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Using Visual Literary Media

-- MoodyComp1

Here are some websites that link to specific texts that I believe are excellent for analyzing or comparing texts:

Frederick Douglass' Narrative:

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/

Black Elk Speaks (testimonial about a Lakota's battle against colonization):

http://blackelkspeaks/unl.edu/blackelk.pdf

These pieces are excellent for the topic of Memoir/Biography as well.---SusanSavageLee

While reading Kafka's "Metamorphosis" for the literary analysis project, I ask my students to do a writing assignment where they place themselves as a character inside the story. They are to develop their character using actions and words, describe their character's function and relationship to the other characters, and explain how the use of this character would change the story (or keep it the same). This way, they start thinking about their reactions to the story, as well as begin thinking about the themes and actions of the story. - Lina Michalewicz

Metamorphosis Video Interpretation

After completeing The Metamorphosis we would watch this one interpretation of the story

We would discuss how Kafka intentionally leaves information out of the story. In comparison, we would discuss how transforming it to a visual medium affects the way the story needs to be told.

Possible questions for in class writing might include:

How does the lack of dialogue force the piece to use alternative means to express some of the themes of the story?

Where does the story change from the written one? Where does it remain the same? How does this affect your interpretation of the story?

The focus of this should revolve around how the story and the telling of the story change in different mediums. Have students imagine telling the story in other forms (music, painting, sculpture, etc.). BrianMcallister

Comparing Analyses of Different Literary Mediums

Have students read one work of prose which exhibits social or cultural issues, and find a poem that they can relate to that work. You can either let them choose a poem or work of prose, or find two of your own that you think could pose interesting questions for them.

My own example is a comparison of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, and Langston Hughes' poem, Song for a Dark Girl.

Here are some sample questions for analysis of these two texts.

How do the characters in each text view their identity as African American children?

-Pecola Breedlove's desire to be white vs. Hughes' appraisal of the subject, for whom the title is directed

What types of relationships surround these children? How might the speaker's relationship to the subject in Hughes' poem differ from Pecola's relationships? How might this affect Hughes' character, hypothetically speaking?

Find different instances in Morrison's which depict Pecola's self-perception. Explicate Hughes' poem in order to compare a negative and positive self-image of the children.

Interpret the importance of physical appearance in each of these poems. How does this relate to children of other races, if at all. Is this an important quality to celebrate in all children?

One major difference in Hughes' poem is that after celebrating the beauty of the "Dark Girl", he makes a turn to her talents, celebrating deeper attributes than her looks: "I would liken you to a sleep without dreams/Were it not for your songs."

Discuss the importance of this turn. Does this make Hughes' celebration of the child's identity more effective?

The Hughes/Morrison comparison is my own idea, but obviously explicating a poem and relating it to a longer text is applicable to a number of topics. I suggest choosing a specific novel and letting students choose their own poem, or vice versa.

- CaitlinFahey

ReadingQuiz for 'In August 2006: There Will Come Soft Rains' -- JamieKinsley