READ THIS: PRESENTATIONS

PRESENTATIONS: please take these seriously: they are an important part of your participation in the class. Your job when you present is to lead the discussion on the reading for that day. You may bring in some research, but most of all, you should be very well-prepared with insights, interpretations, and questions about the reading at hand. You may want to begin by summarizing the progress of the plot represented by the excerpt assigned on that day. Then you should have passages picked out for the class to discuss. You may want to be ready, also, with the posts for the day (you can copy and paste them and print them out). The purpose of the presentation is to give more responsibility to the classmembers and de-center the discussion a little bit (although I will still chime in). Here are your assignments, mostly random. 1. Wed. 3/30 Small Things, 84-147, Eidia. 2. 4/4 Small Things, 148-225, Hannah. 3. 4/6 Small Things, ending, Anna. 4. 4/11 Ondaatje, Dan. 5. 4/13 Mukherjee, Michael. 6. 4/18 Poppies, 3-87, Karol. 7. 4/20 Poppies, 88-156, Jason. 8. 4/25 Poppies, 157-226, Joe. 9. 4/27, Poppies, 227-342, Will. 10. 5/2 Poppies, 343-446, Rachel. 11. 5/4 Poppies, finish, Jane.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Rushdie! for 2/14

Welcome to the bizarre and - I hate this word - magical world of Midnight's Children, one of the masterpieces of the contemporary era. Let's approach the beginning in a more general, meditative spirit. Make your answers a meditation on the following motifs in the text - be as creative with this as you like (this is a prompt that will be repeated for future postings): 1. the voice of Saleem Sinai - how do we know him? 2. the lake and the ferryman: compare with Naipaul's river... 3. parts and wholes (parts of people, the partially visible, body parts... do what you like with this). 4. use of mythic or folkloric or oral tradition story elements 5. the individual and community - the voices of people and the voice of the community or group: where do you hear each voice? 6. echoes of religious stories, such as Genesis 7. (as in Naipaul) questions of truth or fabrication; 8. language - find some passsages that allow you to comment on Rushdie's use of unusual words, words specific to a group, words that don't seem to belong in a story like this; 9. agency: do people do things? or are they somehow pushed into their actions by outside forces: what are these foces?


Many of these can be used twice: you can use a question someone else has used. Just find a different angle. Please refer to at least one passage with page number and quoted beginning.
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