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Exploring Streetcar February 15, 2008

Posted by breakingranks in Uncategorized.
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As we get deeper into A Streetcar Named Desire, there are quite a few things for you all to be thinking about. First, I will caution you again to resist the urge to write Blanche off as a character unworthy of your reflection. Many students find her so off-putting that they cannot or will not consider Williams’ character beyond her face value. Big mistake.

Second, be thinking about the characterizations of Stanley and Stella, as well.

And, of course, think about characters as metaphor….

On Deck February 4, 2008

Posted by breakingranks in Uncategorized.
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Given that I wish for you all to be fully in the loop as we progress, I’m going to give you some of the texts, both written and performed, that we will be exploring. Here’s where we’ve been and where we’re going:

Poet Study: T. S. Eliot

Author Study: Ernest Hemingway, Mickey Spillane & The Noir Style

  • “The End of Something”
  • “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
  • Kiss Me, Deadly

Playwright Study: Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill

  • A Streetcar Named Desire (film: Lange, Baldwin)
  • The Glass Menagerie (film: Hepburn, Waterston)
  • Desire Under the Elms
  • Long Day’s Journey Into Night (film: Hepburn, Robards)
  • American Experience–Eugene O’Neill: A Documentary Film (Ric Burns)

Film Study: Robert Aldrich, Peter Weir, and Terrence Malick

  • Kiss Me, Deadly
  • Something Wild
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock
  • The Last Wave
  • Days of Heaven

That’ll keep us busy for a while.

Parsing Eliot & Reading Around February 1, 2008

Posted by breakingranks in Uncategorized.
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If you are feeling a little intimidated by Eliot, you are not alone and you are not stupid. Eliot is a challenge, even to the most discerning readers.

So, with that in mind, here is a resource that will help (in addition to Spark Notes? lol). The site is called Modern American Poetry, and it is the online companion to one of the holy books in literature, Oxford University Press’s Anthology of Modern American Poetry . This is the sort of survey text that you are likely to use in college, but for our purposes, the companion site is very helpful.

I encourage you to explore the Eliot pages on that site. You will note that the handouts that I have given you on “The Hollow Men” and will give you on The Waste Land and “Four Quartets” come from that site.

P.S. Look up the word “parse.” I’ll wager that few of you know what it means. 😉

P.S.S. I strongly encourage (hint hint) you to make good use of a dictionary while writing. You have all the tools literally at your fingertips to ensure that the quality of your writing is of the highest order. In other words, don’t be lazy.

Ms. Baz