March 25

Approximately 2.5-hour class plan

Nights Below Station Street

Housekeeping:  (Suggested: 5-10 Minutes)

1)      Short Papers

1. Grad School Option

2)      Upcoming Work

• In the second half of the semester we will be reading two long novels and working on our group presentations and our final research papers.

Here is a basic rundown of what to expect:

• Tonight:

David Adams Richard: Nights Below Station Street

Identify our groups for our Group Presentations (10% of your final grade)

• April 1^st

We begin three weeks on Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Select Topics for Group Presentations. These will occur during our final two class periods before the final exam.

• April 8:

We will continue with “The Handmaid’s Tale”

We will begin work on our long research papers (30% of your final grade)

This paper will build on your short research paper. It will propose a mature literary argument capable of sustaining the intense critical scrutiny of your peers. The length will be 7-8 pages, and you will need to use 8-10 peer-reviewed secondary sources.

• April 15

We will finish “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Will work on topics for group presentations/ long papers

• April 22

We will begin three weeks of work on Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

• April 29

More with Life of Pi

Group Presentations

• May 6

We will conclude Life of Pi

Group Presentations

Review for the final exam, which will be substantial

Final Papers will be due on the day of the final exam – I have to double check the exact date.

Nights Below Station Street:

Who is he? What is a the “GG” award, anyway?

Part One: Experience

In-Class Writing: (Suggested: 10 minutes)

Take the next ten minutes to collect your thoughts on David Adams Richards Nights Below Station Street. What do you remember from the reading? What stands out to you? Are there any particular aspects of the story that you found to be interesting or intriguing? Why?

Small Group Discussion: (Suggested: 10 minutes)

Share your writing with one another, and then come up with a group statement in response to the following questions: How is this version of “Canada” different from or similar to other versions that we have encountered this semester? Use good specific details.

Group Presentations: (Suggested: 5-10 minutes)

General Class Discussion: (Suggested: 10 minutes)

5:50: Break

Part Two: Analysis

Breaking up the story: (Suggested: 10-15 minutes)

Let’s break the story down into major character, events, and settings, themes, and motifs. Find good descriptive details to associate with each of these subjects. We will do this in two groups.

Time line of events.

Group Presentations: (5-10 minutes)

What did you find? What was important? What kinds of conclusions can be begin to make about this reading?

Part Three: Evaluation

So, in this class the basic standards we have for evaluation so far are

• Frye’s Garrison Mentality Theory

• Anderson’s Nationalism Theory

• Atwood’s Survival Theory

But we also have the other stories we have read this semester as well, and we can begin to compare and contrast these works with each other.

In your jounrnals:

Consider Nights Below Station Street against one theory and two short stories we have considered so far, come up with a group statement you can send one person from your group to present to the rest of the class on the foll

I want you to answer the following question and be able to present it to the class:

Consider Nights Below Station Street against one theory and two short stories we have considered so far, come up with a group statement you can send one person from your group to present to the rest of the class on the foll

What are some meaningful connections you can make between this text and the other readings we have done this semester?

Part Four Synthesis:

We will start our Lab

Cheryl Lousley argues..

Frank Davey “interprets the gap between the knowledge of Richards’ characters and narrator as”condescension” {Post-National 78). He argues that the “large superiority in
linguistic power the narrator and novelist enjoy over their characters opens
a wide political gap in the text [T]he book’s characters . . . are construed
. . . as better off leading passive, acquiescent, non-constructive, geographically
limited lives” (78).

Do we agree with this? What do you think? Take a few moments to journal, and they we will go around and share our thoughts on this.  We need to be using our findings from our analysis and evaluation to back up our claims.

Lousley also points out that…

Janice Kulyk Keefer… argues that Richards’ depiction of poverty involves an immediacy and totality that serves to elicit empathy for individuals and provide an understanding of the historically and regionally specific condition of their poverty. The text “reveals… the degradation of human life and the despoiling of the natural world are not mere fait accomplis—alternatives exist, however shakily. For the reader to merely shrug them oif is to become complicit in the very degradation and despohation this fiction represents” (175).

Do we agree with this? Again, let’s journal for a few moments and then discuss.

Lousley ends with the following observation: What do we think about it? Why do we think what we think?

The force of this novel lies in bringing to public light material conditions and
underpinning relations that are usually discounted and invisible—and
giving this knowledge moral significance. Richards’ use of repetition and
structural discontinuity underscores how the material relations of place
and history are neither simple nor self-evident. The reader must actively
work at making sense of the disjointed narrative. As Philip Milner notes,
the demands placed on the reader are the focus of many of the early reviews
and criticism of Richards’ fiction: he cites one reviewer who asks, “Why is
Richards making me work so hard?” (202, italics in original).

It seems to me that a good place to end up with this story tonight is with a very famous poem by a British poet named John Keats.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

THOU still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape	5
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?	10
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave	15
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!	20
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!	25
For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.	30
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,	35
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.	40
O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!	45
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’	50

Let’s reflect on this poem for a moment — what’s going on here?

Discussion.

So — my question for you tonight is this: Do you think you are likely to find the Grecian Urn at Zellers?

Your Homework for next time is to read and annotate the first third of The Handmaid’s Tale

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