For Wednesday: Final In-Class Writing: Bring Your Carver Book!

 As a way of rounding out the class, we're going to do one more in-class writing (a useful way to get credit if you've missed some responses!) based on Chapter 8 and Carver, so be sure to bring your Carver book to class. Otherwise, start thinking about your Final Presentation a few posts down. Let me know if you have any questions! 

For Monday: Culler, Chapter 8: "Identity, Identification, and the Subject"

This is the LAST chapter of Culler that we'll read for class, but it's an important one. It's a little tricky, so bear with it, since the better you understand this chapter, the easier you'll see connections (and implications) for your Final Project. 

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Why is the word "subject" in English such a tricky one? How do the various definitions of the word suggesting the theoretical complications of the term? Do you think this is an instance when our language knows more than it lets on? 

Q2: Culler writes that iconic characters in literature like Huck Finn or Jane Eyre carry the "presumption that these characters' problems are exemplary. But exemplary of what? The novels don't tell. It's the critics or theorists who have to take up the question of exemplarity and tell us what group or class of people the characters stand for" (111). Does this mean that books don't mean anything unless they are interpreted by others? Aren't the secrets in the text itself? Or does this merely suggest that each culture has to decide who a book speaks to--or if a book continues to speak to them?

Q3: What does Culler mean, quoting Nancy Armstrong, that novels "produced 'the modern individual' who was first of all a woman" (113)? Why would novels create an identity which was primarily female in nature? And how might that have shaped even male identity for people who read books? In other words, why is the 'modern' self, in some senses, more female than male?

Q4: Lacan, a student of Freud, believed identity is a process of mirroring, of copying various performances which we come to believe are 'normal' or 'ideal.' Yet in doing so, "we do not happily become men or women...[and] always encounter resistance" (114). What "resistance" do we encounter in trying to copying our ideal male and female role models, and why does this ultimately doom are performance to be a "failure"? Why can't we become perfect copies of our models? 

Q5: In postcolonial studies, scholars often debate on how societies who have emerged from colonial ownership can best assert their identity and independence. If, for example, a novelist from post-colonial India writes a novel in English, are they still subject to English identity, even in the novel and its characters are Indian? Does an author have to utterly reject everything remotely sway to English identity to become liberated? Is a novel, by its very European roots, an agent of colonial identity? Is English? 

For Friday: Carver, "Cathedral" and "A Small, Good Thing"

NOTE: The Final Project assignment is the post below this one, though I think everyone was in class on Wednesday and received the hard copy. But it's here if you need it! 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Why might the story, "A Small, Good Thing" be a meditation on the nature of evil? As the baker says, "I'm not an evil man, I don't think. Not evil, like you said on the phone" (404). Why might something as small as a $16 cake (though $16 back then was a lot more than it is today!) turn something 'evil,' or at least malicious? Is the explanation of evil often this simple? 

Q2: Throughout the visit with his wife's friend in "Cathedral," the narrator is waging a silent war with his wife. As he tells us, "My wife looked at me with irritation. She was heading toward a boil" (365). Why is egging her on throughout? What makes him feel annoyed or threatened by her friend's visit?

Q3: In the same story, the narrator admits that after drawing the picture of the cathedral with the blind man, "It was like nothing else in my life up to now" (374). Why is this moment an almost religious experience for him? What is it exactly that he's responding to?

Q4: Obviously, "A Small, Good Thing" is a story about unthinkable grief, the moment your life changes forever, especially when before it had been rather simple and unremarkable. What do you feel is the most important thing Carver tries to communicate about the nature of the couple's grief? Though we get relatively little of their inner thoughts, what makes this experience so real and insightful? 

Final Project Assignment: The Theory of You

“Literature has not only made identity a theme; it has played a significant role in the construction of the identity of readers. The value of literature has long been linked to the vicarious experiences it gives readers, enabling them to know how it feels to be in particular situations and thus to acquire dispositions to act and feel in certain ways. Literary works encourage identification with characters by showing things from their point of view” (Culler 112).

For your final project—note, not paper—I want you to make a brief presentation on the four works of art that have most shaped your ‘theoretical’ identity. By “identity,” I mean how you see yourself ideally, in your own mind, and/or how hope to identify yourself in the years to come (since identity is a performance we never quite master—see page 114). Your presentation should be a series of slides—as few or as many as you would like, so long as the presentation is no longer than 10 minutes. The slides should include at least ONE passage from Culler to contextualize the project, and at some point, how each work contributes to the ever-evolving theory of you.

Each slide should contain one of the works that influenced you, with whatever information you want t0 include about it: when you first discovered it, why you feel it affected you so strongly, how you tried to emulate it, what it says about your personality/beliefs, whether your understanding/relationship with the work has changed over time, why you think others need to read/watch/experience it, whether you could respect someone who hated this work, etc. The works in question can be any type of art: books, movies, albums/songs, paintings, video games, etc., though try to include at least one book or one artwork that isn’t a book. There’s no right way to do this, as long as you explore the idea of how you collaboratively created your identity with these four works of art, and what we can learn about you—or your idea of yourself—by understanding each one.

Since this isn’t a paper, we will be presenting these in class on the last week of classes. The Presentations will begin on Monday, November 29^th and go until Friday, December 3^rd. All you need to do is bring your presentation on a flash drive or be able to pull it up via Google docs, or some other format. You will go through the slides and narrate them for us, so don’t feel like everything has to be on the slide.

Remember, this is basically a Final Exam for the class, though it’s designed to be a low-key, low-stakes way to digest some of the themes of the course and present them in a personal, reflective manner. And yes, you will get bonus points if one or more of the works you chose come from the books in class (ha—kidding!). Good luck and try to have fun with this assignment: I know I did when choosing the books in this class—all of which were my four works that shaped my theoretical self!

For Wednesday: In-Class Writing & Final Lit Study Project!

 Remember that there's no reading for Wednesday's class, though we will pick up Carver's stories on Friday, reading "Cathedral," and "A Small, Good Thing." Start reading those if you like, though I won't post questions until after Wednesday's class. 

On Wednesday, we'll do an in-class writing response to introduce your Final Project for the class. Don't worry--it's not another paper. But hopefully you'll find it interesting and somewhat worthwhile. More soon...

For Monday: Carver, "So Much Water So Close To Home" and "Where I'm Calling From"

Read the two stories, "So Much Water So Close To Home," and "Where I'm Calling From" and answer TWO of the questions below:

Q1: In the story, "So Much Water So Close To Home," the narrator, Claire, at one point begins slapping her husband, while at the same time thinking, "This is crazy...We need to lock our fingers together. We need to help one another. This is crazy" (221). Why can't she tell her husband this, or try to talk to him about what happened at the lake? Why does she take this as an unforgiveable betrayal?

Q2: "Where I'm Calling From" is a loosely autobiographical story of Carver's own attempts to get his life back in order at a detox center. It took him several tries over many years to get sober, and in this story, it's the narrator's second trip to Frank Martin's. Does the story make us think he has a chance of beating it this time? Or is he just making a pit stop before the next bender? 

Q3: "So Much Water..." has the atmosphere of a horror story, almost like Stephen King or Shirley Jackson, though without the ghosts and vampires. What gives the story its 'gothic' feel, or sense of tense claustrophobia? Why is this a story of the 'normal' world becoming suddenly uncanny or terrifying?

Q4: How might "Where I'm Calling From" echo many of the same sentiments and ideas from "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love?" In other words, how is this a story about love--and love lost--as much as drinking? Or better yet, why people end of drinking so much? 

For Friday: Carver, Where I'm Calling From (stories below)

 

NOTE: Remember Paper #3 is due on Wednesday, so we don't have class tomorrow. I look forward to reading your Austen papers!

READ: "Put Yourself In My Shoes," "Are These Actual Miles?" and "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: In many ways, "Put Yourself In My Shoes" is a story about writing stories, and how a story should be told. Why does Morgan get so offended when Myers laughs at his second story (and why does he)? Why does he think this is proof that Myers is not a writer at all? 

Q2: Is it ever clear what Toni has to do to sell the car in "Are These Actual Miles?" And more importantly, does Leo understand what is involved in this transaction? Is he guilty about letting her go in the story, or does he gradually realize what she's prepared to do to save them?

Q3: The humorously titled, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" has a first-person narrator, even though it's almost entirely back-and-forth dialogue. What does this perspective add to the story? How does it subtly change what we hear and how we understand it?

Q4: Many find Carver's stories hopelessly depressing and pessimistic, while others think he finds the simple beauty and love in down-and-out people and situations. How do you respond to these stories and why? Is he trying to humanize these characters, or satirize them?