Blog Assignment #7: Feminist Criticism of "A & P"

Assignment: Engage with John Updike’s “A & P” using feminist criticism strategies. Aim for approximately 250 words (that’s equivalent to 1 typed, double-spaced page). Use the discussion below as a guide. Plan to point to particular pieces of evidence in the story itself in order to bolster your opinion. Make reference to particular parts of the plot, particular bits of dialog, and/or particular behaviors or interactions with other characters, female or male.

There are a number of different critical models that can be applied when reading a novel, poem, or other literary work. In fact, these different models are used by professional critics in order to determine, or pull from a work, the meaning. One very common critical reading model is Feminist criticism.

Feminist literary criticism examines:

·         diction, style, or voice of a female writer as opposed to her male writers.

·         subject matter a female writer chooses to write about as opposed to topics chosen by male writers

·         balance of power, or rather the imbalance present between male and female characters within any given plot, whether written by male or female writer

·         expression of the difference in male and female roles in society

·          differences in the power male and female characters wield (or don’t wield)

·         female experience as a whole, especially in comparison to the male experience. This includes personality, education, childhood experiences, and anything else that defines the female identity.

·          female stereotypes.

·         The backgrounds and personal lives of female authors. For instance, a feminist critic might look into Mary Shelley's own conflict between family and career or Virginia Woolf’s relationship with her husband.

Application:  As you read a particular poem or story, you will want to ask yourself,

·         How are the females in the piece characterized?

·         What role do women play in the piece?

·         Are there dominant women? Submissive women?

·         Do women play a major or minor role?

·         What attitudes are expressed by male and female characters about women?

·         How do male characters talk to and about female characters?

·         How do females talk with males?

After answering these questions, it may be appropriate to examine the author, genre, and subject matter of the piece. For example, what are or were the author's ideals on the female situation? Is the author's position impacted by the author's history? Was or is it impacted by the history of the time? What sort of language does the writer use?

 

Blog Assignment #6: What would this character's Facebook page look like?

Assignment: For the sake of this blog post, I'd like you to do some thinking about the female main characters in "The Story of an Hour" or "the Yellow Wallpaper." What do you know about their hopes, dreams, fears, interests, hobbies, friendships, etc.? If they were alive during our modern times and were hip to social media, what would their Facebook pages look like? For either of the main characters (choose ONE), complete the following activities:

1. In character, create at least ten (10) mock Facebook posts. What would this character likely announce to her friends on Facebook? Related: Who would she be friends with? :)
2. Post at least one photo or image or meme you believe this character would post to her Facebook wall.
3. Post at least one link to an article you believe this character would share with Facebook friends.

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, look at this example: http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=3719

You'll find another example here: http://www.hungergameslessons.com/2011/01/using-facebook-concept-for-modern.html

Note: I'm not asking you to literally create a profile within Facebook, as it's kind of a hassle to do so. It requires a separate e-mail address, among other things. I'm satisfied with you using your blog entry space to accomplish these goals. However, if you're comfortable enough with technology to want to work in Facebook, you certainly can.

Blog Assignment #5: Orientation

Assignment:  Write a 250-word minimum (that's approximately the same as a typed, double-spaced, one-page MLA-format document--obviously if you feel like doing more, do so. Don't come to a screeching stop just because you've hit the word count. If your imagination is pushing you to flesh things out, let it!) imitation of Daniel Orozco's "Orientation." In your version, pretend you are giving instructions for someone's first day of doing something. Your imitation should reference the "real" data needed to do the job. For example:

•  those individuals the person may need to interact with in order to get the job done
• supplies needed in order to do the job
• responsibilities of the person hearing your instructions
• job process and procedures
•  technical data
• standard operating procedures

However, additionally, I'd like you to include details that aren't necessary to the task at hand. These should be details considered TMI (too much information)--details that won't necessarily help the person do the task, but they will help the person learn about who YOU are and how you feel about the task and those involved.  Those details might include:

• judgments task or the process itself
•  gossip about  involved parties (co-workers, etc.)
•  a sense of how things really work, as opposed to a technical document like a standard operating procedure

Essentially, I want you to convey, via your tone and word choice, how you REALLY feel about the thing you are teaching. Feel free to draw off personal experience. For instance, if you worked a summer as a lifeguard, you probably know the technical parts of the job, but you probably have some juicy insight into the everyday drama going on with your co-workers, boss, or even the customers you see on a regular basis.

Oh, and FYI: your imitation need not be job-related. It might, for instance, be hobby based. Perhaps you want to explain how to play basketball during Hoopfest. Or maybe you want to explain how a person should operate in a mosh pit at a concert. Or maybe you want to tell someone how to go hunting with your particular family members.

As per Daniel Orozco's short story, write your imitation using second-person narration. There's an implied audience getting instructions to do something. You are commanding them, telling them what to do.

Blog Assignment #4: Southern Grotesque

Assignment:  O'Connor's work is often described as Southern"grotesque." I'd like you to write a brief response (let's say 250 words, minimum--that's about the equivalent to a double-spaced, 1-page, typed document) in which you discuss the ways O' Connor's characters and plot in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" can be considered grotesque.


Step One:  Read my brief "lecture" about some of the characteristics of the genre:

• It's a subgenre of gothic literature (think Edgar Allen Poe) focusing on character, social, and moral shortcomings in the American South. 

• It often comments on society's negatives and weaknesses in order to point out truths of America's Southern culture and its unpleasant aspects: racial bigotry, crushing poverty, violence, moral corruption, other signs of humans' capacity for evil, etc.

• Plots rely on disturbing, supernatural, or ironic events but are realistic.

• The settings is often decayed and or rural. It can also be described as unusual or broken.

• The stories include flawed grotesque characters.A grotesque character may posesses an exaggerated personality trait or characteristic for the purpose of eliciting both empathy and disgust in the reader ("Grotesque"). In her fiction, Flannery O'Connor employed two types of grotesques: "physical grotesques" or "secular grotesques." Physical grotesques possess a deformed body in order to indicate some kind of spiritual deformity. Secular grotesques, on the other hand, are those who have for one reason or another rejected God's will and seek to destroy the soul in an attempt to save the body.

Step Two: Read what the author herself says about about Southern Grotesque here: http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/grotesque.html

Step Three:  Re-read "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Re-read  it with the goal of picking out specific textual evidence that can help you "prove" that the story is, indeed, a good example of the Southern Gothic or Southern Grotesque genre. Remember that your opinions or claims are only as strong as the evidence you provide for those claims.

Finally, you might want to hear the short story as read by the author herself. You can find the reading on YouTube HERE: