NOTE: I fixed the Franz Kafka short story “A Hunger Artist”…sorry about that error!

NOTE: We do not have class on Monday, Oct 11!

1–Freewrite 1: Which stories have you selected for the Midterm Essay and why?

2–Freewrite 2: character pairs+++ discuss similarities AND differences

3–Discussion: Terms

4–Discussion: “A Hunger Artist”

5–Discussion: “Prologue to Invisible Man”

6–New Term: SACRIFICE:

Verb

sacrifice (third-person singular simple present sacrifices, present participle sacrificing, simple past and past participle sacrificed)

a. To offer (something) as a gift to a deity.

b. To give away (something valuable) to get at least a possibility of gaining something else of value (such as self-respect, trust, love, freedom, prosperity), or to avoid an even greater loss.

Venison has many advantages over meat from factory farms, although it still requires a hunter to sacrifice the life of a deer.

c. To trade (a value of higher worth) for something of lesser worth in order to gain something else valued more, such as an ally or business relationship, or to avoid an even greater loss; to sell without profit to gain something other than money.

d. To intentionally give up (a piece) in order to improve one’s position on the board

e. To advance (a runner on base) by batting the ball so it can be fielded, placing the batter out, but with insufficient time to put the runner out.

f. (dated, tradesmen’s slang) To sell at a price less than the cost or actual value.

g. To destroy; to kill.

Noun

sacrifice (countable and uncountable, plural sacrifices)

1. 1. The offering of anything to a god; a consecratory rite.
   2. The destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; the devotion of something desirable to something higher, or to a calling deemed more pressing.

the sacrifice of one’s spare time in order to volunteer

1. 1. (baseball) A play in which the batter is intentionally out so that one or more runners can advance around the bases.
   2. Something sacrificed.
   3. A loss of profit.
   4. (slang, dated) A sale at a price less than the cost or the actual value.

**from Wiktionary**

Homework: Read John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” and write Coffeehouse #4,  One paragraph on why this story is gothic (use correct terms) and one paragraph on why it is not gothic (300 words) due by class time on Oct 13 (remember we don’t have class on Monday, Oct 11)

NOTE:

I’ll begin with these three questions on Wednesday:

**What happens to the hunger artist at the end of the story?

**Describe the Invisible Man’s home.

**What happens at the end of The Enormous Radio?

Agenda for Monday, Oct 4

1–Freewrite: If you could be a writer, which type of writer would you want to be? A journalist, a fiction writer, a poet, a science writer, music reviewer, sports writer, cultural critic, theater critic, essayist, writer of opinions, fashion writer?

Freewrite 2: If you could write a book, what would it be? Book of poetry, a novel? A play? Mystery, sports, a memoir about your life, a book about climate change? A book about racial injustice? A book about how to get rich? A book about politics, about NYC? About skateboarding?

2–New Term: Redemption:

Noun

redemption (countable and uncountable, plural redemptions)

1. The act of redeeming or something redeemed.
2. The recovery, for a fee, of a pawned article.
3. Salvation from sin.
4. Rescue upon payment of a ransom.

Verb

redeem (third-person singular simple present redeems, present participle redeeming, simple past and past participle redeemed)

1. To recover ownership of something by buying it back.
2. To liberate by payment of a ransom.
3. To set free by force. quotations ▼
4. To save, rescue
5. To clear, release from debt or blame
6.  To expiate, atone (for)
7. To convert (some bond or security) into cash
8.  To save from a state of sin (and from its consequences).
9. To repair, restore
10. To reform, change (for the better)
11. To restore the honour, worth, or reputation of oneself or something.
12. To reclaim

Questions to ask: Who is doing the redeeming? Who has the power to redeem and who is blocked from redeeming others. Is someone blocked from seeking redemption. Can a person redeem themselves or does redemption come from the outside?

3–Review: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man:

4–Review: Gothic Short Story Essay

Homework: In your notebook: make a list of all of our terms and concepts. Second, look over our list of short stories and then select your favorite two stories. Third, read/reread “A Hunger Artist” and “Prologue to Invisible Man.” Be prepared to discuss in class on Wednesday.

Agenda for Wednesday, Sept 29

1—Freewrite

#1 What happened yesterday and what plans do you have for the weekend? 

My example: Yesterday I was washing dishes after dinner when I was transported back to a beach vacation from forty years ago in which I was sitting in the shallow water with my bucket and shovel pretending to be a king with a shield and sword. Just then my sister came up to me and said “well look at you washing dishes in the ocean.”

#2: write your own flashback!!! Invented or factual is okay.

2—Lloyd-Smith–Highlights

**Extremes and Taboo

**Gothic highlights the oppression of women, children, the “other”, and native americans and blacks (slavery). 

**Unique American pressures: pg 4

**Liminality: between states or thoughts. Undecided and anxious.

**Hallmarks, pg 5

**CGI pg 5

**Gothic landscape and setting:

**Terror: what might happen…scratching sound behind closed door or descending a dark staircase.

**Horror: The monster reveals itself…the blood/violence arrives.

3—Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and terms

Questions:

–Smell? Real or allegorical? Who smelled?

–Why did she not leave the house? Who was Emily Grierson? What does she look like? Does she work? Describe her father.

–Whats are five major events in the story?

Homework: Due in class on Monday, October 4

Read Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist” and Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and answer these two questions in your notebooks (nothing to submit): 1–discuss how each of these stories is an allegory that is meant to teach us something; what is the lesson we should learn? 2–Apply Todorov’s terms to each story.

Agenda for Monday, Sept 27

*Freewrite to begin

1—Read through literary terms

2—Watch Owl Creek Bridge Film

3—Examples using literary terms

4—Todorov application

5—Lloyd-Smith exploration

Homework: Read Faulkner and apply literary terms + Todorov [in your your notebook, nothing to turn in]

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Information for Wednesday, Sept 22

1–Review Quiz Questions

2–Discuss Todorov

3–Discuss Terms

4–Q/A over Owl Creek (Freewrite)

5–Film interpretation

6–Homework for Monday, Sept 27:

Read Alan Lloyd-Smith on American Gothic and for Coffeehouse #3, write down the five most important ideas in this chapter. Please indicate page number. This will be a fairly short Coffeehouse. Be prepared to discuss one or two of your selections on Monday.

MAKE SURE TO SELECT THE RIGHT CATEGORY: COFFEEHOUSE #3

Be Well,

Prof. Scanlan

Twelve Important Terms for Monday and Wednesday:

1–Focalization: Focalization is essentially the same thing as point of view, which means the perspective from which a story is being told. This term, Focalization, and its related terms, enable us to get a better understanding of how a story works.

2–Internal Focalization: the POV focuses on internal thoughts, emotions, and reflections

3–External Focalization: the POV focuses on actions, behaviors, settings, atmosphere.

4–Focal Distance: the distance between the POV and the character/action being viewed/narrated. In general, the focal distance of external focalization is greater than internal focalization.

Note: Depending upon the situation, differences between internal and external focalization can blur.

Example 1: Reggie saw his own hands trying to help his little green friend. His fingers were wet with swamp water, and behind his eyes, he felt a strangling tightness, as if the nerves and the synapses in his brain were confused, warring against each other, unable to arrive at the right emotion to express.

Example 2: I saw Reggie’s face contorted into anguish because he had just witnessed the terrible death of his pet grasshopper.

Example 3: The grasshopper hopped fast and high for such a small creature. It hopped just ahead of little Reggie. And just then, Reggie’s dad came around the corner of the house pushing the old red lawnmower.

Example 4: As she cleaned up from dinner, Reggie’s mother thought the scene of the grasshopper’s accident was complex. It uncovered the terrible power of the men in her life. And it revealed those past lessons of control: her father’s inability to love her, and the boy’s father’s non-stop work ethic.

5–Sarcasm: speech or action that is the opposite from actual words/action. Example:  During a thunderstorm, your friends says “it’s quite nice outside.”

6–Paradox: A contradictory statement that, upon closer inspection, resolves itself or contains truth. The key to this complex term is that the opposition forms a relationship. Example: “The son is father to the man.”

7–Allegory: As a literary device, an allegory is a narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners. Example:  Fox and Grapes Allegory

8–Flashback: A flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory. In the opposite direction, a flashforward reveals events that will occur in the future. Both flashback and flashforward are used to cohere a story, develop a character, or add structure to the narrative.

9–Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what is on the surface (or to be expected) differs radically from what is actually the case.

10–Verbal Irony: characters are aware of the irony and intend to create it. In Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony calls Brutus “an honorable man.”

11–Dramatic Irony: characters are unaware of the irony. Example: In The Truman Show, Truman does not know he is the focus of the tv show; and in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo believes Juliet is dead, but the audience knows that she is sleeping.

12–Situational Irony: an action or event the goes agains the expected, and the characters are aware of it (often as the climax of a narrative). Example: Harry Potter’s enemy, Professor Snape, turns out, in the end, to be his protector.

HOMEWORK FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPT 22:

Review the above definitions and read the handout on Todorov’s ideas of the Fantastic, Uncanny, and Marvelous–in Readings. Bring to class at least one question on one of the terms or how a term relates to our readings.

Best wishes,

Prof. Scanlan

Hi Class,

I hope everyone is doing well. Quiz 1 is now live on Blackboard. Please follow the directions carefully, and submit through the “Write Submission” box.

The quiz is due before class on Monday, September 20.

Email any questions.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Monday’s Agenda:

1–No Class on Wednesday, Sept 15

2–SOP

3–Gothic Definitions

4–Freewrite

5–Review YGB an YW

6–Homework: Due Monday, Sept 20:

Read Read “Incident at Owl Creek Bridge” by Bierce and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Marquez. Quiz 1 over readings will be posted to Blackboard by Wednesday evening at 5pm, and it will be due (submit via Blackboard) by class time on Monday, Sept 20.

Email any questions.

Best wishes,

Prof. Scanlan

NEW UPDATE:

Here’s a video I made a while back on how to post a Coffeehouse post:

UPDATE:

New: About Jackson’s “The Lottery”:

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-lottery-letters

————————————–

Hi Class,

Here’s the agenda for Wednesday:

1–Author facts and attendance

2–Freewrite

3–Borges

4–Davis

5–SOP

6–Gothic Definitions

7–How to post to Coffeehouse:

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/blog/help/writing-a-post/

HOMEWORK:

Homework: REMEMBER, WE DO NOT HAVE CLASS AT ALL NEXT WEEK. SO, HOMEWORK IS DUE MONDAY SEPT. 13:

Read the handout on Gothic Definitions and “Young Goodman Brown” by Hawthorne and  “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman (all are in the Readings menu tab), then write Coffeehouse #2: 300 words on which of the six stories that we have read so far you liked the best and why––See my post in Coffeehouse #2 for more details.

So far, we have read:

“The Captive”

“A Story Told to Me by a Friend”

“The Black Cat”

“The Lottery”

“Young Goodman Brown”

“The Yellow Wallpaper”

Best wishes and enjoy the break,

Prof. Scanlan

Hi Class,

Here’s our agenda:

1–Attendance and Self Introduction:

Name, hometown, major, dream job, favorite place to study, favorite food

2–Freewrite: what is it, and how should we do it?

3–5-Part Reading Tool (Readings)

4–Borges

5–Poe

6–Homework for Wednesday, Sept. 1:

Reading: “The Lottery” and in your notebook, write down five facts about one of our authors so far. We will go over the Davis story on Wednesday. Note: There is nothing to submit to me.

*Please “join” the class on OpenLab if you have not done so yet.

**And submit the Questionnaire if you have not done so yet.

***Email any questions!

-Prof. Scanlan