September 29, 2010 Archives

Analysis means breaking something down into components.

• In chemistry, components are elements that combine in different ways to form different compounds. 
• The components of a literary work include word choice, tone, characterization, setting, theme, historical context (what was going on in history), symbolism, personification, contrast, repetition, and so forth. (Foster is a great source for more on that.)

The word "essay" means "try," to put forth exploratory effort.

Analytical Essay (Close Reading)

• Length: Between 400 and 500 words.
• Subject: Any one work (or no more than two short poems) we have examined in class.
• Goal: Use brief quotations from the work to support a debatable interpretation of a specific passage (a few lines of poetry, a few exchanges of dialogue or no more than a page in prose).
• Submit: Upload to Turnitin.com.
  

Tips

• Chapter V: Discipline
• Chapter VII: Spirit

Read:

• Wikipedia on John Henry
• NPR's coverage: John Henry Present at the Creation (9 min)
  
• John Henry the Steel Driving Man 
  This page offers several different versions -- some of which may play on your computer, and some which might not. (Feel free to explore and experiment, if you would like more audio, but if you can't hear any particular file, don't worry -- just move on.)
  
• Read this early version of the song, 
• Look also at the four later versions that the site offers.
• From the above selection, choose two versions of the song to study
• Come to class with a one-paragraph statement that characterizes the textual differences between your chosen texts.
  

1. In what ways is the John Henry story a tall-tale?
   
2. How is it social commentary?
   
3. Is it primarily a story about technology, or about race? (Is it too simplistic to say "both"?)
4. What else do you find worth discussing?

Write a single blog entry -- I'm not asking for separate responses to each item.