1 Apr (F): Exam over the concepts and a selection of the stories we've read so far. See the Prep Sheet.
Note: you will notice that from here on out, you are not being required to bring with you to class this or that short writing on the stories. But in order to be prepared for the final, you should be making written notes for yourself on the questions that are posed below.
Also: notice that you're now not only being expected to work your way through various stories under the guidance of the agendas of curiosity laid out in the study guides and in other questions below. You are in addition being prompted to notice how the story prompts an experienced reader to formulate those agendas of curiosity for him/herself.
4 Apr (M): Have read for discussion Kafka's story "A Hunger Artist" (pp. 954-960). Come to class having done the following:
- There is a detailed Study Guide to this story. Be sure to make aggressive use of it.
- It would be a good idea to acquaint yourself with the author, if you haven't already heard of Franz Kafka. See our editors' brief biographical sketch (p. 952).
- Ask yourself: What makes it clear that we are expected to take the events of this story symbolically rather than literally?
6 Apr (W): Further discussion of Kafka's "A Hunger Artist." You should do a new reading as directed in the Study Guide.
- Review the article on foil systems in our on-line glossary of critical concepts.
- Read the two excerpts from Gustav Janouch's Conversations with Kafka (pp. 993-94). The immediate subject is Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis, which we're not reading. But you'll notice something striking about Kafka's personal estimation of himself. How might we read "A Hunger Artist" as a disguised confession on the part of the author about his unworthiness as a person and as an artist?
- Re-read extra-carefully the final 2 paragraphs of the story. What questions do you have to wrestle with in order to decide how to classify the plot of this story, according to the scheme we developed in terms of characterization of the protagonist? How do you come out on these questions?
8 Apr (F): Have read for discussion Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" (pp. 865-71). In preparation for today's discussion, think through the following:
- After you've read the story once, work through the Study Guide to this story. (Some of you may already have encountered the story, so you can proceed immediately to this. Spoiler warning (!): If you don't already know this story, wait until you have before you look at the Study Guide.)
- Ask yourself: What makes it clear that we are expected to take the events of the story symbolically rather than literally?
11 Apr (M): Further discussion of Jackson's story. In preparation for today's discussion:
- Work through Study Guide 2 to this story.
- Let's think of the citizenry of the town as a kind of "collective protagonist" (as we saw the majority of the animals in Thurber's "The Owl Who Was God" functioning in that fable). How are they characterized here? (Dynamic? static? flat? round?) What questions do you have to wrestle with in order to decide how to classify the plot of this story, according to the scheme we developed in terms of characterization of this protagonist? How do you come out on these questions?
13 Apr (W): Further discussion of Jackson's story. In preparation for today's discussion, have a look at the following (checking out a couple of links in one or both):
Study Guide 3 to this story;
Study Guide 4 to this story.
15 Apr (F): Have read for discussion Chinua Achebe's "Dead Men's Path" (p. 46). In preparation for today's discussion, do the following:
18 Apr (M): Have read for discussion Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" (p. 1477). In preparation for this discussion, do the following:
Exploit the Study Guide to this story. Carry out the first 2 readings pointed to there.
Ask yourself: What's the narrative point of view of this story, and how is it essential to the experience Porter evidently wants to reader to imagine?
20 Apr (W): Further discussion of "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." In preparation for this discussion, do the following:
Carry out a 3rd reading of the story, in accordance with the pointers in the Study Guide.
Review the Study Guide as a whole, asking yourself: How does the story prompt the reader to see that the questions you find here are called for on the part of the reader?
Ask yourself: What questions do you have to wrestle with in order to decide how to classify the plot of this story, according to the scheme we developed in terms of characterization of the protagonist? How do you come out on these questions?
22 Apr (F): Octavio Paz's story "My Life with the Wave" (p. 1438). In preparation for this discussion, read the story twice and think through the following questions:
Ask yourself: What questions do you have to wrestle with in order to decide how to classify the plot of this story, according to the scheme we developed in terms of characterization of the protagonist? How do you come out on these questions?
25 Apr (M): I. B. Singer's story "Gimpel the Fool" (p. 1523). In preparation for this discussion, do the following:
Do two readings of the story,
following the agendas of curiosity laid out in the Study Guide for this story.
27 Apr (W): Further discussion of Singer's story. In preparation for this discussion, do the following:
Do a third reading of the story, using the agenda of curiosity laid out in the Study Guide.
As you're working through the study guide, be asking yourself: How does the story prompt the reader to see that the questions you find here are called for on the part of the reader?
Ask yourself: What questions do you have to wrestle with in order to decide how to classify the plot of this story, according to the scheme we developed in terms of characterization of the protagonist? How do you come out on these questions?
29 Apr (F): Gabriel García Márquez's story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (p. 704). In preparation for this discussion, read the story twice and think through the following questions:
What do you figure is the remote cultural history behind the idea of the "wise old neighbor woman" that "angels in those times were the fugitive survivors of a celestial conspiracy"? What does her belief have to do with the advice she gives to Pelayo and Elisenda?
What do the proposals the various onlookers make regarding the captive's future tell us about their deeper fantasies? What do these fantasies tell us about their analysis of what is wrong with the world? What do we figure is the kind of experiences they've been subjected to that led them to think this way? What does this have to do with their relative position in society?
How does the meaning of the lightening bolt that shows up in the story told by the girl who had been changed into a spider (p. 707) differ from the meanings that come for us to attach to the bolt of lightening we encountered in Chopin's story "The Storm" (p. 427)?
Who or what does it make best sense to regard as the protagonist of this story? -- Pelayo and Elisenda? the old man with enormous wings? the townspeople as a whole? What considerations might be relevant for helping us to decide?
What additional questions do you have to wrestle with in order to decide how to classify the plot of this story, according to the scheme we developed in terms of characterization of the protagonist? How do you come out on these questions?
What are some facts about the world this story strikes you as possibly designed to invite us to meditate upon?
Dead Week begins.
2 May (M): Come to class having read Ring Lardner's "Haircut". (Since this story is not in our anthology, you'll need to print off a copy from the link just given. Be sure to bring it with you to class.) In preparation for the discussion, you should work your way through the following questions:
Which characters does the story invite us to consider as possibly functioning as the story's protagonist? What considerations offer themselves as possibly relevant for us to decide this question?
What difference does this question make for our conception of the story's narrative point of view?
What is your assessment of the mentality of Jim? how about Dick (aka Whitey)? how about that of the folks who used to regularly gather in Whitey's barber shop?
Here are some questions that should occur to us insofar as we recognize that we're dealing here with a dramatic monologue:
What is Whitey's aim in telling this story to the person he's telling it to?
How well does Whitey grasp the significance of the events he relates?
What's your view of the degree to which Whitey's aims in telling the story will be realized?
4 May (W): Further discussion of Larner's "Haircut." To bring your thoughts into focus for this discussion, organize them around this question, which whould by now be a part of your standard approach to any story:
What questions do you have to wrestle with in order to decide how to classify the plot of this story, according to the scheme we developed in terms of characterization of the protagonist? How do you come out on these questions?
6 May (F): Bring your questions about the final exam.
The Final Exam
The Final Exam consists of an In-class closed-book exam, and a final out-of-class essay.
- The in-class exam is designed to be able to be written within the first hour of the officially scheduled examination period, but students will have the entire hour-and-50-minute span in which to complete it.
- Students are encouraged to hand in the out-of-class essay before Dead Week. But they will have until 7:00 p.m. on the last day of Exam Week to submit it under the instructor's door at ECS-127.
The Prep Sheet for the Final Exam will be posted on the Friday before Dead Week.
- The Final Exam for the 1:30 Section will be held in our regular classroom
on Friday, May 13, from 11:50 a.m. to 1:40 p.m.
- The Final Exam for the 2:30 Section will be held in our regular classroom
on Tuesday, May 10, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.