Author Archives: Jody R. Rosen

“Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” and the Brooklyn Historical Society

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On Wednesday, we will be traveling to the Brooklyn Historical Society to look at some of the archived materials in their collections. Please meet promptly at 11:30 or prior inside the Adams Street entrance to City Tech (near the entrance to the bookstore). We will leave from there and travel the short distance to the Brooklyn Historical Society at 128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street.

Before our visit to the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS), every student in our class needs to complete a survey. You can find the survey here. Follow the instructions on the site. If you have any questions or problems, please get in touch with me. You’ll do another survey at the end of the semester. It’s all to gauge how much you’ve learned at BHS.

To prepare, think about the following two questions:

Q: How does the “big guy” in “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” attempt to know Brooklyn?

Q: How have you gotten to know Brooklyn?

When we’re at BHS, I’ll ask you to think about getting to know Brooklyn:

Q: How can we get to know Brooklyn and Wolfe’s story through the archival materials at BHS?

You will work in groups to examine the materials at one of six stations.

Be prepared to photograph each piece and its citation–your phone’s camera is fine.

In your groups, you will discuss what you’re looking at, trying to identify elements from the story in your materials and to piece together an understanding of the area you’re looking at.

Your group will then share what you have discussed by presenting for 3-5 minutes total on some aspects of the following topics:

  • What did you look at?
  • What do you know about Brooklyn from each piece you didn’t know before?
  • How does it represent aspects of “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn,” if it does? How is it different?
  • What more do you want to know?

Each person needs to speak!

Before we meet again…

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There’s much to do before we meet again. Just as a reminder, I’ll list them here:

First, there are two things I should have mentioned in class but didn’t:

  1. Before our visit to the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS), every student in our class needs to complete a survey. You can find the survey here. Follow the instructions on the site. If you have any questions or problems, please get in touch with me. You’ll do another survey at the end of the semester. It’s all to gauge how much you’ve learned at BHS.
  2. Dropbox:
  • Essay #1 is due electronically on 3/11. I’ll collect the finished essay–Part 1 and Part 2–via Dropbox.com. You should each have received an invitation to join Dropbox–check your City Tech email. If you didn’t, or if you have a Dropbox account associated with a different email address and would prefer to use that, please let me know. Once you create an account, you’ll find an invitation to join our shared folder waiting for you in your Dropbox account.
  • It’s important that you understand that there are two ways to use Dropbox: you can use it exclusively on line, or you can download it to your computer. You do not need to download it. I do not require that you download it.  I promise that you can use it without downloading it. Please read those last four sentences several times out loud, with witnesses.
  • We will share a folder on Dropbox. That means that everyone in the class can see what everyone puts in the folder. I will not return work to you via Dropbox, so it will contain only your ungraded work. If you have any concerns, please let me know. Since we are the audience for our writing, it’s good that you can read your classmates’ work.
  • If you want to put your draft of your retelling in our Dropbox folder, please do. I’ll give timely feedback so that you can revise it before you get too far with Part 2 of your essay.
Also:
  • You need to work on your draft of your retelling for Essay #1. To do that, you want to make sure you really understand what kind of narrator the story has, what kind of narrator you’re switching to, and what that means for both versions of the story.
  • You should consider sharing any draft you have ready, or any questions you have, by posting to the blog, so that we can all give advice, answer questions, brainstorm, etc. Remember please that it can be difficult to share creative work, or work that’s an early draft, so let’s all be respectful of that.
  • If you haven’t finished “The Metamorphosis,” please do!

Blogging for Wednesday and beyond

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To recap a few OpenLab-related items from class last week and today:

  • You can comment on glossary posts as well as the posts by the five students on for the day
  • You can comment more than once per class, but make sure at least one meets the 100-150 word requirement
  • You can write a blog post even if you’re not one of the 5–it would be on top of your regularly scheduled blog posts, though
  • You can add more than one word to the glossary per week–the more you add, the more we’ll all learn!
  • Please add a tag with the letter of your word to help us create a way to index our glossary (which we can’t alphabetize, unfortunately)–and go back and edit your previous glossary posts to add those tags
  • I’ve added the functionality to allow you to edit your comments. Please let me know that you can!

The group tasked with writing blog posts (300 words) by 5:00 Tuesday is the last group to post in the first go-round. Everyone else should comment (100-150 words for the required comment, any number for additional comments) by 10:00am on Wednesday. Once this final group has a turn, we can consider what works and what needs improving as we start our next round. If there’s anyone else who missed their turn to blog, jump in for Tuesday as well–but that doesn’t excuse you from commenting this time, too, since you were supposed to be on as a commenter for this class!

As always, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post and can certainly be longer than one word), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do. Commenters, remember to proofread, too, and to take the opportunity to edit your comments after you publish them if necessary–we looked at how to do this in class on Wednesday. If you want to leave additional replies, you don’t need watch the word count, but you should still proofread!

New topics:

When you think of “The Metamorphosis,” can you picture it? Do you have a visual sense of the story? What provides that sense, or what would you need to have that sense if you don’t? After you consider that, you might compare the sense of the visual to other stories we’ve read so far. Or you might compare what you’ve envisioned with this short video featuring images from a graphic-novel adaptation of “The Metamorphosis.”

“The Metamorphosis” is translated from Kafka’s German “Die Verwandlung.” As you read, especially as you pay particular attention to the ways the story is crafted using particular words, consider that the words are the choice of a translator. If you are comfortable writing in another language, try translating your favorite passage from “The Metamorphosis” into that language to share with the class. Or, if you can read German, look online for a copy in German and try to translate a passage into English. What kinds of choices did you need to make to translate that passage? Is there anything that isn’t exactly the same as the version you read? Commenters who can read that language, what do you think about the translation, and would you have made the same choices?

There is a word, kafkaesque, based on Kafka’s writing. What do you guess it would mean, and why, based on reading “The Metamorphosis”? After you guess, look for the definition. Explain using details from “The Metamorphosis” why that’s the definition of the word. (Kafka’s is not the only author to have his name turned into an adjective, but it’s one more widely used outside of an English class. Faulknerian  is also a word, but with a narrower usage).

Most of these topics are from last time, but still valid topics for blogging:

We have been looking at the effects of the non-linear order of time in “A Rose for Emily” on Monday, but you might take the opportunity to consider what effect the sequencing has. How does the order affect your understanding of the story and your experience with it? What would be gained or lost if it were linear? What do I mean by linear? I mentioned in class the film “Pulp Fiction,” which plays with order in a very effective way. Are there other texts–written, filmic, etc–that do this that you want to call attention to?

What does gothic mean?  What is Southern Gothic, specifically? Wikipedia might be a good place to get a definition and explanation of what Southern Gothic is. How is “A Rose for Emily” an example of this? You might add that as your vocabulary word as well.

In what ways is “A Rose for Emily” similar to other texts we have read? different? What do you think about those similarities and differences?

The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is different than others we have encountered. What term would you use to identify the narrator? is it a reliable narrator? Use evidence from the story to show why you say reliable or not.

What themes do you think “The Metamorphosis” introduces to us? Choose a particular passage that deals with that theme and reflect on it.

How do you deal with the outrageous situation presented in “The Metamorphosis”? Choose a passage that represents that and explain your reaction.

In what ways can we read “The Metamorphosis” metaphorically? What does metaphorically mean? Present one way it is a metaphor and explain that for us.

 

 

“A Rose for Emily” Chronology

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when Emily died, no one had seen the inside of her house in at least 10 years

house built in the 1870s?

Battle of Jefferson–people from it buried in the cemetery where Emily will be buried

1894: Colonel Sartoris releases Emily from the obligation of paying taxes

(Q: is this when Emily’s father died?)

next generation (20 years?): they want her to pay taxes, send notice 1/1, again in February, but she won’t pay. She looks small and fat, bloated

Colonel Sartoris died approximately 10 years before the next generation wants her taxes

30 years before they want her taxes: the smell; a week later, smell went away

2 years prior to the smell: her father died

the next day: Emily denied that he had died

three days later: she let them remove his body

a short time after her father died: Homer Barron left her

after the smell ended: Emily turned thirty, still single

gave china-painting lessons–8-10 years before they want to collect her taxes

a year prior, her 2 cousins visit, people pity her

buys poison = over 30

next day–they thought she’d kill herself

next Sunday: Emily and Homer driving down the street

the Sunday after: minister’s wife wrote to Emily’s family

people assume they’ll be married soon

Homer disappears, cousins leave after a week, then he reappears, then disappears again

Emily disappears into the house for almost six months

townspeople spread lime to get rid of the smell around the same time

age 40: teaches art class in her home

Negro man grows older–passage of time

Emily is secretive

Emily dies at age 74

back to the beginning: funeral

Negro man=servant, he leaves

funeral 2 days after she died

room upstairs hasn’t been open in 40 years–which is the time of the smell

room set up with wedding things for Homer

dusty

Homer’s body

an iron-gray hair=in her older age

 

Blogging for Monday’s class

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The group tasked with writing blog posts (300 words) for this weekend (mid-day Saturday, I believe, was what we decided) should be the final group to write a first post. Everyone else should comment (100-150 words for the required comment, any number for additional comments) by 10:00am on Monday. After this final group has a turn, we can consider what works and what needs improving as we start our next round. Anyone who missed their turn to blog should do so in this round–but that doesn’t excuse you from commenting this time, too!

As always, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post and can certainly be longer than one word), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do. Commenters, remember to proofread, too, and to take the opportunity to edit your comments after you publish them if necessary–we looked at how to do this in class on Wednesday. If you want to leave additional replies, you don’t need watch the word count, but you should still proofread!

We’ll look at the effects of the non-linear order of time in “A Rose for Emily” on Monday, but you might take the opportunity to consider what effect the sequencing has. How does the order affect your understanding of the story and your experience with it? What would be gained or lost if it were linear? What do I mean by linear?

What does gothic mean?  What is Southern Gothic, specifically? Wikipedia might be a good place to get a definition and explanation of what Southern Gothic is. How is “A Rose for Emily” an example of this? You might add that as your vocabulary word as well.

From last time, but still valid topics for blogging:
In what ways is “A Rose for Emily” similar to other texts we have read? different? What do you think about those similarities and differences?

The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is different than others we have encountered. What term would you use to identify the narrator? is it a reliable narrator? Use evidence from the story to show why you say reliable or not.

What themes do you think “The Metamorphosis” introduces to us? Choose a particular passage that deals with that theme and reflect on it.

How do you deal with the outrageous situation presented in “The Metamorphosis”? Choose a passage that represents that and explain your reaction.

In what ways can we read “The Metamorphosis” metaphorically? What does metaphorically mean? Present one way it is a metaphor and explain that for us.

Fictions of Authority

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In Susan Sniader Lanser’s groundbreaking study, Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and Narrative Voice, Lanser argues that social pressures not only constrained the content of the narrative but the narration style itself. Early in her book, Lanser includes a letter that showcases one writer’s solution to the limitations she found in writing negatively about her marriage. When I read this letter and Lanser’s analysis of it, I wonder what techniques Charlotte Perkins Gilman employed to convey a positive message about the narrator’s feelings about her husband while also conveying something much different to a more tuned-in reader. Let’s read the letter on pages 9-11 of Fictions of Authority and leave any comments here–your reactions, thoughts on the letter or how it illuminates the way you read any of the short stories assigned so far this semester, etc.

Blogging for Wedneday, 2/20’s class

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If you’ve been asked to blog for Wednesday’s class, that means that you need to complete your post by the end of the weekend. Everyone else needs to comment by 10:00am Wednesday. I’ve come up with several topics, but would love to hear others you’re interested in or want your classmates to attempt to address:

Choose three quotations from “The Yellow Wall-Paper” that convince you that the protagonist is an unreliable narrator and explain why for each.

Choose three quotations from “The Yellow Wall-Paper” that present the married couple’s relationship, and explain what you understand about John as a character, and about the protagonist as a narrator for the way she depicts John.

We might use the words utopia and dystopia to describe the two short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that we read. What do those words mean? Which story is utopian and which is dystopian? Why?

How do the different settings come into play in these two short stories by Gilman? In what ways might we read the settings as similar but the inhabitants of those worlds as different?

Is Malda a reliable narrator in “The Cottagette”? why or why not? Incorporate quotations into your answer to support your argument.

In what ways is “A Rose for Emily” similar to other texts we have read? different? What do you think about those similarities and differences?

The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is different than others we have encountered. What term would you use to identify the narrator? is it a reliable narrator? Use evidence from the story to show why you say reliable or not.

This might be your first time posting, but it’s no longer new for us to read posts and comment, right? We’re getting really good at it! Let’s keep the good efforts going: when writing a post, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post and can certainly be longer than one word), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do. Commenters, please contribute100-150 words, proofread, and leave your reply. If you want to leave additional replies, you don’t need watch the word count, but you should still proofread! You can always go back and edit!

Blogging on Tuesday for Wednesday’s class

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If you were asked to blog by 5:00 on Tuesday so that everyone can comment on your posts by 10:00am Wednesday, what do you plan to blog about? Here are some ideas, but I hope others will reply here with other ideas.

  • In class we looked at a selection from “Women and Economics” about housework. Does the short story “The Cottagette” present a solution to the issues raised in Gilman’s non-fiction “Women and Economics”? Explain your stance.
  • We began discussing the issue of narrator reliability. Consider narrator reliability in “The Cottagette” or “The Yellow Wall-Paper” or compare the two. Include examples by quoting from the text to show what informs your sense of reliability.
  • “The Yellow Wall-Paper” was once believed to have been out of print from 1920 until feminist scholars re-discovered it in the 1970s. Here are two possible topics to consider based on this statement:
  • How do you read “The Yellow Wall-Paper” or “The Cottagette” as a feminist text? What does that mean?
  • According to one examination of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and its publication history, the story did remain in print in between its reprint in 1920 and its feminist re-discovery in the 1970s–in horror story collections. In what ways do you see “The Yellow Wall-Paper” as a horror story? Include specific references to the text to support your claims.
  • What connections do you see among the stories assigned from the start of the semester and either or both of Gilman’s stories? Are there trends you can identify? Or contrasting situations/characters/styles that are worth noting in their difference? Be specific!

These are just a few ideas that you might consider. For your post, choose one of these, or venture off on your own topic, using any of these as a guide to make sure your topic is as focused. Use the texts to guide you, consider that your audience will have read the same materials but might not have thought about them as much as you have or in the same way that you did, and enjoy sharing your ideas. On the nitty-gritty end of things, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post and can certainly be longer than one word), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do.

Commenters–get ready! Everyone who isn’t writing a blog post will need to comment by 10:00am Wednesday, so make sure you’re ready to comment on your classmates’ work with 100-150 words of insights and reactions to share with the class.

Narration–a few more terms

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A narrative is heterodiegetic if the narrator is not a protagonist or if the narrator  exists in a different sphere than the protagonist. Third-person narratives are most commonly associated with this term, but other narratives can be, such as you-narratives, they-narratives, and one-narratives.

A homodiegetic narrative is equivalent to a first-person narrative. If the narrator is the main protagonist, such as in an autobiography, that is called an autodiegetic narrative. That style of narration is different from a peripheral first-person narrator, in which a first-person narrator is a minor character. First-person narrators, whether homodiegetic or autodiegetic, are inherently limited in their perspective and are potentially untrustworthy.

These definitions come from Monika Fludernik’s An Introduction to Narratology, 2009. These definitions draw on the work of Gerard Genette and Franz K. Stanzel.

Bloggers for Monday’s class

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If you were asked to blog by end-of-day on Friday so that everyone can comment on your posts by 10:00am Monday, what do you plan to blog about? Here are some ideas, and I hope that others will reply here with additional ideas.

  • What effect does the style of narration have on your experience of the plot or characters? Use two different styles to reflect on this, at least one from one of the stories we’ve read or are reading for Monday.
  • In class we talked briefly about how “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory. What does that mean, how does it play out in the story, and how does it strike you as a reader?
  • We’re going to look at three very different pieces by Charlotte Perkins Gilman for Monday’s class: two short stories, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Cottagette,” and a chapter (XIV) from a non-fiction work called Women and Economics. How do the different narrative styles compare? Or how does the information conveyed in the non-fiction chapter come through in either of the short stories?
  • What connections do you see among the stories assigned from the start of the semester through Monday? Are there trends you can identify? Or contrasting situations/characters/styles that are worth noting in their difference? Be specific!

These are just a few ideas that you might consider. For your post, choose one of these, or venture off on your own topic, using any of these as a guide to make sure your topic is as focused. Use the texts to guide you, consider that your audience will have read the same materials but might not have thought about them as much as you have or in the same way that you did, and enjoy sharing your ideas. On the nitty-gritty end of things, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post!), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do.

Commenters–get ready! Everyone who isn’t writing a blog post will need to comment by 10:00am Monday, so make sure you’re ready with 100-150 words of insights and reactions to share with the class.

This semester’s blogging assignment

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Throughout the semester, we will use the blog to develop and share our ideas about and analyses of the materials for this course. For each class, you will need to share something, whether it be a blog post , a comment or a summary. You are always welcome to do more than the schedule requires, and I hope we will develop a lively online community that becomes integral to our course.

For each class session, I may suggest a blog topic, or bloggers can choose their own topics. Blog posts should be focused, using direct quotations from the text to drive the responses or reflections in the post. A post should be about something we are about to read or something we have just read, but it might also bring in materials we have read earlier in the semester or materials that interest you from outside of class. Authors of these posts should think critically about the reading material, and should consider how a particular element of fiction or term relating to narrative functions in the material—it might amplify the text, or it could be complicated or problematic, but any of these would be interesting opportunities to explore. Blog posts should be approximately 300 words, and should be proofread before posting. Please include links, images, etc, as appropriate.

Those who are not responsible for contributing a blog post on a given day will be responsible for commenting. Commenting shouldn’t just be “I agree” or “Good point.” These might be the start of a comment. Use the space to offer a counterpoint, to bring together different ideas, or to direct us to a particular point the blogger didn’t include. Comments should be approximately 100-150 words. If you want to add additional comments that are shorter, feel free to.

Blogging Assignment

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To get us started on our blogging assignment for the semester, we have six volunteers who will post by 6:00pm on Tuesday–everyone else will comment by 10:00am on Wednesday. They will consider one of the following three questions–but if you want to suggest another, please do so quickly!

How does setting work in “Young Goodman Brown”?

Does Mrs. Mallard have freedom at the end of “The Story of an Hour”?

How do the men and women read details differently in “A Jury of Her Peers”?

 

“A Jury of Her Peers” Notes

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quilt

bird

birdcage with broken hinge on its door

her behavior when Mr. Hale visits

her alibi

pleating her apron

mental confusion

way the kitchen looks

 

Order of events?

quilted in a messy way

fruit jars broke

kitchen work was left half-done

husband killed the bird–hated it for some reason?

bird strangled

Someone, presumably Mrs. Wright, took care to wrap the bird in silk and put it in a pretty box

Someone put the birdcage away

Mr. and Mrs. Wright go to bed

Mr. Wright was strangled with a rope

Mrs. Wright sits pleating her apron