BRAVE NEW WORLD
Unit Calendar Sept/Oct 2014
IC= In Class (We will do this together)
HW=Homework (You are expected to do this on your own that evening)
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
09.10
IC: Literary Lenses
Thursday
09.11
IC: Ch. 1(p. 3-18)
HW: Ch. 2 (p. 1929)
09.15
IC: Seminar #2;
Ch. 5.1 (p. 72-78)
09.16
IC: Ch. 6.1 and 6.2
(p. 87-99)
09.17
IC: Ch. 7 (p. 107122); start Ch. 8
09.18
IC: Seminar #3
HW: Ch. 9 (p. 140145); Ch. 10 (p.
146-152)
Friday
09.12
IC: Seminar #1
Preview Structure
of Ch. 3
HW: Ch. 3 (p. 3045)
09.19
IC: SRP Proposal
Work Day
HW: Ch. 5.2 (p. 7886)
HW: Ch. 6.3 (p. 99106)
HW: Finish Ch. 8
(p. 123-139)
09.22
IC: Ch. 12 (p. 172185)
09.23
IC: Seminar #4
09.24 / 09.25 LATE START
IC: Proposal Exemplars and Peer
Review
09.26 SUB
IC: Small Group
Discussion
HW: Ch. 15 (p.208-216); Ch.16 (p.217229)
HW: Finish the
novel by 10.01
10.01
IC: BNW
Comprehension
Basics Test
10.02
IC: Seminar # 5
10.03
IC: Seminar # 6
HW: Seminar
debrief if you did
not finish in class
HW: Seminar
debrief if you did
not finish in class
10.09 SUB
Unit Essay Work
Time – HW:
COMPLETED
ESSAY DUE by
Midnight Oct. 10
(shared)
New Unit
10.10 NO SCHOOL
HW: COMPLETED
ESSAY DUE by
Midnight (shared)
HW: Ch. 13 (p.
186-197)
09.29
IC: RACES
(Preview)
HW: Finish the
novel by 10.01
10.06
IC: RACES #1
HW: Ch. 14 (p.
198-207)
09.30
IC: RACES
(Practice)
HW: Finish the
novel by
tomorrow.
10.07
IC: Unit Essay Intro;
Work Time
HW: SRP
10.08
IC: Unit Essay
Work Time
HW: None
10.13
IC: RACES #2
HW: None
HW: Unit Essay
HW: Unit Essay
10.14 SUB
IC: Unit Essay
Feedback and
Revisions
10.15 SUB
IC: Unit Essay
Revisions
HW: Unit Essay
HW: Unit Essay
Weekend
09.13-14
HW: Finish Ch. 3
(p. 45-56) and Ch.
4 (p.57-71) before
Monday
09.20-21
HW: SRP Proposal
HW: Ch. 11 (p.
153-171)
09.27-28
HW: Finish the
novel by 10.01
10.04-05
HW: None
HW: BNW Unit
Essay Revisions;
Final Revisions
must be complete
before 3:00pm
Friday
10.11-12
HW: None
LITERARY CRITICISM OVERVIEW Literary Criticism involves applying specific methods or philosophies to how one examines literature. Often, this is referred to as examining a text through a certain “lens,” a metaphor for using eyeglasses to see more clearly. The ability to apply these different lenses is not about becoming a literary scholar; rather, the ability to apply a variety of lenses (or perspectives) is a critical thinking skill that enables to you consider anything more thoroughly—whether it is music, art, an article on ESPN online, a story on the evening news, or a politician’s campaign claims. Psychological Reader-­‐Response Historical Biographical Summary What to look for Research into the details of the author’s life and works A deep understanding of the enables a reader to consider how the content of the target events and experiences of an piece has been influenced by that author’s experiences. author’s life; a deep understanding of the author’s fundamental beliefs or philosophies; look for connections between what the author has experienced and what is represented in the text… then ask why. Research into the social, political, cultural and economic A reader’s awareness of the contexts in which the target piece was created helps to historical context surrounding uncover how this context influenced the author and how the author’s experience will references to the context manifest in the text. help the reader appreciate allusions and references as well as interpret how an understanding of history can help make plot, character, and setting more clear. Reader-­‐Response is based on the idea that there is an RR is based on the cause-­‐effect interaction between a reader and a text. RR criticism cycle between a reader and a involves the reader uncovering their individual response to text. The text produces a a text, identifying what in the text elicited that response, response within the reader, how that structure produces the resulting feeling, and which then influences the even (to an extent) what within the reader’s identity or reader’s subsequent experience facilitated that interaction with the text. RR is interpretation of the text. wholly subjective; though the reader cannot arbitrarily say a texts means whatever they want it to mean—a reader must be able to support their interpretations through an examination of what the text does and how it does it. Psychological criticism is usually used to analyze A close examination of a characters within a work by considering a character’s character’s actions, words, actions and motivations, often by applying Freud’s emotions, thoughts, concepts of the id (biological impulses and desires), appearance, and relationships superego (social constrains and norms), and ego (the part are a starting point; from then, of the self which attempts to reconcile and alleviate the the reader must draw tension between the id and superego). Psychological inferences based on an criticism seeks to examine characters by probing within understanding of human their minds and exploring hidden conflicts, motivations, behavior, impulses and tensions, or underlying influences on their behavior. identity. What to avoid/What it is not Do not confuse a report about the author with actual biographical criticism; biographical criticism must analyze how the author’s self, experience, and identity manifest in the target text. Do not confuse a summary about a time period or era with actual historical criticism; historical criticism must analyze how the historical context influences the text, its content and themes. RR is not a judgment of the quality or appeal of a text, but rather is an examination of what structures elicit a response from a reader and why. Psychological analysis is not just about how a character is represented in a text, but is also about what underlying psychology within that character manifests through the character. Mythological or Archetypal Formalism (New Criticism) Marxist Feminist Summary What to look for Mythological or Archetypal criticism focuses on the repeating patterns of narrative, theme, or symbol which persevere over the entire duration of human experience. Repeating plot motifs such as the arc of tragedy, the hero cycle, the quest, or the “Cinderella” pattern of plot are examples of archetypes. Characters can also be archetypes. This kind of criticism looks at how and why these patterns are repeated and how the presence of these patterns in a work simultaneously connects it to other texts throughout history as well as some universal kernel of human emotional experience. Familiar themes, plot formulas, or characters are a common sign of the presence of an archetypal form. By analyzing how these forms are used (in the target text) in the context of how the forms are used (throughout literature), this form of criticism can enable a reader to draw inferences about the target work’s interpretation of the archetype. New Criticism involves examining minute details in order to consider how those details accumulate to communicate a broader concept. This is the kind of literary criticism most common to high school literature classes that demand the citation of text evidence to support a broader theme or assertion.` Mere references to shared symbols or archetypes may not be enough to build a critical perspective; simply listing symbols, allusions, or references is not archetypal criticism. Marxist literary criticism seeks to examine how ideology influences, manifests, and informs literature as well as how the norms and ideologies constructed within a text serve the same sort of social control. Marxist criticism also requires readers to consider the dissonance between what “is” and what “is perceived to be.” Marxist literary criticism is not about identifying power struggles present in a work of literature; rather, this lens is as much about exposing what is unsaid and unseen in the text. Like Marxist criticism, Feminist criticism considers how language and ideology reinforce a status quo; as with Marxist criticism, Feminist requires attention to what “is” versus what is perceived or presented as truth. Feminist criticism is not by nature the demeaning or subverting of masculinity, but rather the recognition of the inequality between genders and how that inequality manifests and can be interpreted and experienced by people differently based on their constructed gender. New Criticism and Formalism focus on the structure of the text and what literary devices it employs to accomplish a purpose. This tends to ignore historical or biographical contexts of the author, instead emphasizing the work the writing does via overarching structure, work choice, language, relationships within the text, images, and symbols. What the author “meant” is irrelevant; New Criticism focuses on what the text does and how it does it. Thorough criticism therefore requires multiple readings of a text. New Criticism also tends to focus on attention to detail, while often also connecting those details to a universal theme or human experience. New Criticism could be characterizes as looking at how the pieces of the text, like a puzzle, when examined together can produce a broader picture. Based on Marxist theories about power in society, as well as disconnect or dissonance between what “is” and how people perceive it to be. This latter perception, according to Marxism, is rooted in the dominant ideology imposed upon a society. This ideology is accepted by a society as normal, natural, inevitable and just, but Marx contents that the maintenance of the ideology serves only to reinforce and legitimize structures of social, political and economic power. Ideology maintains social strata and position, facilitating the exploitation of the lower classes by the higher classes. Thus, ideology serves to preserve the status quo and suppress change, revolution, or progress. Feminist criticism, as well as gender studies, examine the assumptions and assertions made within a text about gender roles and identity in both the society represented in the text as well as in the societal context in which the author created the text. Gender studies extends feminist criticism to consider how concepts of gender, femininity and masculinity imbue or color the attitude and effect of a text, based on the idea that gender roles are constructed by a dominant ideology in order to maintain the power status quo. st
What to avoid/What it is not New Criticism is not concerned with what the author intended to accomplish, nor is it specifically about a reader’s response. This approach implies that the form of a text has the ability to communicate a rather unambiguous truth or theme through the close examination of details. Adapted from Peter Schakel and Jack Ridl, Approaching Literature in the 21 Century, Bedford/St. Martins, Boston, 2005.