As promised, I am sharing with you my thoughts about how to go about organizing your essays. While this is an analytical essay much like your first essay, writing about two texts poses certain challenges. Basically, you have two options for organizing a comparative essay of this sort:

Option #1

Introduction: Introduces Text A and Text B, articulates the question you are asking, and lets the reader know where you will be going to answer the question (the road map.)

Body Paragraph 1: Idea #1/Text A

Body Paragraph 2: Idea #1/Text B

Body Paragraph 3: Idea #2/Text A

Body Paragraph 4: Idea #2/Text B

Body Paragraph 5: Idea #3/Text A

Body Paragraph 6: Idea #3/Text B

Conclusion: Brings together Texts A and B and provides an answer to the “so what?” question.

Obviously, you may have more than 3 ideas and more than 6 body paragraphs. This is just to give you the general idea of what Option #1 might look like. Option #1 works best when your two texts are tightly aligned and you are making parallel arguments about the two texts.

Option #2

Introduction: Same as in Option #1

Body Paragraph 1: Idea #1/Text A

Body Paragraph 2: Idea #2/Text A

Body Paragraph 3: Idea #3/Text A

Body Paragraph 4: (transition) Idea #1/Text B

Body Paragraph 5: Idea #2/Text B

Body Paragraph 6: Idea #3/Text B

Conclusion: Same as in Option #1

In my opinion, Option #1 is somewhat more challenging to execute because it requires more going back and forth between the two texts, but both are excellent ways to organize a comparative essay. However, you need to choose one option or the other and stick with it. Do not try to combine these two organizational approaches to create a third option! What both of these options require is that you PLAN your essay before writing it! This will yield a much more effective piece of writing!

Use the comments area below to ask me any questions you may still have about this!

Good luck!!

Borowski’s fictional account of his young narrator’s experience in Auschwitz-Birkenau is full of horrifying moments.  Choose one example of dehumanization in the texts and share it on the blog, answering the following questions:

–What is going on in the example you share?

–What about this example made a particularly strong impression on you?

–What is its significance within the context of the story?

–What questions does it raise?

I hope you all manage to have a restful and restorative Thanksgiving Break and spend quality time with your friends and families! That said – we do have some ongoing work that you will need to take care of….

1. Remember to go back to the blog, read the questions your classmates posted about T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and respond to two questions by noon on Monday, Nov. 28th. You may not respond to a question that someone else has already answered.

2. I have posted the assignment for your final essay. You can access it via the “essays” tab above. The first step of this assignment is submitting a paper topic to me. Your topic should be emailed to me at jennifer.sylvor@baruch.cuny.edu no later than midnight on Monday, Nov. 28th. The sooner you submit a topic, the sooner you will hear back from me. Your email should include the two texts you want to write about and the analytical question you are asking about them.  At this point, we are NOT looking for a thesis statement.  We may have to email back and forth a few times in order to refine and adjust your topic. If your topic is ready to go, you will receive an email from me approving it.

3. We will be discussing Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” in class on November 30th. It is a long text, so allow yourself plenty of time to get the reading done before the 30th. Do not come to class without having finished the reading!

Looking forward to seeing you all on November 30th, but in the meantime, feel free to contact me by email if you have questions about any of this!

Your assignment for Monday has four steps. Please be sure to read through it carefully, so that you complete all the steps and earn full credit.
1. Read “Modernity and Modernism, 1900 -1945”, the introduction to Volume F of The Norton Anthology of World Literature.
2. Read the introductory materials about T.S. Eliot (pp.537-541) as well as Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (pp.541-544).
3. Prepare a blog post in which you do the following:
–Describe the character of Prufrock, being sure to base your description on evidence gleaned from the poem.
–Much of the poem can be difficult to comprehend. Choose a line, pair of lines, or section of the poem that you feel you DO have a handle on, and explain it on the blog, being sure to include the lines you are discussing.
–Conclude your blog post with three questions that you have about the poem. They could be very small, specific questions about particular details within the poem or more general questions about its overall meaning.
4. Return to the blog and read your classmates’ posts. Choose two questions to respond to and post your responses (as comments) on the blog no later than Monday, November 28th at 12:00pm. You may NOT respond to a question someone else has already answered!! Nor can you answer your own questions. (Yes, this assignment favors the early bird….)

Read both Rabindranath Tagore, “Punishment” (volume E or anthology) and Lu Xun, “In the Wineshop” (link to text on blog). Choose one of the two short stories, and find a way to connect that story to another work we’ve read this semester.  You may see a stylistic issue that joins the two texts, a character who faces similar issues, or textual elements that differ from each other in important ways;  the type of connection you identify is entirely up to you!   In a blog post of 300-400 words, explore the connection(s) you see between the two texts. Please be sure to include quotations from both texts in your response.

Read Acts I and II of Hedda Gabler. Then, using the link below, watch the opening scene of the film version of the play, made for television in 1963, starring Ingrid Bergman.

Watch until Thea Elvsted enters. In a blog entry of 300-400 words, compare the written and film versions of the opening of the play. How might we view the film as an interpretation of Ibsen’s original text? Where has the filmmaker made changes to Ibsen? To what effect? What do we notice when we watch the film that we may have missed upon first reading the play?

Your assignment this week has two parts:

1. First, read the two short excerpts from Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl that I have linked to on our “Readings” page. In a brief (250 word) post to our blog, comment on the two excerpts. What does Harriet Jacobs’ narrative add to our understanding of the experience of slavery? How does this narrative connect to or differ from Douglass’? (As you read the second excerpt, “The Loophole of Retreat,” keep in mind that Jacobs remained in this hiding place for seven years!)

2. Although slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, slavery in various forms continues to be an important Human Rights issue even in our own day. Spend some time exploring the topic of contemporary slavery on the internet, and share on the blog three important things that you learn about this subject.

Choose a passage or quotation from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass that makes a strong impression on you in your reading. Post the passage on our class blog and provide a brief (300 word) analysis of its significance. Some things to consider: What does this passage add to our understanding of slavery in America? What does it reveal about Frederick Douglass? What do Douglass’ diction, syntax, and literary style add to his story here? What questions are raised for you by the passage you’ve selected?

The prompts for your first formal essay, as well as other information you will need to complete this assignment, can be accessed by means of the “Essays” tab at the top of this page.

You will be writing an essay about a single text that we’ve read in the first part of the course, beginning with Feng Menglong’s “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” up to and including William Blake’s poetry. The first step for you will be choosing which prompt you will be pursuing and which text you will be exploring.

These essays will be the outgrowth of your own close reading of the text, informed by our class discussions. You will NOT be consulting any secondary sources for this paper. Resist the temptation to look at any materials on line in an effort to get your own analytical process going, and keep in mind that should you include words or ideas that are not your own in your essay without crediting them to their source, your paper will receive an F, and you will be referred to the Dean’s Office for a violation of Baruch’s academic integrity policy.

Drafts of the essay must be submitted to me by email no later than 5 pm on Monday, October 17th. Mail your essay to jennifer.sylvor@baruch.cuny.edu
The subject of the email should read: Your Name – Essay #1.

I will be providing feedback (but not line by line edits) on these drafts before October 24th, giving you plenty of time to address my feedback in the final version of your essay, which will be submitted via turnitin.com by October 31st.

I am also available to meet with you to discuss any aspect of the essay writing process during office hours or to answer questions via email. Some of you may choose to visit the Writing Center for extra support with this assignment. That is a great resource; be sure to leave yourself time to make an appointment if that’s something that interests you!

Can’t wait to read your work!!!

In addition to being a poet, William Blake was a fine artist and published illustrated editions of his own work, using a special engraving technique to create amazing prints that accompanied the two volumes of poetry that we are reading selections from: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Choose an image that accompanies one of the poems we are reading, and provide a brief (250-300 word) analysis that explains how the image and the poem work together. What do you see in the image you’ve selected that helps you understand the poem more fully? How do the poem and the engraving offer different perspectives on a single subject? Be sure to include details from both the poem and the image in your discussion.

Your image and analysis must be posted by 9 a.m. on Wednesday, October 5th.