Ellen Moody's Teaching: Addendum to Syllabus for Spring: 201.73: Reading and writing about Texts.

Dr Ellen Moody

Short Talk 1: How does evil, guilt and justice work in Edith Wharton's "Afterward"?: Manny Mulero
Short talk 2: The role of the house and landscape in Edith Wharton's "Afterward" and Langton's film: Adam Gruendl
Short Talk 3: Why can we argue that the monster is the hero of Shelley's Frankenstein?: Rachel Byrne
Short talk 4. How is the motif of pursuit, chase and persecution used in Shelley's Frankenstein and Branagh's film?: Raven Sellers

Short Talk 5: Discuss the treatment of science, law, and justice in Shelley's Frankenstein: Jorge Osuna
Short Talk 6: How is the imagery of science and gory death, including the turning of Elizabeth into the Bride of Frankenstein used in Branagh's movie, Frankenstein?: Carl Eckel
Short Talk 7: Discuss the relationship between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?: Saba Amin

Short talk 8: Analyze Martin's Mary Reilly from how the point of view on class and power makes us reread Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde differently?: ______________________________
The class watches Stephen Frears's film adapation, Mary Reilly

Short Talk 9: How do the objects (e.g, not just things like cups, kitchen tool, or books, but labyrinthine stairways, the kinds of rooms) and shots in the film, Frears's Mary Reilly, combine to make a frightening & melancholy gothic melodrama?: Kalyn Tuttle
Short Talk 10: How do the power relationships between men and women in Mary Reilly parallel those of men and women in Dangarembgas's Nervous Conditions: DongKyu Park
Short Talk 11: At the close of Nervous Conditions, Dangarembgas says that her novel has been the story of four women: how can we see it as a novel about her mother, her two aunts (her mother's sister and her uncle's wife), her cousin and herself?: Clarissa Ayensu
Short Talk 12: How has the attitude towards men and the desperate poverty of the family in Zimbabwe affected the characters of Tambu's brother, father, and uncle in Dangarembgas's Nervous Conditions?: _____________________________

Short talk 13: How does the presence of Decclan's homosexual friends influence the behavior of his family to one another and him as he lays dying in Blackwater Lightship: Jessica Jenkins
The class watches Mira Nair's The Namesake

Short Talk 14: In Colm Toibin's Blackwater Lightship, when Helen's father grew ill and died, it broke Lily's family up, partly because she kept from her two children, Decclan and Helen? How does Toibin's novel suggest families should treat death, illness and unconventional behaviors in order to try to stay together?: Suzanne Phillips
Short talk 15: The point is made in Blackwater Lightship that Helen's younger son, Manus, is an aggressive egoistic bully, while her slightly older son, Cather is quiet, unassuming, sensitive; Mrs Devereux, Lily, Helen, and Paul are characterized as effective, independent people who don't need to socialize that much with others. How does these characterizations and contrasts between the characters in Blackwater Lightship strengthen some of the novel's themes: Sama Hasime
Short talk 16 How does Jhumpa Lahiri's Namesake treat romantic love as a viable ideal basis for a marriage in its comparison of the marriage of Ashoke and Ashimi and Gogal and Moushumi?: Alyssa Cordova

Short Talk 17: In Lahiri's Namesake, compare the problems of assimilation or living in the US in the cases of the two central characters of Namesake: Ashimi and Gogol (who for example, wants to be called Nikhil): Jessi Cox
The class watches Joe Wright's Atonement.

Short talk 18: Compare Lahir's novel, The Namesake to Nair's film, The Namesake: do you think the themes come out the same, is it an effective film because it's faithful to the book or just in its own right?: Nana Dankwah
Short Talk 19: How do class, money & other social arrangements (e.g., war) operate in McEwan's Atonement to keep Cecilia and Robbie apart and make Robbie's destiny tragic?: Kemba Thomas
Short Talk 20: In McEwan's Atonement discuss Briony's need to achieve self-acceptance in writing of the novel and whether you feel she therefore atones for her deed? Is not the novel and Cecilia and Robbie all hard on Briony who was just a child: Ashley Morgan
Short Talk 21: How do the uses of beautiful and horrifying landscape & houses, of prisons, and hospitals and London streets work to make Wright's film, Atonement very effective?: Manasa Peddy

Short talk 23: In Charnas's Vampire Tapestry what in "The Ancient Mind at Work" and "The Land of Lost Content" make us admire and sympathize with Dr Weyland. For example, who has the ancient mind in story or Chapter 1? Who are the brutes, who the victims in story of Chapter 2?: Marco Uribe
Short talk 24: In Charnas's Vampire Tapestry, who seduces who in "The Unicorn Tapestry" (story or chapter 3) and what are the different strengths of the two antagonists, Flora and Weyland, the lady and unicorn: Stephanie Moberg
Short talk 25: In Charnas's Vampire Tapestry, "A musical interlude" is the story of an opera performance, and "The Last of Dr Weyland" of Dr Weyland's escape back into eternity: discuss the opera house and happenings as modern variants on the gothic castle, villain, and the problems and strengths of emotional bonds in both stories: Joanne Mockabee

Short talk 26: Discuss Michel Faber's Under the Skin as a science fiction satire against the uses of science in our era: cosmetic surgery, animal experimentation, meat preparation and eating, operations: Basil Sadiq
Short talk 27: Discuss in Under the Skin, the similiarities between the humans Isserley belongs to and the vodsels' world (seen on TV, seen on the road?): Lluka Piro
Short talk 28: What happens when we see Isserley in Under the Skin as a wretchedly lonely trapped heroine liable to be hurt and subject to others, someone not all that different from her hitchhikers, some of whom are violent and mean and others good and decent: Isaac Choi

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