By the end of the day on Monday (12/19) post a comment below telling us (1) what option you have picked (the options are explained below), (2) what you plan to read to get some background on your option (if it's a website post the URL; make sure it's a scholarly source), and (3) what novel, play, or other lengthy work (for example, a collection of stories or poems) of literary merit you plan to read and respond to before the end of term two.
It's become obvious to me that I need to make it more
explicit that some preliminary research on your part is necessary. Wikipedia is
a useful tool for preliminary research (though you should not rely on Wikipedia
research in scholarly writing).
Option 1: Bildungsroman. You might continue your study of the
Bildungsroman genre (1) by consulting several sources -- starting with this one
-- to learn more about Bildungsromans and (2) by reading a couple
bildungsromans in addition to the one's you've already studied.
Option 2: Ur*-Narratives (Sacred Texts, Myths, Fairy Tales). You might continue your study of how writers, poets, and other artists use older, archetypal stories -- Bible stories, Greek myths, German fairy tales, etc. -- to create new stories, films, poems, paintings, etc. (We've already studied how Joyce, several painters, and several poets have made use of the Daedalus-Icarus myth.) You will (1) investigate an ur-narrative (a myth, a fairy tale, etc.) and (2) explore how several writers (and perhaps filmmakers, poets, and visual artists) have made use of the original story. (You might modify the assignment to look at how a couple different myths/tales are used.)
*"Ur" is Germanic in origin. In English it is sometimes used as a prefix meaning "original" or "prototypical".
Here are a few books that are based on myths, sacred texts, or folk tales:
* Here's a link to a list of books based on Greek mythology.
* William Butler Yeats wrote several plays based on Celtic mythology and tales.
* Anne Sexton wrote Transformations, a book of narrative poems based on German fairy tales.
* John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden include many Biblical allusions. Grapes of Wrath allusions include The Book of Job, the story of Noah and the flood in Genesis, and the story of the Hebrews and the Promised Land (Numbers, etc.) East of Eden is built around the Cain and Abel story in Genesis.
Option 3: Author Study. You might continue your investigation of one of the authors we have studied so far this year: Calvino, Ellison, Rhys, Bronte, Joyce. Or you might want to study another major author. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the author's life and cultural context and (2) her/his literary output beyond what you have already read.
Option 4: Literary Movement. You might continue your investigation of a literary movement that we have touched upon this year: Romanticism, Gothicism, Victorianism, Modernism. Or you might want to study another literary movement. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the -ism and (2) representative literary works from the movement.
Option 5: Literature of a Culture. You might continue your investigation of the literature produced by a particular culture. The works we have read so far this year have come out of several cultural contexts: Italian, African-American, Anglo-Caribbean, English, Irish. Or you might to want to study the literature of another culture. You will (1) investigate the literature produced by the particular culture and (2) read representative literary works from the culture.
Option 6: Critical Lens. You might study literature using a particular critical lens: gender studies, critical race theory, queer theory, Marxist literary criticism, psychoanalytic (Freudian) literary criticism, archetypal literary criticism, ecocriticism, deconstruction, etc. (Click here for Wikipedia's "literary theory" page for more ideas.) You will (1) investigate the critical theory and (2) read literary works "through the lens" of the critical theory.
Option 7: Something else that you concoct and propose. This something else should have a research component and a literary component.
Option 2: Ur*-Narratives (Sacred Texts, Myths, Fairy Tales). You might continue your study of how writers, poets, and other artists use older, archetypal stories -- Bible stories, Greek myths, German fairy tales, etc. -- to create new stories, films, poems, paintings, etc. (We've already studied how Joyce, several painters, and several poets have made use of the Daedalus-Icarus myth.) You will (1) investigate an ur-narrative (a myth, a fairy tale, etc.) and (2) explore how several writers (and perhaps filmmakers, poets, and visual artists) have made use of the original story. (You might modify the assignment to look at how a couple different myths/tales are used.)
*"Ur" is Germanic in origin. In English it is sometimes used as a prefix meaning "original" or "prototypical".
Here are a few books that are based on myths, sacred texts, or folk tales:
* Here's a link to a list of books based on Greek mythology.
* William Butler Yeats wrote several plays based on Celtic mythology and tales.
* Anne Sexton wrote Transformations, a book of narrative poems based on German fairy tales.
* John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden include many Biblical allusions. Grapes of Wrath allusions include The Book of Job, the story of Noah and the flood in Genesis, and the story of the Hebrews and the Promised Land (Numbers, etc.) East of Eden is built around the Cain and Abel story in Genesis.
Option 3: Author Study. You might continue your investigation of one of the authors we have studied so far this year: Calvino, Ellison, Rhys, Bronte, Joyce. Or you might want to study another major author. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the author's life and cultural context and (2) her/his literary output beyond what you have already read.
Option 4: Literary Movement. You might continue your investigation of a literary movement that we have touched upon this year: Romanticism, Gothicism, Victorianism, Modernism. Or you might want to study another literary movement. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the -ism and (2) representative literary works from the movement.
Option 5: Literature of a Culture. You might continue your investigation of the literature produced by a particular culture. The works we have read so far this year have come out of several cultural contexts: Italian, African-American, Anglo-Caribbean, English, Irish. Or you might to want to study the literature of another culture. You will (1) investigate the literature produced by the particular culture and (2) read representative literary works from the culture.
Option 6: Critical Lens. You might study literature using a particular critical lens: gender studies, critical race theory, queer theory, Marxist literary criticism, psychoanalytic (Freudian) literary criticism, archetypal literary criticism, ecocriticism, deconstruction, etc. (Click here for Wikipedia's "literary theory" page for more ideas.) You will (1) investigate the critical theory and (2) read literary works "through the lens" of the critical theory.
Option 7: Something else that you concoct and propose. This something else should have a research component and a literary component.
Originally I had wanted to read the Bible for this project, but considering I despise history, the research component of that choice turned me away. I really just wanted to be given the time to read the Bible cover-to-cover and be given the chance to study the book within itself.
ReplyDeleteThe choice I think I am going to follow through on is one based off of my interest in the novel Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I read the book during sophomore year as part of an assignment and loved it. I took Mr. Cook's advice and searched the novel on Amazon and wrote a list of books that others who liked it also read. I chose Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, The Tragic Muse by Henry James, and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne to read in addition to my revisiting Picture of Dorian Gray.
I am not positive that ALL of these books fit into the research I am planning, nor that I will be able to complete all of them(could be too much), but I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out once I start them. I'm not sure how to describe what I'm interested in, but I'm hoping to focus on the monster within oneself. The research component would probably have to be something psychology related, but I need a little guidance on how to structure the entire goal. However, I am really looking forward to reading my choices of novels.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated by Disney movies. My VCR played them on repeat. I am embarrassed to admit it but Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty mesmerized me. It is embarrassing because according to Disney, all the princess did was sleep and wait for the prince to rescue her. She wasn't as strong as Disney's Mulan who rescued a nation. But that didn't erase my feelings of fascination.
ReplyDeleteFor my project, I have decided to read the Grimm Brothers' version of Sleeping Beauty, Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty, and Anne Rice's trilogy based on Sleeping Beauty.
I have a decision to make about how I want to approach the fairy tale. I was thinking about the "love conquers all" approach or sexual desire. There are pros and cons to each decision. But hopefully when I start reading the books, I can decide which approach I want to make.
I decided to go with Option 4 with the idea of the Beat Movement (suggested by Mr. Cook). I first thought of doing so because of the book "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey. So now I plan on reading books such as "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" by Tom Robbins, "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe, and possibly "Junky" by William Burroughs. I wouldn't mind rereading "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" again either.
ReplyDeleteI want to go with option 2, because I've noticed lately there have been many adaptations of snow white in the past few years and I wanted to research more into that. So I plan on researching into the original grimm's fairy tale and digging into a variety of the adaptations. And I wanted to dig into the TV Series "Once Upon a Time" which is a recent show I just got obsessed with.
ReplyDeleteLast year I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and loved it. I thought the narrative was very interesting and his style of writing was a fabulous read. I will read books, screenplays and short fiction by Ishiguro, and look at them in relation to his life, in particular the influence of his Japanese ancestry.
ReplyDeleteThese are the works I will read/watch:
Novels
• A Pale View of Hills (1982)
• An Artist of the Floating World (1986)
• The Remains of the Day (1989)
• The Unconsoled (1995)
• When We Were Orphans (2000)
• Never Let Me Go (2005)
Screenplays
• A Profile of Arthur J. Mason (Original Screenplay for Channel 4) (1984)
• The Gourmet (Original Screenplay for the BBC; the script was later published in Granta 43)(1987)
• The Saddest Music in the World (Original Story) (2003)
• The White Countess (Original Screenplay) (2005)
Short fiction
• Three short stories in Introduction 7: Stories by New Writers (1981): ‘A Strange and Sometimes Sadness’, ‘Waiting for J’ and ‘Getting Poisoned’
• A Family Supper - short story first published in 1982
• A Village After Dark
• Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009)
Film adaptations
• The Remains of the Day, directed by James Ivory in 1993
• Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek in 2010
I think I am going to create my own. I am going to explore graphic novels that take on the Bildungsroman theme. There are a lot of well know and critically acclaimed books that fall under this category, like Fun Home, Blankets, Persepolis and many more. Finding criticism and studies of these books will be a little more difficult but there out there. I will try to explain the differences and similarities in story telling between the individual comic and traditional books. And try to make a case for graphic novels.
ReplyDeleteI am choosing to do Option 3, an author study. I will study the works and life of Henry David Thoreau. I am going to first read Walden & Civil Disobedience, then progress to his other works. For preliminary information, I will read about the life and writings of Thoreau, with a focus on the context of his writing of Walden. The information is at this link: http://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau_life.html
ReplyDeleteI may also read other information on the background of Walden and Civil Disobedience, especially by looking into the political situation surrounding Thoreau's take on civil disobedience and environmentalism, and how his contributions helped shape both movements.
I've elected to pursue Option 2,Ur Narratives, with a focus on German fairy tales. I've always harbored an interest in German fairy tales, partly because I have had little exposure to them. I will first acquire a collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales and get to steppin` with that. Then I will read Anne Sexton's Tranformations, and any other such works that I can find in research. I also want to really get into a great movie example of this: Hanna. http://hannathemovie.com/#/home
ReplyDeleteChoosing the 7th option to create my own may be the best way to go for me. Basing it off of a few of the options, I hope to read the original myths concerning Theseus and his life, then the novel The King Must Die by Mary Renault, a bildungsroman and historical interpretation of Theseus' earlier achievements and life. Renault then wrote a sequel to this down-to-earth interpretation, The Bull from the Sea, which chronicles the later life of Theseus. With reading this, I will see how the myths can be interpreted and connect the bildungsroman aspects with novels we have already read.
ReplyDeleteI am choosing option 3 and I am going to do it on William Shakespeare. For background I am going to get a biography from the Saywer Free Library. I am going to start with the play Antony and Cleopatra and see where that takes me.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go with option three and do an author study on Chuck Palaniuk. For background information I'm going to use his own person website that includes a biography written by himself. I'll also be using a documentary he made talking about his involvement in literary movements called Postcards from the Future. I plan on starting with my first ever read from Palaniuk, Invisible Monster, which can arguably be his most intricate book. I'll also read Rant, Choke, Haunted, Pygmy, and Survivor and time permitting his newest book Damned. I also plan view the two movies adaptation of books by him; Fight Club and Choke and compare the literary and movie reviews.
ReplyDeleteMy original choice was that of Option 2 and research the literary relevancy of the Cain and Abel biblical story but then saw it as a blatant example in the directions, which has dissuaded me from going in that direction. I planned on reading "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck, and Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge". I will run this by Mr Telles if it is an ok topic considering the use of it in the examples section.
ReplyDeleteI did have one other idea regarding the allusions of mythology and biblical references in the Star Wars saga, though not a solidified literary document. It is a work built upon greek myths and stories from the bible, including both the "Odyssey" and "Illiad" by Homer and morals derived from biblical teachings. I would use these myths/tales as the literary documentation along with the comparative mythology novel "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. I will discuss this further with Mr Telles tomorrow in class.
I chose to research option 1 Bildungsromans. For background information I will use the website already posted and this link: http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/geweb/ENGLBILD.htm
ReplyDeletehttp://www.victorianweb.org/genre/hader1.html
For the first book I choose Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin.
My starting plan for this project is a study of postmodernism (thus falling into the literary movement category). I'm pretty sure that I may narrow down or expand this project in the future (I'm particularly interested in looking into narrative structures, especially considering my interest in writing fiction) but this is the point I intend to jump off from. If not just so I can read a bunch of books I already wanted read or read things by authors I already have an interest in.
ReplyDeleteI haven't definitively nailed down a source for research yet. I've spent time going through Amazon and the Barnes & Noble website but the books have either been a decade or more old (which is troubling considering this is a contemporary movement), have been entirely devoid of reviews (or any other indication of the books quality), or, of all things, have been about attempting to preach to a postmodern society (I guess there's been some trouble with that. I wouldn't know). So any suggestions for a research source would be appreciated, but I will continue to search for something in the meantime.
My options for books to read are sort of wide open, since I already had a lot within that genre I want to read. I had already planned on reading Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski (author of House of Leaves) so that is a reasonable enough place to start. I also may revisit Kurt Vonnegut and read Breakfast of Champions. I have a lot of other potential books floating around (including some suggestions from Mr. Roy) but I won't get to more than two before the end of term 2 (neither of those books are very long, both around 350 pages).
I've decided to go with Option 3, an author study of Jean Rhys. Wide Sargasso Sea has turned out to be my favorite book of those that we've been required to read thus far, which I assume is due in part to Rhys' unique style, enthralling content and vivid character depiction.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing a bit of simple research, it seems that Rhys' life was filled with exciting events and accompanying hardship that paved the way for her groundbreaking novels. This will definitely keep my attention and curiosity peaked throughout the entirety of this project.
The other works by Rhys I plan to read so far are:
Good Morning, Midnight
Voyage in the Dark
After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
Perversity
The Collected Short Stories
Micaela O'Connor
ReplyDeleteI've chosen to use option 6. I plan to use a religious lens while reading classic children's literature. Mr. Telles has informed me that this is known as typology (?), where characters or parts of novels reflect characters or stories from the bible.
I will be reading novels such as The Chronicles of Narnia and Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy for this project.
I'm choosing to use option 2, and will focus on Greek myths/stories, and show how more modern authors retell the same stories, or how they use the same structure as the myths.
ReplyDeleteWell, at first I was thinking of going with Option 2 (which still hasn't changed), but after taking a quick peek at everyone else's ideas, I got a bit inspired to twist it a little.
ReplyDeleteI know that it's really not much of a surprise if I say that I like reading Japanese books, especially those of the graphic novels, called "manga" in Japanese (especially those of you who were in My. Roy's G-Block class last year). So I wanted to mix in Hannah and Zoe's idea together and see what I can get from finding fairy tales in Japanese mangas.
However I am also looking into wanting to do a collection of fairy tales (as briefly discussed with Mr. Cook today).
If I end up choosing the manga idea, I plan to find the original story and to read a modernized version. On the other hand, the collection would be aided by the original version and an adapted one.
I am still a bit confused and may ask questions tomorrow.
I believe that I am going to choose to right about Kurt Vonnegut and his work. For the essay, I might write about a couple of his famous novels such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle. I haven't read any of Kurt's books but I am drawn to the humor and views on society in his novels.
ReplyDeleteNick
I have chosen (at least for now) to research and eventually write about bildungsromans. I would like to mix this idea with the psychologica ideas and concepts behind the growth of the main character. Ever since Mr. Cook showed us the square representing psychological states (sorry the name has slipped my mind once again) the ideas enthralled me. In addition, I have always enjoyed personal writing and studying psychology concepts (although I have never been able to take the class). I plan to start off by doing some research on the link attached to option one. The first book of my choice is a classic bildungsroman: This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Later I would like to work in a few other novels as well as the research on the psychology and mindset of both the authors and characters behind them. This idea may seem too broad, or not concrete enough for a thesis. I agree and plan to focus my direction more as my reading progresses.
ReplyDelete- Eleanor
To start off, I will be reading Hans Christian Anderson stories. Later, I am thinking of finding other stories that have branched off of his.
ReplyDelete