For Thursday (September 30)

Your goal for Thursday is to do a "Proppian" analysis of the Russian fairy tale that I distributed in class.

First, read through the fairy tale. Next, consult the list of Propp's 31 narrative functions. (If you're a little fuzzy about what they mean - - try checking our class notes.) Now return to the fairy tale.

List the Proppian functions you can find in the fairy tale. Use a numbered list with the title of the function, eg. "1. Absententation: the father goes off somewhere," etc.

You should come to class with a list of functions discovered in the fairy tale.

For Thursday (September 23)

Phase II of the Carver project, which means:

1) move your individual discussion questions to a separate page ("under" the main story page) and put your three group discussion questions on your main story page;

2) choose at least two stories (besides your own) from our list ("The Bath," "Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit," "So Much Water So Close to Home," "A Serious Talk," "Popular Mechanics," "I Could See the Smallest Things," or "Tell the Women We’re Going") and read them;

3) go to the story page for your two stories and answer the discussion questions (n.b. try to keep track of how many people have answered the discussion questions - - if eight of your comrades have already answered the questions, move on to another set) in a paragraph of two for each one;

4) come to class on Thursday prepared to discuss the stories.

For Thursday (Sept. 16)

For Thursday, we'll read Ray Carver's short story, "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love."

Also, be sure to choose your story from the Carver collection - - the story that you want to own. You should choose from one of the following stories: "The Bath," "Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit," "So Much Water So Close to Home," "A Serious Talk," "Popular Mechanics," "I Could See the Smallest Things," or "Tell the Women We’re Going."

Finally, since some of you have indicated some confusion about what your Joyce annotations should look like, I've added an example to the Joyce assignment page.

For Tuesday (September 14)

For Tuesday, we'll discuss Raymond Carver's story, "Why Don't You Dance?"

Don't forget - - you have an assignment on Joyce's Dubliners due for Thursday, Septbember 16.

And, it's always worthwhile to check on our class notes and the excellent work of your comrades!

Joyce Assignment

I mentioned our final assignment for Joyce. You can find it here on the class wiki. It's due: Thursday, September 16.

Don't forget: for tomorrow, Thursday, September 9, we'll start reading the Carver collection - - let's begin with the story "Viewfinder."

For Tuesday (Sept. 7)

Instead of starting the Carver collection, we'll read one more Joyce short story from Dubliners - - "An Encounter." Be sure that you get the Carver collection by Thursday. Also, nota bene, let's start our class discussion with the short story - - "Viewfinder."

Urgent: for Tursday (9/2)

Important: syllabus change. We'll be reading Joyce's "Araby" instead of "The Dead."