Comp and Lit

From a friend on Facebook, I have found a video that is a wonderfully funny and pertinent introduction to Shakespeare’s language through comedian John Branyan’s Shakespearean translation of “The Three Little Pigs.” It is AMAZING.

I am using it tomorrow in fyc, since we are practicing writing about literature using the fairy tales. Next semester I will use it to introduce Shakespeare in my Brit lit class.

The CHE forums have a good thread on Teaching Intro to Literature.

This is second semester freshman composition at my school and it’s been a year or two since I’ve taught it. There are some good ideas in the thread though.

This is a live blogging of the session.

All of the panelists are authors on books on this topic. There was a handout of seventeen other books on the topic on a handout.

Gregory Jusdanis,
Ohio State U: Columbus
“Literature as Alternative Reality”

In my book is an aesthetic theory, literature is important because it helps us mediate between literature and reality.

There is a tradition that Helen remained in the Nile area and someone else-a ghost, a faux, an alternative- went to Troy. Plato’s excerpt, two lines, is all we have of this alternative tradition. The poem undoes the Homeric story. Further twist, Herodutus claims that Homer knew that Helen did not travel to Troy but Homer wrote the literature as he did because it was good literature.
Dig against politicians lying about “real cause of the hostilities.” Why was this necessary?
Is the meaning of the simulacrum its absence?

We love the contrast between the real and fake. This comparison is fascinating to us. It is mistaking the deception clear.
Okay, he says that we need to see this deception to recognize the option for deception in real life. So there is a purpose to the political insults. At least that is reasonable, unlike the other three speakers (the ones I heard) who did the same this weekend.

We need the tension between Helen’s real body and the ghost in order to make sense of the Trojan war. “Terrible beauty” Homer said. The war was fought because it made a good story. Life is literary, Helen says; “Other men amuse themselves in hearing our tale.” Men and women die so they will become immortal in a story.

If we know it is deception, we can throw it out.

Literature promises to give access to the signifier and the signified. Human practice that promises to open the door to reality while highlighting that it is just a door. We look not at the truth but at looking in a way to get at the truth.

The main problem that people have with imitation is the fear that resemblance takes place, a reader becoming confused in the literature. We fear that art erases the distinction between literature and reality. But in fact art emphasizes the distinction between the real and the simulacrum. (Pygmalion was neither real nor false, “so cleverly did his art become his art.” Ovid. The statue is not a reality but a construction of representation of reality.)

Today we are confronted with surface effects rather than the depths. Representation tries to show the false. Simulation of reality replaces reality. Art dramatizes the difference between fiction and truth.

Basis of making fiction is simulation, the capacity in which humans can represent an event with another event. Through simulation we are able to project ourselves into other experiences and think through them, to put ourselves in another situation and “experience” it.

This is a crucial aspect of the literary experience.

Pretense, simulation, and deceit is what defines us as humans.

The whole moral epic of the Trojan War is not true, as we experience it in the literary form. We return to the art, the imagination, to understand the world we are in now. We like to compare the real and the representative because we like fiction, but also because it helps us make sense (a way of knowing) of the real.

Cristina V. Bruns, Chapman U (California), “Literature as Formative Experience”

Encounters in literature that interest me most are those that leave us changed. Have you had experiences of these? I have had several.

Short story in The New Yorker that I read with all the rest of my mail sitting in my lap.
Six word poem by Marie Ponsot which I heard on the radio that felt like it tripped me.

“Bliss and Grief”
No one
is here
right now.

Brothers Karamazov took me out of the dorm.

Branch of psychoanalytic theory, optic relations. (Wittencott?)
Process by which humans move from symbiosis of infancy to individuation.
Object helps infants establish their separateness from the world and recognize themselves.
For a period of time the infant needs illusion of object as both me and not me.
This work of individuation establishes the pattern for interpersonal relationships.
Culture’s pattern of maternal care shapes the culture’s patterns of social relationships.

Any object which allows us to be me and not me (religious experience, sports activity) is good. Why?
1. tangible shape of activity or object can become part of us
2. shape of activity stimulates a re-working of the boundary between the self and the world.

Transitional space between the collective self and inner world.
Literature facilitates transitional reality.
The world of literature takes place in our inner world but is prompted by an outside object. Not merely knowledge or content, but how we see it, through what eyes.

We can use these readings to shape our internal selves. We can take them on to shape ourselves.

Why does literature matters?
Reading it gives us opportunities to form and re-form ourselves.
Reading is as significant as it feels to those who really get into reading.

But we suffer from the strain of self and others. We relieve that stress through transitional spaces/objects/experiences. Literature is one of those.

Trying to put them into words can seem to reduce the experience to much less significant than it is.
Experience of the object immersion, following immersive state allows reflection on the state. That is the transitional potential.

Allowing one’s self to get lost in a book is the state through which the power of literature and its value resides.

These broadly generalized modes– suspicious reading, …
Broad modes of generalized modes of reading are especially important. Paul Ricouer, From Text to Action
Naive in its openness… Explanation…
“explanation has no autonomy. It’s advantage and its effect is to allow us to follow the story better… ”

Mark W. Roche,
U of Notre Dame
“Literature as Other to Our Age”

Literature serves many purposes. Here I highlight three.
1. rare elevation of intrinsic value
2. evokes imaginary worlds in an era obsessed with the here and now
3. draws on complex hermeneutic x in an age that emphasizes practical

Counter cultural value.
Literature is an activity like play in which we enjoy the intrinsic joy.
Enjoyed for its own sake.
Valued versus “useful”
“Useful” is only useful for something else.
Often what is valued in itself is actually more useful/worthy.

Kant recognized an aesthetic experience takes us outside our self interest.

I do not want to say that emotion fades from aesthetic experience.
Vital impulses that are their own end remain.
When we love beauty “we do not desire to possess or own it.”

The experience of great literature is different from reading for use.
Not reducible to what we carry away from the work in literature.
Experience of what reader lives through during the experience of reading is what is important. The immersion, which helps us forget the external world, is essential.

Communication that is not driven by economic need becomes essential to our psyche.
Shared values in reader and book, an end in itself.

Focus on the concerns of the individual in contrast to the world in general.
Arts and humanities… peerless works help us engage today… Do not “supercede” each other but build upon them. Understanding of the past is essential for us.

Great literature addresses universal themes.
By showing us what is great about the past, we see what can be/is/has been lost in “progress.”
Shows us what we might be giving up.
Shows us where we are now.

Study of the past as a genuine partner in conversation helps us gain a better understanding of the present.

Immersion in another culture. To look at alternative models.
Certain virtues are more prominent in other eras.
Grace as antiquated. Similarly rare today is one’s disinterest in status. Loyalty, generosity, and hospitality.

Past gives us different perspectives and alternative to the contemporary.
Familiarity with another culture allows us to have distance from our own.

Kant’s argument that aesthetic arguments are essential/universal.

Beauty’s universality takes us beyond ourselves into the collective understanding.

Proliferation of more and more complex situations = modernity
Each sphere has its own autonomous logic.
One pursues with an eye to autonomous logic.

Literature, in contrast, helps promote a sense of wholeness.
Study of literature develops broadly applicable hermeneutic skills.
In a work of literature all the parts have a sense of autonomous but is fully compatible with each part belongs to the whole. Every part belongs to the whole. Full meaning only survives in their relation to the whole. Gives pleasure to the experience of the mind. Whole cannot be grasped without understanding the parts in their autonomy. Part to whole and back to whole “philosophical circle”
Hermeneutic virtue of deciphering complex patterns and meanings and hidden connections.
Challenges the spontaneity and interpretative ability of the reader.
Study of literature teaches us to look at the whole and not just the parts. Whole may only make sense in relation to its parts.
This contributes to flexibility of the mind.

Students who argue literary criticism: helps them develop understanding, see relationship to whole and part, anticipate objections to their positions, simplistic or one-sided readings are insufficient. Complex interpretations that recognize alternative readings and help student guard against dogmatic discourse.

Photograph of Hermione/Hermione’s statue in Winter’s Tale comes from rsc.uk. The photo of Wikipedia Puzzle comes from grepped.org. The other illustrations are purchased from classroomclipart.com.

No New Information
Many people would agree that you should not make any new points in your concluding paragraph. So, if you can’t say anything new, what can you say? Something old, of course!

Rephrase your thesis sentence. Paraphrase each of your topic sentences and remind the reader of one or two pertinent examples for each.

You might want to use a quotation which you feel perfectly presents your character or to inject humor.

Example: Little Miss Muffet’s mother probably put it best when she said, “Well, all I’ve got to say is if you don’t get of your tuffet and start cleaning your room, there’ll be a lot more spiders around here!”

You might want to ask a question for the audience to think on further.

Example: Under what circumstances is it likely that giving in and persevering will win a person a better position in the end, as Cinderella’s worked out for her?

You might end by generalizing from your character to the world at large.

Example: “Goldilocks did not follow the rules and yet was able to escape without consequences; while this happens sometimes in the real world, it is not something to be counted on.”

Yes, New Information
Not everyone is opposed to new information within the conclusion. If you or your teacher are among these, what kinds of new information could you add to the conclusion? Basically, you can add anything as long as it is relevant.

Do not use the “new information” idea of the conclusion to discuss something extraneous to your point. For example, if you are writing about the novel Gulliver’s Travels, do not use your final paragraph to talk about how great or horrible Jack Black was in the role of Gulliver in the recent movie. You could, however, refer to the movie in terms of how it supports or contradicts your point in the essay.

If, however, you were discussing Gulliver’s Travels and how Gulliver succumbs to insanity as a result of his acceptance of rationality as the highest virtue, a discussion of a more modern experience similar to that, perhaps Nietzche’s mental illness after his famous proclamation of the death of god, would be appropriate.

Or, using the example above, you might discuss how Goldilocks seems to have gotten away with disobeying the rules in your paper and then in the conclusion discuss real-world consequences, through celebrities arrested for drug abuse or personal experiences with attempting to circumvent the rules. Then you would need to tie what you were talking about back to your main thesis and end with something similar to this example.

“Goldilocks did not follow the rules and yet was able to escape without consequences; while this happens sometimes in the real world, it is not something to be counted on.”

Hints to remember:
Do not address the audience in an academic paper. Don’t make an announcement.

Bad example: We have seen through this discussion…
Bad example: As I have shown, …

Just say what you want to say.

Conclude your paragraph with a strong statement, not a weak reference.

Bad example: So Fanny Price was not a bad heroine after all.
Better: Jane Austen presents the world with an often-misunderstood heroine who found her proper place in life and excelled within it.

For other parts of the character analysis:
How to Write a Character Analysis: Introduction
How to Write a Character Analysis: Body Paragraphs
How to Write a Character Analysis: Titles

Take a partial line from the last sentence in your paper and make it your title.

Example of a closing sentence: Jane Austen presents the world with an often-misunderstood heroine who found her proper place in life and excelled within it.

For example, from the concluding sentence above you could take “Her Proper Place” as a title. This refers both to her fulfilling society’s expectations and getting a husband and to her place as a proper heroine. Such a dualistic interpretation for a title (one that is easily understood but doesn’t club the reader over the head) indicates a stronger title.

Each body paragraph should start with a topic sentence in which you state the point you will be developing within each paragraph. These should not be simply self-evident statements. There must be a point to them. If you say “‘Cinderella’ is about a girl becoming a princess” you are correct, but your paper will not be particularly interesting. Instead you might say “‘Cinderella’ shows how good triumphs over evil; though Cinderella was given all the chores, which could have made her ugly, she was the most beautiful.” This makes your main point be about good triumphing over evil, specifically through her physical beauty.

An example:
Fanny Price’s insipidness is a major aspect of her character which persists throughout the novel.

Then you should give examples from various parts of the novel to show that this is true. You need a minimum of two, though three would probably be better. Four would be okay, but five would be too many and overburden your paragraph and your reader. If you need that many examples, you need to break down the topic into multiple paragraphs. You might, for example, decide to make this two paragraphs. One paragraph would be about how Fanny’s insipidness is first made apparent to the reader and the second would be about how the insipidness was carried throughout the entire novel.

You should choose the best examples to show your point unless you need to use the same example to make another point. If the best example of Fanny’s insipidness is also the best one to show her inerrancy, then you have to make a judgment call. Determine which of the two is the weaker argument and use the best example for that argument, since it is the one that needs the most help.

Do not use the same example to illustrate multiple points. Doing this indicates to your teacher that you did not read the work. If there is an example that is absolutely necessary to two points, make sure you use more than enough other examples to make clear that you have read the text.

Give just enough detail in your examples to make your point. Do not give too much detail; your teacher has read the book. Also don’t give so little information that your reader has to fill in your meaning.

Update
How to Close a Body Paragraph
A body paragraph can end in many ways. The best, and the most difficult, is tying up the paragraph while leading into the next topic.

So, if you were doing the Fanny Price with two paragraphs, you might end:

While X introduces Fanny as an insipid character, this characterization is continued through the entire novel in various ways.

Then the next paragraph would start with:
In four different instances, Austen makes Fanny Price’s insipidness a major characteristic of the heroine….

The introduction can start with a quote, a question, a few lines of dialogue, or a statement. If you are writing about “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” you might have a beginning sentence such as this one:
Why would any little girl be wandering in the woods alone?

The simplest introduction includes things about the character which are relevant but not closely related to the developed discussion in your paper. For instance, if you are writing a paper on Goldilocks and a main aspect of this character that you are going to discuss is her hair, you probably aren’t going to write about her looks in the introduction. You might, though, include a discussion of what parameters of culture allowed a little girl to wander into the woods alone, particularly if you think her looks indicate something about why she was allowed to wander.

The introduction could include many things: history, background, information on the author, information on the genre of the work, or an important definition. Only information which is relevant to the work and your point should be included. Read further for when this information would be relevant.

How do you know when something is relevant? Ways to check on relevance would include looking at different discussions of the work on the net, your teacher’s introduction, or looking for descriptions of the time period online.

You can talk about the history of a work in a character analysis introduction if the work was written in a time period other than present day. Often different time periods carried with them different expectations. If your subject is a female character in a mid-nineteenth century British novel, the expectations are that she is subservient, quiet, and a rule follower. This is particularly important to know if your character does not meet the social expectations of the day. Or, given the expectations for modern women, it might be just as important if she does.

You can talk about the background of the work if it has an interesting story behind it or if its background is particularly relevant to your character. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written for a little girl and there are many inside jokes and references to the girl’s friends and family. If Alice is your subject, then this background would be important.

You can talk about the author if, for example, the work is very biographical. If you are talking about the main character in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, then you should be talking about the author because the work is very biographical. Another reason to talk about the author is if he/she is well-known for the type of work that you are examining. If you are looking at a satire by Jonathan Swift, it could be important to discuss the types of satire he used.

Information on the genre of the work is important if it is an early example, such as Frankenstein and science fiction, or if it is a seminal example, such as “The Monkey’s Paw” and horror. Even though you are talking about a character, genre can make a difference in expectations of the characters. If you are writing about a child in a fairy tale, there is the expectation that life is about to go horribly wrong, but will be righted by the end of the story.

Definitions can also be important and, if they are important for your paper, it is worth making sure that you have defined the word or words. If you are writing about a foil character, it is important to make clear the definition of foil and whether it is an opposite foil or a complementary foil.

The final sentence of the first paragraph is usually the thesis sentence. This is where you tell your reader what you are going to be discussing throughout the paper. If you set it up that way, the thesis sentence can also dictate how many paragraphs are in the paper.

An example of a good thesis sentence:
Fanny Price has often been seen as a flawed leading lady because of her insipidness, her moral rectitude, and the perspective that she does not change within the novel; however, Fanny is a perfect manners heroine because she learns where she belongs, she carries out her supportive role, and, in the end, she reaches the pinnacle of success in marrying the man she loves.

This thesis sentence sets up six body paragraphs:
1- insipidness
2- moral rectitude
3- static characteristics
4- recognizes her “place”
5- fulfills society’s expectations
6- reaches her goal of marriage

For additional hints:
How to Write a Character Analysis: Body Paragraphs
How to Write a Character Analysis: Conclusion
How to Write a Character Analysis: Titles

Also see the first comment for an interactive link of Cinderella, discussing setting, plot, characters, exposition, conflict, etc.

Stephen Zelnick writes of poetry wars with his students at Minding the Campus.

His side of the battle is this:

I told a student her interpretation of a poem was wrong. From that moment I was regarded as an enemy to freedom.

I invited my students to engage with me in online debate on whether an interpretation could be wrong. What follows is their side of the argument. My arguments failed to dent their belief that a poem means whatever a reader thinks.

For their side, read the whole Poetry Wars article.

We watched Dr. Weinstein of Brown University lecture on Frost today. Tomorrow we move on to Fitzgerald.

I’m a big Frost fan. Not so much Fitzgerald.