UNIT 1 “THE BYRONIC HERO_ THE TRAGIC HERO_ AND THEIR ...

UNIT 1: “THE BYRONIC HERO, THE TRAGIC HERO, AND THEIR

TEMPTRESSES” (9 WEEKS)

“AN INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY CRITICISM”



MATERIALS: The Great Gatsby; Visual Text Jeff Parker, The Great GAPsby Society (cartoon);

Adam Cohen’s “Jay Gatsby is a Man of Our Times”; ENotes Lesson Plans, Teaching Units,

Activity Packs, Response Journals, and Multiple Perspectives; The Tragedy of Macbeth;

Susan Snyder’s “Introduction to Macbeth”; “I Dream of Oedipus: Freud’s Interpretation of

Macbeth”’; Coleridge’s “Macbeth is Wholly Tragic”; John Updike’s “Tomorrow, Tomorrow

and So Forth”; Robert Frost’s “Out—Out—“; The Language of Composition; How to Read

Literature Like a Professor; selected poems, criticism, essays, and AP test-prep materials



ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

 How does the study of rhetoric inform the study of literature and composition?

 What are the roles of and relationships between the reader, writer, and text?

 How are an author’s style, voice, mood, and tone manifested in written and visual

forms?

 How true is the maxim, “He who controls language controls others?”



QUESTIONS FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION AND WRITING:

1. What is AP? How do AP graders evaluate writing? What is quality AP writing?

2. How does a writer analyze a passage from a novel?

3. What are the Key Elements of Rhetoric?

4. What is The Rhetorical Triangle?

5. What are the Appeals to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos?

6. What is Visual Rhetoric?

7. What is the study of Rhetoric in Literature?

8. What are the Patterns of Development in language and composition?

9. When does Rhetoric Misses the Mark

10. How does one Analyze Style?

11. How does one Annotate using a Dialectical Journal and a Graphic Organizer?

12. How does one perform a Close Reading a Visual Text?

13. How does one Write about a Close Reading?

14. WRITING PROMPT: How is McEwan’s style in Saturday and Setterfield’s style in

Thirteenth Tale

different from McCarthy’s style in The Road?

15. What is an author’s style? How do writer’s limit topics? Who is a writer’s primary

audience?

16. Is the American Dream a reality or a fantasy?

17. SOCRATIC SEMINAR: Are there two Americas? Is morality different between

geographical

areas?

18. WRITING PROMPT: How does Nick construct himself as a narrator? Is reliable?

19. What contradictions are there in the novel? What do these contradictions suggest about

manners, morality?

20. How does our past help or hinder our dreams of the future? How are Nick and Gatsby

similar

and different re: the past?

21. What is Fitzgerald’s style? How does he use Nick as his own narrative voice?

22. What events foreshadow Gatsby’s death?

23. What is the overall structure of the novel? Does it begin where it started?

24. GROUP PRESENTATION: How can the novel be read by a feminist? A Marxist? A

Jungian?

25. What is the purpose Shakespeare’s verse?

26. WRITING PROMPT: Discuss the historical background as to why Shakespeare wrote

Macbeth.

To which monarch did Shakespeare write the play? How does Shakespeare’s tragedy

differ

from the historical account of Duncan’s murder, according to Holinshed’s Chronicles of

Scotland

(as cited in Snyder’s essay)?

27. WRITING PROMPT: Snyder and Coleridge notice the absence of “equivocal morality” in

the

character of Macbeth. What is “equivocal morality”? Who uses it in the play? Why does

Macbeth not use it?

28. WRITING PROMPT: Snyder says the Weird Sisters provide the nouns and Lady Macbeth

the

verbs. What does she mean? Provide examples from the play and/or Snyder’s essay as

support.

29. WRITING PROMPT: How is natural law or natural order disturbed in Macbeth? Discuss

“The

Great Chain of Being” and/or imagery that show a fallen world order. Provide examples

and

quotes from the play or Snyder’s essay as support.

30. How does Macbeth (the play) and Macbeth (the character) conform to the Aristotelian

model of

a tragedy and tragic hero, respectively?

31. Discuss how Lady Macbeth rejects her womanly function. How does Lady Macbeth

challenge

her role as a woman by persuading Macbeth to murder?

32. WRITING PROMPT: How is prose, blank verse, and rhymed verse used in the play?

33. WRITING PROMPT: How is Updike’s story “Tomorrow, Tomorrow and So Forth” a

comedic,

modern microcosm of the play?

34. WRITING PROMPT: How is the tone of Frost’s “Out—Out—“ similar to Macbeth’s

soliloquy in

Act V?



SAMPLE TIMED-WRITING ESSAY QUESTION:



Directions: Below are several numbered questions in boldface. Choose only one of them for

an in-class essay. You have the topics ahead of time in order to organize your thoughts and

pre-write, but your final draft will be hand-written in class. You will only have 55 minutes

to write your essay. You may, of course, use your book and any hand-written notes or pre-

writing materials (no photocopies or typed printouts will be aloud).

1. What is the connection between unnatural (or supernatural) imagery and events

in the play? Note references e.g. to weather, vegetation, animals and birds, sterility and

fertility, disease and health. For Shakespeare, "natural" behavior includes love for one's

family and the loyalty between subject and liege lord; mistreating kinsmen or betraying

one's rightful leader is "unnatural.” Note examples of such "natural" and "unnatural"

behavior (and occurrences of these words and of "nature") in Macbeth…





STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:



 Closely read and annotate a text with a purpose, using dialectical journals and

“Bloom’s Taxonomy” questions

 Discuss literature in class, connecting text-to-self, text-to-community, and text-to-

text

 Write according to an in-class timed-writing / “on demand” process: pre-writing

and annotating a prompt; idea formation; organization of ideas into a thesis-

statement and topic sentences; supporting ideas with textual, personal, historical,

social, cultural examples; revise and edit; submission and publication; peer-editing

 Participate in a Socratic Seminar: reading and annotating a text; formulating low,

mid, and high-level questions; answering one’s questions using textual support;

class discussion of text in class; responding to others’ questions and answers;

supporting one’s ideas with support; tracking one’s participation; tracking questions

and answers in the form of annotated notes

 Write for a variety of audiences and purposes, using a variety of formats and styles

 Complete and peer score sample AP multiple choice critical reading section and an

open-ended essay question



RE: The Great Gatsby, the goals for students are:



1. To expose students to a different era of American life.

2. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the text on four levels: factual,

interpretive,

critical and personal.

3. Students will consider what it means to be successful and/or rich, and the responsibilities

that

accompany success and/or wealth.

4. Students will be given the opportunity to practice reading aloud and silently to improve

their

skills in each area.

5. Students will answer questions to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the

main

events and characters in The Great Gatsby as they relate to the author's theme

development.

6. Students will enrich their vocabularies and improve their understanding of the novel

through the

vocabulary lessons prepared for use in conjunction with the novel.

7. The writing assignments in this unit are geared to several purposes:

a. To have students demonstrate their abilities to inform, to persuade, or

to express their own personal ideas Note: Students will demonstrate ability to write

effectively to inform by developing and organizing facts to convey information.

Students will

demonstrate the ability to write effectively to persuade by selecting and organizing

relevant

information, establishing an argumentative purpose, and by designing an appropriate

strategy for an identified audience. Students will demonstrate the ability to write

effectively

to express personal ideas by selecting a form and its appropriate elements.

b. To check the students' reading comprehension

c. To make students think about the ideas presented by the novel

d. To encourage logical thinking

e. To provide an opportunity to practice good grammar and improve

students' use of the English language.

8. Students will read aloud, report, and participate in large and small group discussions to

improve

their public speaking and personal interaction skills.

9. Explain the following: “Gatsby’s death, like his life, is the product of an illusion.”

10. In your mind, does Gatsby’s “incorruptible dream” cancel out his business activities?

11. Since Gatsby and Wilson both lose the women they love to Tom, they die together. What

does

Tom’s victory represent?

12. Prove that the following is an idea developed in this novel: America’s loss of devotion to

an ideal

has turned the “green land” into an ash heap.

13. In the last chapter, Nick compares the green new world with the green light at the end of

the

dock. How do they represent similar things?

14. In the prologue, we see that Nick has arrived at a definite point of awareness. Trace his

developing consciousness in the novel and comment on how he functions as the

narrator.

15. Explain why Fitzgerald’s style is described as “lushly evocative.”

16. Support the following themes referring to comments and incidents in the novel:

A. The extremely rich are careless, arrogant people who retreat behind their money.

B. While the East may hold more excitement, the Midwest offers continuity and

stability.

C. Some dreams can hold on too long and require too high a price.

D. We spend our lives running to catch the dreams from our past.

E. The life of modern man is loud, raucous, and expensive; like the valley of ashes, it is

a

burnt-out affair with little meaning, significance, or joy.

17. Analyze Nick as an unreliable narrator; distinguish contradictions in his story and the

American

dream

18. Compare the novel of manners with a comedy of manners. What are key differences?

19. Distinguish between realism and fantasy when it comes to dreams from the past and

goals from the future.

20. Distinguish key symbols from the novel; present them to the class dramatically

21. Determine narrative style; present it to the class creatively through imitation

22. Distinguish between the real and the imagined; then classify dreams from events from

the past;

present dramatically

23. Synthesize events leading up to the final chapters; begin to evaluate Gatsby, Nick, and

the

Buchanans morally; present to the class dramatically

24. Analyze and present the novel from multiple perspectives as part of a group project: The

Feminist group; The Jungian/Archetypal group; The Marxist group.

25. Analyze several passages from the novel in order to apply AP and linguistic terms.

26. Analyze Gatsby as a tragic hero, a Byronic hero, and as an anti-hero



Re: Macbeth, the goals for students are:

1. To understand the purpose of Shakespeare’s verse. It is:

•For the stage, not for the page.

•To be heard, not just to be read.

•To be acted out in front of a live audience, not just visualized in the mind.

•Shakespeare never wrote to be published; he wrote for the stage. His actors later

assembled their lines and published his collected works after he died.

2. Students will:

•Practice unraveling uncommonly-structured sentences

•Study the poetic use of uncommon words.

•Actors study Shakespeare’s dialogue and express it dramatically in word and in

action so

that its meaning is graphically enacted.

•If the reader studies Shakespeare’s lines as an actor does, looking up and

reflecting upon the meaning of unfamiliar words until real voice is discovered, he or

she will suddenly experience the excitement, the depth and the sheer poetry of what

these characters say.

3. Understand the following Shakespearean conventions:

 Inversions

 Intentionally vague language

 Puns and wordplay

 Interruptions

 Archaic words, phrases, dialect

 Iambic pentameter

 Monologue vs. Soliloquy

 Poetry (rhymed and unrhymed) vs. prose

4. That Shakespeare reveals his characters through:

1.What characters say to each other

2.What characters say about other characters

3.What characters say to themselves

4.What characters do (actions).

5. Understand that language is power:

•He who controls language, controls others

•Language (argument) is used to attain and maintain position by royalty, between

nations, by clergy in the church.

•Macbeth rises to power through the Captain’s monologue. Duncan doesn’t see him

in battle; he hears of him in battle.

•Macbeth seeks to become King after hearing the witches’ prophecies, writing a

letter to his wife, and through her convincing speech “screw your courage to the

sticking place…”

6. Understand the major forms of imagery:

 Blood

 Birth/children

 Nature/unnatural

 Heaven/hell

 Body parts: hand, head

 Sound

 Weather

 Animal

 Time

 Death/murder

 Appearance vs. reality

 Clothing

7. Understand the language of equivocation:

 By the Witches

 By Macbeth

 By Lady Macbeth

 By Macduff

 By Banquo

8. Listen to a Macbeth audiotape version of the play

9. Watch filmed version of Macbeth and a major motion picture version of the play

10. Complete study guides for Acts I-V as directed thinking-reading activities

11. Scan lines of poetry for iambic pentameter

12. Read aloud as per dramatic voice, character motivation

13. Analyze soliloquies for rhetorical devices

14. Analyze poetry for poetic devices

15. Write journals based on character motivations

16. Analyze Macbeth as tragic hero

17. Analyze role of witches (supply Macbeth with the nouns)

18. Analyze role of Lady Macbeth (supply Macbeth with the verbs)

19. Contrast: Macbeth v. Duncan; Macbeth v. Banquo; Macbeth v. Lady Macbeth;

Macbeth v. MacDuff

20. Analyze the corresponding elements to Aristotle’s triangle logos (prose; the “ego),

ethos (blank verse; the “superego”); pathos (rhymed tetrameter, the “id”)

21. Analyze the use of dramatic, verbal, and situational irony









THE AP TEACHER WILL:

 Provide instruction and feedback on students writing assignments before writing,

during the writing process, and after submission (revision) as to four major areas:

1) Content/Ideas; 2) Organization/Format; 3) Audience/Purpose; 4)

Style/Language

 Provide instruction and feedback for students to read a text using a variety of

approaches, including “Lit Crit” schools: feminist, psychoanalytic, mythological,

formalist, reader-response, existential, New Criticism, etc… For The Great Gatsby, the

focus is on feminism, Marxism, and Jungian/archetypal/mythological approaches.

For Macbeth, the focus is on a Freudian/psychoanalytic approach. For all works:

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

 Provide instruction and feedback for students to read, write, and discuss a text in a

“learning community.” Groups will be formed and roles assigned that facilitate

critical thinking: reader, writer, “quote queen,” reporter, time keeper, wild card,

illustrator/drawer, annotator, prosecution, defense, judge, witness, devil’s advocate,

vocabulary vixen, etc…

 Provide instruction and feedback for students to write complex, compound, and

complex-compound sentences, multi-part theses, idea-based topic sentences,

developed argumentation, lead-ins and follow-ups for quotes, and use of AP terms

and SAT-level vocabulary; and to avoid simple sentences, excessive “be” verbs,

vague language, excessive first person references, second person address, and

logical fallacies.

 Provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before

and after the students revise their work that help the students develop a variety of

sentence structures.

 Provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments, both before

and after the students revise their work that helps develop a balance of

generalization and specific, illustrative detail.

 Provide instruction and feedback for students in the administration of both formal

and summative assessments, both open-ended and multiple-choice formatted tests

and quizzes, both single and dual passage prose analyses, and both single and dual

poem analyses.

 Provide instruction and feedback for students in the development of vocabulary

instruction in the various modes: 1) literary modes; 2) plot; 3) characters; 4)

context; 5) point of view; 6) tone; 7) diction; 8) syntax; 9) poetry; 10) rhetorical

devices

 Provide instruction and feedback for students in their portfolio assessment, giving

them a venue to compile a dynamic body of writing of formal, summative, and

creative writing; to assess their writing at the beginning, middle, and end of the

course; and to encourage them to keep adding to this portfolio as they travel

through post-secondary education.

 Provide instruction and feedback to students in their analysis of grammar,

linguistics, diction, syntax, usage as they apply to the context of the literature, not as

a separate, stand-alone body of exercises.

 Provide instruction and feedback for students to read and write using the language

of rhetoric and the rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos).

 Provide instruction and feedback for students in speech instructions, focusing on

the following skills: 1) eye contact; 2) body language; 3) vocal variety and

expression; 4) enunciation and pronunciation; 5) poise; 6) appeals to audience and

purpose; 7) organization of ideas; 8) logical fallacies