1. Convince
or
Persuade?
You really need
a vacation, You
work too hard!
Hmm, am I
persuaded or
convinced?

2.  Strictly speaking, one convinces
a person that something is true
but persuades a person to do
something.
“Pointing out that I was overworked,
my friends persuaded [not convinced]
me to take a vacation.
Now that I'm relaxing on the beach
with my book, I am convinced [not
persuaded] that they were right.”
 Read more: Easily Confused or Misused Words | Infoplease.com
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0200807.html#ixzz2T7jurahi

3.  [[Poetry is]...the
record of the best and
happiest moments of
the best and happiest
minds...
 - Shelley

4.  Introduction to Essay #1
• Due Friday, Week 9
• How to write a response to
literature.
• American Literature since
1945
• QHQ: Klages

5.  There are many essay topics to choose from.
On the webpage, click on “Essay Prompts” and then “Essay
#1”
 You will see another list of choices specific to our texts.
Click on any of them to explore topics
 You may write an essay on any of these topics.
 You may write an essay on a topic of your choice.
 You may use fodder from one of your posts.
 The essay is due Friday, week 9 at noon. Please submit
it through Kaizena.

6.  In this first half of our quarter, we have read and
discussed multiple texts, theories, and opinions on
both literature and literary analysis, and for this
reason, I offer you many choices for your first
essay. In a thesis driven essay of three to six
pages, respond to one of the prompts I have
offered or one of your own. You need only the
primary text for this essay, but you may incorporate
other stories, manifestos, or critical theory as
additional support. Remember, you can also draw
on your own experiences and knowledge to
discuss, explain, and analyze your topic.

7.  All of the action in this play takes place in a single
setting: the home of the murdered man and his wife, who
the reader learns is his killer. The men and women who
enter the home after the crime see totally different
scenes in this same setting, though. What each set of
characters sees is limited by his or her gender. The
women notice certain items—preserved fruit, a sewing
box, an empty bird cage—that the men completely
overlook because they consider the domestic space of
the woman of the house to be worthless in terms of
offering clues about the crime. Write an essay in which
you define and explain the two gendered spaces and
their significance in the development of the plot and the
play’s outcome.

8.  In a 1915 interview, Cather commented, "No one without a
good ear can write good fiction." In “The Novel Demeuble”
Cather writes, “Whatever is felt upon the page without being
specifically named there—that, it seems to me, is created. It is
the inexplicable presence of the thing not named, of the over-
tone divined by the ear but not heard by it, the verbal mood,
the emotional aura of the fact or the thing or the deed, that
gives high quality to the novel or the drama, as well as to
poetry itself.” What particular passages in My Antonia show
Cather's "good ear" for the sound of language? Which show
her ability to create “the thing not named”? Discuss how and
why these passages capture the moods and themes of the
novel. How do they contribute to the idea of the modernist
novel?

9. In class, we covered eight ways to
determine character. Do parallel character
sketches of Tom Buchanan and George
Wilson; compare them to show their
similarities.

10. Adapted from a handout from The
Writing Center, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill

11. A good, valid, and interesting interpretation will do the
following:
avoid the obvious (in other words, it won’t argue a
conclusion that most readers could reach on their
own from a general knowledge of the story)
support its main points with strong textual evidence
from the story and/or secondary sources.
use careful reasoning to explain how that evidence
relates to the main points of the interpretation.

12.  A good paper begins with the writer having a
solid understanding of the work. Being able to
have the whole text in your head when you begin
thinking through ideas will actually allow you to
write the paper more quickly in the long run.
 Spend some time just thinking about the story.
Flip back through the book and consider what
interests you about this book—what seemed
strange, new, or important?
Be Familiar with the Text

13.  Even though you have a list of topics from which
to choose, you must develop your own
interpretation.
 Consider how you might approach each topic.
What will your answer to each question show about the
text?
So what? Why will anyone care?
Try this phrase for each prompt to see if you have an
idea: “This book/poem/play/short story shows
______________________. This is important because
______________________.”

14.  Narrow down your list of
possible topics by identifying
how much evidence or how
many details you could use to
investigate each potential
issue.
 Keep in mind that papers rely
on ample evidence and that
having a lot of details to
choose from can make your
paper easier to write.
 Jot down all the events or
elements of the story that
have some bearing on the
two or three topics that
seem most promising.
 Don’t launch into a topic
without considering all the
options first because you
may end up with a topic
that seemed promising
initially but that only leads
to a dead end.
Select a Topic with Plenty of Evidence

15. Skim back over the story or poem and
make a more comprehensive list of the
details that relate to your point.
As you make your notes keep track of
page numbers so you can quickly find the
passages again when you need them.
Make an extended list of evidence

16.  Once you’ve made your expanded list of
evidence, decide which supporting details are the
strongest.
 First, select the facts which bear the closest relation to
your thesis statement.
 Second, choose the pieces of evidence you’ll be able to
say the most about. Readers tend to be more dazzled
with your interpretations of evidence than with a lot of
quotes from the book.
 Select the details that will allow you to show off your own
reasoning skills and allow you to help the reader see the
story in a way he or she may not have seen it before.
Select your evidence

17. • Now, go back to your working thesis and refine it
so that it reflects your new understanding of your
topic. This step and the previous step (selecting
evidence) are actually best done at the same
time, since selecting your evidence and defining
the focus of your paper depend upon each other.
Refine your thesis

18.  Once you have a clear thesis, go back to your list of
selected evidence and group all the similar details
together. The ideas that tie these clusters of evidence
together can then become the claims that you’ll make in
your paper.
 Keep in mind that your claims should not only relate to all
the evidence but also clearly support your thesis.
Once you’re satisfied with the way you’ve grouped your
evidence and with the way that your claims relate to your
thesis, you can begin to consider the most logical way to
organize each of those claims.
Organize your evidence

19. Avoid the temptation to load your paper with evidence from
your story. Each time you use a specific reference to your
story, be sure to explain the significance of that evidence
in your own words.
To get your readers’ interest, draw their attention to elements
of the story that they wouldn’t necessarily notice or
understand on their own.
If you are quoting passages without interpreting them, you’re
not demonstrating your reasoning skills or helping the reader.
In most cases, interpreting your evidence merely involves
putting into your paper what is already in your head.
Interpret your evidence

20. Don't forget to consider the scope of your
project: What can you reasonably cover in
a paper of that length?
Eliminate wordiness and repetition to
ensure that you have room to make all of
your points.
See me if you are lost or confused!

21.  Write about literature in present tense
 Avoid using “thing,” “something,” “everything,” and
“anything.”
 Avoid writing in second person.
 Avoid using contractions.
 Cut Wordy Sentences
 Avoid run-on sentences and fragments.
 Check for misused words
 Put commas and periods inside of quotation
marks

22.  Does the paper follow MLA guidelines?
• For help, click on “MLA Guidelines” and view the “Basic MLA
format” video.
 Is the page length within assigned limits?
 Is the font type and size within the assigned
guidelines?
 Does the Header follow the assignment guidelines?
 Is the professor's name spelled correctly? Kim Palmore
 Is your name spelled correctly?
 Does the paper have a title? Is it a good title? Is the title
in the appropriate location?
 Have you italicized book and movie titles and put
stories, articles, and poems in quotation marks?

24. December 1, 1941,
Washington, D.C. President
Roosevelt addresses the
people of the United States in
his “fireside chat,” in which he
told them “we are going to win
the war and the peace that
follows.”
Roosevelt’s words were prophetic: The United States emerged
from World War II as a global superpower. “This new power,
experienced both at home and abroad, became a major force in
reshaping American culture for the balance of the twentieth
century” (NAAL 3).

25. The war cost the lives of 50-70
million people world wide; almost
quarter of million died in the
bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Historians and
politicians continue to debate
whether the use of nuclear
weapons was necessary to end
the war, but what remains
undisputed is that the possibility
of nuclear warfare radically
changed the nature of global
politics for the rest of the
twentieth century.

26. The Cold War between the United States
and the U.S.S.R. was a delicate chess
match between these two superpowers
as they built up their nuclear arsenals and
recruited (often aggressively) smaller
nations to their sides.
These "Package" shelters (1955) for
large and small families were self-
contained units that required no external
connections and were capable of
sustaining a family for three to five days
without outside assistance.
The fear of nuclear war was a consistent
feature of post-war American life.

27. McCarthy group at hearings, June 7,
1954. Senator Joseph McCarthy
(left), Pvt. G. David Schine (center),
and Roy Cohn (right).
The Cold War was not only an
arms race between the USA and
the U.S.S.R. It was also an
ideological battle over the
merits of Western capitalism
and Soviet socialism.
The efforts of Senator Joseph
McCarthy to root out socialist
influence in American political
life became a focal point of
media and popular attention.
McCarthy’s allegations (which
turned out to be exaggerated if
not outright fabricated) that the
U.S. government had been
infiltrated by socialists spoke to
the fear and anxiety that defined
the moment.
World War II and
Its Aftermath

28. J. Howard Miller’s We Can
Do It poster from 1942.
The post World War II United States can
be defined in terms of both economic
prosperity and the radical transformation of
cultural norms.
With men off to war “the vastly expanded
workforce required increasing numbers of
women. After [the war] many of these
women were reluctant to return to
homemaking; and then after a decade
or so […], women emerged as a political
force on behalf of their rights and
opportunities in the workplace.
This pattern extended to other groups as
well. African Americans, whether they
enlisted or were drafted, served in fighting
units throughout the war and were
unwilling to return to second-class
status afterward; nor could a majority
culture aware of their contribution continue
to enforce segregation and other forms of
prejudice so easily as before the war”
(NAAL 4).

29.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led an estimated 10,000 civil rights marchers
out on the last leg of their Selma-to-Montgomery march. May 28, 1961,
Montgomery, Alabama.
 The Civil Rights Movement was one of the defining features of the
postwar cultural revolution as thousands of African Americans took to the
streets to demand their equal rights in society.

30. A group of women rally at the
Statue of Liberty in support of
the recent passage of the
Equal Rights Amendment by
the United States House of
Representatives. August 10,
1970. The bill did not survive
in the U.S. Senate.
Women as well as racial
minorities seized upon the
changing climate of the post-
war years to demand greater
equality.

31. Protesters at an anti-Vietnam War
rally hold signs bearing antiwar
and anti-draft slogans along with
quotes from Cuban revolutionary
Che Guevara.
“Active dissension within the culture
emerged in response to military
involvement in Vietnam, where in
1961 President Kennedy had sent
small numbers of advisers to help the
Republic of South Vietnam resist
pressures from Communist North
Vietnam. Presidents Lyndon Johnson
and Richard Nixon expanded and
continued the U.S. presence; and an
increasingly strident opposition—
fueled by protests on American
college campuses and among the
country’s liberal intellectuals—turned
into a much larger cultural revolution”
(NAAL 6).

32. Gay and lesbian activists
prepare for a Gay and
Lesbian Pride parade in
downtown Des Moines, Iowa.
June 25, 1983, Des Moines,
Iowa.
The riots at the Stonewall Inn in New
York City mark the beginning of the
modern Gay Rights movement.
Stonewall was a gay-friendly bar in the
progressive Greenwich Village
neighborhood of Manhattan that was
frequently subjected to police raids. On
June 28, 1969, bar patrons actively
resisted arrest and a series of riots
broke out among the gay and lesbian
residents of Greenwich Village. One
year later, the first Gay and Lesbian
Pride parades took place in Los
Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Such
parades have been a staple of the Gay
Rights movement for the last forty
years.

34. According to Mary Klages, from a literary perspective,
the main characteristics of modernism include:
1. an emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing (and
in visual arts as well); an emphasis on HOW seeing (or reading or
perception itself) takes place, rather than on WHAT is perceived.
An example of this would be stream-of-consciousness writing.
2. a movement away from the apparent objectivity provided by
omniscient third-person narrators, fixed narrative points of view,
and clear-cut moral positions. Faulkner's multiply-narrated stories
are an example of this aspect of modernism.
3. a blurring of distinctions between genres, so that poetry seems
more documentary (as in T.S. Eliot or ee cummings) and prose
seems more poetic (as in Woolf or Joyce).

35. 4. an emphasis on fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives,
and random-seeming collages of different materials.
5. a tendency toward reflexivity, or self-consciousness, about the
production of the work of art, so that each piece calls attention to
its own status as a production, as something constructed and
consumed in particular ways.
6. a rejection of elaborate formal aesthetics in favor of minimalist
designs (as in the poetry of William Carlos Williams) and a
rejection, in large part, of formal aesthetic theories, in favor of
spontaneity and discovery in creation.
7. A rejection of the distinction between "high" and "low" or
popular culture, both in choice of materials used to produce art
and in methods of displaying, distributing, and consuming art.

36. Postmodernism, like modernism, follows most of these
same ideas, rejecting boundaries between high and low
forms of art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions,
emphasizing pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, and
playfulness. Postmodern art (and thought) favors
reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and
discontinuity (especially in narrative structures),
ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the
destructured, decentered, dehumanized subject.

37. But--while postmodernism seems very much like modernism
in these ways, it differs from modernism in its attitude toward
a lot of these trends. Modernism, for example, tends to
present a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history
(think of The Wasteland, for instance, or of Woolf's To the
Lighthouse), but presents that fragmentation as something
tragic, something to be lamented and mourned as a loss.
Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that works of art
can provide the unity, coherence, and meaning which has
been lost in most of modern life; art will do what other human
institutions fail to do. Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn't
lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or
incoherence, but rather celebrates that. The world is
meaningless? Let's not pretend that art can make meaning
then, let's just play with nonsense.

38. 1.Am I the only person who doesn’t understand postmodernism after
reading this article?
2.What separates Postmodernism from modernism?
3.Can we understand postmodernism without modernism?
4.Is Postmodernism an improvement on Modernism?
5.How can you simplify Postmodernism? How would analyzing
postmodernist work be different than examining modernism?
6.How does postmodernism rejects grand narratives in favor for mini-
narratives?
7.Even though Postmodernism occurs after modernism, why does
postmodernism focus more on the ideologies of the past rather than
developing new interpretations?
8.How has communication changed in a postmodern society?
9.How does post-modernism “Play with nonsense”?

39. 1. How, when regarding the ideal sense of ‘self’, is postmodernism
superior to modernism?
2. What are your thoughts on the idea of creating (or identifying)
“order,” and the necessity that in doing such we must also create or
identify “disorder”? In what ways do you identify disorder, and in
what ways do you create disorder?
3. What happens when there is too much information(articles) in the
internet? How does it affect the postmodernist movement in sorting
through the noise?
4. Is postmodernism redefining how knowledge should be utilized?
5. Postmodernism believes anything not “storable by a computer–i.e.
anything that’s not digitizable–will cease to be knowledge”. Do you
agree?
6. Are we living with postmodernism? Or are we living with
modernism?
7. Are we still in a postmodernism movement or are we in a new
unnamed movement?

40. Ralph Ellison

41. Ralph Waldo Ellison was
named after the celebrated
poet Ralph Waldo Emerson,
by his father who wanted his
son to become a poet. Today
Ellison is mostly remembered
as the mastermind who wrote
the emotive and gripping novel
“Invisible Man” (along with
many others) which met with
much critical success, winning
the National Book Award in
1953.
Ellison was born in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma on 1st March
1914. He was born to Ida
Millsap and Lewis Alfred
Ellison and had a brother
Herbert Millsap Ellison. In his
initial years Ellison and his
family had to deal with difficult
times. In 1965, Ellison
received the honor of his book
“Invisible Man” being declared
the most important novel since
the end of WW11 by survey of
200 prominent literary figures.

42. Read “Postmodern Manifestos” 400-17
Post #20 QHQ on one of the following:
Sukenick Gass
Thompson Olson
O’Hara Bishop
Ammons Lorde
Read Ralph Ellison, “The Prologue,” and “Battle Royal” from
Invisible Man. 206-224
Post #21 Choose one
1. What does the reader know about the narrator solely on the
basis of the Prologue? Explain both what he reveals about
himself explicitly and what inferences can be drawn,
justifying your findings as you go along.
2. Why would the audience listening to the narrator’s speech
have reacted so strongly to the narrator’s mistake? Discuss
the implications of his slip of the tongue.
3. QHQ