Select a minor character in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and then

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1. Minor Character: Select a minor character in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and then

a) describe his or her role in (some aspect of) the novel’s plot and

b) analyze his or her relation to one or perhaps two of the novel’s main characters.

For this essay, focus narrowly on a scene or narrative sequence in which the minor character appears and carefully show how Austen portrays this character in terms of style, voice, and narrative space.

Choose two or three poems with common themes and analyze them

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Choose two or three poems (that we’ve read and analyzed in this unit) with common themes and analyze them (by employing the POINT-by-POINT comparison ). In this essay, you must discuss at least three literary devices the poets use—i.e. imagery, symbolism, metaphor, rhythm, repetition, setting/situation, voice/speaker, tone—but must do so in the development of a paragraph—that is, to develop a particular thematic point that stems from your thematic thesis. These literary devices do not have to be the same with each poem. To reiterate, like with your fiction paper, however, don’t just identify and discuss these elements. Instead, each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that identifies a thematic point that is a direct reflection of your thematic thesis. In the process of arguing, developing, your thematic thesis, then, discuss how the poets use these literary devices to achieve their thematic effects. You must have one overall thematic argumentative thesis, just like with your fiction paper. Be careful not to use the explanatory info in the book as a crutch. Follow the same writing guidelines from your fiction paper (substituting poems for short stories, of course).

What does it mean to have multiple voices or perspectives instead of just one?

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Read the first 1/3rd of As I Lay Dying on pgs 669-782 from from The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Ninth Edition) (Vol. Package 2: Volumes C, D, E)

Here is a link to the book:

https://uerjundergradslit.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/the-norton-anthology-of-american-literature-9th-eidtion-volumes-c-d-e.pdf

Faulkner grew up in a small Mississippi town in a middle-class family and saw in his surroundings perfect models for characters like the Bundren family and their neighbors.

Through his characters, Faulkner addresses subjects that challenge stereotypical perceptions of poor Southerners. For instance, characters contemplate issues of love, death, identity, and the limitations of language. Their actions and adventures draw attention to rural life, class conflicts, and the repercussions of desire and selfishness. Significantly, Faulkner explores the potent, complex workings of the human mind.

Visit the following website to learn more about Faulkner. Copy and paste the following link into your browser.
http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/index.html

Answer the questions in your discussion post:
Who is William Faulkner?
What makes “the South” an interesting setting?
What does it mean to have multiple voices or perspectives instead of just one?
What does each character’s voice reveal about him/herself?

Do you agree or disagree with Leong that the Angel Island poems (the examples in the excerpt) are a poetry of resilience? Why or why not?

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Please answer these questions. Use the stories they refer to for references.
1. Angel Island poem translator Jeffrey Thomas Leong writes in his introduction to Wild Geese Sorrow, that the poems carved into the walls is “a poetry of resistance, or as often-called “the poetry of witness,” which documents the unbearable hardships suffered by human beings.  Do you agree or disagree with Leong that the Angel Island poems (the examples in the excerpt) are a poetry of resilience? Why or why not?

2. In response to Frank Chin’s incessant criticism of her rewriting of the Fa Mu Lan myth as a way to pander to white audiences, Maxine Hong Kingston said: “I’m not even saying that those are Chinese myths anymore. I’m saying that I’ve written down American myths. Fa Mu Lan and the writing on her back is an American myth. And I made it that way.” What do you think she means?

3.In part of the introduction to her book titled “Model Minority Mythologies”, scholar Erin Ninh writes: “The heart of the issue is not whether an Asian immigrant family currently meets the socioeconomic or professional measures of the model minority. Rather, the issue is whether it aspires to do so, whether it applies those metrics: not resentful of the racializing discourse of Asian success as a violence imposed from without, but implementing that discourse, with ingenuity, alacrity, and pride, from within. … By such standards, if ever that identity was only myth, certainly the model minority is mythical no longer.” Do you agree or disagree?

4. David Eng and Shinhee Han write about “racial melancholia” in the chapter “Racial Melancholia: Model Minorities, Depression, and Suicide”, and Cathy Park Hong writes about “minor feelings” in the essay “United.” What do these terms mean, and how are the especially relevant to Asian Americans at this moment in time?

How does Silko convey Laguna Pueblo Ceremony?

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The title Ceremony is positive and uplifting despite the extreme difficulties faced by Tayo, his family and friends. How does Silko convey Laguna Pueblo Ceremony? Use a quotation to support your understanding of ceremonial healing and living.

What “cultural lessons” are implied about immortality in each text – and how do these cultural lessons differ?

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Examining The Tale of Sinuhe and The Epic of Gilgamesh, contrast the way in which each text depicts the human desire for immortality. What “cultural lessons” are implied about immortality in each text – and how do these cultural lessons differ?

Drawing on two specific examples from the epic Gilgamesh, what makes us human?

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Drawing on two specific examples from the epic Gilgamesh, what makes us human? Although the epic tells the stories of extraordinary heroes and gods and monsters, the genre ultimately gets at what is means to be human: the struggles that we face, our fears, joys, pleasures, flaws and strengths. Be sure to cite and analyze at least one rich and important quotation from the text to support and illuminate your ideas.

Explain what this term “Light romantic” means and provide three examples from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” that support the claim that Washington Irving is a “light romantic.”

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Explain what this term “Light romantic” means and provide three examples from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” that support the claim that Washington Irving is a “light romantic.”

Explain what the term “Light romantic” means and provide three examples from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” that support the claim that Washington Irving is a “light romantic.”

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Explain what the term “Light romantic” means and provide three examples from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” that support the claim that Washington Irving is a “light romantic.”

What do you think your chosen passage means and how did you stay true to its meaning within the context of your own style?

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For this assignment, read Anne Carson’s essay on translation as well as the excerpt from Dante’s Inferno translated by Mary Jo Bang, all posted on BB under Course Documents in the Reading Assignment folder. Next, translate the passage from the Inferno into your own English–your own personal style. Last, provide a 200-word translator’s statement where you explain the choices that you made in your contemporary English translation as well as the vision that you had as the translator. For full credit, be sure to cite and then closely analyze one direct quotation from Carson’s essay in relation to your experience creating your own translation. What do you think your chosen passage means and how did you stay true to its meaning within the context of your own style? What unique spin does your translation put on the literature in terms of content (what the poems says) and form (how the literature articulates its main ideas)? How might (or might not) the literature’s meaning change given your translation? What was it like to do translation work? What do you like most about your translation? What might you do differently?

 

  1. http://artandcrap.com/ensayos/anne-carson-variations-on-the-right-to-remain-silent/
  2. Opening Lines to Mary Jo Bang’s translation of Dante’s Inferno:

Canto I

Stopped mid-motion in the middle

Of what we call our life, I looked up and saw no  sky—
Only a dense cage of leaf, tree, and twig. I was lost.

It’s difficult to describe a forest:
Savage, arduous, extreme in its extremity. I think
And the facts come back, then the fear comes back.

Death, I believe, can only be slightly more bitter.
I can’t address the good I found there
Until I describe in detail what else I saw.

I don’t know for certain how I entered it—
I was so sleepy-faced
At the place where I took a wrong path.