Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

2202235  Reading and Analysis for the Study of English Literature

 

Puckpan Tipayamontri

Office: BRK 1106

Office Hours: M 1–3 and by appointment

Phone: 02218-4703

puckpan.t@chula.ac.th

 

Section 1

BRK 307

M 11–12:30, Th 8–9:30

 

Tentative Schedule

*asterisked works are mandatory

Week 1

Jan. 5

1: Reading and Learning, Stereotypes and Beyond

Reading

Weekly 1
Jan. 8

2: Analysis in Literature and Life

Reading
Week 2 Jan. 12

3: Preparations, Methods

Reading

Weekly 2
Jan. 15

4: Practice, Experience

Reading

*Class meets at Central Library and Arts Library (download library exploration handout)
Week 3 Jan. 19

No class (Intervarsity Game: January 19–23, 2015)

Jan. 22

No class (Intervarsity Game: January 19–23, 2015)

Week 4 Jan. 26

5: Old and Now

Reading

Weekly 3
 
*Reading response 1 due (Respond to one of "The Palace Thief" study questions for your first reading response. Please write no more than one A4 page double-spaced and follow MLA format.)
Jan. 29

6: Home and School

Reading

  • *Ethan Canin, "The Palace Thief" (1994) pp. 180–98 (study guide)
Writing Practice: (30 minutes) Being a teacher and a student of history, how does Mr. Hundert explain or present his stupidity or unknowingness? How differently does he address ignorance when it is seen in others? Does Milton in Sonnet 19 have similar moments of foolishness? What images or sentence structures surround these cases where there is lack of knowledge or wisdom? How does each speaker use these failures to see in relation to learning or education?
Week 5 Feb. 2

7: Patterns and Prediction

Reading

  • *Ethan Canin, "The Palace Thief" (1994) pp. 199–209 (study guide)
Weekly 4

Student Discussion: Read the "Palace Thief" study question that asks you to consider battle imagery in the story. Students choose a battle in Canin's story and prepare to speak for two minutes, sharing with the class what you have examined about the battle's goals, weapons, and outcome.
Feb. 5

8: Discoveries and Assessments

Reading

  • *Ethan Canin, "The Palace Thief" (1994) pp. 210–27 (study guide)
Week 6 Feb. 9

9: Tapping Sources

Reading

Weekly 5
Feb. 12

10: Presenting Ideas

Reading

Writing Workshop: Students bring to class for discussion a draft response to the topic: the beginning of M. Butterfly. Post your draft to Roundtable Conversation so your classmates and I can give specific comments.
Week 7 Feb. 16

11: Connecting Dots

Reading

  • *David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly (1986) act 2 scenes 6–8 (study guide)

Weekly 6

 

Writing Workshop: Students bring to class for discussion a draft response to the topic: prison break in M. Butterfly. Post your response to Roundtable Conversation so your classmates and I can give further comments.

Feb. 19

12: Discussing Cultures
Reading

  • *David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly (1986) act 2 scene 9–act 3 scene 3 (end; study guide)
    • David Henry Hwang, "Afterword," M. Butterfly (1989)
Week 8 Feb. 23

13: Review

Reading

Questionnaire: Students devise a ten-question quiz that tests the true 2202235 student and e-mail to me before class.
Feb. 26
14: Review

Reading

Discussion: Tips for analysis, practice questions and example responses, reviewing issues, ideas, arguments in the class reading, approaches to writing
Week 9 Mar. 2

(Midterm Week: March 2–6, 2015)
*Test 1: You will have one hour (11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.) to write an essay in response to a prompt that asks you to consider readings on the syllabus from the beginning of the semester up to but not including M. Butterfly.; it will have its own test on Thursday, March 5, 2015. Read instructions carefully and follow them. The essay prompt may consist of several questions but what the entire prompt does is give you a topic with a scope. You should formulate a thesis in response to the prompt that enables you to discuss and elaborate on the topic within that scope for the works involved effectively. Structure your essay around that thesis or argument, citing specific acts, scenes, lines, words or information to illustrate and support the points you are making. Again, you do not need to answer every single question in the prompt cluster in order and separately because then the structure will not necessarily be appropriate to your discussion. Rather, your writing should be designed as a coherent unified piece, not unconnected answers to different questions strung together or a bulleted list. The multiple questions are there to help you brainstorm on the topic and to spark critical engagement with it. You should draw on your own close reading of the material, your notes, your discussion about it in and outside of class, and relevant reading and research you have done. Think critically about the material we have encountered and be prepared to think critically on the topic prompted by the test questions as well. Though you should focus on core readings, you do not have to limit yourself to them. Where relevant and useful, you may refer to supplementary texts in the course packet or online. When writing, follow academic conventions and try to be as legible, clear, effective, and compelling as you can. Rest well, eat clean good food, arrive at least fifteen minutes before class time, and make sure your watch and writing implements are in order. Good luck!

  • Preparation
  • Essay Exam Tips
  • Review literary terms
  • Sample Midterm Questions and Response
    • Discussion of Sample Test Questions and Responses
    • Past Midterm Exam Questions
      • Discuss two literary works in which the use of point or view creates irony. What purpose does this point of view serve in the pieces you have chosen? How does the point of view affect your reading of the works?
      • Choose two works and discuss how the authors’ engagement with prior texts and/or readers’ knowledge of relevant contexts (such as history, culture, biography, form, convention) enrich their understanding of the works.
      • Though readers tend to focus on humans or animate things in a literary work, nonliving components are often also very important. Discuss the function of inanimate elements in two works. Give specific examples of lifeless objects and show how they play a significant role in the texts.
      • Choose one work in which time is especially worth noticing. Examine the treatment of time or kinds of time, and show how it shapes the work (ex. how time affects our understanding of the protagonist(s), the main conflict, the pace, tone, or direction of the work). What, if any, is the relationship between different time frames, the past, present, and future?
      • Choose one work in which interior life is especially worth noticing. Examine the treatment of dreams, illusions, fantasies, or imagination, and show how it shapes the work (ex. how a character’s internal dimensions affect our understanding of him or her, how inner life influences the conflict, pace, tone, direction, structure or form of the work). What, if any, is the relationship between such mental life/perception and reality?
    • Sample Midterm & Answers (the gothic experience)
    • Example of Strong Responses (Romantic literature)
    • Sample Midterm Questions (pdf file)
    • Sample Midterm Essay Response
Mar. 5

(Midterm Week: March 2–6, 2015)

*Test 2: On the second test you will have one hour (8:30–9:30 a.m.) to write an essay in response to a prompt that asks you to consider M. Butterfly.

  • Preparation
    • Drama Analysis (text and theater, information flow, structure, space, time, characters, types of utterance, types of stage)
    • Drama (What is drama and how do you write about it?)
    • Summary: Using It Wisely (Why is it so tempting to stick with summary and skip analysis?, How do I know if I'm summarizing?, What strategies can help me avoid excessive summary?)
Week 10 Mar. 9

15: Analyzing Views I

Reading
Mar. 12

16: Analyzing Views II

Reading

Weekly 7

 

Analysis Exercise: Walker's "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" emerges from a key assumption: despite obstacles, artists still create. Creativity does not cease to exist just because one cannot read or write, or because one is a slave, picks cotton every day and is whipped and raped every month. How or where does Walker find the creative "gardens" of grandmama's generation? Compare Walker's views to Woolf's assertion in A Room of One's Own that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." What reasons does Woolf give to show that lack of money and space deters creative production even when Walker argues that illiteracy and dispossession are no obstacle? Consider yet another perspective: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s being able to write even in prison. What techniques does he use in "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" to propose that tension is constructive? How does he explain that causing trouble is creative? And finally, prepare a one-minute explanation of what you see as the value of your "new day" and education compared to your parents', your grandparents' or your great-grandparent's days to share in class.  


Week 11 Mar. 16

17: Analyzing Form I

Reading

Weekly 8
Mar. 19

18: Analyzing Form II

Reading


Week 12 Mar. 23

19: Historical Contexts

Reading

Weekly 9

 
*Reading response 2 due (In the works by Walker, Yeats, and Rattawut, some inanimate or nonliving things are said to have life, spoken of as if it can live or die, or represent life. Choose one such entity and explain what aspects of life it is associated with, and how that nonliving-life pairing opens up areas for scrutiny otherwise under-explored.


Glimpses into Cambodia Presentation: Students bring a number, a picture, or a quotation about Cambodia during the period from the 1960s through the 1970s. Prepare a one-minute explanation of your item to share with class.

Mar. 26

20: Textual Translations

Reading

  • *Rattawut Lapcharoensap, "Priscilla the Cambodian," Sightseeing (2005; study guide)
Practice Writing: (40 minutes) Read the following poem carefully, then write an essay in which you discuss the techniques used in the poem and in "Priscilla the Cambodian" to show multiple facets of something. Download pdf.
Week 13 Mar. 30

21: Redefinition

Reading

Writing Workshop: Students get into groups of three (forming either the word use or two from your drawn letter), print out and give a copy of your multiple facets essay to each member in your group. Give marginal comments on the paper and fill out the workshop sheet for each work you receive. In class, return the completed peer critique workshop sheets to the two other members of your group and briefly give verbal feedback, suggestions, and encouragement along with your written comments.
Apr. 2

22: Defamiliarization

Reading

Weekly 10


Creative Writing: Pick an object, behavior or phenomenon, like Craig Raine in "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home," and defamiliarize it. What are you able to say now that the thing is something else? Add your defamiliarization to our Roundtable Conversation.


Week 14 Apr. 6

No class (Chakri Day)
Apr. 9

23: The Question of Beginnings

Reading

Final paper draft due (optional)


Creative Writing: Write an alternative beginning to Frankenstein.


Week 15 Apr. 13

No class (Songkran Day)

Apr. 16

24: Romantic Ideas

Reading
Week 16 Apr. 20

25: Familiarization

Reading

  • *Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1831) Chapter 12–18 (study guide)
  • Julian Marshall, The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1889)
Apr. 23

26: Forethought and Afterthoughts

Reading
Week 17 Apr. 27

Forum

  • If you are planning to use PowerPoint, make sure it is compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. Also embed or include files of any nonstandard fonts that are in your presentation.

  • Let me know of any other audiovisual needs by 4 p.m. Friday, April 24, 2015.

  • 5-minute individual presentation (15 minutes per panel) followed by

  • 10-minute question and answer session

  • Tentative Schedule (download program pdf)

    Gripping Structures: Teeth, Hands, and Cages
    11:00–11:25 a.m.
    Presiding: Nattanan Ammarananthasak
    Speakers: 
    1. “Golden Teeth: The Key Symbol of Rattawut’s ‘Priscilla the Cambodian,’” Chonlatep Amorntrakul
    2.     “Adults’ World: Invisible Hands Holding Pieces of Children’s World Together,” Sudthida Thaviyonchai
    3. “How to Escape from Discrimination in ‘Priscilla the Cambodian,’” Poonyapa Sittigul
    Respondent 1: Wijittra Sophakun
    Respondent 2: Kanokwan Chaocharoen
    Respondent 3: Danaya Olarikded

    Communicating through Failure
    11:30–11:55 a.m.
    Presiding: Pornkamon Teerapiboonkun
    Speakers: 
    1.     “Means of Communication in Neena Beber’s Misreadings,” Rujarada Chiochanchai
    2. “Literary and Aesthetic Interpretation through Simone’s Suicide,” Paphaweee Rattanachai
     3. “The Art of Communication in Misreadings,” Chanida Kittithanasri
    Respondent 1: Poonyapa Sittigul
    Respondent 2: Suvison Satangkul
    Respondent 3:     Sikarin Swusdinaruenart

    The Butterfly Fallacy
    12:00–12:25 a.m.
    Presiding:     Paphawee Rattanachai
    Speakers: 
    1. “Battle Imagery in M. Butterfly,” Chanakan Kittijarujit
    2.     “The Perfect Woman Makes the Perfect Lie,” Kanokwan Chaocharoen
     3. “Femininity and Masculinity: Roles We Can Never Escape,” Manaporn Lorpensri
    Respondent 1:     Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn
    Respondent 2:     Nattanan Ammarananthasak
    Respondent 3:     Pornkamon Teerapiboonkun

Apr. 30

Forum

8:00–9:25 a.m.
Theme potluck breakfast hosted by section 1: Singapore cookies topped with cashew nuts, tiramisu twist cookies, almond roast cookies, roasted almonds, butter cake, chocolate cake, falcon sandwich with grandmama's pickles, Palmiers, Frankenstein cake pop, Talents.


Tentative Schedule (download program pdf)

The Life of Art
8:00–8:25 a.m.
Presiding: Wijittra Sophakun
Speakers: 
1. “Less Is More: The Creativity in Redefining Seasons through the Use of Descriptive Imageries,” Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn
2. “Memory: Life of Heritage,” Nattanan Ammarananthasak
3. “Creativity, Obstacles, and Creation: Where Can an Artist be the Artist?” Sikarin Swusdinaruenart
Respondent 1: Sunadda Samana
Respondent 2: Sudthida Thaviyonchai
Respondent 3: Chanida Kittithanasri


Tale of Monstrosity
8:30–8:55 a.m.
Presiding: Sudthida Thaviyonchai
Speakers: 
1. “A Picture that Shapes the Frame: The Rebellious Narrative of Frankenstein,” Pornkamon Teerapiboonkun
2. “Monster Who?,” Suvison Satangkul
3. “The Frankensteins’ Fatherhood,” Areeya Konglapumnuay
Respondent 1: Rujarada Chiochanchai
Respondent 2: Chanakan Kittijarujit
Respondent 3: Paphawee Rattanachai
 

 
Tale of Terror
9:00–9:25 a.m.
Presiding: Chanakan Kittijarujit
Speakers: 
1. “Frankenstein: A Story of Dangerous Knowledge,” Wijittra Sophakun 
2. “Frankenstein, Prometheus, and Guilt,” Danaya Olarikded
3. “Frankenstein: Words of Death,” Sunadda Samana 
Respondent 1: Manaporn Lorpensri
Respondent 2: Areeya Konglapumnuay
Respondent 3: Chonlatep Amorntrakul    

*Final paper due


Week 18
May 6

Final Exam: (8:30–11:30 a.m.) The final exam consists of two parts: short answer and essay. In the short answer section you'll be asked to identify, explain or compare some phrases, images or ideas from the texts that we have read this latter half of the semester. Be prepared to give specific examples ("cause the eyes to melt / or the body to shriek without pain") that illustrate a characteristic of a text (defamiliarization in Raine's "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home"), and to compare images or concepts (ex. new era) between texts ("Everyday Use" and "The Second Coming"). The essay section consists of two prompts, one on the poems and short stories and one on Frankenstein. 

 

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Last updated May 5, 2015