The Family in Contemporary Fiction

Just a reminder: we’ll need to use more of our final exam period than originally planned to complete the presentations.  Please plan to be in class on Friday, Dec. 18, from 9:15-10:30.  At that time, you can also pick up your final grades (with the exception of the presentation grades, of course).

I know a number of you commute in to campus, and I’m a bit worried about the
road conditions this afternoon, so, consider class cancelled for today.
Before you start celebrating, however, two reminders:
1) your research papers are DUE FRIDAY via email by 5 p.m.  Expect a
confirmation email back from me shortly after you send it.  If you don’t get
the email, I don’t have the paper!
2) We’ll start presentations on Monday, but I don’t imagine that we’ll get
through all of them.  That means that we’ll have to finish them up during
our final exam time (Friday, Dec. 18, 10-noon).  I don’t anticipate that
we’ll need all of that time, but it does mean that everyone will have to be
there.  Mark your calendars accordingly.

Enjoy the snow!

Your final Blog Portfolio is due in class on Monday, Dec. 14. Please include the following:

Prepare a list (just the information below, not a copy of text in the post or comment itself) of your posts and comments to turn in with the paper (through 2/12). The list should include:

1) The post numbers, titles and dates posted. [EXAMPLE: Post #1: "A Home at the End of What World?", 9/19]

You should have 20 total posts (through 11/23—Caucasia; this DOES NOT include your researched blog post)

2) Each comment #, whose blog it is posted on, title of that post, and date you commented. [EXAMPLE" Comment #1, Jane's blog, "A Home at the End of What World?", 9/19]

You should have 10 sets–20 total—comments (through 11/30).

Your first paper should have #1-9 posts and comment sets already listed. Please include those here.

If you wish to rewrite ONE of your papers from class, please plan to submit:

1) the original copy of the paper with my comments

2) the new re-written version of the paper

3) A 1-2 page, informal letter to me that explains what you’ve learned through the process of rewriting the paper.  [Here, you might comment on what you notice about your own writing; what you now see about your own writing process; what you see now that you didn't see before in terms of the ideas in your paper, etc.  Be specific: use quotations and examples from your own paper as evidence for your ideas.]

When you revise your paper, consider the following:

Assignment, Argument and Support:

• Re-read the original assignment.  In what ways does your paper currently address the assignment and what would you need to add to better address it?
• Read the comments and make revisions accordingly.
• Make sure that you’ve provided direct evidence from your sources (quotations, paraphrases), and explained how each example is relevant to your argument.  [For each piece of evidence, see if you've explained WHAT the evidence is; HOW it works in the minds of the readers; and WHY it is relevant to your argument.]
• Look carefully at your introduction and conclusion, and make sure that both articulate your argument—and that they both make the same argument!

Mechanical Revisions:

• Check internal citations AND bibliographic forms to make sure they are consistent with  MLA format.
• Make sure that you have included a bibliography.
• Look carefully at spelling, grammar and punctuation throughout and make sure that they are correct.
• **Note: Do not expect any significant improvement of your paper grade if you ONLY correct the mechanical errors.**

REVISED PAPER DUE IN CLASS ON MONDAY, DEC. 14.  NO LATE REVISIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

There are any number of ways to incorporate secondary sources into your existing literary analysis paper.  Here are two particularly strong ways of doing so:

Provide larger context.  Here, you might show the ways that other scholars talk about a particular author, text, or theme, and then show how your approach is different, a modification of an agreed-upon idea, or in some other way related. (e.g., “As you can see in these quotes, Boggis and Bean note that frumpery is a key theme in Coetzee’s novels, but I think that the role of scarves is more important.”  OR “Jon and Kate say that children are the important element in the American family, but Diaz’s novel shows that the mongoose is actually the key character,” OR “Attridge insists that love is key, but I think it’s actually maternal love that we should focus on as readers.)

Provide a counter-argument: “Smith argues that family is the predominant issue in Caucasia.  However, I disagree with this notion.  I find that, while family is an important aspect of the novel, race relations supercede it.”  OR “I contend that race relations are the most important element of the novel.  Suprisingly, Smith agrees.  While on the surface his argument argues for the primacy of the family theme, on closer examination, readers will note the ways he highlights the effects of race relations on the family.”

To support or make more sophisticated individual interpretations of passages.  (e.g., “In the above passage, the term “pituitary” is repeated, which signals medical language.  Dr. House agrees; in his reading of the same passage he notes: “blah!” OR “”In the above passage, the term “pituitary” is repeated, which signals medical language and an insistence on the importance of adolescence.  Dr. House, in his reading of the same passage notes the first: ‘blah!’ but refrains from the second due to his focus on the schma.”

The idea behind the researched blog post is to have each member of the class read, summarize and analyze a reliable secondary source that others could use in revising one of their papers to include research.

Step I

Using the library databases or holdings (yes, you know, the books they actually have IN the library!), locate a secondary source that either addresses a specific text that we’ve examined in class (e.g., A Home at the End of the World, The Royal Tenenbaums, Disgrace, etc.); one of the authors/directors of this text (e.g., Cunningham, Wes Anderson, Junot Diaz); or a particular theme or idea as it relates to “family” (love and family; mother/daughter relationships; the family in American fiction, etc.).  PLEASE choose your source with an eye toward how it might assist the largest number of people in the class!!! [NOTE: since many of the class texts are new, you may have to resort to reviews of the books, or interviews with the author.  If you go in this direction, CHOOSE ones that are extensive (e.g., have a good deal of useful information), and come from more “literary” sources than popular ones (e.g., The New York Times, The Village Voice, an academic journal, etc. as opposed to Reader’s Digest or Parade Magazine).

Step II

Once you’ve located the article, print it out and mark it up while you’re reading it.  You might choose to read the introductory pages and the concluding ones first, to get a holistic sense of the author’s argument.  Read the article carefully, looking closely for the author’s argument, minor pieces of his/her argument or references that might assist others in supporting their arguments; particularly useful analyses of the text; external theories or information that we can use.  Bring your marked up article to class with you on Wednesday.

Step III

In preparation for Wednesday’s class, please draft out answers to the following questions, and bring three paper copies of the draft to class with you.  (Also, keep a digital copy so that you can paste it into your blog).

• Provide the full MLA citation for your source (and despite new formats, would you please include the url so that someone else in class can locate the source.)
• In as comprehensive terms as possible, what is the author’s argument?  What terms or contexts might you need to include/explain/define for someone that has not read it as carefully as you?
• Give at least two of the author’s main points of support for his/her argument, and explain how they work to support it.
• Note at least three other minor ideas/references  that the author makes that people might find useful in their papers.
• Finally, give at least two examples of arguments or points that a writer might use this article to support.  (Be specific here: mention particular themes, relationships, ideas, texts, etc.)

REVISED RESEARCHED BLOG POST DUE FRIDAY, DEC 4 by noon!!

While we’re reading Disgrace here, my friend and colleague Dr. Sandy Shattuck is reading the novel with her students at the University of Huntsville in Alabama.  While we’re blogging, they’re collectively researching and constructing a wiki about specific themes and ideas in Coetzee’s novel.

We’ll discuss their interpretations of the novel as well as our own next week, but you may want to get familiar with at least a couple of their entries-in-progress over the weekend.  Here’s a link to the wiki.  They’ve also set it up so that you can make comments; please give them some good feedback on their work!!

Below are a few articles that might help you contextualize the events in the novel Disgrace.  I’d suggest that you give them a quick skim before reading on in the novel.

History of Race in South Africa

Post-Apartheid South Africa

Incidence of Rape in South Africa

Family Favorite  Black Sheep   Richie Tenenbaum  role in contemporary family

Richie Tenenbaum plays the role of both “black sheep” and the “family favorite” in the film The Royal Tenenbaums.  He is the family favorite in that he has a close relationship with his father; he’s also the black sheep because of the relationship with his father.  This indicates that the father is the family, because Richie’s role is defined by him/By singling a certain family member out as the favorite, it will eventually single him out in a negative way instead/The family is defined by the connection between the members.

Scene One: Royal takes Richie back, and the other two kids watch from window.

In this scene, we see both Margot and Chas jealously looking at Richie from the window.  The two of them look out the same window, and look down on Richie and Royal get out of the cab laughing.  It’s the only scene in the film where the children are portrayed on the same floor of the house at the same time—indicating that they feel the same way about the situation.  [insert dialogue from narrator.]  Other children are excluding Richie because R. is separate from them.  This scene is an example of Richie in both roles: Royal favors his time with R., and it also shows how the other two children resent him for it.