Author Archives: Jason W. Ellis

Final Exam

Write a paragraph about each of the full novels that we have read this semester. Summarize the narrative, and describe the issues of law explored in the novel. Use character names, settings, and scenes as needed. Each response must include the name of the author and the title of the novel being discussed. Successful responses will be at least several sentences long for each novel. Write your response in the Blue Books provided.

  • Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Sailor. 1924.
  • E. M. Forster, A Passage to India, 1924.
  • Franz Kafka, The Trial, 1925.
  • Cory Doctorow, Little Brother, 2008.

Final Project Presentation Schedule

Monday, December 12

1 2 Catherine
2 18 Ernest
3 6 Sandra
4 13 Juan
5 19 Sotir
6 11 Chelsi
7 9 Cynthia
8 16 Kenny
9 8 Qi Qing
10 3 Michael
Wednesday, December 14

11 10 Yelva
12 1 Victoria
13 12 John
14 17 Deloris
15 14 Devin
16 7 Brian
17 15 Saber
18 5 Anthony
19 4 Jovan

Remember: On your presentation day, come prepared with your PowerPoint presentation on a flash drive (also, email it to yourself, save it to cloud storage, etc.–essentially, have a plan B), and come dressed in business casual attire. You should read from a script or have a script as a guide, which you will turn in after your presentation. Your script must be printed and include your paper’s title and your name.

Extra Credit Opportunity

fc_services_symposium-on-amazing-stories_11_29_16_draft_1

If you attend one session and write a one-page, double-spaced report on who you heard speak and what you learned from the discussion, you can earn credit for one daily writing assignment or if you have done all of the daily writing assignments, you will earn bonus credit for the daily writing assignment portion of your grade. The schedule for the symposium is here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sciencefictionatcitytech/.

Notes from today

Research Paper

First: Remember that your paper is an argument.

What makes the most convincing argument?

Facts, evidence, and sources.

Discover in the artifact itself through close reading. This is your discussion about the artifact and its relationship to justice, the law, jurisprudence, etc.

I argue that The Night Of is an important example of the justice system gone wrong.

Each example that I discuss to support my argument should be focused on scenes.

General Outline

  1. Introduction aa) What is a problem that you want to address in your paper or that you see your artifact addressing. (a) say what is the object of your research paper—artifact, and b) state your argument for the entire paper. Write your Road map sentence.
  2. Discuss Your Examples/Issues that support your argument.
  • Example
  1. Example
  2. Example
  3. Example
  • Example
  • Example
  1. Conclusion—so what?

 

How to deal with quotes!

According to the Court in the Miranda ruling, “something very very important to my discussion” (Arizona vs. Miranda). What this means is something really important.

Forster’s A Passage to India, Chapters 4-7

References for today’s lecture and discussion:

British Raj, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/independence1947_01.shtml

Frantz Fanon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak

Subaltern, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_(postcolonialism)

Mahatma Ghandi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

Reading schedule for the remainder of A Passage to India:

  • 10/24, chapters 4-7
  • 10/26, chapters 8-13
  • 10/31, chapters 14-19
  • 11/2, chapters 20-25
  • 11/7, chapters 26-31
  • 11/9, chapters 32-37 (last day of discussion before moving to Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother)

Forster’s A Passage to India, Chapter 1-3

Today’s goals:

  • Share your response to the first three chapters of A Passage to India
  • Find out about E. M. Forster
  • Learn about Liberal Humanism, the Victorian Era, and Edwardian Era
  • Contextualize Forster’s A Passage to India in regard to some of his other works
  • Establish the historical and political frame of reference for A Passage to India

Visual Notes:

EM Forster
E.M+Forster,+pensive.jpg

Isaac Asimov
http://just.thinkofit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/isaac-asimov.jpg

Queen Victoria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria#/media/File:Queen_Victoria_by_Bassano.jpg

King Edward VII
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII#/media/File:Edward_VII_in_coronation_robes.jpg

Downton Abbey
http://d2buyft38glmwk.cloudfront.net/new-stacks/media/images/canonical/mast-da-s6-icon-hires.jpg

Virginia Woolf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#/media/File:George_Charles_Beresford_-_Virginia_Woolf_in_1902_-_Restoration.jpg

Billy Budd, Opera
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/arts/music/brittens-billy-budd-from-glyndebourne-to-bam.html

Forster, “The Machine Stops,” BBC Adaptation
http://www.emforster.info/images/Machine_Stops_TV_01.jpg

Forster, A Room with a View, Film Adaptation
http://kentfilmoffice.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/A-Room-with-a-View-movieposterdb.jpg

Forster, Howards End, Film Adaptation
https://i.jeded.com/i/howards-end.24698.jpg

“Only Connect” Memorial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster#/media/File:Monument_to_E._M._Forster.jpg

Zadie Smith, On Beauty
https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/article-1298633950414-0d5872aa000005dc-54356_568x418.jpg?quality=80&strip=all

Forster, Maurice
https://cdn.penguin.com.au/covers/1440/9780141441139.jpg

Alan Turing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing#/media/File:Alan_Turing_Aged_16.jpg

Forster, A Passage to India
https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/catalogue/pim/editions/451/9780141441160/cover.jpg

British Holdings after World War I, “The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire”
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/images4/interwarsmaplarge.jpg

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Trip to the Land of Ghandi
http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_kings_trip_to_india/

Melville’s Billy Budd, Resources for Chapters 1-8

These resources might help you with the material in the first eight chapters of Billy Budd.

Nautical References, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/bb/bb_naut.html.

Allusions, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/bb/bb_hibimy.html.

Spithead and Nore Mutinies, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spithead_and_Nore_mutinies.

Horatio Nelson, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_Nelson.

Eighteenth-Century Sailing Vessels

The Physics of Sailing

Beginning Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor

For Monday, Sept 26, read Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor, chapters 1-8. We are reducing the number of chapters at this stage of the semester to keep everyone caught up with the material. It is necessary for each student to allocate the time needed to complete the assigned readings. Knowing what happens in a given story is a very tiny part of the experience and knowledge gained through the experience of reading–an experience that strengthens your abilities to read and understand more quickly and efficiently.

Refer to the following articles for background information on Melville and his novel that we are reading.