Idea submission directions:
Each week you will submit 2 ideas that take our story and explain how to read it through the literary theory of that week. For each idea, please reference something from the text and explain how you are reading it. You may also reference the text as a whole, but make it clear that you are doing that. Be sure to also use some of the terms that we discussed in class the week before in regard to the theory. If you are struggling with what to write, please refer to the questions given at the end of the lecture. Other than that, just do your best. Here is an example below of one idea submission (you need to submit two each week):
“And how should I presume?” (Stanza 10)
“And should I then presume? / And how should I begin?” (Stanza 11)
Here, the speaker expresses the central tension of the poem. Since the beginning he has discussed a desire to ask, “an overwhelming question” (stanza 2) to the addressee of the song. It is this tension that creates directs the entire subject matter of the poem, from the yellow fog to the mermaids at the end. After the tension becomes too much for the speaker, he eventually succumbs to it by pursuing sirens that he does not believe will reciprocate affection. It is this tension that ultimately leads to his death or suicide.
- Week 6: Submit two ideas about how to read Much Ado About Nothingthrough a Feminist and New Criticism Lens.
- Week 7: See the two poems below and submit an idea about how to understand each of them. You can incorporate any of the theories that we’ve discussed, but make sure to have a thought through idea of what it means.
- Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower by Taha Muhammad Ali
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54301/abd-el-hadi-fights-a-superpower.com
- For my People by Margaret Walker
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=51&issue=2&page=24.com
- Week 8: See the two poems below and submit an idea about how to understand each of them. You can incorporate any of the theories that we’ve discussed, but make sure to have a thought through idea of what it means.
“Her Kind” by Anne Sexton
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42560/her-kind.com
“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” by Emily Dickinson
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45703/i-heard-a-fly-buzz-when-i-died-591.com