For Thursday: Gaiman, Coraline, Chapters 1-5

NOTE: Be sure to look at the revised schedule in the post below this one, since I re-arranged the reading order of Coraline and Dracula. I also moved up the due date of Paper #2, but don't worry--it made it a much simpler paper, and one that will give you a lot of breathing room to read Dracula before tackling your Final Project for the class (more on that later). 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In class on Tuesday, we talked about the difference between plot/events and story/discourse (from Culler, Ch.6--which I didn't assign, but you're free to read yourself). The plot of the story is a very simple one familiar from Alice in Wonderland and any number of children's books: a girl opens a door into a hidden world and meets with strange creatures and a dangerous quest to save her parents. How does Gaiman make the plot his own through his storytelling--the narrative discourse he employs? What touches make this unique, surprising, or "worth it" for the reader?

Q2: In Chapter IV, when Coraline asks the black cat its name, it replies, "Cats don't have names...people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names" (35). Despite sounding sarcastic, why might be a theory about identity similar to what we've read and discussed in other works in class?

Q3: Though this is a horror story in some senses, it's also a traditional fairy tale about childhood wish fulfillment. Why is this? Why might "other mothers and fathers" represent something deep in the psyche of children? OR, another way to think about this is, how might the "other mother" represent a child's view of adults and parents in general? 

Q4: In some ways, Coraline is a lot like Bilbo from The Hobbit. Besides the plot details (she is also a burglar of sorts), where else might we see parallels between their characters and background? Why might we argue that Gaiman had The Hobbit in mind when he wrote this book...and why might that somewhat explain the enormous popularity of Coraline? (i.e. that he re-told something powerful and mythic from the earlier book). 

Revised Schedule Post Fall Break (Mid-October to December)

 I've tweaked the schedule slightly, flipping Coraline and Dracula, and making your Paper #2 assignment a smaller, more focused work in preparation for the more ambitious Final Project over Dracula. I would only move a paper up if I was making easier, as I am, so don't worry about having something due so relatively soon unlike the previous calendar. Trust me, you'll like this assignment better, and then you'll have a nice long break before the Final Project (more on that soon). 

Be sure you have a copy of Coraline since we'll start reading it on Thursday. Feel free to read Chapter 6 of Culler, though there's no assignment for it; it's pretty short, so I want to give you the main points in class instead of giving a traditional reading assignment. 

REVISED CALENDAR 

T 8       Mid-Term Exam (in class)

R 10    FALL BREAK

 

T 15     Overview of Culler, Chapter 6: “Narrative”

R 17    Gaiman, Coraline, Chapters 1-5

 

T 22     Gaiman, Coraline, Chapters 6-10

R 24    Gaiman, Coraline, Chapters 11-13

 

T 29     Culler, Chapter 8: “Identity, Identification, and the Subject”

R 31    Paper #2 due in class

 

NOVEMBER

T 5       Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 1-5

R 7      Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 6-9

 

T 12     Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 10-12

R 14    Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 13-16

 

T 19     Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 17-20

R 21    Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 21-23

 

T 26     Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 25-27

R 28    THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

DECEMBER

T 3      Final Project abstracts

R 5      Final Project abstracts

 

FINAL PAPER/PROJECT DUE: TBA

For Thursday: Finish The Hobbit--Last Questions!

NOTE: Finish the book or come as close as you can for Thursday's class; there are five questions below (couldn't help myself!), but you only need to answer TWO as usual. 

ALSO--the Mid-Term Exam assignments are in the post BELOW this one.  

Q1: Bilbo exclaims to himself, “Now I am a burglar indeed!” when he finally steals something—in this case, the Arkenstone.  Why does he take it and say nothing to the dwarves (and is this “heroic”)?  Does it do this because it calls to him, the same way as the Ring did?  Or does he have a larger plan from the beginning? 

Q2: In the passage with Smaug, we learn that “there was one smell [Smaug] could not make out at all, hobbit-smell; it was quite outside his experience and puzzled him mightily” (201).  Additionally, Bilbo refuses to tell his name, and instead indulges in a series of “kennings,” an Anglo-Saxon poetic form (clue-finder, web-cutter, etc.).  What effect does this have on Smaug, and what might be his purpose in doing this?  Why taunt an already awake and angry dragon in this manner? 

Q3: Why is Bard able to destroy Smaug when no one else could? How might his seemingly "magical" ability to perform a heroic feat mirror some of Bilbo's accomplishments? If you know Star Wars, why might this be a Luke Skywalker/Death Star moment? (consider how Luke does it, and why George Lucas might have had this moment in mind).

Q4: How might Thorin’s final words to Bilbo be a kind of re-writing of Beowulf on Tolkien’s part, and a useful ‘theory’ to read Beowulf and The Hobbit? Related to this, why might it also be Tolkien’s response to people who would dismiss the book as a child’s fantasy, or irrelevant escapism?

Q5: The last chapter of the book plays with the old notion that “you can never go home again.” You can go home again, but there’s a catch: what is that catch for Bilbo? What does he find when he returns home that challenges the old adage? In a way, does Bilbo Baggins ever return to Bag End?

Hobbit Mid-Term: The Road Goes Ever On…Unless You Stay in Class

Choose ONE of the following options for your Mid-Term Exam. Note that one is in-class and one is a take-home assignment! 

TEACHING OPTION (take home): I want you to design a unit for teaching The Hobbit to middle or high-school students (your choice) comprised of TWO activities or assignments. Each activity should be inspired from a passage of Culler’s Literary Theory (Chapters 1, 2 or 4) that acts as a ‘theory’ for that activities’ goals. Activities can range from various kinds of writing (analytical or creative), collaborative or individual art projects (making maps, etc.), interactive games (a riddle contest, etc.), or any kind of linguistic or textual analysis (tracing word origins, etc.), or anything related to genre (examining book covers, etc.). Be creative, and remember that you have to inspire these kids to not only read the book, but get something out of it! Each activity should contain the following: (a) the passage from Culler as a preface, cited with page number; (b) the activity itself, as you would present it to the students (don’t just tell me about it, actually design the assignment); and (c) a brief explanation of your goals for the assignment based on the passage from Culler. Think about what you want to teach these students about The Hobbit, reading literature, understanding genre, and thinking creatively/critically.

This Exam is due Thursday, October 10^th by 5pm (the beginning of Fall Break) 

LIT STUDY OPTION (in class): you will have a selection of three passages from Culler (from Chapters 1, 2, and 4) and you will have to apply them to a specific aspect of The Hobbit to explain how the theory in question applies to some passage, idea, or character in the book. The exam will ask you to briefly explain the Culler quotes before using them to ‘read’ The Hobbit. Be specific and quote from the book to show how it applies (or can be read through) Culler’s theories. You are also free to use other parts of Culler for support or analysis (OR, you can combine more than one passage into a larger analysis). But remember, this is an in-class essay, so you must bring both books and prepare to write! Of course, I won’t expect as much from this paper as I would the above essay, since you have much less time to write it. The goal is that you can make educated and creative connections from one text to the other, which shows that you have no only read the material, but can interact with it.

This Exam is taken in-class next Tuesday, October 8^th. You will have the entire class to finish it, and of course you can use both books to help you (Culler and Tolkien).

For Tuesday: The Hobbit, Chapters 7-11

These are NOT questions to answer for Tuesday's class, since we'll have an in-class writing response. However, here are some ideas to think about for Tuesday's class. We'll write about one or more of these ideas...

* In Chapter Eight, after fighting the spiders, Bilbo says, “I will give you a name,” he said to it,” and I shall call you Sting” (142). Why do you think he names his sword, which clearly isn’t a legendary weapon like “Beater” or “Biter”? Why might this also illustrate the transformation going on in Bilbo by this point in the novel?

* Related to the above, how does Bilbo become more and more a surrogate for Gandalf on their quest? Do you think this is what Gandalf intended for him to become all along? Or is this a new, unexpected development?

* Unlike most novels, Tolkein’s narrator is almost a character in the novel, full of coy hints about the world’s history, and riddling sense of humor. Where do we most see the narrator intrude on the story itself, and why do you think he does this? Why not just tell the story ‘straight’?

* What do the elves seem to represent for Tolkein, since they are the greatest race in Middle Earth? Why, too, are they people of “the gloaming and the dusk”?

* Why do the people of Lake Town (unlike the Master) give the dwarves such a warm welcome? What ‘world’ does the town seem to belong to—the ancient or the modern? Likewise, why does the Master reject them and assume they’re all frauds?

* Earlier in the book, Gandalf suggests that Middle Earth is a world in decline, a world where heroes and warriors are scarce, and even a burglar is hard to find. How might these later chapters start to explain why this is? 

 

 

 

 

For Thursday: The Hobbit, Chapters 5-7

NOTE: At the end of these questions is a link to an article I published a few years ago in Oklahoma Humanities magazine about Tolkien, the Hobbit, and the purpose of fantasy literature (some of which we discussed in class today). If you're interested in getting more context into the way I read this book, and how I position it within the framework of older fantasy writing, you might find it interesting. It has pictures, too! :)  

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In Beowulf, a work which Tolkein not only translated but was highly influenced by, the phrase “wyrd” is often used, which translates to fate or chance.  In one significant passage, Beowulf claims, “Wyrd saves oft/the man undoomed if he undaunted be.”  How does fate (or luck?) seem to function similarly in The Hobbit?  Is this a book where Bilbo is guided by a higher power…or does he make his own luck? How might Tolkien want us to read this?

Q2: One of our clever students made a connection between Grendel and the Grinch in class, and we see another connection to a character with a ‘G’ in their name: Gollum. How might Gollum share more than a passing resemblance to Grendel, and related to this, how does Tolkien re-write Beowulf’s epic confrontation with him in the chapter “Riddles in the Dark”? How might Bilbo (another ‘B’ name) be a conscious re-writing of Beowulf in a more humane, more heroic light?

Q3: Tolkein purposely went back and revised The Hobbit to bring it in line with his evolving mythology and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Though we can read The Hobbit as a stand-alone work, where do we see foreshadowings and links to the later works in this one? How, for example, do we know the ring isn’t just a magic trinket but a true “ring of power”? In other words, how do we know this work is being written in a ‘present’ time where the readers know that this story is the ancient past?  

Q4: How does Bilbo live up to his name and pedigree in these chapters and become, in a small way, a hero of legend? What causes him to do this? Is it an accident, like the way Gandalf tricked him into undertaking the Quest, or is it a conscious decision of Bilbo’s? Discuss a scene where you see him renounce his identity as a "burgher" and become a "burglar."  

Link to my article, "Roads Go Ever On: Fantasy Literature's Quest for Home" (begins on page 42): https://www.okhumanities.org/doccenter/d66870df8ad249eb8b9ca560123d1db4

For Tuesday: Tolkien, The Hobbit, Chapters 1-4 (any edition)

NOTE: Enjoy the first four chapters of The Hobbit, and try to look for subtle--and not-so-subtle--connections to the world of Beowulf. We'll examine this more carefully in later chapters. For now, here are some questions to help you get the lay of the land on your journey...

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: When it first came out, The Hobbit was considered a children’s story for two reasons: the characters/situations and the style. While most critics no longer agree  that fantasy alone makes a story ‘juvenile,’ they are less certain about the style. Do you feel that the story is written more for children than adults? What about the style might make people read it this way? Do you think that was Tolkien’s intention (and if so, how much should we honor it)?

Q2: Headley talked about Tolkien’s preference for “archaic” language when translating works like Beowulf. In his own work, however, we find something quite different, as in this passage from Chapter 1: “I should like to know about risks, out-of-pocket expenses, time required and remuneration, and so forth” (21). He also includes pipes and references to post offices in the book, which would clearly be out of place in this mythical setting. Why could we argue that every work of fantasy is a kind of translation, and why might he actually prefer Headley’s theory of translation to his own?

Q3: Though The Hobbit opens with a simple domestic scene (“in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”), where does Tolkein hint that a great mythology lies behind the prosaic world of the Shire?  Why do you think he felt it necessary to let glimpses of this ancient world shine through?  How does it affect how we read and understand the work as a whole?

Q4: In Chapter II, “Roast Mutton,” the dwarfs reflect on Gandalf: “So far he had come all the way with them, never saying if he was in the adventure or merely keeping them company for a while.  He had eaten most, talked most, and laughed most.  But now he simply was not there at all!” (30).  What kind of character/wizard is Gandalf, and how does he compare to the idea of a ‘wizard’ in popular culture?