Core Concept #7: 3/7/11-3/18/11

Modernism

• Disillusionment following WWI - many expatriates
• Stein - "Lost Generation"
• New narrative techniques
• Slogan: "Make it new!"
• Throw out old philosophies, especially arts (which could create a false picture of reality)
• Suspicion of the tools of art (during the olden eras, artists were too manipulative)
• New forms of narrative
• Unreliable narrators and multiple narrators
• Minor characters as 1st person narrators
• Nonlinear narrative
• Stream of consciousness
• Connection: Such characteristics are common in many novels published today
• Readers were no longer expected to accept the story passively
• Superimposition: one point of view layered over another (the truth lies where they intersect)
• Belief: There must be a universal truth
• Tragedies like WWI wouldn't happen again if we knew this truth
• What is the universal truth? Something that is true for all people in all times in all places

Then WWII happens...

Postmodernism

• Connection: Death of a Salesman, which we've previously read, was a postmodernist piece
• Postmodernism arrived in the U.S. and U.K. at different times: Why?
• The U.S. got TV right after WWII (postermodernism start then)
• U.K. got TV in '60s (postmodernism start then)
• Why TV? The local point of view ceased to be the only one. Teachers and parents are not always right. People began to see global points of views
• Postmodernism = Modernism - Universal Truth + Irony
• Terrifying thought: our lives are meaningless!
• Everything means nothing, so let's make fun of everything!
• Characteristics
• All truth is local
• Blending of high and low culture
• Connection: We studied such phenomenon in AP U.S. History
• No boundaries (No reason why fictions can't be mixed up, or interactive)
• The Simulacrum (Endless loop of self-reference is so self-reinforcing that a simulated world is more real to us than reality. This false copy has in essence become reality)
• Self-reference (An endless repetition of in-jokes; i.e. a video refering to another video)

Surrealism

• A movement in the arts (visual, musical, dramatic, literary) between WWI and WWII
• Connection: We studied the artworks of Salvador Dali (a surrealist artist) in Spanish
• Uses unexpected juxtapositions in ways intended to activate subconscious associations that highlight truths hidden from us when we are trapped in linear, logical, patterns of thought
• Uses juxtaposition of images, words, etc. determined by psychological thought processes rather than logical thought processes
• Attempts to join the worlds of dreams and fantasy to "reality" to create a larger reality - a "surreality"
• Dreamlike, playful, sometimes eerie or bizarre
• Influenced by the work of Freud and Jung
• Connection: See previous notes for more on Freud and Jung's philosophies

The Hollow Men

• "A penny for the Old Guy" refers to paying to cross the River Styx
• "valley of dying stars" refers to the Valley of Despair of the psalms
• The "multifoliate rose" is a classic allusion to Christ
• "For Thine is / Life is / For Thine is the" is a prayer that is almost finished, but the person cannot finish it
• Famous line: "This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper"
• Questions
• What do the eyes symbolize?
• What do the kingdoms symbolize?

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

• Poem begins with an exerpt from Dante's Inferno: significance? Foreshadowing. We now know that the poem ends badly because Prufrock tells us in the very beginning that, "If I believed my answer were beign given to someone who could ever return to the world...", thus we (the audience) is in hell, which we can never leave
• Reinforces the modernist idea that Earth is hell and hell is Earth
• Who is the poem addressed to? Three possibilities:
• You = unknown audience who can't respond
• You = Prufrock (he's arguing with himself: it's an internal monologue)
• You = some guy (Prufrock's just talking to this random guy)
• What is the "overwhelming question?"
• "There will be time to murder and create"
• Bible reference (there is a time for everything)
• It's not a paraphrase, it's not mocking, but there's been disturbing diction changes
• New meaning: something needs to die, and it needs to be replaced
• "For the yellow smoke that slides along the street"
• The fog is like a pet following Prufrock, trying to get into the party
• Elliot is tying Prufrock to the industrial revolution (Prufrock is personifying the era)
• "Before the taking of a toast and tea"
• Like a modern sacrament; debasing; people are so trivial that they just get toast and tea
• "Time to turn back and descend the stair"
• French expression for when you want to reverse time because you just thought of the perfect zinger too late
• "Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets"
• What Prufrock wants to say, but he keeps on being distracted by the women!
• "the eternal Footman" = grim reaper
• "Almost, at times, the Fool"
• Prufrock's ridiculous, so he can tell us the truth
• "I grow old...I grow old..."
• Epizeuxis
• Turning point of poem because Prufrock has finally reached his final decision
• "Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?"
• Prufrock has reached his mid-life crisis
• Peach is a literary symbol for the female genitalia
• "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each." **sad pause** "I do not think that they will sing to me"
• Prufrock is still under the spell of the mermaids, like sirens

"A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars" by Liesl Schillinger | Published 3/11/11 | A Book Review Analysis

In “A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars,” Schillinger weaves together a skillful essay using many rhetorical devices to analyze The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht.

Schillinger uses details to a great extent in her essay to give the readers an idea of the emotional impact The Tiger's Wife evokes. For example, she tells the tale of Luka, the butcher's son who goes to great lengths to learn the almost-forgotten traditional instrument of gusla. This helps the reader understand that much of the plot of the novel occurs at a time when modernization made traditions almost obsolete. Schillinger also retells us of the story of a band of diggers digging for a relative on someone else's private property because that relative had died without proper rites, giving us an idea of the personal impact of the Balkan Wars.

In addition, Schillinger uses language to better her essay. For example, she writes, "In 'The Tiger's Wife,' Obreht weaves the old man's richly colored reminiscences like silk ribbons through the spare frame of Natalia's modern coming-of-age," using simile to build up imagery, and giving us a feel of the foundation of the story, and what really makes the story go, all in poetic language that leaves the reader wanting more.

Furthermore, Schillinger uses great syntax in her essay, such as when she says, "too rational to be cowed by old-fashioned superstitions, too modern for corny old-fashioned folk music." Here, she uses asyndeton and anaphora, creating a poetic sound to facilitate the flow of the piece. She also uses passive voice, such as when she writes, "a curfew is imposed," to create an impersonal tone and to obscure responsibility. Overall, Schillinger's use of rhetorical devices in her essay makes it flow easily and helps her convey her point in an easy-to-understand manner.

"A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars" was a pretty flawless piece.

In analyzing The Tiger's Wife, Schillinger mostly uses New Historic and Formalist criticism. In her book review, Schillinger gave a pretty complete summary to the novel, thus making her book review partially Formalist. Yet Schillinger also talks about how Obreht wrote the novel without actually having been in the Balkans during the times of war, thus making her novel a novel of imagination rather than experience, which makes her book review partially New Historic.

Schillinger's description of The Tiger's Wife really reminds me of The Diary of A Young Girl. Both books are about dealing with reality during a surreal time of war and change.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/books/review/book-review-the-tigers-wife-by-tea-obreht.html?_r=1&ref=review

“Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration” by Nicholas D. Kristof | Published 3/11/11 | A Reflective Essay Analysis

In “Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration," Kristof uses a pensive, awed, and inspirational tone in order to tell us of his past experiences with the resilience of the Japanese spirit. He creates his tone with his diction, detail, syntax, and imagery. For example, Kristof is awed when he describes, "Uncomplaining, collective resilience is steeped into the Japanese soul," he is inspirational and pensive when he writes, "This will also be a time when the tight knit of Japan’s social fabric, its toughness and resilience, shine through."

I like Kristof's tone in “Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration” because it makes me believe once again in the human spirit, in the ability of bad times to bring out the best in people. The tone is perfect for such an essay about a person's descriptions of people during a critical period. The essay is beautifully written and really makes one think.

I think the tone in "Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration" would work perfectly for an AP essay because Kristof uses ample details to support his claims, he uses good diction and syntax, he wrote in the plain style, and the spelling and structure was good. Moreover, Kristof manages to reach out to the reader and really resonate with the reader, which is pretty essential in any essay, especially an AP essay.

Through Kristof's use of imagery, details, and synatx in “We Are All Egyptians,", he not only allows the reader to understand his essay better, but also helps it flow better.

Kristof took great advantage of syntax to better his essay. He used sentence fragments to create a lyrical, poetic “sound”, such as when he writes, "But also, our deepest admiration." Even though Kristof is writing about events that happened in the past, he incorporates a lot of present tense into his essay, such as when he writes, "Our hearts are all with the Japanese today..." to convey ideas forcefully.

Kristof used details to help make his point hit home. He told the stories of Japanese kids going to school in shorts during the winter to make them tough. He talked the 1995 Kobe earthquake, specifically about a looting that had occured and the yakuza setting up counters to give away supplies to earthquake survivors. This all makes the earthquake so much more personalized. After reading the article, the earthquake became less about death tolls and infrastructure destruction, but more about a collection of individuals striving to help each other out and their resilience in the face of disaster.

Kristof uses language throughout his essay to help us better understand the Japanese culture by explaining to us the significance of Japanese terms that characterize key characteristics of the Japanese that Kristof thinks we can learn from. For example, he writes, "People always say “shikata ga nai” – it can’t be helped. And one of the most common things to say to someone else is “ganbatte kudasai” – tough it out, be strong." to demonstrate the social significance of the Japanese's strong spirit.

All in all, "Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration" is a enchanting and emotionally appealing essay that is neatly executed. There were no weaknesses whatsoever that I could discern in the essay.

Source: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/sympathy-for-japan-and-admiration/#more-8679

"Can You Hear Libya Now?" by Dan Gonzales and Sarah Harting | Published 3/4/11 | An Editorial Analysis

The authors of "Can You Hear Libya Now?" use rhetorical devices to help the reader understand the argument that we should send cellphone base stations to Libya to facilitate communication and to help the argument flow. For example, they use imagery when they write, "the revolutions that are rocking Arab countries." This helps paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind of the historic events that are happening. The authors also write, "fighting for their voices to be heard," creating an image in the readers' minds reminiscent of the American Revolution in which colonists fought for democracy. The authors also use syntax for better flow so the reader can be more receptive to their message, such as when they use alliteration to ease the flow of the passage, such as when they write, "democracy demonstrators have had a harder time" They also take advantage of the natural rhythm of English to leave the important information for the end, where the reader will remember most, such as when they write, "Fortunately, there is an easy step the United States and its allies could take to help: deploying cellphone base stations on aircraft or tethered balloons."

I thought the main weakness of this essay was that it should've included more details of the personal impact that its proposal of increasing cellphone communication would have. The essay overall seemed too impersonal for me.

In this essay, the narrative persona is very biased and passionate. The authors builds such tones mainly through their use of diction, such as when they use the words, "trapped" (hopeless connotation), "confisticated" , and "deteriorated (disease connotation)," thus making their position clear in that they are obviously condemning the situation in Libya. The authors also use imagery and syntax to further build up the narrative persona. This tone makes me like the essay more because I know the author cares for the issue, thus I feel like I should care too. Furthermore, such clear positions created by the tone helps me understand the topic and the sides involved as I am reading the article.

I think the speaker would still be appropriate if this were an AP essay because the speakers really try to reach out to the reader, but they do it in a way so as to still sound formal. Moreover, the authors make claims, support it with evidence, and link them with warrants.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/opinion/05Gonzales.html?_r=1

Core Concept #6: 2/22/11-3/4/11

Comedy

• Comedy is based on irony, and its awareness is an intellectual process
• Connection: See previous notes for more on the types of irony
• Comedy allows us to feel superior to the characters, who may be similar to us
• Comedy is a way to change the individual or society
• The Comedic Ladder: Comedy of Ideas (wit & clever language: subtle) -> Comedy of Manners (love affairs & witty language) -> Farce (coincidences,mistimings, puppets of fate) -> Low Comedy (dirty jokes & slapstick)
• For something to be humorous, it must appeal to the intellect, be mechanical, be inherently human, be related to a set of established society norms, be inconsistent, and be perceived as harmless

Comedy and the Free Response

• It is a Comedy of Ideas that uses lots of irony
• The characters are relatable to us, and they are blind to their misconceptions
• It is an irrational take on marriage
• There has been a lack of effective communication

Pride and Prejudice

• Austen uses italics to emphasize characters' tone during dialogues to build comic effect
• Connection: This use of italics is similar to teachers underlining notes on the board because they want to make sure that the students take notice
• When reading, it is important to differentiate Austen's ideas and thoughts from Elizabeth (the narrator)'s
• Through the novel, Austen is saying that one should not compromise when it comes to marraige (Elizabeth didn't and she came out at the top of the social order in the end)
• Connection: the characters in the free response prompt compromised, and I don't think they'll be happy in the future

Core Concept #5: 2/7/11-2/17/11

Allusions in Heart of Darkness

• Eden references (wild forest, river looks like a serpent)
• But Dante references also (three levels of hell)
• Connection: The Dante handout from class should come in especially handy
• Lots of description of maps also because there is a metaphysical map in Africa
• The people represent something; the landscape represents something too

Characters in Heart of Darkness

• The three stages of an archetypal woman shows up in Heart of Darkness
• Marlow's aunt is the smothering mother
• Connection: Juxtaposition to Linda as an absentee mother
• Kurtz's fiancee is the damsel in distress
• The secretary women are the Fates, they represent the crones
• Irony: they are not knitting a golden thread, instead, they are knitting black wool (the hair of Africans were described as black wool)
• This means that the Company holds the fate of the world in their hands because they are extracting resources from Africa (at the expense of the Africans) to power the world
• The Jungle is the sexualized mother figure
• The Russian wears motley, which means that he is the fool, the one who can speak the truth because he's so dumb/innocent
• The Russian also wears clothes of many colors, which reminds us of Joseph, who had worked for the pharoh (the Company)
• Kurtz's mistress is warrior-like, regal, and is the anima (the spirit of the land)
• Thus Kurtz's real mistress is the Congo: he was never going to go home to his Intended because his heart is with the anima
• Connection: she reminds me of Neytiri of the recent movie Avatar

Discussion Items

• Why is the Heart of Darkness written in frame narrative?
• Agree/disagree with Achebe in his article, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"?
• Reactions to Dintenfass (his central claim, minor points of interpretation)
• Heart of Darkness as a "quest": Romance or Irony?
• Marlowe is portrayed as an idol (bad connotation)
• Connection: in parts of the Bible that we read over the summer, people were punished for worshipping idols
• He doesn't understand the meaning of his journey
• Maybe he's trying to understand by telling his story?
• An irony "quest" undermines the point of a romantic quest (reinforce values) because it's trying to tell us that something's lacking in society because society is meaningless

Final Exam

• Situational irony is when the same situation is turned around (i.e. misery into happiness caused by the same action)
• Dramatic irony is when we know something the characters should know, but don't
• Verbal irony is when someone says something and means the opposite
• Comic characters are blind to their own misperceptions
• Conceit is a long, extended metaphor

"Exit Mubarak" by Roger Cohen | Published 2/11/11 | An Editorial Analysis

            The author of "Exit Mubarak" uses rhetorical devices to help the reader understand the argument and to help the argument flow. For example, he uses imagery when he writes, "ashen-faced Omar", and "The revolution was...seeping out of a packed Tahrir Square like a dam breaking." This helps paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind of what exactly the author is trying to say. The author also uses syntax for better flow so the reader can be more receptive to his message, such as when he uses interrogatives to question assumptions when he writes, "How far could Mubarak be from the scene as long as Sleiman was guiding the process?" Cohen also uses anaphora and asyndeton when he writes, "long trampled-upon, long subjected to the humiliation," creating a poetic "sound." Finally, the author uses details to build up his voice and help us understand the situation in Egypt from his point of view. Examples of such usage include "The Arab world has awoken from a long conspiracy-filled slumber induced by aging despots determined to keep their peoples from modernity," and "the building blocks we were trying to use were rotten to the core and we had been complicity in that rot."

           There were no weaknesses in the essay that I could perceive.

            In this essay, the narrative persona is very informal and passionate. The author makes a lot of cultural references, such as when he writes, "which wizened specimen from the Arab Jurassic Park is next?" But he is also very passionate about his subject, emphasizing that "there is nothing anti-democratic in the Arab genome." Such imagery, syntax, and details help the author build up his narrative persona. This tone makes me like the essay more because the informal tone makes the essay more interesting to read, and the passionate tone makes the essay more attractive because I know the author cares for the issue, thus I feel like I should care too.

            I think the speaker would still be appropriate if this were an AP essay because the speaker really tries to reach out to the reader, but he does it in a way so as to still sound formal. The only problem is, the author makes a claim and does not support it very well with evidence, thus although the speaker would work for an AP essay, I don't think the essay itself would.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12iht-edcohen12.html?ref=rogercohen