Tim O'Brien and the Vietnam experience

Tim O'Brien is an American writer who, drafted to serve in Vietnam, was so deeply affected by the experience that he draws heavily on it in his fiction.

What follows is an outline of the main events in this war that affected so deeply a whole generation of Americans (and which left a terrible mark on the Vietnamese people).

* In 1954, the French were driven out of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh’s soldiers.
Vietnam was divided into two: Communists ruled the North, and non-Communists the South.

* There should have been elections, which did not take place due to Southern fear that Ho Chi Minh would win.
* Ho Chi Minh set out to unite Vietnam through war.
* Americans intervened as part of their policy to stop the spred of communism worldwide. (Containment policy)
* The Vietnam war was one of ambushes and sudden attacks.

* Ordinary villagers fought the war.
* It was a guerrilla war, difficult for Americans.
* By the early 1960s, it was clear that South Vietnam, suported by the American government, was losing the war.
* Yet, the war would go on for more than a decade. (until 1973-1975)
American fighting men grew angry and frustrated. They burnt towns and sprayed napalm (deadly chemicals) againts the Vietcong soldiers and villages.

* There were peace marchs all over the USA.
* In 1973, during Nixon's presidency, the last American soldier left Vietnam. However, the war would be over only in 1975, when Ho Chi Minh's victorious tanks eneterd the city of Saigon.

As said above, Tim O'Brien relies heavily on his war experience to write much if his fiction. "How to Tell a True War Story" is a good example of this, together with a text with many traits of metafiction.
What is metafiction?
“Metafiction is a self-reflexivity prompted by the author’s awareness of the theory underlying the construction of fictional works.” (Patricia Waugh)

Relation with other arts: There are many movies which depict the Vietnam War from several perspectives. A great -very interesting one- is Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now! which turns Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness into a Vietnam War experience.
You may watch the original trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt0xxAMTp8M

William Faulkner: Yoknapatawpha's Chronicler

Ethnic Literatures

The idea of a melting pot in which all cultures mix and melt has long been left aside. Instead, the metaphor of the mosaic is more commonly used to refer to American culture: a country where different cultures coexist, side by side; each contributing to the whole, but keeping at the same time their distinctiveness. This acceptance and respect of diversity has led to the description of America as MULTICULTURAL society. The main ethnic groups that are part of America's multiculturalism are African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. These terms are, of course, quite imprecise, as immigrants from Asia came from different countries, African slaves were brught from several parts of Africa, Hispanics may be of any of many Latin American countries, and Native Americans have very different ancestries, languages, cultures, etc.

                                                                Amy Tan


Louise Erdrich

The Dream Deferred: Lorraine Hansberry and the echoes of Langston Hughes' Poetry

The history of African Americans was marked by deep injustices (starting with slavery, which was abolished in 1865; followed by legal segregation, in practice until 1965; and its various manifestations which attempted against the social and civil rights, and even the identity of a whole people.

Against such a negative background, artists among other members of the African American community played an important role in defining identity in positive termns, fighting for recognition of equal rights, and contributiing to the richness, diversity and multi-voiced character of American multicultural art.

Lorraine Hansberry, a playwright commited to the African American cause, wrote her paly A Raisin in the Sun which was produced in 1959 for the first time. The play takes its title from a poem by Langston Hughes. He was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Below you can read Hughes' text:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

This poem plays with the idea of the dream (the American dream, which has been part of American life, history, ideology and society from the very beginning); only that his series of rhetorical questions turn the "dream" inside-out: what happens when people cannot reach their dream? when it is postponed?

Lorraine Hansberry's play is an attempt to answer the question. The dream may take different forms in each character's case, but they're all unified by the desire of equality.

As you read the play, take into consideration the following ideas:
* The dream(s)
* Asagai's role in helping define dreams and identity
* Realism vs. idealism
* Vanished dreams
* Death (real ans symbolic)
* Role of men. Manhood

And think deeply about the following questions:
* Is Lena a nurturing or an overbearing mother?
* How does the nature of the family account for the dreams they have?
* Which economic, social and moral pressures do the characters feel?

e. e. cummings

Two of T. S. Eliot's Ariel Poems

T. S. Eliot was born in St Louis, MO; but decided to become a British subject. His poetry, drama, criticism and poetics are informed by the love of tradition, in which he found the roots of humanity and the solution to the devastation of the modern world. (This devastation is clearly seen in The Waste Land, especially in the last section: the image of the falling towers, for example, is particularly significant to readers who witnessed WWI, but it also speaks to 21st-century readers who recall contemporary wars or terrorist attacks). In British Literature we read his essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent." When Eliot speaks of tradition, he refers to literary tradition, but also to the arts in general, to languages, religions, history... All these elements can be found in his poetry. He creates a new work of art with materials derived from a pre-existing tradition, which is resignified from the perspective of the modern world. This is clearly seen in his Ariel Poems, from which we have selected the first two.

(Benozzo Gozzoli's "Journey of the Magi", 15th century) In class we read and analyzed "Journey of the Magi", in which one of the Three Wise Men recalls the hardships of the journey to find the baby Jesus. Both the popular story's and the biblical account's details are the point of departure for a text which is, in fact, a reflecion on the disappointment of modern man. In "A Song for Simeon" we hear another biblical character speak: Simeon was an old man who had been promised that he would not die until he saw the savior. So, when he witnessed Jesus' presentation at the temple, and after telling Mary that a sword would pierce her heart (a direct reference to the crucifixion), he let God know that now he could die, after all, since he had seen Salvation. (Just as the Magi, he had an epiphany, and was able to realize that the baby Jesus was the Saviour). Eliot, once more, recreates the hopeful account of the Bible and transforms it into a disillusioned discourse, the words of an old man who sees not salvation, but a painful future for his descendants. The peace that he asks God is not the biblical Peace, but the peace of death, where he wishes to find forgetfulness (in a way, the last line of "Journey of the Magi", which goes "I should be glad of another death", has an echo in Simeon's poem). And just like in the previous poem, here Simeon, who sees the baby Jesus, has visions of the future (the scourges, lamentations, the time of sorrow...). The "birth season of decease" recalls the similar paradox in "Journey of the Magi". Both speakers are old, tired, disillusioned, and even if their promises have been fulfilled, the results are not what they expected.

(An Armenian icon depicting the meeting of Simeon and the Holy Family in the temple) That is why we may say these two poems can be read as companions: we may compare the poetic personae, the setting, the allusions, the tone, and several other elements. In both poems, you may see the exotic, Oriental presence (the girls bringing sherbet, or the hyacinths), the desacaralized biblical allusions, which are given a new meaning that speaks of the modern world and its disillusioned inhabitants, and the "small biography" of each poetic persona who speaks about his past, present and future. ASSIGNMENT N 4,to be handed in in class on Monday, October 26th. Write an essay in which you analyze one of the following topics on BOTH "Journey of the Magi" and "A Song for Simeon": a. Eliot's use of biblical allusions. b. The poems' re-writing of biblical stories from a modern perspective. c. The lyric subject: the mask and modern man. d. The 2 poetic personae's "small biographies" in their dramatic monologues.

T. S. Eliot and his dramatic monologues

Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance

A New View on Women: Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1951-1904) was born and raised in St Louis (Missouri), married at 19 and settled in New Orleans, had six children, and after her husband's death, returned to St.Louis and began a literary career. She believed in spontaneity when writing, so many of her stories strike readers as anecdotes. Her best novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899, though it was not well received in its day. Her writing deals with women's situation in the late 19th century, and her style goes beyond the typical local color of Mid-western writers of the time, to acieve a deep psychological insight of her characters. As you read "A Pair of Silk Stockings", consider how she portrays "Little Mrs Sommers" and her thoughts, desires, and wishes, in contrast to what is expected from her.

PPT Emily Dickinson

“I would prefer not to”

In the short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”, Melville portrays the alienation of the most powerful financial and economic centre in the USA. Bartleby prefers “not to” get involved in that capitalist world, but the consequences are fatal.

         Read the story and be ready to discuss in class the key to understand this strange case.

More poems by Emily Dickinson

Below you may see the first lines of the poems by Emily Dickison which we'll analyze in class, next Friday. You may find the complete poems in the Internet.

"Much madness is divinest sense"http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182156
"He ate and drank the precious words"http://www.bartleby.com/113/1021.html
"The past is such a curious creature"http://www.bartleby.com/113/1128.html

Poems by Emily Dickinson

In class, we'll read and analize the following poems:
"Success is counted sweetest" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/success-is-counted-sweetest/
"Heaven is what I cannot reach" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/heaven-mdash-is-what-i-cannot-reach/
"Hope is the thing with feathers" http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/827/

ASSIGNMENT 2 (Due Sept. 7th) Thoreau and his experiment at Walden Pond

Thoreau and his fellow Transcendentalists regarded Nature as a source of wisdom, purity, and life. Considered by many an extremist, a genius by others, a true representative of the Romantic spirit and, above all, of the so deeply American value of individualism, his account of the 2-year experience in the woods near Walden Pond remains one of the freshest, most true-to-life while consciously artistic 19th-century literary pieces.

Assignment 2 Read the chapter "Where I Lived and What I Lived for" looking for instances in which Thoreau tells readers about his experience, and instances of the message / suggestions / pieces of advice / general thoughts he gives. Then, concentrate on his aesthetic use of language: How does he create beauty thorugh language? Go over the text again, and choose your favorite phrase or sentence, the one in which you find a powerful message expressed in a beautiful language.Then, start writing the assignment, abot Thoreau's impact thorugh this text. In the first body paragraph, you should refer to the didactic / pedagogical implications of the text. In the second paragraph, to the asthetic effect of the text. In your conclusion, you can synthesize Thoreau's contribution as reflected in your favorite phrase. Printed version due on Monday,  SEPTEMBER 7TH

Rounding off Huck Finn

As you finish reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, pay special attention to Huck's development. How does he grow up? That is, why can we say that the novel is a bildungsroman?
What turnign point can we find in chapter XXXI?
Some critics have found the ending disappointing, somehow disconnected from the style of the rest of the book. What do you think about this?What does the book say about major thesmes such as friendship, growing up, multicultural/inter-ratial relations?

Mark Twain and the Mississippi River

In this compact course of ours, we have had time to read a few chapters only from one of Mark Twain's books. Yet, his genius, magnificent use of language, the aural quality of his dialogues, the imaginative worlds he creates based on his personal knowledge of the "ante-bellum" South, his wit and the ironic views of his own dear America, as seen in his diaries, novels, and short stories deserve that eventually, you devote some more time to reading Twain's books. Usually considered as teenage novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will delight anyone interested in the varieties and dialects of American English. The latter of these two books, especially, is one of the "classics" (to use Calvino's notions) which can be read -or re read- by grown ups only to discover the beauty of language, friendship, generosity and freedom. (We have discussed the notion of incorporating books into a canon; yet, this implies leaving some outside the canon, or even banning them. This is what happened to Huck Finn after the attack on the Twin Towers ten years ago. Read it and discover why an "American classic" was banned by Americans themselves!)

One of Twain's pervading images, and symbols, is the Mississippi river. You may consult a dictionary of symbols to understand the full implications of waterways, but in this case, it is not "any" river: it is the Mississippi. A mighty river that runs from Minnesota into the Mexican Gulf for over 3700 km. Both in his fiction and non-fiction, Twain gives a central role to the Mississippi.

Edgar Allan Poe. "The Raven"

The poem "The Raven may be read at

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713
The essay "The Philosophy of Composition" can be found at
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/poetics-essay/237848 

"The Raven" is a beautiful, musical, complex poem that can be read accompanied by Poe's own words in "The Philosophy of Composition", which throws light into the poetic text.

The diction, rhyme (both internal and external -at the end of lines), repetitions and alliterations, the refrain in the last line of each stanza, are some of the procedures that Poe used to convey a strong musicality. We should also consider that the poetic persona is obssessed, and transmits this state of mind through the repetitions, and the overwhelming presence of the black raven.

All these issues contribute to the creation of effect, one of the main topics in the essay "The Philosophy of Composition".
Below you may find a short reading guide to concentrate on the central aspects of the essay:

“The Philosophy of Composition”

-Study Guide-

As an introduction

1.       What do most writers , especially poets, think about their own composition?

2.       What will Poe exemplify in the essay with his poem “The Raven”?

Poe’s own comments on “The Raven”

→Extent (length):

→Province of the Poem:

→Tone:

→Refrain: (application, nature and character)

→Topic:

→Climax:

→Locale:

→Denouement:

As a conclusion…

Which is Poe’s first metaphorical expression in the poem? What does it suggest?

Thoreau and the Transcendentalists

ASSIGNMENT Nº 1

You may find the instructions for assignment n. 1 in the link below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ABpZ0dCxHDCkzawMZaGd7DpywrSt-SqQQJFjfZsNzmE/pub

Echoes of Frederick Douglass, an African American Writer

Frederick Douglss' Narrative of the Life... is a crucial text to understand not only his life, but slavery, and the painful conditions in which a whole race lived for centuries. His book is not only a narrative, as the title puts it, but also an argument against slavery, written while most African Americans were unable to enjoy the equality and freedom preached by the American Declaration of Independence. Most slaves were denied an education (together with an identity, clothing, food, fair treatment, and other basic human rights). Yet, they developed a body of oral literature, in which music and songs were a central part. At the end of chapter 2 of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he makes a reference to slaves' singing and its meaning.

Those songs have survived, both as literature and as music, as a testimony to that hard life. In assignment 1, we will work with the echoes of that music, as reflected in a literary form (poems by Langston Hughes).

African American History

Puritan Beginnings

While some colonies in the south of what would later become the U.S.A. were founded after commercial enterprises, the north-eastern region known as New England was settled by a group of Puritans, called "the Pilgrims", or later called "the Pilgrim Fathers", who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620.

They founded Plymouth Plantation. The record of their experiment is carefully kept in William Bradford's Of Plymourth Plantation, a detailed account of the Pilgrims' first years in America. From this book, we will read "The Mayflower Compact".

Excerpt 1:  

---

from Chapter Eleven. The remainder of Anno 1620. [Mayflower Compact; Squanto; the Starving Time]

I shall a little return back and begin with a combination made by them before they came ashore, being the first foundation of their government in this place; occasioned partly by the discontented and mutinous speeches that some of the strangers  amongst them had let fall from them in the ship—That when they came ashore they would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them, the patent they had being for Virginia, and not for New England, which belonged to another Government, with which the Virginia Company had nothing to do. And partly that such an act by them done (this their condition considered) might be as firm as any patent, and in some respects more sure.

The form was as followeth.

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.

[50 signatures, including Bradford's]

********************

Excerpt 2: : The first Thanksgiving

William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation :
In the original 17th century spelling
"They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; fFor as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no want.  And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained,  but true reports."

In modern spelling
"They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports."

The Colonies