American War Short Story

AGENDA:

Work on "American War" short story--do research, collect materials, etc. for narrative "interruptions"--be sure such "interruptions" help to further your plot and characterization as important back story or setting information.

American War Short Story Assignment

Nonlinear narrative/Metafiction/Intertextuality

AGENDA:

EQ: What is accomplished by a nonlinear narrative scheme (see question 2)

Definitions:
Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, hypertext websites and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example out of chronological order, or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the events featured, such as parallel distinctive plot lines, dream immersions or narrating another story inside the main plot-line. It is often used to mimic the structure and recall of human memory, but has been applied for other reasons as well.

Metafiction is a literary device used self-consciously and systematically to draw attention to a work's status as an artifact. It poses questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually using irony and self-reflection. It can be compared to presentational theatre, which does not let the audience forget it is viewing a play; metafiction forces readers to be aware that they are reading a fictional work. 

Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text. Intertextual figures include:allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody.^[1][2][3] Intertextuality is a literary device that creates an ‘interrelationship between texts’ and generates related understanding in separate works (“Intertextuality”, 2015). These references are made to influence that reader and add layers of depth to a text, based on the readers’ prior knowledge and understanding. Intertextuality is a literary discourse strategy (Gadavanij, n.d.) utilised by writers in novels, poetry, theatre and even in non-written texts (such as performances and digital media). Examples of intertextuality are an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text, and a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.
Intertextuality does not require citing or referencing punctuation (such as quotation marks) and is often mistaken for plagiarism (Ivanic, 1998). Intertextuality can be produced in texts using a variety of functions including allusion, quotation and referencing (Hebel, 1989). However, intertextuality is not always intentional and can be utilised inadvertently. As philosopher William Irwin wrote, the term “has come to have almost as many meanings as users, from those faithful to Kristeva’s original vision to those who simply use it as a stylish way of talking about allusion andinfluence.

Your assignment:

Write a short story of at least 5 pages that:

1. Has a historical background of your choice--

2. Explores multiple narrative lines
a. traditional 3rd person narrative

b. possible prologue from narrator  telling the story about the protagonist

c. Intertextuality:
Evidence paragraphs or sections--quotes, interviews, newspaper clippings, historical facts, documents, etc.



HMWK:  finish american War. Prepare for test on Ameerican War on Monday, Feb. 25

American War

AGENDA:

Reading quiz: Answer the questions on the reading quiz for American War.   (Open book)

BLOG POST: Respond to questions 5-8 from previous post of discussion questions

REVISING, EDITING: With a partner, work on revising and editing a final copy of your two Qualities

HMWK: Read Ch. 7 and 8

Book of Qualities

AGENDA:

Grammar:  Do Verb Quizzes

Continue to work on your Book of Qualities "Portraits"

Ruth Gendler The Book of Qualities

AGENDA:

Grammar practice:

http://www.grammaruntied.com/blog/?page_id=1344

The Qualities

Create two "quality" personifications similar to the ones that Ruth Gendler has written.  Go to Gendler's website for examples.
Select an emotion and give it the qualities of a human being--personification!  How does this emotion act, "feel", live?  Who are friends of this emotion?  What does this emotion look like physically (if he or she were a person)?  Use vivid DESCRIPTION to PERSONIFY this emotion.

Those of you who would like to can also draw a picture of your "character" and we will try to publish a class book of "The Qualities" at the end of the marking period

American War:  Read to Part II, pg. 86

Post a blog comment to Questions 1-4 from the previous post

American War Omar El Akkad/New semester

AGENDA:

EQ: What are the major themes of El Akkad's novel American War ?

--an introduction to the novel and the master class

Period 3: Introduction to American War
Master class with Omar El Akkad on March 27

Read excerpt, view Ted talk, interview. POST COMMENT ON BLOG ABOUT CH. 1 ON NPR EXCERPT.

audiobook--Ch. 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7Nt9I8tB4

NPR: HTTPS://WWW.NPR.ORG/BOOKS/TITLES/522230830/AMERICAN-WAR

HTTPS://CURIO.CA/EN/VIDEO/CANADA-READS-2018-OMAR-EL-AKKAD-ON-AMERICAN-WAR-16819/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntq66ojdoh4

https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/4/27/15420306/polarization-politics-american-war-omar-el-akkad

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/books/review-american-war-omar-el-akkad.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/books/review/american-war-omar-el-akkad.html

Period 4: WRITING: work on completing enchanted stories for workshop

AMERICAN-WAR READERS GUIDE:

The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of American War, a darkly prescient tale of a country, and a world, torn apart by war in the late twenty-first century, and the young heroine whose commitment to her family takes on the epic proportions of the second installment of America’s battle against itself.

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. The novel’s epigraphs are taken from two classic texts, an ancient Arabic book of poems and the Bible. What do the quotes and their sources suggest about the conflict that will follow in the novel?

2. Were you surprised by the way the map of the United States has been altered—the states’ borders and the landmasses themselves—in the projections for 2075? What do you think caused those changes; was it solely politics or other forces as well?

3. What does the first-person narrator we meet in the prologue explain—and not explain—about how the country has changed, the timeline of the Second American Civil War itself, and the unnamed “she” who has stayed in his memory since his youth?

4. What is the significance of Sarat’s changing of her own name when she’s a girl? How does that sense of agency and identity develop as she gets older? How does her having a twin sister fit into your understanding of her independence and actions?

5. The novel presents many different laws, agencies, and other government entities for the future America. Which did you find to be most plausible, including as sources for political conflict that would escalate into war? Are any similar to real-life policies as you’re reading about them today?

6. Describe the dynamic of the Chestnut family, parents and children. What’s similar and what’s different about domestic life in their world versus today’s and during the time of the first Civil War?

7. How pervasive is the allegiance to the Free Southern State where the Chestnuts live and throughout the cordoned region? What threats do those who disagree with the cause face?

8. How closely do the events and details of the Second American Civil War follow those of the first and/or other historical events in American history? After you finished the novel, were you more or less likely to think another such conflict could happen again in this way, on a national or global scale?

9. How do the interludes of primary source texts—textbook excerpts, government reports, notebooks, letters, etc.—enhance the personal story of Sarat and her family, in terms of the motives for and timeline of the war on a micro and macro level?

10. What gender stereotypes persist in the future between the young girls and boys, especially once the family reaches Camp Patience? How does Sarat push back against expectations of what she can and cannot do, including in contrast to her sister and brother?

11. How does the novel complicate the meaning of “home,” in a personal and national level? Does where and how a character lives at any given point determine his or her sense of security or belonging, or does this feeling come from somewhere else?

12. Sarat sees on Albert Gaines’s, a northerner’s, map different kinds of borders and observes, “To the north the land looked the same but she knew there existed some invisible fissure in the earth where her people’s country ended and the enemy’s began.” (163) How did such fissures form, and what does the outcome of the war and novel suggest about their ability to be healed?

13. How does Sarat’s plight speak to Gaines’s statement that “the first thing they try to take from you is your history”? (150)

14. What defines one’s sense of “belief” in the novel? Are people more motivated by personal beliefs, or by more institutional ones like religion or politics?

15. How are certain characters in the novel mythologized? What does this do to their day-to-day existence and their legacy? How do the mythic characters in the book parallel historical figures in what they’re remembered for and how?

16. Discuss the sequence of events and outcomes of the plague. How does that kind of warfare reflect advancements in society as well as the sense of humanity’s worth?

17. What is the role of love in the novel? By the story’s conclusion, does the idea of love conquering all still apply, or does revenge supersede it?

18. Many historians consider the first Civil War to have been a battle of the past (the South) versus the future (the North). Do those distinctions apply to the Second American Civil War, and what does this say about the future—and present—of the country and those running it?

Daily Grammar Website

http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html