photo by Marilyn Julius

Cliffdwellers (1913) 
by George Bellows

Blue and Green Music, 1919. 
Georgia O'Keeffe

 
Sargent, John Singer
Madame Gautreau c. 1884

The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Usage Pre-Test
Vocabulary Unit Three

Baltimore Presentations

Baltimore Links

Homework:

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Usage Pretest
Vocabulary Unit Three

Work in class on Baltimore Presentations

Homework:

 Baltimore Presentations

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photos by Marilyn Julius

Usage Pretest
Vocabulary Unit Three

Begin Baltimore Presentations

Homework:

Baltimore Presentations

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photos by Marilyn Julius

Baltimore Presentations

Homework:

Prepare Presentations:
Intellectual Backgrounds to Modern Consciousness

• Marx 
• Darwin 
• Freud 
• Nietzsche 
• Study Guide

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Freiderich Nietzsche
(1844-1900)

Sigmund Freud 1856-1939

Baltimore Presentations

Prepare Presentations:
Intellectual Backgrounds to Modern Consciousness

• Marx 
• Darwin 
• Freud 
• Nietzsche 
• Study Guide

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Karl Marx 1818-1883

Charles Darwin 1809-1882

Modernism Presentations

Quiz: Backgrounds to Modernism: Nietzsche, Darwin, Freud and Marx

• Marx 
• Darwin 
• Freud 
• Nietzsche 
• Study Guide

Homework:

Mid-19th Century Vision of the City: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman

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Cliffdwellers  (1913) George Bellows

The Hairdresser's Window (1907) John Sloane

Mid-19th Century Vision of the City: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman

Stephen Crane: Maggie A Girl of the Streets (1892)

• Essay on Maggie due next Wednesday at 3:30 pm.
• Realism and Naturalism: The Ashcan School in Painting (Powerpoint)
• Realism vs. Naturalism (narrative perspective)
• naturalism: the idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world (OED) 
• Introduction to Stephen Crane (Crane's journalism: "An Experiment in Misery")

• Read Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (part one) Study Guide

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Typical Toughs (1890) Jacob Riis

5 Cents a Spot (1890) Jacob Riis

A Black and Tan Dive (1890) Jacob Riis 

42 Kids (1907) George Bellows

Stag at Sharkey's (1909) George Bellows

• Overview: What are we to make of Crane’s brutal ridicule of the poor? Is his stereotyping justifiable? What does he find most contemptible about Jimmie, Pete and Maggie?
• Describe the situation of children who grow up in the Rum Alley ghetto. 
• Can you pinpoint a moment in Jimmie’s development when he could have altered the final shape of his character?
• Can you pinpoint a moment in Maggie's development into adulthood when she could have altered the final shape of her character?
• Look carefully at the moment when Maggie realizes the future which awaits her in the factory. Has she recognized her situation in life?  Is Pete her route out of the ghetto? Does she have any other options?
• What is the only virtue which Mary Johnson possesses? Why is this particular virtue so important to tenement culture? 

Another essay altogether:

Melodrama and Maggie: Think about what Crane is up to when he describes Maggie's reaction to seeing the melodrama show.  Remember that Maggie herself is a character in a melodrama. Is he hinting at a way for her to escape the plot in which she is enmeshed? Should she behave like the character with whom she identifies in the show?

Definition of Melodrama: a stage play, usually romantic and sensational in plot, and interspersed with songs, in which the action is accompanied by orchestral music appropriate to the various situations (now hist.). Later (as the musical element ceased to be regarded as essential): a play, film, or other dramatic piece characterized by exaggerated characters and a sensational plot intended to appeal to the emotions.

Homework:

Read Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (part two) Study Guide

Creative Writing ala Crane

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Henri, Robert
Salome 1909
Mead Art Museum

Essay on Maggie due Wednesday 3:30 pm.

Discuss Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (part two) Study Guide

• What is the primary obstacle to Maggie achieving the insight necessary to understand her situation? What makes her unable to accomplish this goal? Do you hold her responsible?
• What could Maggie have learned from Nellie? Would that have saved her?
• What has Maggie realized at the moment that she is dumped by Pete? What options does Maggie have at this point? 
• Could Maggie have done anything to interrupt this slide down the slippery slope?

Homework:

Rough Draft Maggie Essay

For further study: Silent Film Melodramas

• The Little Matchgirl (1902) a silent melodrama
• D.W. Griffith, Way Down East (1920) starring Lillian Gish
• D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation Clip 1 (1915)
• Alfred Hitchcock, Blackmail and Easy Virtue (1927)

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Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Daumier, Melodrama Show (1860

Essay on Maggie due Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. 

Discuss Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (part two) Study Guide

1. Marx: Maggie belongs to a class which Marx called the lumpen proletariat: that layer of the working class which is unable to gain class consciousness; on her own, she is doomed. What would Maggie need to understand to achieve this consciousness? How does the Marxist believe that culture helps keep the working class in its place?
2. Darwin: Social Darwinist thinkers loosely combined Darwin's conception of  Natural Selection with liberal economic theory to argue that some races and ethnicities were losing out in the struggle for survival and therefore deserved to be allowed to die off. Other more radical Social Darwinists argued that poverty bred contagious social threats which needed to be medically removed. Is Crane a Social Darwinist?
3. Freud: Freudian theory held that children traumatized in their development would struggle to establish independence when they reached adulthood. Can Maggie be treated? 
4. Nietzsche: Nietzsche argued that people should overcome their rational and religious qualms about taking the necessary action to establish one's own power over others. Who would Maggie need to become to achieve such power?
5. Liberal: How would liberals respond to Maggie's dilemma?

Homework:

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Modernism Independent Projects:

William Carlos Williams, The Great Figure; The Red Wheelbarrow

From Realism to Naturalism to Modernism (Powerpoint)
Introduce Independent Projects on American Modernism
The Zeitgeist of Modernism  
 

Homework:

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The Voice of the City of New York Interpreted: The Bridge, 1920-22. Joseph Stella

Modernism Independent Projects:

Introduce Independent Projects on American Modernism

The Zeitgeist of Modernism  

Check out the Thomson Gale Literature Resources Center or JSTOR on the Gilman On-line Database Page.  

Homework:

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Introduce Independent Projects on American Modernism

The Zeitgeist of Modernism  

Homework:

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Foghorns (1907) by Arthur Dove

Independent Projects on American Modernism 

The Zeitgeist of Modernism  

Homework:

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The Zeitgeist of Modernism  

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Langston Hughes (1925)

The Zeitgeist of Modernism  

Powerpoint Projects: Independent Projects on American Modernism

Internet Citation Machines:

Homework:

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Powerpoint Projects: Independent Projects on American Modernism 

Reminder: Do not quote the critics you have read. (You are not doing a report on the criticism. Instead, use the critics ideas to help your own ideas gel. Put the ideas in your own words. Cite your source if you use a critic's idea.)

Internet Citation Machines:

Honor in Writing at Gilman

Homework:

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The Great Gatsby (1925) Dust Jacket Illustration by Francis Cugat

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald,newlyweds,  3 April 1920

20's Fashion Styles (See Flapper Fashions)

Final Draft of Modernism Project due at 3:30 pm

Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald:

The Great Gatsby (1925) Romance or Tragedy?

Homework:

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The map (1917) shows the locations of Fitzgerald's imaginary West Egg and East Egg, as well as of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Estates on West Egg and East Egg

Homework:

The Great Gatsby, Chapter Two (27-42) Study Guide

For further reading:

• Original Title: "Trimalchio" from  The Satyricon by Petronius (excerpt); parvenu (OED)
• "A Flappers Appeal to Her Parents" by Ellen Welles Page in Outlook Magazine (1922)
• The Lost Generation (Atlantic Monthly Dec. 1992)
• Gatsby Links

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Twenty Minute Essay: Prompt One
Twenty Minute Essay: Prompt  Two

Zelda at age 18

The Flapper illustration by John Held from Life Magazine 1922

Fitzgerald's Symbolism:

How does Daisy respond when she hears that Gatsby is living nearby?

Central Image: Daisy's Voice: The Nightingale and The Reality. What does the image of the nightingale have to do with Fitzgerald’s conception of Daisy (and the American Dream)?  (Listen to Fitzgerald Reading Keats' “Ode to a Nightingale”(1819) (8-bit / RealAudio))

The Great Gatsby, Chapter Two (27-42) Study Guide

Paragraph: What do you make of the symbolism Fitzgerald uses in his depiction of the Valley of Ashes? How is the valley connected to the opulent life on East Egg and West Egg?  How is Myrtle an appropriate match for Tom?  How does this sad, drunken binge fit into Fitzgerald’s overall purpose in the novel?
 

Homework:

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Lylian Tashman (Getty Images)

Anita Loos

Paragraph: Party #3: Describe the Gatsby party machine in action. Why has Gatsby invited Nick to the party? What does he talk about with Jordan? (She won't tell Nick.) Why has Gatsby been throwing all these parties?!

Paragraph: Gatsby and Nick Drive to New York: Lunch With Meyer Wolfsheim.  What picture of Gatsby's character is beginning to emerge for Nick and for you as we learn more and more about him?

Paragraph: How about Nick? What is happening in his life? Where is his relationship with Jordan, Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby leading him?

Homework:
 

"A Flapper's Appeal to Her Parents" (1922)

1927 Rolls Royce Phantom Roadster

Paragraph: What happens to Gatsby moments after he has achieved his dream? Why is he so bewildered?

Paragraph: What version of American History is Fitzgerald teaching us when we finally learn the true biography of Jay Gatsby?

Paragraph: After the party, Nick realizes that Daisy and Gatsby's relationship is finished, but Gatsby will never accept that fact.  Where has Gatsby's dream gone wrong? Why, by the 1920's, has the American Dream gone awry?

Music mentioned in the text:

Homework:

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Al Capone (Getty Images)

Paragraph: Unpack the meaning of the action's catastrophe. Consider the details: the heat, the reprise of details from earlier in the novel, Gatsby and Tom's confrontation, and the mistaken identities which lead to Myrtle's death. All the strands of the novel come together. Was the action fated to end in this way? How does the scene relate to Fitzgerald's overall intention?

Homework:

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The Great Gatsby (1925) Dust Jacket Illustration by Francis Cugat

Homework:

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Essay on The Great Gatsby due at 3:30 pm.

Introduction to Tennessee Williams and The Glass Menagerie (1944)

Part One: Preparation for a Gentleman Caller

Homework: 

Read Williams, The Glass Menagerie, Scenes 1-2 (pp.1-36) 

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Part One: Preparation for a Gentleman Caller

Homework: 

Read Williams, The Glass Menagerie, Scenes 3-5 (pp.37-67) 

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The Post-War Liberal Consensus
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
 

Homework:

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The Post-War Liberal Consensus 
Essay on Death of a Salesman (due on Thursday May 5th at 3:30 pm)
The "Well Made Play" Engine: The Day the Thunderstorm Breaks
Discuss Act One of Death of a Salesman (Study Guide)
Video: Death of A Salesman (1967) Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock

Homework:

for further reading:

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Stage Directions (pp 11-12)

Scene Analysis Projects: Act One of Death of a Salesman (Study Guide)  

Homework:

Dream Monologue in your character's voice

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Essay on Death of a Salesman (due on  Tuesday May 1st  at 3:30 pm) 

Scene Analysis Projects

Dream Monologues

Homework:

PBS Interview with Miller (1999)
"Making Willy Loman" by John Lahr, New Yorker (1999)

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Essay on Death of a Salesman (due on  Tuesday May 1st  at 3:30 pm)

Death of A Salesman Play Engine
Video: Death of A Salesman (1986) Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich

Homework:

Willy Loman Chronology
The American Dream in Franklin, Fitzgerald, and Miller 

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Essay on Death of a Salesman (due on  Tuesday May 1st  at 3:30 pm)

Act Two of Death of a Salesman (Study Guide) 
Scene Study Project Act Two

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August Wilson Backgrounds

• August Wilson, Theater's Poet Of Black America, Is Dead at 60 By Charles Isherwood (NYT) October 3, 2005
• The Plays of August Wilson (Slide Show) (NY Times)
• An African American Century (NY Times)

Jitney (1977; 1997)

The Time: 1977 ; The Situation of African-Americans in 1977
The Place: Pittsburgh
Jitneys in Pittsburgh (Center Stage)

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Jitney at Huntingdon Theatre, Boston (1999)

Final Exam Essay Question

Read Act One of Jitney (Study Guide)

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Paul Butler and Philip Randolph Smith

Act One of Jitney (Study Guide)

Homework:

Read Act Two of Jitney (Study Guide)

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Spring Way (1966) Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden: Rocket to the Moon (1971)

The Street (1975)

Act Two of Jitney (Study Guide)

Homework:

Rough Draft: Jitney Essay for Exam

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Carl Lumbly as Booster

Final Exam Essay Question

Act Two of Jitney (Study Guide)

Homework:

Final Draft: Jitney Essay

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One-Act Play Project: 

Natalie Goldberg's Rules

Homework:

One Act Playwriting Project: Day One
Sam Shepard Monologue: Wesley from Curse of the Starving Class People Photos

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One-Act Play Project: 

Natalie Goldberg's Rules
One Act Playwriting Project: Day Two 
People Photos

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Summer Reading 2006
Summer Reading List 2006
Elizabeth Woolsey Gilman Prize

Final Exam Essays 2006

One-Act Play Project: 

Natalie Goldberg's Rules
Monologue Assignment
Homework:

One Act Playwriting Project: Day Three

Final Exam 2006
Final Exam Schedule 2006

Summer Reading 2006
Summer Reading List 2006
Elizabeth Woolsey Gilman Prize

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Summer Reading 2006
Summer Reading List 2006
Elizabeth Woolsey Gilman Prize

Final Exam 2006
Final Exam Schedule 2006

Homework:

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