Ode on a Grecian URL

Here are the slides from the presentation I gave this afternoon. Please don't hesitate to email me any questions you have about any of the material I present here! My email address is listed on the sidebar to the left.

• As a Powerpoint presentation (59KB)
• As an RTF outline (26KB)
• As a PDF (70KB)

If you want, you can write this hebdomadal collaboratively! If you do, the collaborated-upon hebdomadal will have to be a minimum of 500 words (rather than the usual 300), but other than that everything is the same. (Be sure to let me know with whom you collaborated so I know to give both of you the points.)

Use a thorough close reading of a passage in Tess to detail Hardy’s idea about society. Consider answering a question like: What is the relationship between society and the individual? …between society and culture? …between society and nature? …between society and text? Avoid easy answers.

Now look specifically at the style of Hardy’s prose in this passage – his narrator’s relationship with the reader, his tone, the quality of the words he chooses. How does his style reflect his ideas about society?

Compare Hardy’s style and his vision of society to the style and vision of society of a modern author. Working with a novel that has been published in the last sixty years, explain how the style of this recent text compares to that of Hardy’s novel. How does this difference suggest differences in the way these texts understand society?

This is a difficult topic: please don't hesitate to email me questions.

All hebdomadals are due before discussion. Next week's hebdomadal topic will be posted next week. Seriously.

Topic: Comparing concepts

In lecture today, Prof. Ortiz-Robles gave us a quick tour of how all four novels we have read so far addressed work to illustrate how Hardy was using this concept thematically.

Choose another concept that you feel is central to Tess of the D'Urbervilles and give a paragraph-long tour of how that concept is treated in the other three novels we have read.

In your second paragraph, develop a text-centered close reading of how this concept is used in one of these three earlier novels -- pick a passage in which your concept is mentioned by Austen, Dickens or Brontë and explain how that author is using that concept thematically.

In your third paragraph, pick a passage from Tess in which that concept arises and offer an interesting comparative close reading of Hardy's use of that concept.

This comparison, like all comparisons, should be pointed towards revealing something new about the text. How do we understand Hardy's point more clearly by comparing his use of this concept to the use of this concept in a different text?

If you came to Helen C. White tonight for the review session and found it locked, I'm so sorry: the building hours completely vanished from my mind.

I will be in the foyer in front of the lecture hall tomorrow (Monday) morning for 30 or 40 minutes before the exam. If you have any questions for me please feel free to drop by.

Hi!

I will be in my office -- 7134 Helen C. White Hall -- from 7 to 8:30 pm tonight, Sunday 22 October. Please feel free to stop by at any time for as long as you like and bring questions with you. I have no set lesson plan for the review so bring your own questions! Bring questions about the texts, about the practice midterms, about themes or symbols, about lectures, about essay exam writing strategies -- bring any kind of question at all; otherwise, we will just be looking at each other awkwardly as we sit on the thirty-year-old furniture that's in my office.

I posted a practice midterm below, but if you want more practice this is a practice midterm that my fellow TA Emily put together with her students this week.

Part I. Identification of three passages. 21 minutes. 70 percent. (7 minutes per passage)

Write on three of the following five passages. For each one,

1. identify the text in which the passage occurs and name its author, (2 points)
2. write one or two sentences describing the context of the passage by identifying the speaker(s) or figure(s) involved; where in the development of the narrative the passage occurs; and what precisely is happening or being described, (5 points)
3. state briefly the significance of the passage for the themes of the text. In describing the significance, you should point to specific details – images, telling words, metaphors – to support your account. Without these details you will not get full credit for your answer. (7 points):

1. "That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

2. "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always contrive to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life."

3. “But there's this difference; one is gold put to the use of paving stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver—Mine has nothing valuable about it; yet I shall have the merit of making it go as far as such poor stuff can go.

4. "Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came her, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then."

5. "He fixed his eyes on me longer than I cared to return the stare, for fear I might be tempted either to box his ears or render my hilarity audible. I began to feel unmistakably out of place in that pleasant family circle. The dismal spiritual atmosphere overcame, and more than neutralized the glowing physical comforts round me; and I resolved to be cautious how I ventured under those rafters a third time"

Part II. Analysis of one passage. 15 minutes. 30 percent.

Write a concise analysis of one of the five passages selected in Part I

1. Do a close reading of the passage you have selected. (20 points)

2. Identify at least one formal characteristic of the passage and state its relevance to your reading. (10 points)

This is a practice midterm. It is reasonably like the actual midterm in the length and style of passages, although I can't speak to whether these will be easier or harder passages then you will see on Monday.

Part I. Identification of five passages. 35 minutes. 70 percent. (7 minutes per passage)

Write on five of the following eight passages. For each one,

1. identify the text in which the passage occurs and name its author, (2 points)
   
   
2. write one or two sentences describing the context of the passage by identifying the speaker(s) or figure(s) involved; where in the development of the narrative the passage occurs; and what precisely is happening or being described, (5 points)
   
   
3. state briefly the significance of the passage for the themes of the text. In describing the significance, you should point to specific details -- images, telling words, metaphors -- to support your account. Without these details you will not get full credit for your answer. (7 points)

1.

"For whose sake would you reveal the secret? For the father's? I think he would not be much the better for the mother. For the mother's? I think if she had done such a deed she would be safer where she was. For the daughter's? I think it would hardly serve her, to establish her parentage for the information of her husband, and to drag her back to disgrace, after an escape of twenty years, pretty secure to last for life. But, add the case that you had loved her, Pip, and had made her the subject of those 'poor dreams' which have, at one time or another, been in the heads of more men than you think likely, then I tell you that you had better – and would much sooner when you had thought well of it - chop off that bandaged left hand of yours with your bandaged right hand, and then pass the chopper on to Wemmick there, to cut that off, too."

2.

"From the very beginning--from the first moment, I may almost say--of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."

3.

The second question I have great interest in; it is this - Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil? I sha'n't tell my reasons for making this inquiry; but I beseech you to explain, if you can, what I have married: that is, when you call to see me; and you must call, Ellen, very soon. Don't write, but come, and bring me something from Edgar.

4.

This reminded me of the wonderful difference between the servile manner in which he had offered his hand in my new prosperity, saying, "May I?" and the ostentatious clemency with which he had just now exhibited the same fat five fingers.

5.

'Don't you see that face?' she inquired, gazing earnestly at the mirror.

And say what I could, I was incapable of making her comprehend it to be her own; so I rose and covered it with a shawl.

'It's behind there still!' she pursued, anxiously. 'And it stirred. Who is it? I hope it will not come out when you are gone! Oh! Nelly, the room is haunted! I'm afraid of being alone!'

6.

Edgar stood on the hearth weeping silently, and in the middle of the table sat a little dog, shaking its paw and yelping; which, from their mutual accusations, we understood they had nearly pulled in two between them. The idiots! That was their pleasure! to quarrel who should hold a heap of warm hair, and each begin to cry because both, after struggling to get it, refused to take it. We laughed outright at the petted things; we did despise them! When would you catch me wishing to have what Catherine wanted? or find us by ourselves, seeking entertainment in yelling, and sobbing, and rolling on the ground, divided by the whole room?

7.

"The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence; though, at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age."

8.

On our arrival in Denmark, we found the king and queen of that country elevated in two arm-chairs on a kitchen-table, holding a Court. The whole of the Danish nobility were in attendance; consisting of a noble boy in the wash-leather boots of a gigantic ancestor, a venerable Peer with a dirty face who seemed to have risen from the people late in life, and the Danish chivalry with a comb in its hair and a pair of white silk legs, and presenting on the whole a feminine appearance. My gifted townsman stood gloomily apart, with folded arms, and I could have wished that his curls and forehead had been more probable.

Part II. Analysis of one passage. 15 minutes. 30 percent.

Write a concise analysis of one of the five passages selected in Part I.

1. Do a close reading of the passage you have selected. (20 points)
   
   
2. Identify at least one formal characteristic of the passage and state its relevance to your reading. (10 points)

I have entered mid-term grades for first-year students. Some of these grades are quite low (or quite high) because only about 25% of your final course grade has been calculated -- even one or two missed points have a huge effect on your grade for this reason. If you are the slightest bit concerned about your mid-term grade, I urge you to come talk to me -- there is almost nothing to worry about, as the midterm, second essay and final exam will comprise three times as many points as those you have accrued so far this semester. Plus, there is always the possibility of extra credit.

In just a few minutes, I will begin emailing back your first essays. I have commented all of these essays in two ways:

1. In the margins -- if you can't seem my marginal notes, go to the View menu and choose Markup (at least, that's how you do it in my version of Word; if these directions don't work for you, look in your word processor's help program for "markup" or "reviewing" or "comments")
2. At the end of your essay, in a teal font color

Please read all my comments -- I wrote them with you in mind, trying to give you the best advice I could about what you should keep doing and what you should do a little differently for your second essay.

If you would like to see your grade for this essay, please read my comments answer these three questions -- you don't have to parrot my comments back to me; indeed, I would really like to hear your own analysis of your work:

1. What was the strongest feature of your essay?
2. What will you do differently when you write your second essay?
3. What questions do you have for me?

Topic 1: Religion in Wuthering Heights

In lecture today, Prof. Ortiz-Robles spelled out the nature/culture division in Wuthering Heights. What role does religion play in that division? Answer this question by means of a close reading of a short passage from Wuthering Heights -- ideally, use your adopted paragraph to explain the role of religion in the text; however, if your adopted paragraph makes absolutely no mention of religion then choose a nearby paragraph that does. Your answer should be grounded deeply in an analytical treatment of that paragraph's rhetorical and formal characteristics.

Topic 2: Practicing the midterm

Ask a friend to send you a short passage (one to three sentences long) from one of the novels we've read this semester without telling you from what text that passage comes. Answer all of the midterm questions -- Parts I and II -- in relation to that passage. Don't worry about time for this practice but focus on thoroughness.

1. Identification of passages. (7 minutes per passage)

   For this passage,

   1. identify the text in which the passage occurs and name its author, (2 points)
   2. write one or two sentences describing the context of the passage by identifying the speaker(s) or figure(s) involved; where in the development of the narrative the passage occurs; and what precisely is happening or being described, (5 points)
   3. state briefly the significance of the passage for the themes of the text. In describing the significance, you should point to specific details -- images, telling words, metaphors -- to support your account. Without these details you will not get full credit for your answer. (7 points)
2. Analysis of one passage. 15 minutes.

   Write a concise analysis of the passage from Part I.

   1. Do a close reading of the passage you have selected. (20 points)
   2. Identify at least one formal characteristic of the passage and state its relevance to your reading. (10 points)

The hebdomadal topics for this week are posted down below.

The quiz tomorrow will be divided into two parts. The first part will ask you to answer a few quick questions about all the work we've read so far this semester -- all of Pride and Prejudice and of Great Expectations, and the first volume of Wuthering Heights -- and the second part will give you a midterm-style passage to identify, contextualize and discuss in regard to its significance.

If you look over to the left, you will now find links to the lecture and discussion syllabi for this semester at the top of the sidebar. If you ever misplace your syllabus you can grab a new one right there.

See below for the most recent hebdomadal assignment.

I have finally caught up with grading all the hebdomadals, hebdominals, hebdomables and hebdomidals I have received this semester. If you have not heard back from me about one of your hebdomadals let me know forthwith.

Here is how hebdomadal grading currently works. I have a three-tier system -- check minus, check, and check plus. After a bit of math, I have settled on the following score breakdowns:

• Check minus = 1.5 points (out of 2)
• Check = 1.9 points
• Check plus = 2.4 points

The average grades so far are hovering around 1.7 -- which means about half of you are in the minus category and half of you are in the check category. Although these numbers look concrete, I reserve the right to treat hebdomadal grades a little bit more fluidly at the end of the semester if you demonstrate marked improvement.

If you are interested in knowing your hebdomadal grade so far you're welcome to shoot me an email.

N.b.: I post weekly hebdomadal topics in the hope of directing your attention to literary analytical techniques that Prof. Ortiz-Robles is introducing in lecture. Consequently, I ask that you only write hebdomadals in response to that week's prompts.

If you want to apply an old prompt to a new text or topic, please ask me first. I'll probably say yes, but I just want to be sure that you're not spinning your literary analytical wheels.

Topic 1: Obsessive close reading

By close reading I mean (1) the identification of rhetorical (language-based) and formal (structure-based) subtleties in a short passage from a novel and (2) the subsequent connection of these subtleties to one of the novel's main themes or problems.

Adopt a paragraph from Wuthering Heights, and do so randomly. Open the book to any page at all and point your finger at a paragraph that strikes your fancy.

It is your job to prove that the themes and questions introduced in this paragraph connect to the themes and questions of the book. You might think of this as a fractal or as a cell in a larger body: the paragraph reveals microscopically the macroscopic shape of the text.

In class today, Prof. Ortiz-Robles had the class spend ten minutes looking at two sentences from Pride and Prejudice; you should spend a similar amount of time looking at your adopted paragraph. What sorts of words does it deploy? What are its rhetorical and formal nuances? How do those nuances relate to textual themes and questions? (You can derive your sense of the text's themes and questions from lecture or from your own ideas about the book's argument.)

Topic 2: Themes and tone

Adopt a paragraph as described in Topic 1, but rather than close read it for language and form and whatnot, look at how it uses language. Is there dialect? (E.g. in paragraphs quoting Joseph.) Is the tone poetic and solemn? (E.g. in paragraphs describing nature.) Is the tone condescending? Is it apologetic? Is it wordy and academic or is it pithy and blunt? Giving specific evidence -- word choice, punctuation, sentence length, rhyme and meter -- connect the tone of this paragraph to its role in the novel. How does this tone relate, do you think, to the larger themes and problems of the novel?

What you are looking for here is a way to look at the style of this paragraph and see the larger argument of the text. This is hard to do, and really kind of fun.

Only two notes about turning in the first essay:

1. Turn it in via email before discussion tomorrow morning. The essay should be attached to your email rather than included as the text of the email.

2. If you are writing your essay in Word, turn it in as a Word document; if you are not writing in Word, save your essay as a Rich Text File (RTF) by going to the File menu and choosing Save As... Choose RTF from the Save As Type drop-down menu.

As long as I'm touting the Online Writing Center (below), it seems worthwhile to post a bit of information about the Writing Center's satellite locations.

The main Writing Center office is, I have mentioned in class, in 6171 Helen C. White Hall and you can sign up for appointments to meet with writing instructors there by calling 263-1992. However, if you live in or near the dorms and would like to see a writing instructor later in the evening, there are several satellite locations that don't require appointments and where instructors would be overjoyed to see you.

Here is a link to all of our current locations and hours.

I work in the Pop's Club location on Monday nights. It would be wonderful to see you there, but you might think about visiting other writing instructors when you are writing papers for me. You can get my comments and advice at any time by emailing me or chatting with me during my office hours; getting input and advice from other instructors will allow you to think through your writing and analysis in ways I wouldn't think to suggest, and will allow you to create a rounder and even more interesting essay.

Do you tend to get your work done on too unpredictable a schedule to sign up for a regular meeting with a writing instructor? Do you do your best work in your pajamas? On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday from 6:30 to 9:30 pm there are writing instructors available to meet with you via instant messaging through the Online Writing Center. To learn more information about synchronous instruction and to sign up for an appointment, visit wisc.edu/writing/Forms/Synchronous.html (or, of course, click on that link).

N.b.: I have never used this service, although the three instructors working there this semester are good friends of mine. If you use or have used synchronous instruction I would love to hear about your experiences.

Meeting with students in conferences this past week, I have been overjoyed to find that nearly all of you are struggling actively to explain why your essays are important to our understanding of these texts. While the struggle might not feel particularly pleasant right now, trust me when I say that it will help you craft a more pleasant paper for me to read and grade.

If you are still struggling and uncertain how to explain the importance of your essay, here are a few tricks that usually work for me:

• Connect your reading to one of Prof. Ortiz-Robles's comments. Look back through your lecture notes. What has Prof. Ortiz-Robles said are the main problems of the novel you are writing about? What has he said are some of the main problems or styles of the nineteenth-century novel as a whole? How does your essay connect to the ideas he has raised in lecture? (You might, for example, connect your essay to his discussion of spectacle and surveilance in today's lecture.)
• Connect your reading to the introduction, epiphany, or conclusion of the novel. Look closely at the critical moments of these novels -- their first and last chapters and those chapters that discuss massive changes in their main characters -- and connect your reading with the thematic or moral revelations of these critical moments.
• Assume that your reading reveals something about the society in which it was written. Extrapolate from the narrow confines of the text to the broader context of the society in which it participates. How does Austen's discussion of the marriages of the Bennet girls suggest changes in the way marriage itself should operate in society? What does Pip's search for identity in an industrial world say about how our identities are changing as our nations change?
• Argue that your theme reveals the main problem of the novel. Take a risk: how does your reading exactly express the central problem of the text? Assume that the passage you are closely reading is in fact the central passage of the entire novel: what is the author saying in this passage about the meaning of his or her larger work?

If you are working on Great Expectations and don't think you will be able to connect your analysis to the text's central problem or question until you have finished the text, I am happy to entertain requests for short extensions.

Bob the Angry Flower, by Stephen Notley

If Charles Dickens owns a hat, that hat is Dickens's hat. If Frederick Douglass owns a cat, that cat is Douglass's cat. The possessive s is obligatory when forming a surname that ends in s unless that surname belongs to a figure from Biblical, Classical, or Old Testament times -- e.g. Jesus' mat, Socrates' bat, and Moses' rat.

As you work through the logic and structure your second essay, the most important thing you can do is make sure that you are

1. Identifying subtleties in the language and form of the text that a casual reader would have missed, and
2. Connecting those subtleties to one of the larger themes and, ultimately, the larger question or problem of that text.

Those can be difficult instructions to follow if you're unsure what constitutes a sufficiently close reading, or a sufficiently close connection between a close reading and textual themes.

Here are two wonderful hebdomadals from two weeks ago that are right on target in both their close readings and their thematic analysis.

This first hebdomadal is from Lydia (313):

Card games appear in both Jane Austen�s Pride and Prejudice and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations as a social interaction with many layers of innuendo, differing between books, but there nonetheless. Austen uses card games for brilliant dialogue between Elizabeth and Caroline, but Dickens employs it to show more emotionally charged moments between Estella and Pip. Cards are a great way to involve more than one character in a key moment because of the competitive circumstances and social settings the games are played in. In comparing the scenes of both books I am amazed at the similarities between the reasons for each conversation between the characters involved. In Elizabeth and Caroline's conversation there is no small amount of malice that Caroline directs toward Elizabeth in the form of praise of her intensive reading, but she is belittling her in hopes making her fall from Darcy's admiration. Between Pip and Estella, Estella is taking the same tactic but for different reasons. She doesn't care if Miss Havisham likes Pip or whether anyone sees her treatment of him, she just wants to make sure he knows he is beneath her. So in that context both card games are used to injure the main character, and seemingly tell them their 'place' in the world but the reasons behind each assault is where we can truly see the difference in perspective of the respective books.

Austen wants the reader to understand that while Caroline views Elizabeth as a rival for Darcy's affections, she in no way believes Elizabeth to be her equal in any other way. She uses the setting of a card game to further illustrate that Elizabeth is outside the metaphorical circle of play, and therefore out of their circle of acquaintance.

On the other hand, Dickens shows Estella for the proud, heartless being she is from the very beginning by the definite wording of how she throws down her cards at the end of the game. "She threw the cards down on the table when she had won them all, as if she despised them for having been won of me." (chapter viii, page 60). Through this dramatic wording and intense visual picture you get of Estella, your initial impression of her is imprinted and my thoughts are that you will not improve your opinion as the book continues, and you understand that this book is not so much about Pip knowing that Estella doesn�t like him, but once again making sure he knows his place. Dickens shows you from early on that this book is not so much about outside relationships but more a personal battle Pip fights to
find himself.

It is in that difference that you find the contrast between the two works of literature, and their meaning and purpose to the reader.

This second essay is by Scott (313):

Pip describes the geography of his home town, Kent, after he introduces the story of his parents and his name while at the church cemetery. Pip lives in the town of Kent in the marsh county near a river that meets up with the sea. According to the novel's explanatory notes, it was based on Charles Dickens' own childhood memories of Chatham. Pip's "village" is located "on the flat inshore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile from the church," and Pip describes the marshes as "the dark, flat wilderness beyond the churchyard�with scattered cattle feeding on it." (4) The layout of this town can be interpreted as a metaphor for the emotional and social position of Pip within the town and within his own family.

When describing his home town, it seems like Pip emphasizes natural rather than manmade features of the area. Pip chooses to put the town into the context of the river, wilderness, marshes, and trees rather than choosing buildings such as houses, schools, stores, community centers, and other features common to a town. This is probably due to the fact that Pip is not well-connected to the people of the town, knowing more about the town's physical features than the people who inhabit it.

The only building that Pip refers to when initially telling the reader about the town is the church where he is presently located. He uses the church as a main reference point when telling about the town. It is significant that Pip tells his audience the geography of the town relative to the church because Pip feels more attached to the place where his parents are buried than where he actually lives. Pip doesn't even mention where he lives until the convict asks him. The church appears isolated from the rest of the town with wilderness and cattle-feeding grounds surrounding it. Just like the church is physically isolated from the town, Pip is emotionally isolated from family and society. It is also fitting that the church is overgrown with nettle, a poisonous weed, because Pip is a poisonous weed to society, being overwhelmingly unwanted and an occasional liar and thief. Pip even believes his sister assumes he "insisted on being born" (23).

The placement of Pip�s house in Kent is symbolic of his place in society. Mr. Pumblechoock lives on the "high street of the market town," and Miss Havisham lives nearby in the Satis house, near a brewery (52). The Pumblechoocks and Ms. Havisham live closer to commerce and industry of the town than Pip does, and are also more socially connected than Pip and the Gargerys. Pip lives among "alder
trees and pollards" in an area that Pip mentions more natural than civilized characteristics. Pip's apparent isolation from society symbolizes his emotional isolation from the world as an orphan. The Satis House is located at a higher elevation than Pip's house, and Miss Havisham and the Pumblechoocks are higher up in social status than the Gargerys. When Pip had to walk up elevation to go to Miss Havisham's house, he was moving both physically and socially upward. Charles Dickens strategic use of geography symbolizes the emotional and social states of the characters within his novel.