Short Talk Schedule for Reading and Writing About Texts

A Primary Course on How to Read and to Write About Literature

Week 4: September 16th & 18th

• 9/16: Short Talk 1: John Cheever's "The Country Husband": Analyze from Point of View: Jason Clement/Jared Clark
  
• 9/16: Short Talk 2: James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": Analyze Sonny and his brother's different characters: Sara Hines/Nicholas Tiscione
  
• 9/18: Short Talk 3: Doris Lessing's "Our Friend Judith": What is the Usual Idea People have about "spinsters" and how does this story relate to that idea: Matt Bruno/______________
  
• 9/18: Short Talk 4: Louisa May Alcott's "My Contraband": Analyze how the characters represent ideas and how the point of view affects this: Aneliz Escudero/Brian Smith
  

Week 5: September 23rd & 25th

• 9/23: Short Talk 5: Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat": Analyze the Use of the Setting: Tracy Tran/James Kanka
  
• 9/23: Short Talk 6: Nadine Gorimer's "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants": Analyze the use Gorimer's make of irony in the story: what is the narrator/author's real attitude to the central female character and the men she is surrounded by?: Robinson Blake/____________________
  
• 9/25: Short Talk 7: The Use of the "Speaker" of the Poem in Dorothy Parker's "A Certain Lady" (pp 870 - 871), Andrew Hudgins's "Praying Drunk" (pp. 874 - 875), Audre Lorde's "Hanging Fire" p 876), Walt Whitman's "I celebrate myself, and sing myself" (pp. 883 - 884): how does the poet depend upon the reader to dislike cruelty and to identify with the speaker: Chuck Butler/__________________
  
• 9/25: Short Talk 8: Edith Wharton's "Souls Belated": The Problem of Social Pressure: Rebecca Durvin/Andrew Whitmer
  

Week 6: Only Wednesday, October 2nd

• 10/2: Short Talk 9: Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" and Anthony Hecht's "The Dover Bitch" (pp. 896 -897 and pp. 1150 - 1151): Poems whose Meaning Reside in the Relationship between the Two ("Literary Tradition as Context"): Corey Jones/Lindsey Kalber
  
• 10/2: Short Talk 10: The Difference between the Use of Flashback and Progressive Time in the novella Woman in Black and the film Woman in Black: Drew Campbell/Maria Abundo
  

Weeks 7 & 8: October 7th - 16th

• On October 7th: the first-third exam occurs: it will be on all the short stories and poetry and both the novella, Woman in Black and the film adaptation; on October 9th and 15th, the class watches the BBC A Doll House; on October 16th: Essay With Guidelines #1 is due and the class discusses the film of A Doll House, how to criticize a play.

Week 9: October 21st & 23rd

• 10/21: Short Talk 11: A Doll House: The Central Conflicts between Torvald Helmer and Nora, his wife: Nhuan Le/Vanessa Allex
  
• 10/21: Short Talk 12: A Doll House: Trace the ways in which Money is Used in the Play: Jennie Armon/Elizabeth Dunseith
  
• 10/23: Short Talk 13: The Function of the Minor Characters in A Doll's House: Carissa Cantafio/Katherine Kent
  
• 10/23: Short Talk 14: The Woman's Point of View in Martha Collins's "Lies" (p., 935), Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Changeling" (p 1197), Anne Finch's "There's No To-Morrow" (p. 925), Marie Howe's "Practicing" (p. 1183), Mary Lady Chudleigh, "To the Ladies" (pp. 829 - 830), Anna Laetitia Barbauld's "Washing Day" (pp. 1198- 1199), Adrienne Rich's "For the Record" (pp. 1115 - 1116): ______________/Kathrine Salter
  

Week 10: October 28th & 30th

• 10/28: Short Talk 15: Death of a Salesman: The Central Conflicts between Willy and his son, Biff: Joanne Seminario/Samuel Kumi
  
• 10/28: Short Talk 16: Death of a Salesman: Trace the ways in which Money is Used in the Play: James Cullen/Michael Sardone
  
• 10/30: Short Talk 17: Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman and Male and Class Ideals: Lester Yap/Brian Laskowski
  
• 10/30: Short Talk 18: Race, Class and War in Langston Hughes's "I, Too" and "Theme for English B" (pp. 1277 - 1278), Robert Lowell's "Skunk Hour" (pp. 1279 - 1280), Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum" (pp. 1178, 1184 - 1185), Derek Walcott's "A Far Cry from Africa" (pp. 1159 - 1160): Christine Anderson/_________________
  

Week 11: November 4th & 6th

• 11/4: Short Talk 19: A Streetcar Named Desire: The Central Opposition Between Stanley and Blanche: What Do the Characters Symbolize or Stand For: Patrick Langdon/Steven Ellis
  
• 11/4: Short Talk 20: A Streetcar Named Desire: Trace the ways in which Class Stigmas are Used in the Play: Elizabeth Sol/Michelle Ragnetti
  
• 11/6: Short Talk 21: A Streetcar Named Desire and A Doll House: Compare the use of the supporting characters in the two plays (Mrs inde and Nils Krogstad, Stella and Mitch): Florence Dhainaut/Lindsey Kalber
  
• 11/6: Short Talk 22: Beauty in Richard Wilbur's "The Beautiful Changes" (pp. 951- 9 52), Adrienne Rich's "Two Songs" (pp. 963 - 64), John Lennon and Paul McCartney's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (p. 1011), Dylan Thomas's "Fern Hill" (pp. 1306 - 1307): Chris Burgess/__________________
  

Weeks 12 & 13: November 11th - 20th

• On November 11th, the second-third exam occurs: it will be on A Doll House (film and play text), The Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, and assigned poems; on November 13th & 18th: the class watches Mary Reilly; on November 20th Essay With Guidelines #2 is due; and the class discusses the gothic and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Week 14: Only Monday, November 25th

• Short Talk 23: Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Chapter on Dreams" and "Letters" (Broadview Press, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Appendices A & D, pp. 93 - 104, 124 - 130): The Relationship of Stevenson's Imagination to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Phuong Tran/Felicia Gayda
  
• Short Talk 24: The Use of a Double Self in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and "Markheim" (the story is in Appendix B of Broadview Press edition, pp. 105-121): Harish Kannan(016)
  
• Short Talk 29: The Character of Mary Reilly as an Archetypal Gothic Heroine: Alicia Burney (019)
  
• Short Talk 25: Mary Reilly: Analyze the story from how the point of view makes us reread Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde differently: Jaime Richman/Donald Nusbaum
  

Week 15: December 2nd & 4th

• 12/2: Short Talk 26: Characters as Symbols in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Mary Reilly: Michael McClure/Mark Muller
  
• 12/2: Short Talk 27: Visual Techniques in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and the film Mary Reilly: Christin Reardon/Elizabeth Planchak
  
• 12/4: Short Talk 28: The Plot-Designs of Mary Reilly and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Michelle Santayana/Jared Clark
  
• 12/4: Short Talk 29: The Character of Mary Reilly as an Archetypal Gothic Heroine: Anita Hooper
  

The Final: December 11th (English 201.016) & 16th (English 201.019)

• These will be open book exams on Stephen Frears's Mary Reilly, Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the stories and essays and letters assigned from the Broadview Press edition, on Valerie Martin's Mary Reilly. They will consist of two essays and ten short answer questions. ESSAY WITH GUIDELINES #3 IS DUE.