For Tuesday: Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 1-4

 

NOTE: Read the first four chapters (Johnathan Harker's Diary) for class on Tuesday. and give yourself time to get into the narrative structure of the novel. It's not as difficult or dry as it might initially appear, and this technique has been wildly influential on every gothic/horror novel to follow). 

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Last week we discussed theories of identity and constructions of the 'subject.' How do the characters of either Johnathan Harker or Dracula address some of these issues in their 'performance' of identity? Consider the following quotes as you respond:

* Harker: "I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina's eyes and cause her pain; but it is the truth" (43).

* Dracula: "Here I am noble; I am boyar; the common people know me, and I am master. But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one; men know him not--and to know not is to care not for" (25).

Q2: In many ways, these first chapters are just a typical first-person narration from Harker's perspective. Yet Stoker puts a slight twist on this since it's actually from his diary, which is later read by his fiancee, Mina Murray. How does the act of writing somewhat change how we experience his story, considering that it is broken up by dates and an overwhelming sense of time passing? Why might Stoker have chosen to do this rather than simply having Harker narrate the opening chapters? (Chapter 5, for example, begins with a series of letters between Mina and her best friend, Lucy). 

Q3: When Harker first beholds the three 'brides' of Dracula, he remarks, "I seemed somehow to know her face, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where" (Ch.III/61). How might passages like this remind us of Coraline, and indeed, how might Harker’s adventures in Castle Dracula be a lot like Coraline’s adventures with the Other Mother?

Q4: How does Stoker's characterization of Dracula differ from modern versions of Dracula and of vampires in general? Though Dracula is not the first literary vampire, he created the prototypical mythology that all subsequent vampires follow. Nevertheless, Stoker's 'Dracula' shows some remarkable differences that often surprise or even disappoint readers. What might these be...and what might Stoker's intentions have been in writing him this way

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

NOTE: This is one of the trickier/thornier chapters in the book, and it will make you think or die trying! Get what you can from it, and we'll discuss it a lot more in class on Tuesday. I guarantee it will help you think about Paper #2, however, so be sure to do these questions!  

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Culler writes that “Literature has not only made identity a theme; it has played a significant role in the construction of the identity of readers” (112). While literature can certainly draw attention to certain groups of people, especially marginalized voices, how can it play a role in creating them? For example, why could we argue that books played as much a role in creating ‘childhood’ as society itself?

Q2: Somewhat related to Q1, art is often censored because of a fear of identification, or as Culler puts it, “corrupt[ing] through mechanisms of identification” (113). Why are books—especially in Oklahoma!—much more censored than films or even music in this regard? Why would a book do a better job of modeling identity—and enabling corruption—than other forms of media? Can you think of a specific book that could be accused of this?

Q3: 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 is this inevitably a "failure"? Why can't we become perfect copies of our models? 

Q4: How might literature question the idea of “agency,” or how we exercise our free will and identity? While we might deny being racist and avoiding racist sentiments and language, why might we still contribute to a racist (or sexist) discourse by our very positions and roles in society? In other words, where do intentions end and consequences begin?

Paper #2 assignment: Reading the Self (due Next Thursday, October 31st in class!)

NOTE: Remember to finish Coraline for Thursday's class! No questions, but we'll have an in-class writing over it. The Paper #2 assignment I gave out in class is below. 

Intro to Lit/Teaching Lit

Paper #2: Reading the Self

“Literature has not only made identity a theme; it has played a significant role in the construction of the identity of readers…we become who we are by identifying with figures we read about” (Culler, Ch.8).

NOTE: There are TWO options for this short assignment, which we will share in class next Thursday, October 31^st. For each option, you must use Culler, Chapters 6 “Narrative” and/or Chapter 8 “Identity, Identification, and the Subject” to help frame your discussion or to give you new perspectives on the works in question. We’ll discuss Chapter 8 at length on Tuesday.

OP1: Write a short Reading Autobiography about the 3-4 works that most shaped your ‘reading’ identity as a child. I define “child” as anything before you hit your teenage years (so 12 and under). Reflect on why these works stayed with you, even if you haven’t read them since, and how they might have shaped your views, preferences, reading habits, and overall aesthetic. Some of these should be books, but you can slip in a film, show, or even a song since all of these are texts to be ‘read’ and digested by a young person looking to construct their sense of self. You might discuss how you were introduced to these works (or how you found them), and what you most recall about each one, even if you seem them differently today (i.e. you don’t have to like them anymore).

OP2: A friend has a pre-teen child who has fallen in love with books after reading Coraline. They want to know what else the child should read to extend this love of reading to other books with similar themes, characters, or storytelling. Compile a list of 3-4 works (for the parent) geared towards children/Young Adults that you feel would complement Coraline even if they’re not works of horror per se. Explain what all these works have in common, and how each one relates to some aspect of Coraline in a way the child might understand and appreciate. Keep in mind the role of identity/identification in these books: why might they be healthy for the child to experience at this age, as they are still actively forming their sense of self? What would these books teach them or allow them to see or experience? And how might these books have helped you?

REMEMBER:

• 3-4 works for each one, though in OP2, all 3-4 must be books; you can define it more loosely for OP1.
• You can use earlier chapters of Culler, but quote at least once from Chapter 6 or Chapter 8. Try to use quotes that actually help you see/discuss some aspect of your paper, rather than an obligatory quote that is just taking up space or only says what you could have said yourself.
• Page limit optional, but try to do justice to the works and the prompt. Don’t just give a short list and say “I really liked this book”; try to explain why you liked it and/or why you think it shaped you or would shape someone else. Look at it from both a childhood and an adult perspective.

 

For Tuesday: Coraline, Chapters 6-10

NOTE: I'll be handing out the short Paper #2 assignment on Tuesday which will be due in just shy of two weeks (see calendar two posts down). So don't miss out! 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: We discussed some of the thematic connections between The Hobbit and Coraline in class on Thursday, so let’s go a step further: how is the Other Mother like Smaug? Or, how could Smaug be a ‘theory’ for reading the Other Mother? Do you think Gaiman might have had this famous dragon in mind when creating her? (does he drop any little clues…?)

Q2: Though the Other Mother is obviously a monster of some sort, her words have a curious ring to them. Phrases like, “the proudest spirit can be broken, with love” and “Manners makyth man,” for example, sound like they come from a Victorian conduct manual. What do you make of these phrases, and why does Gaiman make her talk like this? What idea or parody of motherhood might she represent?

Q3: When Coraline finds the “Other Father” in the basement, he’s a deformed and misshapen lump of dough. Coraline takes pity on him, reflecting, “Poor thing…You’re just a thing she made and then threw away” (109). We also learn that she can’t create anything, but can only “twist and copy and distort things that already existed” (116). Why might this be a child’s introduction to the concept of evil? Why might ‘evil’ work in exactly the same way?

Q4: I suggested in class on Thursday that Coraline is a children’s book for adults, meaning that it’s a book children are meant to grow into. With that in mind, how might Coraline stumble across a few ‘theories’ which have more resonance to an adult than to a child? In other words, where might the book become a symbolic lesson for how to survive in adulthood?

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).