Monday, November 24, 2008

eng 272: good country people

Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People," supposedly written in four days, teases readers with humor and horror, creating what many critics call the "grotesque."

A few quotes from critics about the story:

from Kate Oliver, writing in Explicator 62.4
"physical afflictions [...] symbolize emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairment" (233-234).

Oliver also discuss the particularly significance of Joy/Hulga's specific ailments...

Ruth Holson, writing in an earlier edition of Explicator 42.3 explains that Hulga=Helga, which is a Norwegian name meaning "holy one" (59).

And, finally, Mark Bosco's article "Consenting to Love: Autobiographical Roots of "Good Country People," from Southern Review 41.2, explores the relationship O'Connor had with a Danish textbook salesman as an autobiographical connection to the story.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

winterim + poetry: who can resist?

ice flows on the lake
walking in a world of white
clarity of mind



This winterim session--January 5-23--I'm teaching English 255: Introduction to Poetry. Won't you join me?

The class meets from 9:00 am to noon Monday through Friday, and in three short weeks you will earn 3 humanities credits and incredible knowledge of poetry! 

We'll be reading out of 250 Poems: A Portable Anthology, a lovely book at the bargain price of $25. 

The course is mainly focused on reading poetry and learning the traditions and forms and major movements, but we'll also be writing some poetry as one way to respond to what we read and to have a more intimate knowledge of the genre. 

I'm very excited because we're going to create an online haiku wiki where we'll post photos of our lovely landscape, and our own poetic snapshots of a Wisconsin Winter scene. 

We'll also host a poetry reading at one of the local coffee shops for our final class session. 

I pledge to bring in my coffee maker and hot water kettle to keep us warm and caffeinated on the chilly winter mornings (and occasionally, I may bring some of my famous baked goods...). Bring your own coffee mug, your curiosity and brilliant ideas:)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

eng 272: "this is the beat generation"

This week we spend time with the Beat Generation, a counter-culture literary movement poised between WWII and the more free-wheeling movement-laden era of the 1960s.


Writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs form the mythical triumvirate of the Generation, and readers, writers, and scholars have reacted to and emulated them throughout the decades since On the Road and Howl, those iconic works, were first published in the late 1950s.


However (in)famous these fellows were, they alone do not define the Beat Generation. An entire constellation of writers and "minor characters" surround them, and their personal stories and artistic creations are fascinating read alongside the more famous works and in their own right.


The internet is rife with Beat websites, videos, photos, and links. I've provided a few here to start your exploration of this often mythologized and misunderstood movement.


Literary Kicks is a great blog for literary conversation, including Beat specific info.


For a behind-the-scenes look at Jack Kerouac's myth, check out this NPR website.


Here's a video of Diane di Prima reading poetry at UC Berkeley

And here's a video of Gary Snyder talking about ecology and poetry.


Kerouac reading the ending of On the Road, set to a montage of photos from the BG.


For you indie music fans, check out Death Cab for Cutie's song "Bixby Canyon Bridge," a song obliquely about Jack Kerouac.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

eng 272: death of a salesman and gender politics

One philandering husband. One worrisome housewife. Two womanizing "Adonises."

What's a reader to do?

While we have been reading Arthur Miller's classic, Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman through the lens of the American Dream, another interesting way to approach the text is through an exploration of gender roles.

To what degree is Willy's despair and downfall caused be his ideas of masculinity? What messages have Happy and Biff received about being manly? This blogger believes that Willy Loman offers us examples of "Unmanliness." What does it mean to be a man in post-WWII America anyway? For a more sympathetic view of Willy's struggle, look here.


Literary critic Terry Thompson posits that Willy, along with Happy and Biff, are locked in a kind of "perpetual adolescence," symbolized by their lack of facial hair: "Thus, in the Loman household, the cheeks, chins, and upper lips of the males are peachy, soft, and schoolboyish, punctuating their lack of real manhood, their inability to assume the stressful societal roles assigned to grown males" (246). Do the Loman "men" understand what it means to be a man? Why are they stuck?

And what about the women? How do we reconcile Linda and the Other Woman? What about the women that Happy and Biff "make," especially the wives and fiancees of Biff's superiors who fall for his advances? Some of you believe that Linda is to blame for Willy's downfall--why do you think she is a) responsible and b) powerful enough to stop him? To what degree does Linda's role as a housewife contribute to the family dysfunction?

Feminist Betty Friedan argues in The Feminine Mystique that housewives were suffering from "The problem that has no name," which was basically a limited life of few opportunities outside of the home and constricting gender roles. Can we see Linda as an example of this problem?

To what degree is Miller's play a commentary on the gender roles of post-war America? And how do these roles fit in with our idea of the American Dream?


Works Cited
Thompson, Terry. "Miller's Death of a Salesman." Explicator 63.4 (2005): 244-47. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. UW-Manitowoc. Manitowoc, WI. 13 Nov. 2008.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

eng 102: logical fallacies

When you're creating logos arguments, you want to make sure that your logic is sound. Unfortunately, most of the argument you see in popular culture uses faulty logic. If you'd like to see a fairly extensive list of logical fallacies, check out this website.