I.
Adieu, New-England's smiling meads,
Adieu, the flow'ry plain:
I leave thine op'ning charms, O spring,
And tempt the roaring main.
...
Phillis Wheatley
Well my friends, the term is finally over, hence you can definitely say Farewell to American Literature, though some of you should say it temporally. The term was intense, and I know at times tiresome, however I like to think that not only have you widened your knowledge about American Culture, but your vision about life in general terms has also broadened. Independently of the final results, I know that for you, reading has become a more meaningful experience, it must be so, otherwise, whatever we did in class, was a waste of time.
Enjoy your vacations, get ready for next term and as Prof. Durán would say, DO READ
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
About the Make Up and Improvement test
Dear students,
As we agreed last Wednesday in class, you had until today at 12:oo m. to send your request to take the remedial or improvement test. So far I received (from the people who are able to take the second evaluation form) four (4) requests from the morning group, that is to say, Indiana Torres, David Duque, Maria Flores, Ernesto O. Velasquez, and one (1) request from the afternoon group, i.e. Angel Vasquez. I left my office yesterday late in the afternoon, and no one left me a written a request in my office, which means, that the people I mention in this noteare the only ones who will take the test on Monday 13th, during class session, and that any further request sent after 12:00M. today won't be accepted not even if you sent your message at 12:01. The rest, will have classes as usual.
See you Monday, have a look at the post Prof. Duran published, do your h.w. and PLEASE do read for your class.
Regards
As we agreed last Wednesday in class, you had until today at 12:oo m. to send your request to take the remedial or improvement test. So far I received (from the people who are able to take the second evaluation form) four (4) requests from the morning group, that is to say, Indiana Torres, David Duque, Maria Flores, Ernesto O. Velasquez, and one (1) request from the afternoon group, i.e. Angel Vasquez. I left my office yesterday late in the afternoon, and no one left me a written a request in my office, which means, that the people I mention in this noteare the only ones who will take the test on Monday 13th, during class session, and that any further request sent after 12:00M. today won't be accepted not even if you sent your message at 12:01. The rest, will have classes as usual.
See you Monday, have a look at the post Prof. Duran published, do your h.w. and PLEASE do read for your class.
Regards
Friday, July 10, 2009
Virtual Assignment!
Dear Students,
Your teacher just told me, off the record, that you were specially eager to show how much you've learned about the analysis of poetry in this course! So... here's the chance you were waiting for... By midnight Monday 13th (that's the DEADLINE!) you are expected to post your response to the following questions in this blog:
1.- Provide 4 specific features (two foe each) that lead us to state that "This is just to say" (William Carlos Williams) and "[my sweet old etcetera]" (e. e. cummings) ARE poems.
2.- How does "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" (Randall Jarrell) show the inteaction and relationship between culture, language and literature?
Don't forget to support your answer on information you've gathered during the course as well as evidence from the cited poems.
So... thanks for your attention, see you next term, enjoy yourselves and READ!!!
prof. D Durán
Your teacher just told me, off the record, that you were specially eager to show how much you've learned about the analysis of poetry in this course! So... here's the chance you were waiting for... By midnight Monday 13th (that's the DEADLINE!) you are expected to post your response to the following questions in this blog:
1.- Provide 4 specific features (two foe each) that lead us to state that "This is just to say" (William Carlos Williams) and "[my sweet old etcetera]" (e. e. cummings) ARE poems.
2.- How does "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" (Randall Jarrell) show the inteaction and relationship between culture, language and literature?
Don't forget to support your answer on information you've gathered during the course as well as evidence from the cited poems.
So... thanks for your attention, see you next term, enjoy yourselves and READ!!!
prof. D Durán
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Monday July 6th - Poetry Session with D. Durán
Dear Students,
Glad to contact you again! I will be sharing tomorrow's class with you in order to deal with the analysis of poetry. This note is intended to let you know we will be analysing at least three poems: 'This is just to say' by William Carlos Williams, 'my sweet old etcetera' by e. e. cummings, and 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' by Langston Hughes. Please, do prepare for the class: read carefully, research about the authors and the context in which the poems where written / published, revise how language is used, etc. You can also have a look at the questions we posted for the short story session we had a few weeks ago and see how many of them apply to this genre.
Finally, prepare for some assessment activity derived from this particular class.
Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow, enjoy yourselves and... READ!
D Durán
Glad to contact you again! I will be sharing tomorrow's class with you in order to deal with the analysis of poetry. This note is intended to let you know we will be analysing at least three poems: 'This is just to say' by William Carlos Williams, 'my sweet old etcetera' by e. e. cummings, and 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' by Langston Hughes. Please, do prepare for the class: read carefully, research about the authors and the context in which the poems where written / published, revise how language is used, etc. You can also have a look at the questions we posted for the short story session we had a few weeks ago and see how many of them apply to this genre.
Finally, prepare for some assessment activity derived from this particular class.
Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow, enjoy yourselves and... READ!
D Durán
Sunday, June 28, 2009
About Test II
Good Day,
Just a brief note to let you know about the general structure of Test II.
The test will be divided in 4 parts. In part 1, you will have either a matching exercise or a multiple choice exercise so you can show your knowledge about literary terms. I hope you have followed my advice and studied the terms that we provided last term. Remember that acquaintance of those terms is necessary for our sessions on prose and poetry, therefore this is not something new or unexpected to you.
In part 2, just like in our previous test, a number of questions (no more than 3, I expect) will be stated so you provide an analytical, well supported answer, based on what we have discussed in our meetings.
In part 3 you will read some extracts from the texts that have been either discussed in class or that are part of the syllabus in unit 4. The purpose is that you provide information regarding those extracts such as author's name, title of the text, and some elements of those texts which we definitely discussed during our classes.
Finally in part 4, what you like the most: a literary work (which can be either a poem or a short story) will be provided so you can provide a succinct though well supported analysis of that text.
Hope you find this information useful. See you tomorrow.
Just a brief note to let you know about the general structure of Test II.
The test will be divided in 4 parts. In part 1, you will have either a matching exercise or a multiple choice exercise so you can show your knowledge about literary terms. I hope you have followed my advice and studied the terms that we provided last term. Remember that acquaintance of those terms is necessary for our sessions on prose and poetry, therefore this is not something new or unexpected to you.
In part 2, just like in our previous test, a number of questions (no more than 3, I expect) will be stated so you provide an analytical, well supported answer, based on what we have discussed in our meetings.
In part 3 you will read some extracts from the texts that have been either discussed in class or that are part of the syllabus in unit 4. The purpose is that you provide information regarding those extracts such as author's name, title of the text, and some elements of those texts which we definitely discussed during our classes.
Finally in part 4, what you like the most: a literary work (which can be either a poem or a short story) will be provided so you can provide a succinct though well supported analysis of that text.
Hope you find this information useful. See you tomorrow.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Wed. June 10th - Prose Session with D Durán
Dear Students,
It is a pleasure to post these few lines in order to share with you the responsibility of developing next Wednesday's class session. Prof. González has informed me that you have been doing presentations on short stories, so my class will aim at supporting everything you may have been doing these previous weeks. Yet, we have to mention that your work may have been more detailed and comprehensive since you were all dealing with longer stories than the ones I will present to you. Before you proceed in preparing for the class, bring back to your memory the classical story of the Little Red Riding Hood and answer a few questions:
Which genre does this story belong to?
What specific literary form does it exemplify?
Is there a narrator? How is it featured?
From what point of view is the story told?
Who are the main characters?
What is the setting of the story?
What was it about?
What as the tone?
How did the plot go?
How would you decribe the language in the story? How was language used?
Which literary resources are clearly present in the text?
What was the climax?
How was it achieved?
What was the denouement of the story?
Which approach would you consider the most appropriate for its analysis? Why?
Is there any apparent central message in it? If so, which?
Which audience is the story intended for?
In order for us to save some precious time, which we will devote to analysis, you should download, print and carefully read the texts whose hiperlinks you will find just below. (Just CLICK on each link to open files).
Little Red Riding Hood - Versions 1 & 2
Little Red Riding Hood - Version 3
Short Stories 55
I do hope the class will be as enjoyable as its preparation and the readings involved. Thanks for your atention and help. Looking forward to seeing you all there on Wednesday,
D Durán
It is a pleasure to post these few lines in order to share with you the responsibility of developing next Wednesday's class session. Prof. González has informed me that you have been doing presentations on short stories, so my class will aim at supporting everything you may have been doing these previous weeks. Yet, we have to mention that your work may have been more detailed and comprehensive since you were all dealing with longer stories than the ones I will present to you. Before you proceed in preparing for the class, bring back to your memory the classical story of the Little Red Riding Hood and answer a few questions:
Which genre does this story belong to?
What specific literary form does it exemplify?
Is there a narrator? How is it featured?
From what point of view is the story told?
Who are the main characters?
What is the setting of the story?
What was it about?
What as the tone?
How did the plot go?
How would you decribe the language in the story? How was language used?
Which literary resources are clearly present in the text?
What was the climax?
How was it achieved?
What was the denouement of the story?
Which approach would you consider the most appropriate for its analysis? Why?
Is there any apparent central message in it? If so, which?
Which audience is the story intended for?
In order for us to save some precious time, which we will devote to analysis, you should download, print and carefully read the texts whose hiperlinks you will find just below. (Just CLICK on each link to open files).
Little Red Riding Hood - Versions 1 & 2
Little Red Riding Hood - Version 3
Short Stories 55
I do hope the class will be as enjoyable as its preparation and the readings involved. Thanks for your atention and help. Looking forward to seeing you all there on Wednesday,
D Durán
Thursday, May 28, 2009
About the Remedial and Make Up test
As I told you last Monday, you had until Wed. 27th to make up your minds regarding the Remedial test. This Morning, I checked my mails and my cell phone and I received what I suppose is the final number of students that will take the exam. That information was important so I could make arrangements either for tomorrow (morning groups) or Monday during or after classes. The final number of people interested in taking the exams is: 5 in the morning ( Maria Flores, Grecia Albornoz, Gabriela Rincon, Alberto Rodriguez and Ernesto Velasquez) and 2 in the afternoon (Angel Vasquez and Pedro Garcia). That makes possible to have the exam during class session next Monday. While the rest of your classmates are in class, you will take your exam and hopefully, you will join us if you finish before Monday session is over as we agreed early this week.
The structure of the test is the same. You know what to do. Make it worthy.
The structure of the test is the same. You know what to do. Make it worthy.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
About Test I
Next Monday, one of the most dreadful moments for some students in the term will finally arrive. Some of you have shown your concern about this issue during classes. Therefore I am posting this information so you feel less/more worried about your first examination, that depends on the way you see things.
The test will be divided in 3 parts. In part 1, you will be given extracts from texts that have been either discussed in class or that are part of the syllabus in units 1-3. The purpose is that you provide information regarding those extracts such as author's name, title of the text, and some elements of those texts which we definitely discussed during our classes. In part 2 some questions to be answered in an analytical way will be provided. Finally, in part 3 you will read a new text and provide well supported answers about certain basic elements of that text which will not be a very extensive one.
I hope this information has been enlightening. Now you know what will be expected from you.
Have a nice week
The test will be divided in 3 parts. In part 1, you will be given extracts from texts that have been either discussed in class or that are part of the syllabus in units 1-3. The purpose is that you provide information regarding those extracts such as author's name, title of the text, and some elements of those texts which we definitely discussed during our classes. In part 2 some questions to be answered in an analytical way will be provided. Finally, in part 3 you will read a new text and provide well supported answers about certain basic elements of that text which will not be a very extensive one.
I hope this information has been enlightening. Now you know what will be expected from you.
Have a nice week
Friday, May 8, 2009
Oral Presentations
As I promised, I'm uploading the list with the stories that have been chosen by yourselves for the oral presentations. Those who have not yet decided which story to present, have a look at it and please make your decision soon, and soon means no longer than MAY 11th, that is to say, next MONDAY. Let me know about your decision during class session.
Regards
Oral Presentations List
Regards
Oral Presentations List
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Research Papers (The Questions)
As you were told on our first meetings, you are to produce a research paper on the short stories "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", by James Thurber and "The Kugelmas Episode" by Woody Allen. Both writers are important representatives of the American Modern Short Story of the 20th Century.
You have now all what you need to start writing your papers, so get to work. Remember to have a look at the directions and recommendations to write your papers; it does not matter who many times you have written a paper like this, it is always a good idea to check and refresh what you have already been told.
Do your best and START
Questions for Paper
You have now all what you need to start writing your papers, so get to work. Remember to have a look at the directions and recommendations to write your papers; it does not matter who many times you have written a paper like this, it is always a good idea to check and refresh what you have already been told.
Do your best and START
Questions for Paper
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
HIlls Like White Elephants
We read and analyzed 'Hills Like White Elephants' by Ernest Hemingway on our second session. Remember you have an assignment for Wed. 8th, and that is writing a new and more conclusive ending to the story. Do your best. See you after Easter. Enjoy your vacation.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Welcome!
Let's get started and get to work! Last term we had a brief and light introduction to Literature in which we explored the basic terms and concepts for the study of Literature as a discipline. Now, we intend to use those tools to read, appreciate, interpret, and analyse American Authors and their works in Prose, Poetry and Drama.
We hope you will all do your best!!!
We hope you will all do your best!!!
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