BELOVED

That's Be Loved!

Okay, so you obviously have noticed that I'm not in class. I'm stuck in Juneau - perhaps forever (this is were you cheer, stand up and bump each other as if you've knocked down a 3-pt shot.

Overview of the next few weeks (for the AP students0): We're going to look at a few difference theories on literary criticism and write a 2-3 page essays with each. Some of the theories include New Criticism (inspired by Eliot and the one most needed for AP); Historical Criticism (author's life and times - this will be tricky for Toni Morrison because she publishes Beloved in the 80s but the events in the novel take place in the 1880s, so what is it in her life or the time around the 80s that inspires her to write about a time long ago? What in her life appears in the novel?); Feminist Criticism; Deconstructivism ( a postmodern theory developed in the 80s); and Readers' Response (this should be the easiest theory to write an essay using). Just be prepared to write. Looking at last semesters essays we need more analyzation and less "summary" to more into the higher brackets of the AP rubric. Last, we will also be working on the prose selection questions: this is were the AP test gives you a prose passage and asks you to analyze it.
BELOVED is a good novel for prose passages.

Things to NOTE: BELOVED has many references to the BIBLE (you might just find a copy somewhere and begin reading it on your own - unfortunately, I'm serious), slavery and the middle passage (you'll need to research the middle passage, the importance of the Ohio River as a boundary between Kentucky and Ohio (slavery - freedom), and the slave laws and stories about slave hunters (note: think of the slave hunters in Huck Finn), and slave plantations. Question: What does it mean to be free? How does a person go from slavery to being a free person? Is there a transformation? What does it mean to love or be loved? How does the past control our actions (or are we slaves to the past - how do we break free?). Note: some of the book is written in prose poetry. Also Morrison uses many allusions - note the whips on Sethe's back resembling a TREE.

Assignment for today: Find BELOVED textbooks (if you don't already have them) and read the first 20 pages. I want each of you to come up with a theme - what is the book about - and a list of characters.

For AP students I want you also to look at the this site HERE and choose an essay to read and present an overview of in class tomorrow (what is it about, how does it break down the novel, etc.) Please don't pick the same essay.

ASSIGNMENTS: 1) read first 20 pages, come up with a theme and a list of characters; 2) pick out an essay, read it and be able to relate it to the class tomorrow.

BLAKE and DANNY - you just need to do step 1.

GOOD LUCK!!! I look forward to class discussion tomorrow!