1. Attend a staged reading of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King.
Choose one of the 8 performances listed below. Performances will last approximately one hour and will include a question and answer session with the director.

Mon, Sept. 26, 2016 @ 10:00am & 12:30pm *(these performances will be at Engleman Recital Hall – VC B2 )

Tue, Sept. 27, 2016 @ 2:45pm & 6:05pm *(these performances will be at Engleman Recital Hall – VC B2 )

Wed, Sept. 28, 2016 @ 10:45am & 3:00pm *(these performances will be at Engleman Recital Hall – VC B2)

Thurs, Sept. 29, 2016 @ 10:00am & 12:45pm **(these performances will be at Mason Hall – 17 Lex)

2. No later than 5pm on Monday, October 3rd, post a review of the performance to the blog. Your review should be approx. 350 words and should discuss both your understanding of Sophocles’ play AND your reaction to the performance you saw.

1. First, read Akinari’s short story, “Bewitched.” (The link to the story is posted here on the blog.) Find an image that somehow corresponds to Akinari’s “Bewitched.” For example, this image may be a stereotype of femininity in contemporary popular culture or an image from Akinari’s culture and time period, etc. It may be a photo, other form of visual art, or even a clip from a music video or a film. Write at least 200 words explaining how you see the image you found as corresponding to “Bewitched.” Cite evidence from the text in your discussion. In order to receive credit, your response must be posted to the blog no later than 5pm on Monday, September 19th. Include your name and the story’s title in the title of your blog post.

2. Comment on 2 of your classmates’ posts by Friday, September 23rd at 5 pm.

3. Circle back, and check your own post for comments. Respond.

Read Acts I and II of Moliere’s Tartuffe.  Write a 250-350 word analysis of the relationship between Orgon and Tartuffe.  Include two examples from the text that illustrate your claims.  Remember that your job here is not simply to describe what’s going on between the two characters, but to try to understand their underlying motivations.  To what extent does this relationship seem plausible to you? Can you connect it to anything in contemporary life or in your own experience?

Remember that in order to receive full credit your response must be posted to the blog by 5pm on Monday!

Introduction:

Hi everyone!! My name is Shannon Teevens and I just transferred to Baruch this semester. I started out at Westchester Community College, and just finished my associates degree in Liberal Arts/Humanities this summer. I decided to transfer to Baruch with the intention of getting a BBA in Computer Information Systems, with a minor in Business Writing and possibly a second minor in Marketing. I’m from Yorktown Heights, which is a little less than an hour drive from the city, but even being so close I didn’t visit very often. Commuting here by train three days a week is definitely a new experience for me. My first day I got so lost I missed my first class. It’s intimidating, but now that I know where I’m going I’m starting to enjoy it. I especially love the energy Baruch has. At my other school, the atmosphere was pretty discouraging. Most of the students (and even some teachers) that were there didn’t want to be there, or couldn’t care less about the class. Even in the few days that I’ve been at Baruch I can see how motivated and focused a lot of the people around me are and it’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s contagious, and it makes me really excited to be here. When I’m not at school I work at a café in my town five days a week, but if I get some free time I love watching and playing soccer.

I loved reading when I was younger. I would read anything and everything I could get my hands on. I used to go to the library every single week and check out as many books as I could carry, and would not stop until I had finished them all. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite book, but when I was younger it was “The Phantom Tollbooth.” Some of my other favorites now are “Lie Down with Dogs” by Jan Gleiter, “Deadline” by Chris Crutcher, and “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck.

I’m looking forward to taking this class because in the past few years with school and work I’ve found myself reading less and less, and would really love to get back to it. I’m curious to see the different types of literature that we’ll be reading, and I also would like to improve my reading and writing skills as those are always something that can be worked on.

I’m so happy to be here and I’m looking forward to a great semester with everyone!!

Shannon Teevens

September 5^th 2016

Ha (Skylar) Le – Self-delusion vs. Pragmatism

My name is Skylar (Ha) Le. I’m a rising junior and native of Vietnam. I came to the U.S. by myself at the age of seventeen to live on a farm in rural Missouri.  The host family consisted of twelve children with special needs which exposed me to a very unique interacting system. There, I quickly discovered the meaning of my action as a stakeholder and a creator of resources.

When I came to New York City and Baruch, I started to see the many interacting systems of the world in a macroeconomics course. I began to take more classes in finance and economics to gain a better understanding of how the markets work.  This helped me realize my desire to become both an analyst and a catalyst in the movement of those markets. More simply put, the fast-paced environment of the stock market and the global economy intrigues deeply my curiosity and inquisitive nature for both quantitative and qualitative knowledge.

A finance major at heart, I’ve encountered many assumptions of others about my being too pragmatic and currency driven. The statement might be somewhat true, yet I’d prefer to describe myself as a mixture of pragmatism and self-delusion. My favorite book genre is romantic novels, as I find myself infatuated with two classics, Gone with the wind and Pride and Prejudice. Not until very recently, when I’m about to turn 20, did I realize the consequential impacts of the ideas embedded in these timeless classics on the mind of young and independent women of the 21st century. As going into the fall semester, I would hope to expand my scope of reading genres. In other words, I took ENG 2850 with the intent of embellishing my passion for the dynamic world of literature. The world of critical thinking, of morality embracing, and more importantly, of values and cultures sharing.

Introduce yourself to your classmates in a post on our class blog.  Include a photo of yourself, any biographical information you think would be helpful or interesting, and share with the class something about yourself as a reader.   (For example, what kinds of reading do you/don’t you enjoy? Any favorite books? What are your regular on-line reading destinations? Do you read in any languages other than English? Any memories of books you loved as a child?)  Your post should be 250-500 words.

To receive credit for this assignment, your introduction must be posted by 5 pm on Monday, Sept. 5th.

Welcome to English 2850 HWA!  This is a hybrid class which means that half our time will be spent together in a classroom in a traditional “face to face” encounter, and the other half will happen outside the classroom, often in the cyber-space  of this class blog.  Plan on checking the blog regularly for updated assignments.    All electronic assignments (other than your two formal essays) will be submitted (usually here on the blog) by 5 pm on the day that they’re due.

Looking forward to our first session on Wednesday, August 31st and to the beginning of a wonderful semester!!

Warmly,

Professor Sylvor