Sunday, April 30, 2006

Super Secret Bonus Hebdomadal

(Even those of you who have reached the maximum number of hebdomadals are eligible to write this one.)

The goal for this hebdomadal is to give you a chance to show off your carefully cultivated literary-analytical prowess; pull out all the stops!

As you have probably observed, I am about ten days behind in getting hebdomadals back to you; I should be able to catch up with hebdomadals over the course of this week.

Topic 1: Postmodern pop
Transcribe the lyrics of your favorite song and perform a close reading of it. In what way does this song respond to the problems and theories of postmodernism we have discussed since the midterm? In what way does it resemble the literature we have read this semester? How does popular music respond to the poetic tradition? Should it / could it be taught alongside poetry?
Topic 2: Literature in/of exams
Pick the essay question you feel is likeliest to appear on the exam and develop an outline of how you would answer it. Then write your outline in the style of any of the authors we have read this semester. Imagine: a Hacker sonnet comparing Boland and Baker! A Faulknerian multiperspectival epic contrasting Eliot and Heaney! A Bakerian monologue contemplating the meaningfulness of comparing Morrison and Faulkner.
Topic 3: Self-evaluating
Look back on your first hebdomadal or your first essay. Look back on your notes from the first day of our discussion. What have you learned this semester? How is what you have learned likely to be useful to you? What more do you wish you had had the opportunity to learn in class this semester?

If the things you have learned in English 168 do not look liable to be useful, in what way could the course have more directly spoken to your needs as a student?