards the mid-century, the catastrophe of the Civil War showed otherwise.

In this context, the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the complexities of the Romantic movement, its interest in the Colonial past as an explanation of the causes for the 19th century present, the dark and luminous sides alike of the human soul, and the first example of symbolic fiction in America, namely, The Scarlet Letter (1850).

His style is marked by the following characteristics:

* Rich, ambivalent allegory.
* Reference to his Puritan past.
* Investigation of the problems of moral and social responsibility.
* His enemies are intolerance, hypocrisy (which hides true sin), withdrawal from humanity, the greed that kills joy, cynical suspicion, arrogance.
* His remedy is in nature and in a world free from the corrosive sense of guilt.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Scarlet Letter

Poe: the poet and the critic

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), a passionate poet from Boston, hides a mystery both in his biography and literary career. His unstable life mingles with his melancholy poems and his grotesque tales. He published his first book of poetry when he was eighteen and he continued a prolific career as a poet, wit, gambler and heavy drinker! In 1845 he wrote his most famous work “The Raven”, in which “the most poetical topic in the world” is presented (according to Poe’s own words).
As we said in class, "The Raven" is a beautiful, musical, complex poem that can be read accompanied by Poe's own words in "The Philosophy of Composition", which throws light into the poetic text.
The diction, rhyme (both internal and external -at the end of lines), repetitions and alliterations, the refrain in the last line of each stanza, are some of the procedures that Poe used to convey a strong musicality. We should also consider that the poetic persona is obssessed, and transmits this state of mind through the repetitions, and the overwhelming presence of the black raven.
All these issues contribute to the creation of effect, one of the main topics in the essay "The Philosophy of Composition".

Activities to do at home
Read the poem “The Raven”, and listen to the musicality produced in these verses. Which different elements contribute to build this musicality?
Accompany your reading of the poem with the essay “The Philosophy of Composition”, by the same author, and underline the main ideas in the text. What does Poe want to demonstrate with this essay?

"I went to the Woods..."

Thoreau and his fellow Transcendentalists regarded Nature as a source of wisdom, purity, and life. Considered by many an extremist, a genius by others, a true representative of the Romantic spirit and, above all, of the so deeply American value of individualism, his account of the 2-year experience in the woods near Walden Pond remains one of the freshest, most true-to-life while consciously artistic 19th-century literary pieces.

Blog Assignment 2
Read the chapter "Where I Lived and What I Lived for" looking for instances in which Thoreau tells readers about his experience, and instances of the message / suggestions / pieces of advice / general thoughts he gives. Then, concentrate on his aesthetic use of language: How does he create beauty thorugh language? Go over the text again, and choose your favorite phrase or sentence, the one in which you find a powerful message expressed in a beautiful language. Copy your favorite statement in the Comments section below. Try to avoid repeating the same phrase as your classmates. (You may also send the assignment via e mail) Due Monday, March 25th

Echoes of Frederick Douglass, an African American writer

Frederick Douglss' Narrative of the Life... is a crucial text to understand not only his life, but slavery, and the painful conditions in which a whole race lived for centuries. His book is not only a narrative, as the title puts it, but also an argument against slavery, written while most African Americans were unable to enjoy the equality and freedom preached by the American Declaration of Independence.

Most slaves were denied an education (together with an identity, clothing, food, fair treatment, and other basic human rights). Yet, they developed a body of oral literature, in which music and songs were a central part. At the end of chapter 2 of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he makes a reference to slaves' singing and its meaning.

The following activities are to be written down (or printed) and handed in on Wednesday, April 4th

Activity 2
Below you can read the lyrics of a worksong, originated in the Southern plantations, following the traditional "call-and-response" pattern typical of African culture, which the captured slaves brought with them ton America. One of them wpuld sing a line, and the rest would answer, collectively.
Write a short paragraph in which you give your own interpretation of this song, considering Frederick Douglass' explanation of what music and songs meant to slaves (this is one of those songs, actually).

I Wonder What’s the Matter

from Negro Work Songs and Calls

Leader: I wonder what the matter

Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd!

All: Well, I wonder what’s the matter with my long time here

Leader: Boys, I woke up early this mornin’.

Chorus: Hey, Lawd!

All: Boys, I woke up early this mornin’.

‘Bout the break of day

(The break of day. Hear it, hear it.

Leader: Well, the big bell sho was tonin’.

Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd!

All: Well, the big bell sho was tonin’.

Sho was. Good Lawd

Just a while fo’ day.

Judge right. Oh, yah! Everybody talk.

Leader: Well, the bully turn over in the bed a-grumblin’.

Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd.

All: Bully turn over in the bed a-grumblin’.

‘Bout that night so short.

Oh, Lawd.

Don’ hurt nobody.

Night so short.

Leader: Well, it look like it been one hour.

Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd.

All: Well, it look like it been one hour.

Oh, Lawd.

Pardner, since I lay down.

Oh, Lawd, since I lay down….

(Source: http://www.library.pitt.edu/voicesacrosstime/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/0405PekarWhittakerWorkSongs.html

Activity 3

In the 20th century, an African American writer called Langston Hughes got his inspiration from the roots of these worksongs and spirituals, and recreated them in beautiful poems. Read the pone below, and in a short paragraph explain how his individual poem, written in the 20th century, recreates the songs of the period of slavery, in content, theme, style, language, etc.

Bound No’th Blues

Goin’ down the road, Lawd,
Goin’ down the road.
Down the road, Lawd,
Way,way down the road.
Got to find somebody
To help me carry this load.

Road’s in front o’ me,
Nothin’ to do but walk.
Road’s in front of me,
Walk…an’ walk…an’ walk.
I’d like to meet a good friend
To come along an’ talk.

Hates to be lonely,
Lawd, I hates to be sad.
Says I hates to be lonely,
Hates to be lonely an’ sad,
But ever friend you finds seems
Like they try to do you bad.

Road, road, road, O!
Road, road…road…road, road!
Road, road, road, O!
On the no’thern road.
These Mississippi towns ain’t
Fit fer a hoppin’ toad.

(Langston Hughes)

Anne Bradstreet: the feminine side of Colonial America

Between Old England and New England, in the midst of her domestic duties, Anne Bradstreet succeeds against the rudimentary conditions of colonial life at writing the verse that marks the beginning of American Poetry. Her strong puritan education together with her European past conform the background of her life and writing. Her lyric varies from everyday issues into deep spiritual meditations.“To my dear and loving husband” is her most famous poem, quoted in wedding ceremonies. Read this poem and note how Bradstreet presents the issue of love. What does she say to her husband? What does she say to women? Be ready to share your observations in class this Friday.

Puritan Beginnings

While some colonies in the south of what would later become the U.S.A. were founded after commercial enterprises, the north-eastern region known as New England was settled by a group of Puritans, called "the Pilgrims", or later called "the Pilgrim Fathers", who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620.

They founded Plymouth Plantation. The record of their experiment is carefully kept in William Bradford's Of Plymourth Plantation, a detailed account of the Pilgrims' first years in America.

The power of words

Why read literature?
Why teach literature?
Why study literature?

These questions have provoked a variety of answers in different times and places. Certainly they still prompt us to think and give our own answer, since we're here, together in this class.

We value literature, literary texts, books, because ...

* They shows us the world again, under a new light, so that we see it with renewed eyes.
* They may teach us what we want -or what we don't- want to be.
* They make us experience adventures, feelings, moments and whole lives that would be inaccessible to us in the "real" world.
* They may lead us to be better persons.
* They bring to us languages, cultures, authors, people and characters that we are not likely to meet otherwise.

Can you add your own reasons?
If you can't think of any others, "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" may help you. It was awarded the 2012 Oscar to the best animated movie, and it reflects many of the things we have been talking about. To watch it, click on the title on the right hand side of the screen.

Activity n° 1
After you watch the movie, write a list of the things books do for people, according to the director. Post it in the comments section below.