Introduction to Literature

Getting our Feet Wet in the Morass of Deep/Short Fiction

• The Way We Read Now - The Great American Read
• Can you Read a Book the Wrong Way? (HULO 3, DVLO 1-3)
  PBS: The Great American Read

• Reading Fiction: narrator and character types
• Edgar Allan Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado" (HULO 1 +2)
  Alan Parsons, "The Cask of Amontillado" 
  Of topical interest: "Why so many writers are late bloomers" 
  
   
• James Baldwin, "Sonny’s Blues" & Ken Burns, Risk (video)  (HULO 1-3, DVLO 2+3)

Characterization

• David Foster Wallace, "Good People" (HULO 1+3, DVLO 1)
• Junot Diaz, "Wildwood" (HULO 1-3, DVLO 1-3)
• DP #1__________________________________________

Setting, Symbols and Stuff

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
• Tim O' Brien, "The Things They Carried"; YouTube: Tim O' Brien (HULO 1-3, DVLO 2+3)
  Of topical interest:
  - Tim O'Brien & Tobias Wolff (NULC author 2020)
  - Robert Olen Butler, Good Scent From a Strange Mountain (1992)
  - Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer (2015)
   
• DP #2 ___________________________________________
   

Eudora Welty, "Why I Live at the P.O." P.O. - Discussion Questions  (HULO 1-3, DVLO 2)
                         Eudora Welty reading "Why I Live at the P.O."

• Raymond Carver, "Cathedral"
• Jhumpa Lahiri, "Interpreter of Maladies"
  Of topical interest:
  - Super Instrument )
  
   
• DP #3 ___________________________________________
   
• Reading More Fiction - Overflow Hour - Our Glossary

**** NOTEBOOKS DUE (1) ****

Sniffing the Stuff out: Poetry - Reading, Responding, Writing (Most poetry assignments fulfill all HULO and DVLO, in varying degrees)

• Defining Poetry, Lydia Davis, "Head/Heart"; Bruce Springsteen, "Nebraska"; Sherman Alexie, "A Facebook Sonnet"
• The Art of (Reading) Poetry - An Album (7 poems)
• YouTube clips (select)
  - FYI: Poetry Foundation - Elizabeth Alexander

Situation Setting, Speaker

• Yusef Kommuyakaa, "To Do Street," "Facing It" (locate all poems of these authors in textbook > Index of Authors)
• Kay Ryan, "Repulsive Theory," "Blandeur"
   
• DP #4 ___________________________________________
  FYI: Is the Human Brain Hardwired to Appreciate Poetry?
• Linda Pastan, "To a Daugher Leaving Home," "Listening to Bob Dylan, 2005," "love poem," "In the Har-Poen Tea Garden," "Marks"
• 
  DP #5 ___________________________________________
• Terrance Hayes, "Mr. T -," "Carp Poem"
  - FYI: American Academy of Poets, Terrance Hayes
  - perhaps useful: Orange is the New Black in "Carp Poem" by Terrance Hayes

Metaphor, Simile, Symbol

• Robert Browning, "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister," "My Last Duchess"
   
• DP #6 ____________________________________________
• Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," "Home Burial," "Range-Finding," "Stopping by Woods . . . ," "Design,"
  "' Out Out-,'"
• Poems Pick & Choose - Recommendations:
  - Section 16, Sounds of Poetry - Word and Music - An Album (selections)
  - Helen Chasin, "The Word Plum"; Kenneth Fearing, "Dirge"; Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from "The Charge of the Light Brigade"; Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est"
   
• DP #7 ____________________________________________
• Reading More Poetry - Overflow Hour - Our Glossary Revisited
  - Section 21: Cultural and Historial Contexts  -  The Harlem Renaissance (selections)
  - Countee Cullen, "Yet Do I Marvel"; Angelina Grimke, "The Black Finger"; Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"; Claude McKay, "Harlem Shadows"
  - from ideas in the head to ideas on the page: sample essays and writing exercises in our Intro 
   
• DP #8 _____________________________________________

**** NOTEBOOKS DUE (2) ****

Drama: Reading, Responding, Writing

• Susan Glaspell, Trifles, Trifles - Discussion Questions  (HULO 1+3, DVLO 2+3)
• August Wilson, Fences (HULOs 1-3,  DVLO 1-3)
   
• Of topical interest
  Fences Study Guide
  Halloween bonus :): Why we love big, blood-curdling screams?
   
• DP #9 _______________________________________________

**** NOTEBOOKS DUE (3) ****

• Film screening,  Dead Poets Society (class vote)
  - DPS summary;  film access: Dead Poets Society (Thank you, Jack!)
  - DPS - Study Guide
   

DP #10 ________________________________________________

Fiction Rocks: Punk Rock, Time, and the (Future) Form of Narrative

• Jennifer Egan, A Visit From the Goon Squad  (All HULOs and DVLOs)

DP #11, Goon Squad I ________________________________       DP #12, Goon Squad II ___________________________________

Of Topical Interest
- A Visit from the Goon Squad: Great Rock and Roll Pauses
- Tired of the Social Media Void? - Americans read twice as much poetry in 2017 as in 2012
 

**** Additional office hours: Wednesday, 27November, 12:30-2:30, Pre-Turkey :) ****

**** Signature Ass./The Big Question/FDPs due: Monday, 2 December 2019, 10:30, in class and CANVAS  ****
      Click here to find it on my own site.

**** Final Exam Review and FINAL EXAM (in class and take home) ****