Winter Reading Assignment
TASK: Choose one of the following pieces of literature to read over winter break. I have compiled a rather wide array of literature; everything from the depths of hell (Inferno) to the tragic (Death of a Salesman) to the comedic (Shakespearean comedy) to the nostalgic (To the Lighthouse). There is something for everyone on this list. This assignment is due January 23rd (Friday).
LiteratureDante Alighieri, InfernoWilliam Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
*Virginia Woolf, To the LighthouseTom Stoppard, Arcadia
Robert Penn Warren, All the Kings MenArthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
Shakespearean comedy (not MAAN)Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Ralph Ellison Invisible ManSophocles, Oedipus Rex
Cormac McCarthy : Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Road
Ernest Hemmingway: The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Farewell to Arms
Any other novel written by: Joseph Conrad, Alduous Huxley, etc…
**If you want to read another book of literary merit, be sure to have it approved first by Mr. Evans
*=in school bookroom for easy checkout
-note: I have provided some introductions for a few of these pieces of literature (bolded). Due to time constraints, I, unfortunately, could not put together introductions for all of them. If you have a question either before, during, or after reading, please feel free to ask me. As you know, I am always more than happy to discuss literature.
AssignmentAnswer the attached AP Free Response essay prompt. As you read, keep Barthes’ statement in mind, and read to answer that question. The paper can be written or typed, but should answer the question thoroughly.
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Inferno(“Comedy” refers to the 2 different types of writing: tragedy and comedy. Comedy would relate to a story that goes from unhappy beginnings to happy endings)
Introduction
Author:Dante Alighieri: Born in 1265 and died in 1321
About the Inferno: The Inferno’s interest is intertwined with political, historical and literary landmarks of Dante’s time. Further, it addresses man’s role in relation to a higher being, and the perception of this role through the eyes of medieval thought. Drama’s of false transcendence
Characters:Dante the Pilgrim: The journeyman who follows Virgil through the depths of hell to witness the suffering of literary/historical/political figures who suffer in hell for the sins they committed on earth. Initially, Dante the pilgrim meets the sinners with a sympathetic regard, eventually he realizes the significance of the sins they committed and realizes their debt must be paid.
Virgil: Dante’s guide and the author of The Aeneid, an epic about the fall of Troy and the subsequent founding of Rome. Although Virgil is dead and is condemned to hell because he was alive before Christ, he is asked to lead Dante through this spiritual journey.
Themes: contrapasso- law of appropriate retribution—transgression in life are mirrored in eternal punishment
Symbols: 3: written in terza rima: 3 line stanzas with the following rhyme scheme aba, cbc, dcd, ede,, divine trinity, 3 bests assail Dante, etc…
Important definitions/quotes/medieval ideologies (taken from James T. Chiampi, 2003)
-God as the summum Bonum- highes good, the good above all good: omnibenevolent, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient
-Will- a faculty of the soul or mind which has as its object the good, intellect- a faculty of soul or mind which has as its object the truth. According to medival philosophical thought, if we have an infinite will, there has to be an infinite object to satisfy this will—this is the summum bonum.
-we can only choose an object as good or under the guise of good, we cannot choose evil
-God was also the ens realissimum—the most real entity
-senses usurp the role of intellect when we perceive a human object as the real—confuses ontological priority which equates to original sin
-absolutetizing- when we make that for the sake of which we do what we do—sin when we make something that is not God the highest of our admiration
-nothing created can be an absolute because it changes
-reality cannot deliver on it being set up as an absolute
-in our attempt to absolutize ourselves by choosing an absolute, we shrink ourselves
-Happiness-perfect self-sufficient existence—creating paradises for ourselves
-Boethius-
What an upside-down state of affairs when man, divine by his gift of reason, thinks his excellence depends on lifeless brick-a-brack.
-Man’s glance is suppose to look upwards, looking down suggests the acceptance of the earthly, material, objects of life
-Concupiscence- split between knowing and willing—victory of desire
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner
Author:Born September 25, 1897 and died and died July 6, 1962. Faulkner, in the mold of Twain, Fitzgerald, Longfellow (to name a few), composes not only novels, but stories that reflect the struggle and strain of American families. Most of his novels reflect that mindset of southern families in the post-civil war era; how does a family, or even a region deal with loss of family members, loss of a lifestyle, and even the loss of a war. Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1944.
As I Lay Dyingis anovel about the struggle of one family, the Bundrens, to bury their dead mother with her family. They must take a trip to Jackson, a considerable distance from their home, and must transport her dead and decaying body across the countryside, persevering through floods, fires, vultures, and family crisis. Told through a unique form of narration, each member of the family narrates chapters from their own unique perspective. This allows for a first person omniscient form of narration, for we get the perspective of each individual separate from the others, but wholly personal.
CharactersCash: The oldest of the brothers. His carpentry begins an eerily morbid first few pages as his mother, Addie, watches him make her coffin. He is a quiet but powerful brother who sacrifices to make the journey.
Darl: Second Bundren child, most articulate and seemingly most sane. His frustration at the trip and the seemingly disrespect of it toward their mother causes him considerable stress, compelling him to act irrationally.
Jewel: The bastard child of Addie, the mother, and Whitfield the minister. The most internal of the brothers.
Dewy Dell: The only Bundren daughter. Her trip to Jackson has special significance for she has been impregnated and seeks help. Her hesitation toward all mean reflects her reluctance to have the baby.
Vardaman: The youngest child.
Addie and Anse Bundren: The mother and father. Ironically, though the mother dies shortly into the novel, she seems to be more active then her husband.
Themes:Transitory nature of existence, tension between language and thoughts, perceptions manipulation of reality,
Symbols:Animals, Addie’s coffin
To the Lighthouse
Virgina Woolf
AuthorVirginia Woolf (1882-1941) established herself not only as one of the most influential women writers of the 20th century, but also as a leading pen in the modernist movement. Victim to mental illness, she died when she filled her pockets with stones and walked into a lake.
To the LighthouseThrough an analysis and focus on our protagonist’s plight as a female in society, we realize the comment on the position of females in society. Woolf’s rhythmic prose allows us to discuss the sound of the language and how irony is communicated through diction. This text is provided by the library for checkout.
CharactersLily Briscoe: A woman who befriends the Ramsay’s during vacation on the Isle of Skye, she is a painter. Lily begins a painting of Mrs. Ramsay at the beginning of the novel, and her attempt to finish it is undermined by men’s constant opinions of it being worthless.
Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay: Mr. Ramsay’s tyrant like behavior is juxtaposed with Mrs. Ramsays calm and loving demeanor.
Themes:The impermanence of life and work, art as a means for self preservation, art as a representation of life, beauty
Symbols:The lighthouse, Lily’s painting