OUTLINES FOR CONCEPTUAL UNITS
If you would like to recommend additional titles for this list, please send the title, author, and appropriate unit to smago@uga.edu. If you have a whole outline (texts and key concepts and problems) for a unit not listed here, please send it along as well, and I'll be happy to credit you. And if you have any Handy Links that I've overlooked, I'd be grateful if you'd share them with me. Thanks!
This page provides outlines for conceptual units of instruction of the sort found in the Virtual Library of Conceptual Units. For each unit I provide a set of possible texts and a possible conceptual focus. Keep in mind that my intention here is to suggest possibilities rather than to prescribe a curriculum; there are many other units that you could develop, and different texts and focuses for each of the units that I outline. The lists of texts are intended to be responsive to a range of readers in terms of age, reading ability, interests, and so on, so that the unit themes could be adapted to readers of different grade levels, communities, etc. The lists include both canonical works and less familiar texts, including literature, film, and popular music. There are far more texts listed than you would ever teach in any single unit; rather, the idea is to provide an idea of what is possible for teaching a particular theme. I would always hope that any teacher using these lists would use her own knowledge and imagination to make the instruction work for her own students and circumstances.
I've also tried to make this site as versatile as possible. In addition to the links to websites related to the various themes, I've linked (when possible) each text to an online version so that you can preview the literature when considering possibilities. I've further provided links to images that fit with each unit focus. If you wish to preview literature that I don't list and link, you might consult one of the many hypertext libraries available on the internet. I provide links to hypertext libraries at http://www.coe.uga.edu/~smago/Links/Links2LWL.htm#OnlineTexts.
Handy Links
Wikipedia entry on the
American Dream
The
American Dream and Experience in Literature
American Dream Bibliography
Quest for the
American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun
In the Virtual Library, see:
Working
Within/Against Our Limitations as Americans (1998) by Tiffany Lee and Kathryn
Johnson
The American
Social Drama (1999) by Jobie Johnson
Exploring
Struggle in American Plays (2000) by Heather V. Rachmuth & William J. Shuler,
Jr.
The American
Dream: Fact or Fiction? (2001) by Jennifer Howell
The
American Dream (2001) by Jay Blanton, Heather Wicker and Brad Williams
Passing
to the American Dream (2002) by Jennifer Bogdanich and Erin Butler
Ideal Destruction:
Constructing Realistic American Dreams (2002) by Rebecca Moon
Bridging
the Harlem Renaissance to the Hip Hop Movement (2003) by Kristy Mulkey &
Kasha Wharton
The American
Dream and The American Reality of the Jazz Age (2004) by Melissa Page
East
Asian American Literature: A Unit of Study and Lesson Plan (2004) by Ian Altman
& Nick Tang
Outsider
American Literature (2005) by Casey Nissenbaum & Annie Tremoulis
Working
Against Mainstream Culture: The Voices of Two Female African American Authors
from The Harlem Renaissance to the Present (2005) by Sarah Segrest
Contemporary
African American Literature (2005) by Kristal Stripling
Poetry
Hughes, Langston:
I, Too, Sing America
Sandburg, Carl: Cool
Tombs
Sassoon, Siegfried: The Case for the Miners
Teasdale, Sara: Barter
Whitman, Walt: I Hear America
Singing, Song of Myself,
Song of the Open Road
Williams, William
Carlos: Pastoral
Short Story
Gordon, Roxy: Pilgrims
Owens, Louis: Soul-Catcher
Tallmountain, Mary Randle: Tender Street
Novels
Amis, Martin: Money
Bellow, Saul: The Adventures of Augie March
Burns, Olive Ann: Cold Sassy Tree
Cooper,
James Fenimore: The Deerslayer
Dreiser, Theodore: Sister
Carrie, An
American Tragedy
Ellison, Ralph: Invisible Man, Juneteenth
Erdrich, Louise: The Beet Queen, The Bingo Palace, Love Medicine
Fitzgerald,
F. Scott: The Great Gatsby
Kesey, Ken: Sometimes a Great Notion
Lewis, Sinclair: Babbitt
Mailer, Norman: An American Dream
Miller, Sue: Family Pictures
Mitchell, Margaret: Gone with the Wind
Momaday, N. Scott: House Made of Dawn
Morrison, Toni: Beloved
Proulx, E. Annie: The Shipping News
Redding, J. Saunders: Stranger and Alone
Rolvaag, O. E.: Pure Gold
Twain, Mark: The Gilded Age,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Tyler, Anne: Saint Maybe
Updike, John: Rabbit Run
Wharton, Edith:
Ethan Frome
Wright, Richard: Native Son
Nonfiction
American Slave
Narratives: An Online Anthology
Bradford,
William: The Mayflower Compact
Faulkner, William:
Nobel Prize acceptance speech
Hamilton, Alexander,
Madison, James, and Jay, John: The Federalist Papers
Jefferson, Thomas: Declaration
of Independence
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald:
Inaugural address
King, Martin
Luther: Christmas sermon on peace
The Lincoln Douglas debates
Malcolm
X: Message to the Grass Roots
Moon, William Least Heat: Blue Highways
Rawick, George
P. (Ed.): The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
Thoreau, Henry David: Walden
Steinbeck, John: Travels with Charley
Whitman,
Walt: Democratic Vistas
Drama
Albee, Edward: The American Dream
Miller, Arthur: The Death of a Salesman
Serling, Rod: Requiem
for a Heavyweight
Autobiographies
Brown, Claude: Manchild in the Promised Land
Cofer, Judith Oritz: Silent Dancing
Dillard, Annie: An American Childhood
Franklin, Ben: Autobiography
Hellman, Lillian: An Unfinished Woman
Kingston, Maxine Hong: The Woman Warrior
Powell, Colin: My American Journey: An Autobiography
Films
Citizen Kane
The Godfather Trilogy
It's a Wonderful Life
Meet John Doe
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
News Stories on the American Dream
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the American Dream? What is American about it? To what extent is it
relative to time and place? To what extent is it stable and enduring? How can
the dream turn into a nightmare? How can it be an illusion? With what does the
American Dream come in conflict?
In the Virtual Library, see:
Animals
as Symbols (2001) by E. Michelle Holbert
Fables/Fairy Tales/Folk Tales
Aesop's Fables
Mother Goose Rhymes
Tales from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Folk and Fairy Tales from Around
the World
Folktales
Gigantic Folk Tale Archive
Phaedrus: The
Fox and the Dragon, The Ant and the Fly
Tales of China
Tales of India
Tales
of the Winnebago: The Hare
The Bible
The
Golden Calf (Exodus 32, 33:1 6)
The Lost Sheep (Luke
15:3 7)
Poetry
Blake, William: The Tiger
Chalfi, Raquel: Porcupine Fish
Dickey, James: The Bee
Dickinson, Emily: "Hope"
is the thing with feathers, A
Narrow Fellow in the Grass
Lawrence,
D. H.: Snake
Moore, Marianne: The Monkeys
Poe, Edgar
Allen: The Raven
Rilke, Rainer
Maria: The Panther
Roethke, Theodore: Snake
Schwartz,
Delmore: The Heavy Bear
Tennyson,
Alfred: The Eagle
Whitman, Walt: A Noiseless Patient
Spider
Short Stories
Dahl, Roald: Poison
du Maurier, Daphne: The Blue Lenses
Hurst, James: The Scarlet Ibis
Jewett, Sarah Orne: The White Heron
Kipling, Rudyard: Just So Stories
London, Jack: To Build
a Fire
Munro, Alice: Boys and Girls
Poe,
Edgar Alan: The Black Cat
Novels
Adams, Richard: Watership Down
Kipling,
Rudyard: Rikki Tikki Tavi
Orwell, George: Animal Farm
Key Concepts and Problems
What do the characters represent? How can you tell? In what ways are the characters
like people? What is the author saying about people, using the animals as symbols?
Handy Links:
Wikipedia entry on
the Millgram experiment
The Evil of Banality
by Michael Rothbard
Wikipedia entry on the
Nuremberg Trials
Wikipedia entry on the My Lai
massacre
Wikipedia entry
on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal
Wikipedia
entry on the Stanford Prison Experiment
Kosovo - The "Banality
of Evil" by Gilles d'Aymery
Wikipedia entry on the Panopticon
Wikipedia entry on the
Kymer Rouge
Wikipedia entry on
Ethnic Cleansing
Wikipedia entry on the Pogroms
Wikipedia entry
on the Irish Potato Famine
Poetry
Short Stories
Jackson, Shirley:
The Lottery
Novels
Bradbury, Ray: Farenheit 451
Clark, Walter Van Tilburg: The Oxbow Incident
Dick, P. K.: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Giordano, Mario: Black Box
Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
Le Guin,Ursula K.: The Dispossessed
Rendell, Ruth: 13 Steps Down
Sleater, William: The House of Stairs
Strasser, Todd: The Wave
Twelve Hawks, John: The Traveler
Drama
Rose, Reginald: 12 Angry Men
Film
American Experience: The Nuremberg Trials
Judgment at Nuremberg
The Oxbow Incident
The Specialist
Das Experiment
Conspiracy
High Noon
Blade Runner
Song
Destroy:
Banality of Evil
Genesis:
Just a job to do
Sylvian,
David: The Banality of Evil
Cartoon/Graphic Novel
Spiegelman, Art: Maus: A Survivor's Tale; Maus II: From Mauschwitz to the Catskills
Images of the Banality of Evil
News Stories on the Banality of Evil
Key Concepts and Questions: What is the banality of evil? What is the individual's role in relation to authority? What responsibility do individuals have when groups act in ways that can be considered evil? Are individuals evil when they do not contest the behavior of the groups they belong to if they think that behavior is wrong? Is there a clear answer to the degree of responsibility an individual bears for uncontested group behavior?
Handy Links:
Tradition
vs. Change: The South Valley in the 21st Century
Poetry
Masters, Edgar Lee: Spoon River Anthology
Short Stories
Faulkner, William: Go Down, Moses
Irving, Washington: Rip Van Winkle
Anderson, Sherwood: Winesburg,
Ohio
Novels
Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart
Aluko, T. M.: One Man, One Wife
Faulkner, William: The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion, The Rievers
Kesey, Ken: Sometimes a Great Notion
Lampedusa, Giuseppe di: The Leopard
Mahfouz, Naguib: Midaq Alley
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Mitchell, Margaret: Gone with the Wind
Paton, Alan: Cry, the Beloved Country
Tarkington, Booth: The Magnificent Ambersons
Wharton, Edith:
Age of Innocence
Wolfe, Thomas: You Can't Go Home Again
Autobiographies
Eastman,
Charles Alexander: From the Deep Woods to Civilization
Mandela,
Nelson: Long Walk to Freedom
Drama
Hellman, Lillian: The Little Foxes
Wilder, Thornton: Our Town
Williams, Tennessee: The
Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire
Films
The Last Picture Show
Water (Deepa Mehta, Dir.)
The Misfits
Song
Haggard,
Merle: Are the Good Times Really Over for Good?
Springsteen,
Bruce: Glory Days
Key Concepts and Problems
How has society changed over time? What are the old values and conditions? What
are the new values and conditions? What has caused these changes? How do the
characters adapt to the changes? What is the author saying about human nature
through the action in the story?
Handy Links
Allegory (Encyclopedia
Britannica)
Allegory
in the Middle Ages (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia entry
on Symbolism in the Arts
Political Cartoons
politicalcartoons.com
Daryl Cagle's Pro Cartoonists
Home Page
News Blaze
Political Cartoons
Comics.com
Library of
Congress Political Cartoons
Wikipedia entry on
Political Cartoons
Mythology
Daedalus and Icarus
Prometheus
Sisyphus
The Bible
The Members and the Body
(1 Corinthians 12:12 30)
The Prodigal
Son (Luke 15:11 32)
The Rich Man and Lazarus
(Luke 16:19 31)
The
Sower (Matthew 13:1 9, 18 23)
Poetry
Blake,
William: The Chimney Sweeper
Eliot, T.
S.: The Hollow Man
Overstreet, Bonaro W.: John Doe, Jr.
Robinson,
Edwin Arlington: Miniver Cheevy
Thomas,
Dylan: The Hand That Signed the Paper
Wordsworth,
William: The Solitary Reaper
Short Stories
Cather,
Willa: The Sentimentality of William Tavener
Cheever, John: The Swimmer
Collier, John:
The Chaser
Connell, Evan, Jr.: The Condor and the Guests
Hawthorne,
Nathaniel: Young Goodman Brown
Lawrence, D. H.: The Rocking
Horse Winner
Poe, Edgar Allan:
The Masque of the Red Death
Novels
Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The Scarlet
Letter
Irving, John: A Prayer for Owen Meany
Melville, Herman:
Billy Budd
Drama
Miller, Arthur: The Crucible
Film
Platoon
Tron
Song
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: Woman be my Country
Images of Literary Character as Symbol
Key Concepts and Problems
Define symbol, allegory, and parable. What clues do you have that the characters
are acting as symbols.? What do the characters and elements of the story symbolize?
How do they work together consistently to form a pattern that we can interpret
and draw conclusions from? What is the author trying to say through the symbols
used in the story?
CHARACTERIZING AN AUTHOR'S STYLE
Prose Writers
Faulkner, William: Barn Burning, stories from Go Down, Moses, Mule in the Yard,
Old Man, Red Leaves, A Rose for Emily, Spotted Horses, That Evening Sun, Wash,
selections from The Portable Faulkner
Hemingway, Ernest: Stories from In Our Time, Old Man at the Bridge, The
Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber , The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Twain, Mark: The
Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Life
on the Mississippi, The
Stolen White Elephant, The
Mysterious Stranger, Pudd'nhead
Wilson
Poets
Dickinson, Emily:
Dear March Come in; "Hope" is the thing with feathers; The Grass so
little has to do; What mystery pervades a well!; A Thought went up my mind today
Frost, Robert: Stopping
by Woods on a Snowy Evening, The Road Not Taken, Neither Out Far Nor In Deep,
Desert Places, The Secret Sits
Key Concepts and Problems
What distinguishes the author in terms of (a) themes, (b) views of society,
(c) views of human nature, (d) sentence structure, (e) language, and (f) literary
techniques? How are these manifested in the writer's literature? How does knowledge
of these features help us understand unfamiliar works by this writer?
Novels
Austen, Jane: Pride
and Prejudice
Bellow, Saul: Henderson the Rain King, Herzog
Burgess, Anthony: Enderby
Fielding, Henry: Tom Jones
Smith, Lee: Family Linen, Oral History
Toole, John Kennedy: A Confederacy of Dunces
Wodehouse, P.G.: The Inimitable Jeeves
Drama
Barrie, J.M.: The Admirable Crichton
Chase,
Mary: Harvey
Coward, Noel: Weatherwise
Gay,
John: The Beggar's Opera
Goldsmith,
Oliver: She Stoops to Conquer
Jonson, Ben:
Volpone
Moliere:
Tartuffe; en Français
Shakespeare, William:
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley:
The Rivals, The
School for Scandal
Wilde, Oscar:
The Importance of Being Earnest
Key Concepts and Problems
What literary techniques (irony and so forth) does the playwright use to achieve
a comic effect? What purpose does the comedy have? Why is comedy an effective
means of making a serious point? Do you laugh at yourself as you see humor in
the drama? Why or why not? What are the characteristics of comic characters?
What are typical characteristics of comic plots?
Handy Links:
Wikepedia entry on Coming
of Age
In the Virtual Library, see:
Coming
of Age (1998) by John Melton
Coming
of Age (1998) by Scott Porter and Don Horacek
Poem
Cofer, Judith Ortiz: Crossings
Short Stories
Anderson,
Sherwood: I'm a Fool
Chukovski, Nicolai: The Bridge
Hurst, James: The Scarlet Ibis
Lessing, Doris: Through the Tunnel, A Sunrise on the Veld
McCullers, Carson: Like That
Munro, Alice: Red Dress
Updike, John: A & P
Walker, Alice: Everyday Use
Wright, Richard: The Man Who Was Almost a Man
Novels
Alcott, Louisa May:
Little Women
Arguedas, Jose Maria: Deep Rivers
Baldwin, James: Go Tell It on the Mountain
Bennett, Kay: Kaibah
Conway, Jill Ker: Road from Coorain
Dorris, Michael: Guests
Grass, Gunter: The Tin Drum
Guest, Judith: Ordinary People
Kincaid, Jamaica: At the Bottom of the River
Kingsolver, Barbara: Bean Trees
Knowles, John: A Separate Peace
Laye, Camara: The Dark Child
Le Guin, Ursula: Very Far Away from Anywhere Else
McCullers, Carson: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Milosz, Czeslaw: The Issa Valley
Parks, Gordon: The Learning Tree
Paterson, Katherine: Jacob Have I Loved
Rolvaag, O. E.: The Third Life of Per Smevik
Twain, Mark: Tom
Sawyer
Autobiographies
Beauvoir, Simone de: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Dillard, Annie: An American Childhood
Mitchell, Emerson Blackhorse: Miracle Hill: The Story of a Navajo Boy
Singer, Isaac Bashevis: A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw
Films
Wikipedia
Coming of Age Film list
Webcomics
Wikipedia
Webcomics links
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the definition of maturity? What examples of immature behavior do the
protagonists exhibit before their coming of age experiences? What examples of
mature behavior do they exhibit after their coming of age experiences? What
is the key incident that causes the protagonist to change? What particular characteristics
does this incident have that affect the protagonist so profoundly? What are
the similarities among the experiences of the characters in the various stories?
How truly do these experiences reflect those of real people? In what ways does
the reader have empathy for the protagonist? How does this empathy affect the
reader's comprehension?
Handy Links:
Rage Against
the Machine: Media and Youth,Cultures of Violence
The Bible
The
Golden Calf (Exodus 32, 33:1 6)
Poetry
Alexie, Sherman: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Short Stories
Baldwin, James: The Man Child
Cather,
Willa: The Sentimentality of William Tavener
Deal, Bordon: Antaeus
du Maurier, Daphne: The Old Man
Lavin, Mary: The Story of the Widow's Son
Ortiz, Simon J.: Woman Singing
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: Harrison Bergeron
Wright, Richard: The Man Who Was Almost a Man
Novels
Alcott, Louisa May:
Little Women
Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
Mathews, John Joseph: Sundown
McNickle, D'Arcy: The Surrounded
Orwell, George:
Animal Farm
Potok, Chaim: The Chosen
Steinbeck, John: The Red Pony
Drama
Chayefsky, Paddy: The Mother
Shakespeare,
William: Romeo and Juliet
Images of Conflict with Authority
Key Concepts and Problems
Who is the authority figure? What characteristics does this figure have? From
what sources does the authority derive his or her power? What are the characteristics
of the protagonist? What causes them to clash? What is the outcome of the clash?
How is the clash resolved? What does the protagonist learn through the clash?
Handy Links:
Connotation,
Character, and Color Imagery in The Great Gatsby
What
is Poetry?
Figurative
Language
Wikipedia entry on
Color Symbolism and Psychology
Selecting
Images
Powerful Imagery
Poetry Connotation
Davis, Frank Marshall:
Four Glimpses of Night
Hughes, Ted: Wind
Jarrell, Randall: Bats
Owen,
Wilfred: Arms and the Boy
Robinson, Edwin Arlington: Richard
Cory
Shapiro, Karl: The
Fly, Auto
Wreck
Smith, Stevie: Zoo
Wilbur, Richard: Still
Citizen Sparrow, A
Fire-truck
Poetry Imagery
Browning, Robert:
Meeting at Night
Grenelle, Lisa: It Was Cold in the House
Hayden, Robert:
Those Winter Sundays
Housman, A. E.: On Moonlit Heath
and Lonesome Bank
Keats,
John: To Autumn
Rich, Adrienne: Living
in Sin
Sarton, May: A Parrot
Sassoon, Siegfried: The Rear
Guard
Shelley, Percy Bysshe:
Lines: When the Lamp Is Shattered
Thwaites, Michael: The Gull
Key Concepts and Problems
Connotation
Which words in the poem are especially vivid? Why do they have exceptional impact?
Are the connotative words consistent? That is, do they work together to convey
a sense of harshness, a sense of gentleness, or another particular feeling?
How can readers use their imagination to picture more about the poem and its
subject from these connotative words? How do the connotative words help the
poet convey meaning?
Imagery
Which words in the poem convey an image? Are the images consistent, working
together to portray a particular mood or feeling? How can readers use their
imagination to picture more about the poem and its subjects from these images?
How do the images help the poet convey meaning?
Handy Links:
Coping with Death
Death: An Inquiry
into Man's Mortal Weakness
Young
adult reactions to death in literature and in life
The WiSSP Resource Library: Coping
with Loss in Literature
Literature
and the Healing Arts
Prayers
Last Rites
Mourner's Kaddish
Poetry
Brooke, Rupert: The
Dead
Browning, Robert:
My Last Duchess
Burns, Robert: Auld
Lang Syne
Dickinson, Emily: Because
I could not stop for Death; I
heard a Fly buzz when I died
Frost, Robert: Out,
Out; After
Apple Picking; Fire and Ice
Gray, Thomas:
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Hopkins,
Gerard Manley: Spring and Fall to a Young Child
Housman,
A. E.: To an Athlete Dying Young
Keats, John: Ode to a Nightingale,
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Poe, Edgar Allan: The
Raven, Annabel Lee
Stevens, Wallace:
Domination of Black
Tennyson,
Alfred: In Memoriam
Thomas, Dylan: Do Not Go Gentle
into That Good Night
Whitman, Walt: When Lilacs Last
in the Dooryard Bloomed
Short Stories
Borges,
Jorge Luis: The Circular Ruins
Chekhov, Anton:
Enemies
Faulkner, William: A Rose for Emily
Harjo, Joy: The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
Hemingway, Ernest: Hills Like White Elephants
Joyce, James: The
Dead, A Painful
Case
Kafka, Franz: The Judgment
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: Tuesday Siesta
Porter, Katherine Anne: The Grave
Steinbeck, John:
Flight
Novels
Agee, Philip: A Death in the Family
Devoto, Pat Cunningham: My Last Days as Roy Rogers
Guest, Judith: Ordinary People
Tolstoy, Leo: The Death
of Ivan Ilych
Nonfiction
Baldwin, James: Notes of a Native Son
Drama
Arrabal, Fernando: Picnic on the Battlefield
Galsworthy, John:
The Apple Tree
Miller, Arthur: A View from the Bridge
Song
Bugguss,
Suzy: Letting Go, In Heaven
Clapton,
Eric: Tears in Heaven
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: Osiyeza (The Crossing)
McEntire,
Reba: The Greatest Man I Never Knew
Shenendoah, Joanne: Dance of the North
Wolf, Kate: Medicine Wheel
Key Concepts and Problems
What is lost? What do the characters lose through the loss? What do they gain?
How do the characters cope with grief? How does their coping affect them? How
do they change? How are the grievers treated by others? How does this treatment
affect them? What is the author saying about the human ability to cope with
great loss?
Mythology
Hercules
Poetry
Kipling, Rudyard: Gunga Din
Short Stories
Agee, James:
A Mother's Tale
Buck, Pearl: Guerilla Mother
Connell,
Richard: The Most Dangerous Game
Freeman,
Mary E. Wilkins: The Revolt of Mother
Hemingway, Ernest: A Day's Wait
London, Jack: To Build
a Fire
Poe, Edgar Allan:
The Cask of Amontillado
Vasconcelos, Jose The Boar Hunt
Novels
Carter, Forrest: The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales
Cather,
Willa: Death Comes to the Archbishop
Crane,
Stephen: The Red Badge of Courage
Ellison, Ralph: Invisible Man
Hemingway,
Ernest: The Old Man and the Sea
Markandaya, Kamala: Nectar in a Sieve
Trumbo,
Dalton: Johnny Got His Gun
Welty, Eudora: The Robber Bridegroom
Autobiographies
Angelou, Maya: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Giovanni, Nikki: Gemeni
Yevtushenko, Yevgeny: A Precocious Autobiography
Drama
Buck, Pearl: The Rock
Fletcher, Lucille: Sorry, Wrong Number
Nonfiction
Wiesel, Elie: Night
Films
The Lost Weekend
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the definition of courage? What key incident tests the protagonist's
courage? How does the character respond to this challenge? Is the character's
action courageous? Why or why not? What values in conflict bring about situations
calling for courage? Would a courageous action in one situation necessarily
be regarded as courageous in the context of another? Why or why not?
Handy Links:
Conflicts
and Challenges of Jewish Culture
Poetry
Chrystos:
Not Vanishing
Hardy, Thomas: The Man He Killed
Owen, Wilfred: Anthem for Doomed
Youth, Strange
Meeting
Peters, Lenrie: Parachute
Rubadiri,
David: Stanley Meets Mutesa
Short Stories
Achebe, Chinua: A Man of the People
Buck, Pearl: The Frill
Isherwood, Christopher: The Berlin Stories
Kipling, Rudyard:
The Man Who Would Be King
Nicol, Abioseh: The Devil at Yolahun Bridge
Popkes, Opal Lee: Zuma Chowt's Cave
Tapahonso, Luci: The Snakeman
Warrior, Emma Lee: Compatriots
Novels
Alexie, Sherman: Reservation Blues, Indian Killer
Beti, Mongo: Mission to Kala
Conrad, Joseph:
Heart of Darkness
da Cunha, Euclides: Rebellion in the Backlands
Ekwensi, Cyprian: People of the City
Forster, E. M.: A Passage to India
Gaup, Ailou: In Search of the Drum
Gordimer, Nadine: Livingstone's Companions
Greene, Graham: The Human Factor
James, Henry:
The American
Lawrence,
D. H.: The Plumed Serpent
Munonye, John: The Only Son
Orwell, George:
Burmese Days
Power, Susan: The Grass Dancer
Qoyawayma, Polingaysi: No Turning Back
Scott, Paul: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day of the Scorpion, The Towers of
Silence, A Division of the Spoils
Tan, Amy: Joy Luck Club
Thiongo, Ngugi wa: The River Between
Nonfiction (Essays)
Cheng, Nien: Life and Death in Shanghai
Orwell, George: Shooting
an Elephant
Autobiographies
Fire Lame Deer, Archie: Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine
Man
Rogers, John: Red World and White
Song
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: Third World Child
Johnny
Clegg: Orphans of the Empire
Film
Dances with Wolves
Once Upon a Time in China
Once Upon a Time in China II
Once Upon a Time in China III
Who am I?
Key Concepts and Problems
In what ways are the cultures different? Is one culture more powerful than the
other? If so, in what way? In the author's view, is one culture superior to
the other? If so, in what ways? Do you agree with the author's judgment? What
is the outcome of the clash? Is the outcome "fair"? Why or why not?
How do characters change as a result of their experience with another culture?
Handy Links:
The Thrilling Detective
Wikipedia entry on Detective
Fiction
Murder Squad: Crime Fiction to Die for
Detnovel.com
Crime Fiction
Court TV Crime Library
A Selective
Index of Detective Fiction
Short Stories
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan:
Sherlock Holmes stories
Gilbert, Michael: The Oyster Catcher
Hocky, Mary: Stranger on the Night Train
Mayor, Ralph H., Jr.: The Buried Treasure of Oak Island
Novels
Chandler, Raymond: The Big Sleep
Christie, Agatha: Murder on the Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Francis, Dick: Banker
Hoeg, Peter: Smilla's Sense of Snow
James, P. D.: Death of an Expert Witness, Shroud for a Nightingale
Murray, Stephen: A Cool Killing
Paretsky, Sara: Killing Orders, Deadlock, Indemnity Only
Peters, Elizabeth: The Deeds of the Disturber
Sayers, Dorothy L.: Murder Must Advertise
Scoppetone, Sandra: Playing Murder
Tey, Josephine: Brat Farrar
Wilzien, Valere: Murder at the PTA Luncheon
Key Concepts and Problems
What qualities does the detective have that help in solving crimes? What are
typical patterns and properties of detective stories? What sorts of obstacles
does the detective encounter? How does he or she overcome them? What qualities
allow the detective to triumph over adversaries?
Handy Links:
The
Invisible People: American Art and Literature Represents the Marginalized and
Disenfranchised
Teaching the Concept
of Equality Through Literature
The United States
of America’s Long Journey: The Concept of Equality in America from 1619-1863
In the Virtual Library, see:
Social
Stratification and Discrimination (1999) by Jeff Deroshia
Poems
Maya Angelou: On the Pulse of Morning
Langston Hughes: Mother
to Son
J. G. Saxe: The Six Blind Men
Juanita Bell: Indian Children Speak
Soyinka,
Wole: Telephone Conversation
Peter Blue Cloud: The Old Man's Lazy
Len Margaret: Night School
Elizabeth Brewster: Jamie
Alden Nowlan: He Sits Down
on the Floor of a School for the Retarded
Short Stories
Maria Campbell: Play with Me
Kurt Vonnegut: Harrison
Bergeron
Shirley Jackson: After You, My Dear Alphonse
José Antonio Burciaga: Romantic Nightmare
Ray Bradbury: All Summer
in a Day
Abrahams, Peter: Tell Freedom
Hutchinson, Alfred: Road to Ghana
Johnson, Dorothy M.: A Man Called Horse
Le Guma, Alex: Where Are You Walking Around, Man?
Luthuli, Albert:
The Dignity of Man
Muro, Amado: Cecilia Rosa
Thomas, Piri: Puerto Rican Paradise
Walker, Alice: Everyday Use
Novels
Alexie, Sherman: Reservation Blues, Indian Killer
Ekhart, Alan: A Sorrow in Our Hearts
Gaines, Ernest: A Lesson Before Dying
Greene, Bette: The Drowning of Stephan Jones
Griterson, David: Snow Falling on Cedars
Hinton, S. E.: The Outsiders
Hurston, Nora Zeal: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
Markandaya, Kamala: Nectar in a Sieve
Morrison, Toni: Beloved
Walker, Alice: The Color Purple
Walker, Margaret: Jubilee
Weisel, Elie: Night
Wright, Richard: Native Son
Nonfiction (Essays)
Baldwin, James: The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American
Hughes, Langston: Fooling Our White Folks
King, Martin
Luther, Jr.: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Longauex y Vasquez, Enriqueta: The Mexican American Woman
Redding, Saunders: American Negro Literature
Nonfiction (Books)
Debo, Angie: And Still the Waters Run
Greene, Melissa Fay: Praying for Sheetrock
Terkel, Studs: Division Street: America
Weatherford, Jack: Native Roots, Indian Givers
Autobiography
Angelou, Maya: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Frank, Anne: Diary of a Young Girl
Wright, Richard: Black Boy
Drama
Hansberry, Lorraine: A Raisin in the Sun
Shakespeare,
William: Othello
Shaw, George Bernard: Pygmalion
Wilson, August: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Films
Clearcut
Dance Me Outside
Do the Right Thing
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
In the Heat of the Night
The Long Walk Home
Once Were Warriors
Shindler's List
Smoke Signals
Swing Kids
A Soldier's Story
Song
Harry Belafonte: Kwela (Listen to the Man)
Johnny Clegg:
One (Hu)man, One Vote,
Inevitable Consequence of Progress,
Asimbonanga
Bob Marley & the Wailers: War
Dave
Matthews Band: Cry Freedom
The Weavers
(and many others): Sixteen Tons
Vanessa
Williams: Colors of the Wind
Documentary Films
Eyes on the Prize series
Martin Luther King, Jr.: From Memphis to Montgomery
Key Concepts and Problems
Why is the character being discriminated against? In what ways is the character
different from the group that's discriminating? Does the character want to be
accepted? Why or why not? What forms of discrimination is the character subject
to? How is the character affected by discrimination? How is the conflict resolved?
What in the environment leads to discrimination? What makes discrimination more
likely in one environment than in another?
Handy Links:
Wikipedia entry on the Epic
Hero
A Story of
Epic Proportions: What makes a Poem an Epic?
Heroes
of the Anglo-Saxons
The
Epic of Shahnameh Ferdowsi
Epic
and Narrative, Forms, Poetry, Literature and . . .
In the Virtual Library, see:
Heroes
and the Human Condition (1999) by Eric Hasty, Dana Siegmund, and Jonathan Stroud
A Hero
Lies in You (2003) by Elizabeth Gathers
Hero, Monster,
Anti-hero (2006) by Allen Witt
The Bible
David
(Samuel 16 18; Kings 1 2)
Joseph (Genesis
37 50)
Moses (Exodus 1 19)
Ruth (The Book of Ruth)
Epic Poetry
Beowulf
The Epic
of Gilgamesh
Homer: The Odyssey
The Song of Roland
Novels
Barth, John: The Sot Weed Factor
Bellow, Saul: Herzog
Clarke, Arthur C.: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Ellison, Ralph: Invisible Man
Gardner, John: Grendel
Hemingway, Ernest: The
Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Norris, Frank: The Octopus
Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath
Sykes, Gerald: The Center of the Stage
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of an epic? What are the characteristics of the
epic hero? What are the characteristics of the epic hero's quest? How are the
different hero and quest elements similar and different from story to story?
Why are such characters heroic? Do we have such heroes in society today? Why
or why not?
Handy Links:
The Traditions,
Culture and Family of New Mexico
In the Virtual Library, see:
Family (2002)
by Emily Davis
The Dynamics
of Family (2002) by Kimberly A. Evans
The Changing
American Family (2004) by Erin Bailey
Poetry
Bode, Carl: The Bad Children
Brooks, Gwendolyn: The Children of the Poor
Carver, Raymond: Photograph
of My Father in His Twenty Second Year
Dickey, James: The Bee
Hayden,
Robert: Those Winter Sundays
Roethke, Theodore: My Papa's
Waltz
Plath, Sylvia: Daddy,
The
Disquieting Muses
Short Stories
Bambara, Toni Cade: Raymond's Run
Boles, Paul Darcy: The Night Watch
Chekhov, Anton:
Enemies
Freeman,
Mary E. Wilkins: The Revolt of Mother
Gray, Nicholas Stuart: The Star Beast
Hesse,
Hermann: A Man by the Name of Ziegler
Jackson, Charles: A Night Visitor
Kelley, William Melvin: Brother Carlyle
Morrison, Toni: Recitatif
Steinbeck, John:
Flight
Stuart, Jesse: Love
Williams, William
Carlos: The Use of Force
Novels
Allende, Isabel: House of the Spirits
Bell, Betty Louise: Faces in the Moon
Blue, Rose: Goodbye, Forever Tree
Burns, Olive Ann: Cold Sassy Tree
Cross, Gillian: On the Edge
Dorris, Michael: Morning Girl
Irwin, Hadley: What About Grandma?
Lamott, Anne: Rosie, Crooked Little Heart
Maloney, Ray: The Impact Zone
Mazer, Norma Fox: Three Sisters
Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres
Stowe, Harriet
Beecher: Uncle Tom's Cabin
Tan, Amy: The Joy Luck Club
Autobiographies
Allende, Isabel: Paula
Angelou, Maya: Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, Gather
Together in My Name
May, Lee: In My Father's Garden
McBride, James: The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother
McCourt, Frank: Angela's Ashes
Schlissel, Lillian (ed.): Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey
Nonfiction
Griffin, Garah Jasmine (Ed.): Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends
Drama
Shepard, Sam: Paris, Texas
Film
A River Runs Through It
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the definition of a family? What do family members share? What types
of conflicts occur within families? How are they resolved? What goals do families
have? How do family needs affect the behavior of the characters in the story?
What outside influences affect the family? Are these influences good, or bad?
Why?
Handy Links:
From
Trickster to Badman: The Black Folk Hero in Slavery and Freedom. - book reviews
Wikipedia entry on the Folk
Hero
Traditional Literature.
Lesson Plans
Cinderella
Folk Tales: Variations in Character
Arabic Folk Literature
Folk Tales/Legends
Irving, Washington: The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Tales about such legendary
figures as Crispus
Attucks, Barney
Beal, Bowleg Bill, Pecos
Bill, Paul Bunyan
and Babe, Annie
Christmas, Mike Fink,
John Henry, Jack
the Giant Killer, Casey
Jones, Joe
Magarac, Betty Zane,
and others.
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of the folk hero? What are the characteristics
of the folk hero's quest? What types of obstacles does the folk hero encounter?
What qualities enable the folk hero to triumph? What forces in a culture produce
folk literature?
Handy Links:
Friendship
Selections
Yahoo
Links to Friendship Poetry
In the Virtual Library, see:
Friendship
(1998) by Scott Morgan and Marla Sciara
Short Stories
Fante, John: The Odyssey of a Wop
Galsworthy, John:
The Apple Tree
Oliver,
Diane: Neighbors
Drama
Maugham, Somerset: The Letter
Novels
Auel, Jean: The Clan of the Cave Bear
Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451
Bridgers, Sue Ellen: Home Before Dark
Cary, Joyce: The Horse's Mouth
Cervantes,
Miguel de: Don Quixote
Dumas, Alexandre:
The Three Musketeers
Forster, E. M.: A Passage to India
Greene, Bette: Summer of my German Soldier, Morning is a Long Time Coming
Greene,
Graham: Brighton Rock
Guy, Rosa: The Friends
Hesse, Hermann: Demian, Narcissus and Goldmund, Siddhartha
Hunt, Irene: Across Five Aprils
Kazantzakis, Nikos: Zorba the Greek
Kerr, M. E.: I'll Love You When You're More Like Me
Knowles, John: A Separate Peace
Lawrence, D. H.:
Women in Love
Le Guin, Ursula: Very Far Away from Anywhere Else
Mahy, Margaret: Catalogue of the Universe
Myers, Walter Dean: Hoops
Oates, Joyce Carol: Solstice
Paterson, Katherine: Jacob
Have I Loved, The Bridge to Terabithia
Puig, Manuel: The Kiss of the Spider Woman
Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men
Strasser, Todd: Friends Till the End
Zalben, Jane Breskin: Here's Looking at You, Kid
Drama
Serling, Rod: In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Film
Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink)
Twilight of the Golds
Role Playing Games
Darling Grove: A Game
of Suburban Drama and Friendship
Key Concepts and Problems
What draws friends together? What causes people to be enemies? How do the characters
try to settle their differences? How are the conflicts resolved? What is the
author trying to say about the nature of friendship? What is the author trying
to say about the nature of conflict?
Handy Links:
The Frontier
in American Literature
American
Frontier
The Frontier in American Literature
by Lucy Lockwood Hazard
Frontier
Literature
Novels
Allen, Hervey: The Forest and the Fort
Brown, Dee: Wave High the Banner
Cather, Willa: Obscure
Destinies, My
Antonia
Cooper, James Fenimore: The
Last of the Mohicans, The
Pioneers
Fletcher, Inglis: Roanoke Hundred
Forbes, Esther: Paradise
Garland, Hamlin: Moccasin Ranch
Giles, Janice Holt: Land Beyond the Mountains
Mason, F. Van Wyck: The Young Titan
MacLachlan, Patricia: Sarah Plain and Tall, Skylark
Richter, Conrad: Free Man, Light in the Forest
Rolvaag, O. E.: Giants in the Earth
Swanson, Neil: The Silent Drum
Vaughan, Carter: The Invincibles
Welty, Eudora: The Robber Bridegroom
Widdemer, Margaret: The Golden Wildcat
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the goal of the settlers? What is their attitude toward (a) nature,
(b) Native Americans, and (c) the law? How do they try to achieve their goal?
Who or what are their allies in achieving their goal? What are their obstacles?
How do the properties of a frontier help determine the form of a frontier story?
What are typical characteristics of heroes in frontier stories? How does the
perspective of the narrator invite particular responses and sympathies of readers?
What are the consequences of these responses and sympathies for developing a
perspective on Western expansion and native people?
GANGS, CLIQUES, AND PEER GROUP PRESSURE
Handy Links:
Juvenile
Delinquency in the U.S.: Deconstructing the Recipe
When the
Good Go Bad: Why Juveniles Become Delinquent
In the Virtual Library, see:
Peer
Relations, Peer Influence and Conformity (1998) by Terri Avery & Jennifer
Hood
Gangs,
Cliques, and Peer Pressure (2002) by Julia Bateman
Recognizing
Reductionism: Identifying the Stereotypes Placed on Individuals and Groups by
Society (2002) by Bethany Bishop
Short Stories
Andreyev, Leonid: Nippie
Cozzens, James Gould: The Animals' Fair
Hwang, S. T.: The Donkey Cart
Langdon, John: The Blue Serge Suit
Stafford, Jean: Bad Characters
Taylor, Elizabeth: Nice and Birds and Boy
Vaca, Nicolas C.: The Purchase
West, Jessamyn: Live Life Deeply
Novels
Hinton, S. E.: Rumble Fish, The Outsiders
Morrison, Toni: The Bluest Eye
Peterson, P. J.: Corky and the Brothers Cool
Drama
Rose, Reginald: Dino
Shakespeare,
William: Romeo and Juliet
Films
The Breakfast Club
Pretty in Pink
Sixteen Candles
West Side Story
Images of Gangs, Cliques, and Peer Pressure
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the values of the group applying pressure? Why have they adopted these
values? Why do they try to impose them? In what ways is the protagonist different
from the group? How does the protagonist respond to the pressure? How does the
protagonist change during the story? What are differences among gang, clique,
and peer group? Why do kids join? Why do such groups form?
Handy Links:
GenderTalk
Radio by Topic
Gender Issues in the
Language Arts Classroom. ERIC Digest
Gender roles
(ENotes)
Fairy Tales
and Gender Roles
Teaching
Gender Roles at a Christian Liberal Arts College
In the Virtual Library, see:
Women in
Literature (2001) by Allison Trice
Emerging
Identities and Socially Constructed Gender Awareness (2005) by Pamela M. Amendola,
Devon McCarthy, & Ryan L. Neumann
Gender
Roles in American Literature (2006) by Tanya Martin, Maggie Taylor, Mimi Voyles,
& Chris Woodward
Fairy Tales
Cinderella
Hansel and Gretel
Poetry
Chester, Laura: Eyes of the Garden
Short Stories
Faessler, Shirley: A Basket of Apples
Freeman,
Mary E. Wilkins: The Revolt of Mother
Hemingway,
Ernest: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Huang, Veronica: Backstage
Hurston, Zora
Neale: Sweat
Rau, Santha Rama: Who Cares?
Thurber, James:
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Toer, Pramoedya Ananta: Inem
Walker, Alice: Everyday Use
Novels
Arnow, Harriette: The Dollmaker
Chopin,
Kate: The Awakening
Hurston,
Zora Neale: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Langton, Jane: Her Majesty, The Boyhood of Grace Jones
Lindbergh, Anne Morrow: Gift from the Sea
Walker, Alice: The Color Purple
Drama
Shaw, George Bernard: How He Lied
to Her Husband
Hatcher,
Jeffrey: Compleat Female Stage Beauty
Film
9 to 5
Water (Deepa Mehta, Dir.)
Tootsie
Victor/Victoria
Songs
Johnny
Clegg: Daughter of Eden
Collins,
Judy: Albatross
Meredith
Brooks: Bitch
Shania
Twain: Man, I Feel Like a Woman
Helen Reddy:
I am Woman
Key Concepts and Problems
How are the roles of males and females presented in the literature? What is
the point of view of the narrator toward these roles? What is the point of view
of the author toward these roles? How do these roles reflect the values of the
culture and era of the story's setting? To what extent are these roles consistent
with attitudes toward gender roles in your community?
Novels
Bums, Olive: Cold Sassy Tree
Childress, Alice: A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich, Rainbow Jordan
Greene, Hannah: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Lipsyte, Robert: One Fat Summer
Myers, Walter Dean: It Ain't All for Nothin'
Peck, Robert Newton: Justice Lion
Sleator, William: House of Stairs
Stewart , Mary: The Crystal Cave
Torchia , Joseph: Kryptonite Kid
Twain, Mark: The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn
Key Concepts and Problems
What influences do the characters face? Consider such factors as family, religion,
friends, media, laws and rules, temperament, intellect, talent, and values.
Which of these influences are good? Which are bad? Which influences are the
greatest? How does the character respond to the influences? What is the character's
real personality? Do the influences shape the character into something other
than his or her real self? What does the character discover at the end? How
does this realization affect the character?
Handy Links:
Wikipedia entry on Irony
Irony
Irony and
Imagination: Romantic Revolutions in Literature, Music, Art, and Thought
Note: The approach to studying irony is adapted from the work of Wayne Booth
and Michael
W. Smith (see in particular Smith, 1991).
CLUE 1 Straightforward Warning in Author's Own Voice
Barry, Dave: God Needs the Money
Breathed, Berke: Bloom County cartoons
Clegg,
Johnny: The Revolution Will Eat Its Children
cummings,
e. e.: the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
Larson, Gary: The Far Side cartoons
Nemerov, Howard: Santa Claus
Royko, Mike: Silence Is the Best Sport
Simon, Paul: The Dangling
Conversation
Twain, Mark: My Watch
CLUE 2 Known Error Proclaimed
Baker, Russell: Addals of Medicid
Barenaked
Ladies: Grade 9
Barry, Dave: What Is and Ain't Grammatical; Great Baby! Delicious!
Benchley, Robert: Whoa!; French for Americans
Buchwald, Art: Fresh Air Will Kill You
Perelman, S. J.: Waiting for Santa
CLUE 3 Conflict of Facts Within the Work
Barenaked
Ladies: The Old Apartment
Capek, Karel: The Last
Judgment
cummings, e. e.: i
sing of Olaf, glad and big
Daudet, Alphonse: The
Death of the Dauphin
Gardner, Mona:
The Dinner Party
Hardy, Thomas: The Man He Killed,
Satires of Circumstance
Henry, O.:
The Ransom of Red Chief
Kerr, Orpheus C.: The Latest Improvements in Artillery
Lowell, Amy: Fireworks
Madgett, Naomi Long: The Mother
Saki: The Interlopers
Shelley,
Percy Bysshe: Ozymandias
Smith, Stevie: The Zoo
CLUE 4 Conflict of Style
Barenaked
Ladies: Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel
Hubbard, Kim: A Letter from the Front
Lehrer, Tom:
Fight Fiercely, Harvard
Locke, David Ross: Nasby Shows
Why He Should Not Be Drafted
Marquis, Don: warty bliggins,
the toad
Mull, Martin: Straight Talk About the Blues/Ukulele Blues
Parker,
Dorothy: From the Diary of a New York Lady
Twain, Mark:
Unspoken War Prayer
CLUE 5 Clash of Beliefs
Barenaked
Ladies: Who Needs Sleep?
Barry, Dave: God Needs the Money
Buchwald, Art: Is Your City Worth Saving?
Clough,
Arthur Hugh: The Latest Decalogue
Franklin, Ben: The Sale of the Hessians
Newman, Randy: Short
People, Political Science
Olson, Elder: Plot Improbable, Character Unsympathetic
Paxton,
Tom: What Did You Learn in School Today?
Royko, Mike: A Great Fish, the Bullhead
Springsteen,
Bruce: Nebraska
Swift, Jonathan: A Modest
Proposal
Overall Review of Irony
Barenaked
Ladies: Alcohol
Blume, Judy: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Heller, Joseph: Catch 22
Kubrick, Stanley: Dr. Strangelove
Rice, Anne: Interview with the Vampire
Shepherd, Jean: In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash
Swift, Jonathan:
Gulliver's Travels
Twain, Mark: Huckleberry
Finn
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: Slaughterhouse Five
Wells,
H. G.: The War of the Worlds
Wibberley, Leonard: The Mouse That Roared
Zindel, Paul: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds
Key Concepts and Problems
There are five clues for recognizing irony [identified by Wayne Booth, and listed
above]. Does this work include one or more of these clues? If so, when we reject
the surface meaning of the piece, what is the author really saying?
Handy Links:
Your Heroic
Journey
A Ninth Grade
Reading of The Odyssey
The Hero Journey:
Not a Trip to Subway
Holding out
for a Hero
Mythology: Gods,
Heroes, and Universal Themes
The Bible
Exodus
Epic Poetry
Homer: The Iliad, The
Odyssey
Short Story
Glancy, Diane: The Orchard
Hawthorne,
Nathaniel: Young Goodman Brown
Renville, D.: Siobhan La Rue in Color
Novel
Adams, Richard: Watership Down
Hemingway,
Ernest: The Old Man and the Sea
Melville, Herman: Moby-Dick
Momaday, N. Scott: The Way to Rainy Mountain
Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath
Tolokien, J.R.R.: The Hobbit
Twain, Mark: The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn
Nonfiction
Iyer, Pico: Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far
East
Moon, William Least Heat: Blue Highways
Autobiography
Guthrie, Woody: Bound for Glory
Schlissel, Lillian (ed.): Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey
Film
El Norte
Thelma and Louise
Song
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: Spirit is the Journey
Mitchell,
Joni: Woodstock
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the character's quest? What is the vehicle for the journey? What does
the character value in getting there--that is, what does the character view
as sacred, dispensable, profane? What help does the character receive along
the way? How does he or she view this help? What physical and character traits
enable the journey to continue? What changes does the character experience along
the way? What destinations does the character reach? Ultimately, what is the
meaning of the journey?
Handy Links:
Focusing
on Juvenile Justice
Realizing Our Inalienable
Rights Through Literacy and Citizenship
American Justice
and Student Rights
United States; T.R.I.C.K.Y.:
Teenage Reality, Ideals, Citizenship, Keepsakes, and You
In the Virtual Library, see:
Social
Injustice (1998) by Nelie Betress and Bridget Taylor
Understanding
Human Rights through Literature (1999) by Jenny Cockrill, Stephanie Hall, Rebecca
Long
Poetry
Anzaldua, Gloria: How to Tame a Wild Tongue
Davis, Frank Marshall: Giles Johnson, Ph.D.
Mirikitani, Janice: Breaking Silence
Mitsui, James: Destination: Tule Lake Relocation Center, May 20, 1942
Okita, Dwight: In Response to Executive Order 9006
Okubo, Mine: Holding Center, Tanforan Race Track Spring 1942
Walker, Margaret: For My People
Novels
Bambara, Toni Cade: The Salt Eaters
Carlisle, Henry, and Carlisle, Olga Andreyev: The Idealists
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment
Faulkner, William: Light in August
Le Guin, Ursula: The Dispossessed
Melville, Herman:
Billy Budd
Steiner,
George: The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.
Taylor, Mildred: Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
Toomer,
Jean: Cane
Uchida, Yoshiko: The Invisible Friend
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Crusade for Justice
Wouk, Herman: The Caine Mutiny
Wright, Richard: Native Son
Autobiographies
Black
Elk with John G. Neihardt: Black Elk Speaks
Mandela,
Nelson: Long Walk to Freedom
Moody, Anne: Coming of Age in Mississippi
Standing
Bear, Luther: My People, the Sioux
Nonfiction
Barbara
Ehrenreich and Deidre English: Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics
of Sickness
King, Martin
Luther Jr.: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Thoreau, Henry David: Civil
Disobedience
Drama
Peckinpah, Sam: Noon Wine
Rose, Reginald: Twelve Angry Men
Shakespeare,
William: The Merchant of Venice
Song
Johnny Clegg
& Savuka: Bombs Away
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: Warsaw 1943
La Farge, Peter: As Long As the Grass Shall Grow
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the definition of justice? Where do the characters in the story get
their concept of justice? Is the behavior of the characters in the story just?
Why or why not? What are the difficulties involved in achieving justice? In
what ways can punishment be justly related to crime? What is the relationship
between justice and mercy? What is the source of one's concept of justice?
Short Stories
Deal, Bordon: Antaeus
Guthrie, A. B., Jr.: Old Mother Hubbard
Novels
Bonham, Frank: Durango Street
Cormier, Robert: The Chocolate War, After the First Death, The Bumblebee Flies
Anyway
Forman, James: A Ceremony of Innocence
French, Michael: The Throwing Season
Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
Hinton, S. E.: The Outsiders; That Was Then, This Is Now; Rumble Fish
L'Engle, Madeleine: A Ring of Endless Light
O'Brien, Robert: Z for Zachariah
Schaefer, Jack: Shane
Stevenson,
Robert Louis: Treasure Island
Twain, Mark: Tom
Sawyer
Zindel, Paul: Harry and Hortense at Hormone High
Film
Dave
Hoosiers
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the qualities of a leader? Why do others follow such a person? What
type of leadership does the leader offer? What is the leader's purpose? How
is this character regarded by the others in the story? How does the leader change
during the story?
Mythology
Pandora's Box
Phaethon
Deirdre
and the Sons of Usna
The Bible
The
Creation and the Fall (Genesis 1 3)
Poetry
Cullen, Countee: Youth
Sings a Song of Rosebuds
Millay, Edna St. Vincent: Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies
Roethke, Theodore: Dirty Dinky
Stafford, William: In the Old Days, Time
Thomas, Dylan: Fern Hill
Short Stories
Hawthorne,
Nathaniel: Egotism, Or the Bosom Serpent
Joyce, James: Araby
Shaw, Irwin: Peter Two
Updike, John: You'll Never Know, Dear, How Much I Love You
Warren, Robert Penn.: Blackberry Winter
Novels
Baldwin, James: Go Tell It on the Mountain
Carter, Forrest: The Education of Little Tree
Gipson, Fred: Old Yeller
Hawthorne,
Nathaniel: The Marble Faun
Hunter, Kristin: God Bless the Child
Knowles, John: A Separate Peace
Rawlings, Marjorie: The Yearling
Salinger, J. D.: The Catcher in the Rye
Smith, Betty: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Soyinka, Wole: Ake. The Years of Childhood
Steinbeck, John: The Red Pony
Song
Barenaked
Ladies: Pinch Me
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: The Promise
Key Concepts and Problems
What is innocence? In what ways is the character originally "innocent"?
What causes the "fall"? How is the character affected by the fall?
Is the character better off, or worse? Why? What has the character learned from
this experience?
Poetry
Bums, Robert: A Red, Red Rose
Donne, John:
The Ecstasy
Graves, Robert: Symptoms
of Love
Herrick, Robert:
Delight in Disorder
Lowell, Amy: The Taxi
Roethke, Theodore: Elegy for
Jane
Shakespeare, William: Sonnets
18, 29
Shapiro, Karl: How Do I Love You?
Yeats, William Butler:
The Lover Tells of the Rose in His Heart
Short Stories
Hughes, Langston: A Good Job Done
Kerckhoff, Joan: Talk To Me, Talk To Me
O'Connor,
Flannery: Everything That Rises Must Converge
Novels
Austen, Jane: Pride
and Prejudice
Bronte,
Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Bronte,
Emily: Wuthering Heights
du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
Faulkner, William: Light in August
Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
Joyce,
James: Ulysses
Kundera, Milan: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: Love in the Time of Cholera
McCullers,
Carson: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Percy, Walker: The Second Coming, The Moviegoer
Rhys, Jean: Wide Sargasso Sea
Walker, Alice: The Color Purple
Woolf,
Virginia: Orlando
Drama
Chayefsky, Paddy: Marty
Shakespeare,
William: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo
and Juliet
Films
Out of Africa
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the definition of romantic love? What enables the lovers to become intimate
with each other? How do the characters in the story illustrate the definition
of romantic love? How do they fall short of the definition? Is there such thing
as weak love, or can it only be strong? How does a love relationship affect
an individual? How do individuals in love affect each other? How does romantic
love develop?
Handy Links:
Wikipedia entry on Bushido
Muslim
loyalty and belonging: does extremism have a future?
Humanity Quest
Loyalty Resources
The Bible
Abraham and
Isaac (Genesis 22:1 19)
Cain
and Abel (Genesis 4:1 16)
The
Golden Calf (Exodus 32, 33:1 6)
Joseph
and His Brothers (Genesis 37:1 36)
Poetry
Brooks, Gwendolyn:
The Preacher: Ruminates Behind the Sermon
Masters, Edgar Lee: The Village
Atheist
Muir, Edwin: Moses
Nemerov, Howard: Santa Claus
Prettyman, Quandra: When Mahalia Sings
Shapiro, Karl: 151st Psalm
Spender,
Stephen: What I Expected
Yeats, William
Butler: The Second Coming
Short Stories
Babel, Isaac: Awakening
Baldwin, James: My Childhood
Chavez, Fray Angelico: Hunchback Madonna
Frame, Janet: The Reservoir
Haycox, Ernest: A Question of Blood
Hughes, Langston:
Salvation
Mendoza, Durango: Summer Water and Shirley
O'Flaherty, Liam: The Fairy Goose
Silko, Leslie Marmon: The Man to Send Rain Clouds
Swados, Harvey: Claudine's Book
Novels
Gipson,
Fred: Old Yeller
Potok, Chaim: The Chosen, The Promise
Nonfiction
Pledge of Allegiance
Chief Joseph of the
Nez Perce: Speech of Surrender
King, Martin
Luther, Jr.: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Lincoln,
Abraham: Gettysburg Address
Red Jacket: An Indian Speaks
Thoreau, Henry David: Civil
Disobedience
Drama
Chayefsky, Paddy: Holiday Song
Films
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Curse of the Golden Flower
On the Waterfront
Songs
Barenaked
Ladies: Off the Hook
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: Warsaw 1943
Key Concepts and Problems
What is loyalty? What are the different kinds of loyalty? What causes someone
to feel loyal? What forces can compete with one's loyalty? How does one choose
between being loyal or disloyal? How does one judge someone who has acted disloyally?
MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS
Handy Links:
Wikipedia's
List of Mental Illness in Art and Literature
Mental Illness
Mental Health
3: Mental Health Through Literature
Linking
about: the Victorians and Mental Illness
A photographer & writer struggling
with mental illness
Talking
About mental illness: Teacher's resource
Perceptions of Mental
Illness
Mental Health
Links
In the Virtual Library, see:
Mental
Illness (2004) by Emily Lancaster & Christopher Warren
Novels:
Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William: The Sound and the Fury
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Heller, Joseph: Catch-22
Kesey, Ken: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
Salinger, J. D.: The Catcher in the Rye
Play:
Miller, Arthur: Death of a Salesman
Short Stories
Gilman, Charlotte
Perkins: The Yellow Wallpaper
Biography:
Nasar, Sylvia: A Beautiful Mind
Plath,
Sylvia: The Bell Jar
Songs:
Barenaked
Ladies: Brian Wilson
Barenaked
Ladies: War on Drugs
Images of Mental Illness and Mental Health
Key Concepts and Problems:
What is mental health? What is mental illness? How do you draw the line between
the two? How are people with mental illness treated in society? How should they
be treated?
Handy links:
Wikipedia's
list of metafictional texts
Theories
of metafiction
Metafiction
Comparative Multi-Cultural
Literature. Topic: Metafiction & Politics
Metafiction
Key Concepts and Problems
What fictional devices are emphasized in the text? What relation between fiction and reality is posed? In what ways is the work ironic? What points is the author making through the metafictional presentation?
Handy links:
MythicHero.com
The
Mythic Hero
Mythic
Heroes
Mythic
Hero's Questionnaire (Frey)
Myths
of the Amazons
In the Virtual Library, see:
Researching
the World (Mythology) (2002) by Melanie Kee
Mythology
Bellerophon
Jason
Orpheus
Perseus
Theseus
And many others
Nonfiction
Information about such heroes, past and present, as Neil
Armstrong, Calamity
Jane, César
Chávez, Joan of
Arc, Benito Juárez,
Molly Pitcher,
John F. Kennedy, Martin
Luther King, Jr., Teddy
Roosevelt, Nelson
Mandela, Laura Secord,
Babe Ruth, Geronimo,
Tecumseh, Mother
Teresa, many
others
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of the mythic hero? What are the characteristics
of the mythic hero's quest? What becomes exaggerated about a mythic hero? What
gets overlooked?
Handy links:
The New Kid on the Block (Simpsons
episode)
Novels
Blume, Judy: Tiger Eyes
Carter, Alden: Growing Season
Cleaver, Vera: Where the Lilies Bloom
Guy, Rosa: New Guys Around the Block
Kerr, M. E.: Him She Loves?
Myers, Walter Dean: The Outside Shot
Key Concepts and Problems
What is different about the newcomer? How is this character received by the
others? How does the character respond to this reception? How does the character
adapt to the new environment? How does the character change during the story?
Is this positive or negative? Why?
Mythology
Sisyphus
Poetry
Arnold,
Matthew: Dover Beach
Blake, William: The Marriage
of Heaven and Hell
Bronte,
Emily: Ah! Why, Because the Dazzling Sun
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: Frost
at Midnight, The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Eliot, T. S.: The Wasteland,
The Hollow Men
Hardy, Thomas: The Man He Killed
Pope, Alexander: An Essay on Man
Shelley, Percy Bysshe: Ode to
the West Wind
Tennyson, Alfred: Ulysses
Wordsworth, William:
The World Is Too Much with Us,
Tintern Abbey, It Is a
Beauteous Evening
Yeats, William Butler:
Sailing to Byzantium
Novels
Camus, Albert: The Stranger
Conrad, Joseph:
Lord Jim
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment,
Notes from the Underground
Gascar, Pierre: The Season of the Dead
Mann, Thomas: The Magic Mountain
Voltaire: Candide
Drama
Beckett, Samuel:
Waiting for Godot
O'Neill, Eugene: The
Hairy Ape
Simpson, N.F.: One Way Pendulum
Sartre, Jean Paul:
No Exit
Shakespeare, William: Macbeth,
Hamlet
Images of Optimism and Pessimism
Key Concepts and Problems
Is the piece optimistic, pessimistic, or neutral in outlook? What clues tell
you what the outlook is? Do you agree with the author's vision? Why or who not?
What evidence do you see in the real world that either supports or refutes the
author's vision? What facts and conditions contribute to one's evaluation of
experience? To what extent do such attitudes come from the way the world is?
To what extent do they come from a person's temperament?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on the Outcast
Poetry
Hughes,
Langston: Brass Spittoons
Robinson,
Edwin Arlington: Mr. Flood's Party
Rosenberg, Isaac: The Jew
Sassoon,
Siegfried: Does It Matter?
Thomas, Dylan:
The Hunchback in the Park
Short Stories
Capote, Truman: Jug of Silver
Gallico, Paul: The Snow Goose
Gorky, Maxim: Her
Lover
Harte, Bret: The Outcasts of
Poker Flat
Laurence, Margaret: The Half Husky
Matheson, Richard: Born
of Man and Woman
Munro, Alice: Red Dress, Day of the Butterfly
Parker, Dorothy: Clothe the Naked
Peretz, I. L.: The Outcast
Rovere, Richard: Wallace
Singer, Isaac
Bashevis: Gimpel the Fool
Novels
Dickens, Charles: Great
Expectations, David
Copperfield
Field, Rachel: Hepatica Hawns
Petry, Ann: The Street
Smith, Betty: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men
Autobiographies
Wright, Richard: Black Boy
Drama
Brecht, Bertolt: Galileo
Rose, Reginald: Thunder on Sycamore Street
Williams,
Tennessee: The Glass Menagerie
Films
Pretty in Pink
Valley Girl
Key Concepts and Problems
In what ways is the outcast different from society? Why does society reject
this character? To what extent does the character reject himself or herself?
How does the character feel about rejection? How does the character try to resolve
this rejection?
Handy links:
Wikipedia list of parodies
Parody videos
Funny song parodies
The Dr. Seuss Parody
Page
Dumbentia
The Parody Pages
Song Parodies
Prose
Columns by distinctive writers such as Andy
Rooney, Molly
Ivins, Dave Barry
Several short stories by a writer with a distinctive style, such as Edgar
Allan Poe
Several examples from a distinctive genre, such as lab reports, fairy tales,
recipes, sports writing
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the distinctive features of a writer's style? Consider (a) themes,
(b) sentence structure, (c) commonly used words or word types, (d) point of
view, (e) types of details, and (f) types of literary techniques. What are the
distinctive features of a given genre in terms of structure? Assignment: To
write a distinctive genre piece (such as a recipe, lab report, fairy tale, or
sports writing) in the style of the writer studied.
Poetry
Hopkins, Gerard Manley: Pied Beauty
Marvell, Andrew:
To His Coy Mistress
Shakespeare, William: Sonnets
Yeats, William
Butler: The Second Coming
Short Stories
Babel, Iaac: Gedali, The Story of My Dovecote
Gogol,
Nikolai: The Overcoat
Hemingway,
Ernest: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Joyce, James: The
Dead
Lawrence,
D. H.: The Prussian Officer
Roth, Philip: The Conversion of the Jews
Tolstoy,
Leo: Where Love Is, God Is
Updike, John: Pigeon Feathers
Novels
Camus, Albert: The Stranger
James, Henry: Daisy
Miller, What
Maisie Knew
Joyce,
James: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's
Travels
Nonfiction (Essay)
Swift, Jonathan: A Modest
Proposal
Key Concepts and Problems
What philosophical ideas and attitudes toward life does the author seem to hold?
What does the author seem to value most dearly? How does the author present
his or her personal values, attitudes, and philosophical ideas in the work?
What does the writer do to persuade the reader to agree with these ideas and
attitudes? Is the writer rhetorically persuasive? Why or why not? What is the
range of rhetorical techniques -overt and covert--that a writer may use to persuade
a reader that his or her personal values, attitudes, or philosophical ideas
are right or worthy of serious consideration?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on the Picaresque
Novel
Picaresque
Novel
Epic Poetry
Byron, George Gordon:
Don Juan
Novels
Berger, Thomas: Little Big Man
Bellow, Saul: Henderson the Rain King, The Adventures of Augie March
Cary, Joyce: The Horse's Mouth
Cervantes, Miguel de:
Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel:
Moll Flanders
Faulkner, William: The Rievers
Fielding, Henry: Tom Jones, Joseph
Andrews
Goldman, William: The Princess Bride
Mann, Thomas: Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man
Smollett,
Tobias: Roderick Random
Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's
Travels
Twain, Mark: Huckleberry
Finn
Voltaire: Candide
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of the picaresque hero? How does the protagonist
fit this description? What does the hero learn from travel adventures? How is
the hero affected by the lack of a stable family? What is the author trying
to say about society, based on the adventures of the hero? What is the relationship
between the characteristics of the hero and the form of the story?
Handy links:
Wikipedia
entry on Point of View (Literature)
Exploring
Point of View
A Point of View
Short Stories
Greenburg, Dan:
Catch Her in the Oatmeal
Helprin, Mark: Letters from the Samantha
James, Henry: A Bundle of Letters
Malamud, Bernard: The Prison
Parker, Dorothy: But the One on the Right
Petrakis, Harry Mark: The Journal of a Wife Beater
Poe, Edgar Allan:
The Fall of the House of Usher
Updike, John: A & P
Novels
Dorris, Michael: A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Erdrich, Louise: The Beet Queen
Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
Gardner, John: Grendel
Oz, Amos: Black Box
Twain, Mark: Huckleberry
Finn
Key Concepts and Problems
How old is the narrator? How does this affect his or her reliability? How smart
is the narrator? How does this affect his or her reliability? What is the narrator's
socio economic status? How does this affect his or her reliability? What are
the narrator's values and beliefs? How does this affect his or her reliability?
What is the narrator's purpose in telling the story? How is the narrator's knowledge
about the other characters limited? Is there testimony or action that conflicts
with the narrator's version of events and people? If there is more than one
narrator, which one is most reliable? Why? Is there significant distance (emotional,
intellectual, psychological, moral) between the reader and the narrator? Explain.
How does the reliability of the narrator affect our understanding of a story?
How does the narrator's involvement influence the impact of the story?
Handy Links:
Science and
Technology: Catalysts for Change in Society
Relationship
of Atomic America to Native America
Sifting
Through the Ashes: A Multi-Media Inquiry into the People and Events That Led
to the Development Of Atomic America
Cultural Perspectives
on the Environment in Selected 20th Century Poems
What
are Progressive Values?
In the Virtual Library, see:
Technology
and Progress (2002) by Tara Cooney
Short Stories
Faulkner, William: The Bear, Delta Autumn
Novels
Bellow, Saul: Henderson the Rain King
Berger, Thomas: Little Big Man
Crichton, Michael: Jurassic Park
Kesey, Ken: Sometimes a Great Notion
Kosinski, Jerzy: Being There
Wolf, Adolf: Legends Told by the Old People
Le Guin, Ursula: The Word for World Is Forest
Momaday, N. Scott: The Way to Rainy Mountain
Sinclair,
Upton: The Jungle
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: Slaughterhouse Five
Wells, H. G.:
The Time Machine
Nonfiction
Mailer, Norman: Of a Fire on the Moon
Thoreau, Henry David: Walden
Films
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Water (Deepa Mehta, Dir.)
Song
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: Inevitable Consequence of Progress
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the definition of progress? Consider progress in terms of (a) technology,
(b) the human spirit, (c) the expansion of "civilization," and (d)
the evolution of the human intellect. Do the behavior and events of the story
represent progress? Why or why not? What is the author's attitude towards progress?
Do you agree?
Handy Links:
Empowering
Adolescents to be Smart Consumers of Information: Advertisements and News
Media Messages,
Tactics, and Their Effect on Youth
Wikipedia entry on Propaganda
Novels
DeVries, Peter: Witch's Milk
Lessing, Doris: Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire
Orwell, George: 1984,
Animal Farm
Nonfiction
Gold, Philip: Advertising, Politics, and the American Culture
Jowett,
Garth S., and Victoria O'Donnell: Propaganda and Persuasion
Hawthorn, Jeremy (ed.): Propaganda, Persuasion, and Polemic
Orwell,
George: Writers and the Leviathan
Rank, Hugh: Analyzing Persuasion: 10
Teaching Aids
Films
The Manchurian Candidate
Triumph of the Will
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of propaganda? How can we recognize it? What distinguishes
propaganda from other forms of persuasion?
Handy Links:
South African Resistance Art
Wikipedia entry on Protest
Protest
Literature
Tradition
of American protest literature probed
Antislavery Literature
Project
A Collaboration
of Sites and Sounds: Using Wikis to Catalog Protest Songs
Protest
Literature of the Dead Bald White Guys Meets Protest Music of All Colors: Using
Music To Connect Students to American Revolutionary Literature
In the Virtual Library, see:
Resistance
Literature (1999) by Quiana Camp, Matt Davis, and Chelle Harris
Protest
Literature and the American Experience (2003) by Derek Chelf
Poetry
Dunbar,
Paul Laurence: Sympathy
Hughes, Langston: Dream
Deferred, Ballad
of the Landlord
Jeffers, Lance: On Listening to the Spirituals
McKay, Claude: The
White House
Randall, Dudley: The Idiot
Short Stories
Freeman, Joseph: From Bohemia to Russia
Mailer, Norman: The Patron Saint of MacDougal Alley
Novels
Bellamy, Charles: The Breton Mills
Kesey, Ken: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
London, Jack: The Iron
Heel
Orwell, George:
Animal Farm
Sinclair,
Upton: The Jungle
Ward,
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps: The Silent Partner
Nonfiction
Anthony,
Susan B.: Woman Wants Bread, Not the Ballot!
Catt, Carrie Chapman: Speech
before Congress, 1917, 1904 to 1911: Is Woman Suffrage Progressing?
Cleaver, Eldridge: Soul on Ice
Dunbar, Roxanne: Female Liberation as the Basis for Social Revolution
Henry, Patrick:
Speech to the Virginia Convention
Hentoff,
Nat: The War on the Bill of Rights
Jefferson,
Thomas: Declaration of Independence
King, Martin
Luther, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail
Paine, Thomas: The Crisis
Papers
Thoreau, Henry David: Civil
Disobedience
Autobiographies
Malcolm X with Alex Haley: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Film
Cool Hand Luke
Do the Right Thing
Matewan
Norma Rae
Documentary Film
Eyes on the Prize series
Martin Luther King, Jr.: From Memphis to Montgomery
Song
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: One (Hu) Man, One Vote
Wikipedia entry on Protest
songs
Protest songs
Key Concepts and Problems
What conditions have prompted the protest? What steps does the writer suggest
we take in making a protest? Is there a common series of steps that the writers
suggest to take in protesting? Does the writer suggest the point at which we
should abandon the protest that is, is a radical alternative such as violence
appropriate in the situation in question? Is the protest justified? Why or why
not? What are the differences between fictional and nonfictional protests? What
are the typical forms of protest literature?
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BRITISH LITERARY CHARACTERS: CHAUCER TO THE MODERNS
Poetry and Prose (Listed Chronologically)
Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight
Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury
Tales
Malory, Sir
Thomas: Le Morte d'Arthur
Spenser, Edmund: The
Faerie Queene
Shakespeare,
William: Hamlet
Milton,
John: Paradise Lost
Austen, Jane: Pride
and Prejudice
Byron, George
Gordon: Don Juan
Shelley,
Mary: Frankenstein
Bronte,
Emily: Wuthering Heights
Dickens, Charles:
David Copperfield
Hardy, Thomas:
Jude, the Obscure
Shaw, George Bernard: Arms
and the Man
Eliot, T. S.: The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
Conrad, Joseph:
Heart of Darkness
Woolf,
Virginia: To the Lighthouse
Key Concepts and Problems
How is the psychology of the characters influenced by the attitudes of the times
in which they were written? How does the psychology of these characters change
over time? What is responsible for these changes? What is the same about the
characters over time? What conclusions can we draw about human nature, based
on our study of these characters?
Handy links:
Fire and Ice: Puritan and Reformed
Writings
Puritan History: Past, Present,
and Future
The Puritan
Ethic
Wikipedia Entry
on the Protestant Work Ethic
Elementary Texts
McGuffey's
Reader
The New England Primer
Poetry
Bradstreet,
Anne: To My Dear and Loving Husband
Taylor, Edward:
Meditation Six
Short Stories
Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The
Minister's Black Veil, Young
Goodman Brown
Twain, Mark: The
Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Novels
Hawthorne,
Nathaniel: The Scarlet Letter
Twain, Mark: The
Mysterious Stranger
Nonfiction
Edwards, Jonathan:
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Mather,
Cotton: Essays to Do Good
Drama
Miller, Arthur: The Crucible
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the central beliefs of the Puritans? What are the characteristics of
the Puritan ethic? What historical factors contributed to the development of
these principles? How was life for the Puritans different from life today? How
was it similar to life today? Why did Puritanism die in America? To what extent
does the Puritan ethic survive in America today?
Handy links:
Wikipedia
entry on Naturalism (Literature)
Naturalism in American
Literature
Naturalism
Realism in American
Literature, 1860-1890
Wikipedia entry on Realism
(Arts)
Realism
in Literature
In the Virtual Library, see:
American
Realism and Naturalism (1999) by Julie Waters
What America
Means to Me: A Conceptual Unit on American Realism (2002) by Kristen Demaree
Poetry
Masters, Edgar Lee: Spoon River Anthology
Robinson, Edwin Arlington: Cliff
Klingenhagen, Miniver Cheevy
Short Stories
Anderson, Sherwood: Winesburg,
Ohio
Garland, Handin: selections from Main Travelled Roads
Jewett, Sarah Orne: The Country of the
Pointed Firs
Novels
Cather,
Willa: The Professor's House
Crane, Stephen: The
Red Badge of Courage, Maggie
Dreiser, Theodore: Sister
Carrie, An
American Tragedy
Glasgow, Ellen: Barren Ground
Howells,
William Dean: A Modern Instance
James, Henry: Daisy
Miller
Lewis, Sinclair:
Main Street
Norris,
Frank: McTeague
Sinclair,
Upton: The Jungle
Wharton, Edith:
Ethan Frome
Wright, Richard: Native Son
Images of Realism and Naturalism
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of realism and naturalism? What historical influences
shaped these forms? How are they different from other literary forms? How does
the literature exemplify these forms? How is naturalism an extreme extension
of realism? What unique types of observations do the forms of realism and naturalism
allow the authors to make?
Handy links:
Courage and Responsibility:
The American Civil War
In the Virtual Library, see:
Personal
Responsibility (1999) by Tommy Behr, Jamie Reece, and Angie Watkins
Novels
Cather, Willa: My
Antonia
Kerr M. E.: Gentlehands
Milkowicz, Gloria: The Day the Senior Class Got Married
Newton, Suzanne: I Will Call It Georgie's Blues
Southerland, Ellease: Let the Lion Eat Straw
Stone, Bruce: Half Nelson, Full Nelson
Sweeney, Joyce: Center Line
Zindel, Paul: The Pigman
Drama
Rose, Reginald: Thunder on Sycamore Street
Key Concepts and Problems
What value systems are the characters being influenced by? How strenuously are
the value systems being imposed? From where do the characters derive their sense
of responsibility? What forces are testing this sense? How do the characters
respond to these forces? How is the conflict resolved? What is the author trying
to say about value systems and responsibility in particular? Distinguish among
duty, obligation, expectation, responsibility, and promise.
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on Rite
of Passage
Rituals
and Rites of Passage
Young
Adult Literature: Rite of Passage or Rite of Its Own
Rites
of Passage?
Rites of Passage across Cultures
and within American Subcultures
Mythology
Irish: The Prince of the Lonesome Isle, The Lade of Tubber Tintye
Navajo:
Twin Warriors
Greek: Actaeon,
Phaethon and Phoebus,
Psyche and Cupid
Sumerian:
Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld
The Bible
Story
of Job (Job 1 42)
Poetry
Gunn, Thom: Black Jackets
Parker, Dorothy: Indian Summer
Thomas, Dylan: Poem in October
Short Stories
Clinton, Michelle T.: Humiliation of the Boy
Cohoe, Grey: The Promised
Visit
Fox, Robert: A Fable
Meckel, Christo: The Lion
Silko, Leslie Marmon: Tony's Story
Steinbeck, John:
Flight
Wallace, Karen: Mary
Novels
Dickens, Charles:
Oliver Twist
Elfman, Blossom: First Love Lives Forever
Gibbons, Kaye: Ellen Foster
Momaday, N. Scott: House Made of Dawn, The Ancient Child
Panshin, Alexi: Rite of Passage
Stine, Robert L.: Twisted
Welch, James: Winter in the Blood
Nonfiction
Sheehy, Gail: Passages
Key Concepts and Problems
What is initiation/rite of passage? What actually changes as the result of an
initiation or rite of passage? What is the character initiated into? What state
is the character leaving? Could the character have made the same transformation
without the rite of passage? Why or why not? How does the character change during
the story?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on Romance
Romance Web Gateway
Yahoo
Search: Romance: Literature
Fairy Tales
Cinderella
Snow White
Mythology
Persephone
Perseus
Romulus and Remus
The Bible
Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
Moses
(Exodus 1 19)
Poetry
Keats, John: La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Tennyson,
Alfred: The Lotus Eaters
Short Stories
Colette:
The Secret Woman
Collier, John:
The Chaser
Hemingway,
Ernest: Hills Like White Elephants
Poe, Edgar Allan: William
Wilson
Novels
Bronte,
Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Bronte,
Emily: Wuthering Heights
Burroughs,
Edgar Rice: Tarzan
Cain, James M.: The Postman Always Rings Twice
Cervantes,
Miguel de: Don Quixote
Cheever, John: Oh, What a Paradise It Seems
Crutcher, Chris: Running Loose
Davis, Terry: Vision Quest
Estey, Dale: A Lost Tale
Golding, William: The Princess Bride
Holland, Isabelle: Summer of My First Love
Kerr, M. E.: Gentlehands, Him She Loves?, I Stay Near You
Lee, Mildred: The People Therein
Le Guin, Ursula: Very Far Away from Anywhere Else
Lipsyte, Robert: Jack and Jill
Lyle, Katie: Dark But Full of Diamonds
Malory, Sir
Thomas: Le Morte d'Arthur
Marshall, Katherine: Christie
du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
Mazer, Harry: I Love You, Stupid!
McCullough, Colleen: The Thorn Birds
Mitchell, Margaret: Gone with the Wind
Myers, Walter Dean: Motown and Didi
Tolkien, J.R.R.: Lord of the Rings
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: Slaughterhouse Five
Drama
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: Faust
Shakespeare, William: A
Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo
and Juliet, The
Tempest
West, Jessamyn: The Massacre at Fall Creek
Wilkinson, Brenda: Ludell and Willie
Zindel, Paul: The Pigman
Films
Fatal Attraction
Play Misty for Me
Key Concepts and Problems
How does the world of innocence come into play in each selection? What kind
of quest does the hero pursue in each story? How are they similar and different?
How do magic, mystery, and miracles function in these selections? What roles
do vision and revelation play in these selections? What sorts of fulfillment
do the characters seek? What are the typical elements and patterns of romance?
What problems tend to frustrate romantic possibilities in ironic romances? Why
does irony so often enter into romantic stories?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on Satire
Satire Wire
The Onion
Political Humor
The Purpose and Method of Satire
SatireSearch
In the Virtual Library, see:
Teaching
Cultural and Historical Literacy Through Satire (2005) by Christian Ehret
Fables
Aesop's Fables
di Prima, Diane (ed.): Various Fables from Various Places
Thurber, James: Fables for our Time
Cartoons
Breathed, Berke: Bloom
County cartoons
Martin, Joe: Mr. Boffo cartoons
McGruder, Aaron: The Boondocks cartoons
Trudeau, Garry: Doonesbury cartoons
Poetry
Cleghorn,
Sarah: The Golf Links Lie So Near the Mill
Clough,
Arthur Hugh: The Latest Decalogue
cummings, e. e.: i sing of Olaf,
glad and big
Donne, John: Song
Hardy, Thomas: Satires
of Circumstance
Masters, Edgar Lee:
selections from Spoon River Anthology
Robinson, Edwin Arlington: Miniver
Cheevy
Sassoon, Siegfried: Base Details
Shelley,
Percy Bysshe: Ozymandias
Smith, Stevie: The Zoo
Short Stories
Boll, Heinrich: Action Will Be Taken
Daudet, Alphonse: The
Death of the Dauphin
King, Thomas: A Seat in the Garden
Machado, Anibal Monteiro: The Piano
Maupassant, Guy de: The Necklace
Saki: The Interlopers
Novels
Austen, Jane: Pride
and Prejudice
Dickens, Charles:
Hard Times
Heller, Joseph: Catch 22
Mahfouz, Naguib: Smalltalk on the Nile
Orwell, George:
Animal Farm
Smiley, Jane: Moo
Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's
Travels
Twain, Mark: Huckleberry
Finn, Pudd'nhead
Wilson
Wibberley,
Leonard: The Mouse That Roared
Drama
Patrick,
John: Teahouse of the August Moon
Shaw,
George Bernard: Arms and the Man
Wilde, Oscar:
The Importance of Being Ernest
Films
Being There
Dr. Strangelove
The Front Page
His Girl Friday
Hollywood Shuffle
Network
The Player
Wag the Dog
Songs
Barenaked Ladies: Conventioneers,
Fun &
Games, Be
My Yoko Ono, and many
others
Tom
Lehrer: Who's Next? and many
others
Randy
Newman: Short People and many others
Andre Tanker: Food Fight
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the definition of satire? What is the specific target of ridicule within
the work? How does the satirist use character and event to ridicule the target?
How does the ridicule of the target within the work apply to the real world?
What are the satiric devices used in the selections and how are they used?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on Science
Fiction
Wikipedia:
List of Science Fiction Themes
Wikipedia entry on Cyberpunk
SciFi Channel
SF Site
SFF World
The Ultimate
Science Fiction Web Guide
Science Fiction
In the Virtual Library, see:
Science Fiction:
Critiquing the Present, Exploring the Future (2004) by Joshua Dyer
Short Stories
Selections from The Science Fiction Hall of Fame
Novels
Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhiker's Guide series
Asimov, Isaac: I, Robot; The Foundation series
Blish, James: Star Trek Logs
Brooks, Terry: Sword of Shannara series
Clarke, Arthur C.: Childhood's End; 2001: A Space Odyssey
Delaney, Samuel: Nova, The Einstein Intersection
Harrison, Harry: Stainless Steel Rat series
Heinlein, Robert: Stranger in a Strange Land
Herbert, Frank: Dune series
Le Guin, Ursula: Wizard of Earthsea trilogy
Lem, Stanislaw: Solaris
McCaffrey, Anne: Dragonriders of Pern series
Wells, H. G.: The
War of the Worlds, The
Time Machine
Zelazny, Roger: Amber series
Films
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Star Wars
2001: A Space Odyssey
Directory of Science Fiction
films
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the conditions of the world the author has created? How is this world
different from our own? How is it the same? What is the protagonist's quest?
What obstacles does the protagonist face? How does he or she overcome them?
How does the character change during the story? How is the author using the
futuristic setting to make observations about today's people? How do the special
conditions of the story relate to its form?
Handy links:
Self-Reliance
Essays
on Self Reliance Walden Transcendentalism
In the Virtual Library, see:
Going Against
the Grain to Find Your Identity: A Seven Week Conceptual Unit on Huckleberry
Finn (2001) by Margaret Robbins
Voice, Power,
Identity: Guide to Choosing a Path and a Place (2002) by Heather Ely
Identity:
Coming to Know One's Self through Literature (2002) by Shawn Pate
Detail
and Voice: A Five-Week Unit on Fleshing Out One's Own Voice in Writing (2002)
by Leah N. Franklin
The
Exploration of Self within Society (2002) by Holly Frilot and Aleigh Tubiak
Freedom
and Identity (2002) by Mandy Brown, Meghann Hummel, Sarah Mann, Jason Taylor,
and Beth Wright
Individual
Liberty (2003) by Teresa McDaniel
A
Sense of Self (2003) by Jennifer Feldman, Melissa Lynn, & Amy Winter
I
Sing Myself (2003) by Jennifer Astrin, Sarah Fletcher, Ross Gericke, Paul Filush
Identity:
How We See Ourselves and Others (2004) by Lara Sniffin
I Will Speak
Up! For Myself, For My Friends, and For What I Believe In! (2005) by Allison
Estey
Poetry
Auden, W.
H.: The Unknown Citizen
Dickey, James: The Bee
Dickinson, Emily: The Soul selects
her own Society, There is
a solitude of space
Frost, Robert: Into My Own,
The Silken Tent, The
Road Not Taken, Desert
Places
Moore,
Marianne: The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing
Nemerov, Howard: Life Cycle and the Common Man
Reid, Alistair: Curiosity,
Propinquity
Swenson, May: The Pure Suit of Happiness
Taggard,
Genevieve: The Enamel Girl
Whitman, Walt: Song of Myself,
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Wordsworth,
William: I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud
Short Stories
Melville, Herman: Bartleby the Scrivener,
The Piazza
Novels
Baldwin, James: Nobody Knows My Name
Gibbons, Kaye: Ellen Foster
Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
Twain, Mark: Huckleberry
Finn
Nonfiction (Essays)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo:
Self Reliance
Thoreau, Henry David: Civil
Disobedience
Drama
Lawrence,
Jerome, & Lee, Robert E.: The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
Films
Cool Hand Luke
The Lost Weekend
On the Waterfront
Key Concepts and Problems
What is self reliance? To what extent should an individual interact with and
be influenced by society? What distinguishes self reliance, anarchy, alienation,
and self centeredness? What are the advantages and disadvantages of self reliance?
Do you agree with the author's viewpoint? Compare the basis of authority of
the self to the basis of authority of society. How does a self reliant attitude
influence one's behavior in relationships?
Handy Links:
A Sense of
Place: Defining and Personalizing the Affective Dimension of History, Culture,
and Bioregionalism in American Literature
"I am New Mexican:"
A Celebration of NM Culture
A Sense of
Place
In the Virtual Library, see:
Georgia
Writers (1998) by David Francis & Mark Dowdy
A
Sense of Place (1998) by Elizabeth Williams, Derek Shackelford, Holly Phillips,
Kevin Mullally
A Sense
of Home (2004) by Jamie Jordan
Poetry
Crane,
Stephen: A Man Said to the Universe
Eliot, T. S.: The Love Song of
J Alfred Prufrock
Lanier, Sidney: Song of the Chattahoochee
Whitman, Walt: I Hear America
Singing
Short Story
Hemingway, Ernest: A Soldier's Home
Hinojosa-Smith, Rolando: This Writer's Sense of Place
Hogan, Linda: Amen
Smith, Patricia Clark: Flute Song
Novel
Cisneros, Sandra: The House on Mango Street
Farrell, James: Studs Lonigan trilogy
Faulkner, William: The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion Hurston, Zora Neale: Their
Eyes Were Watching God
McNickle, D'Arcy: Wind from an Enemy Sky
Mitchell, Margaret: Gone with the Wind
Momaday, N. Scott: The Way to Rainy Mountain
Autobiography
Blackmarr, Amy: House of Steps: Adventures of a Southerner in Kansas
May, Lee: In My Father's Garden
Nonfiction
Algren,
Nelson: Chicago : City on the Make
Irving,
Washington: A Tour on the Prairie
Kotlowitz, Alex: There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up
in the Other America
Mitchell, Joseph: Up in the Old Hotel
Royko, Mike: One More Time : The Best of Mike Royko
Terkel, Studs: Chicago
Walker,
Alice: Everyday Use
Song
America the Beautiful
Jackson,
Alan: Home
Keb Mo: More than One Way
Home
Little
Feat: Oh Atlanta
The Packway Handle Band: Totz, Kentucky
Pizzarelli, John: I Like
Jersey Best
Rogers
and Hammerstein: Oklahoma!
The
Smashing Pumpkins: Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Taylor, James: Copperline,
Carolina
in my Mind
Weatherly,
James: Midnight Train to Georgia
Yoakam,
Dwight: Readin', Writin' and Route 23
See http://inquiryunlimited.org/x1/etoc/usa_songsusa.html
for many additional songs of places
Film
Boyz in the Hood
The Horse Whisperer
Key Concepts and Problems
In what ways does the author use images (including all five senses) to characterize
the place? What emotions is the author trying to evoke through the senses? What
attitudes is the author trying to create toward the place? How successful is
the author in evoking emotions and attitudes for people who know the place,
and for people who don't? What is the overall effect of the work in creating
a sense of place?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry
on Social Responsibility
Educating
for Personal and Social Responsibility: A Review of the Literature
Poetry
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: Work
Without Hope
cummings, e. e.: i
sing of Olaf, glad and big
Durem, Ray: Award
Hughes, Langston:
I, Too, Sing America
Overstreet, Bonaro W.: John Doe, Jr.
Patchen,
Kenneth: Nice Day for a Lynching
Short Stories
Bennett, Hal: Dotson Gerber Resurrected
Camus, Albert: The Adulterous Woman
Cheever, John: The Swimmer
Crane,
Stephen: The Open Boat
Hawthorne,
Nathaniel: My Kinsman, Major Molineux
Oates, Joyce Carol: Saul Bird Says: Relate! Communicate! Liberate!
Wright, Richard: The Man Who Saw the Flood
Novels
Faulkner, William: Intruder in the Dust
Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph: Catch 22
Orwell, George: 1984
Parks, Gordon: A Choice of Weapons
Porter, Katherine Anne: Ship of Fools
Sinclair,
Upton: The Jungle
Stein, Gertrude: Three Lives
West, Rebecca: The Thinking Reed
Nonfiction
Emerson, Ralph Waldo:
The American Scholar
Thoreau, Henry David: Walden
Drama
Arrabal, Fernando: Picnic on the Battlefield
Lawrence,
Jerome, & Lee, Robert E.: The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
Miller, Arthur: A View from the Bridge
Shaw,
George Bernard: Major Barbara
Song
Johnny
Clegg & Savuka: One (Hu)man, One Vote
Images of Social Responsibility
Key Concepts and Problems
What is the individual's relationship to society? What types of obligations
(moral, legal, etc.) does a citizen have to society? How do we fulfill these
obligations? What happens if we do not? What must we sacrifice for the greater
good? How do we lose from this sacrifice? How do we gain?
Handy links:
Success Classics
Poetry
W.H. Auden: The Unknown Citizen
Victor Contoski: Money
Emily
Dickinson: Success is Counted Sweetest
Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken
Edwin Arlington Robinson: Richard
Cory
Charles Shagoury: Schizophrenia on Madison Avenue
Percy Bysshe Shelley:
Ozymandias
Short Story
Willa Cather:
The Sculptor's Funeral
Ernest
Hemingway: The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber
James Thurber:
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Novel
Horatio Alger: Struggling Upward,
or, Luke Larkin's Luck
Rudolfo Anaya: Bless Me, Ultima
Charles
Dickens: Great Expectations
F.
Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
Aimee E. Liu: Face (Face)
James V. Marshall: Walkabout
Ann Lane Petry: The Street
H. G. Wells: The Island of Dr. Moreau,
The Time Machine
Oscar Wilde: The
Picture of Dorian Gray
Tom Wolf: Bonfire of the Vanities
Play
Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun
Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman
Rod Serling: Requiem for a Heavyweight
William Shakespeare:
MacBeth
August Wilson: The Piano Lesson
Film
Clockers
The Devil Wears Prada
Forrest Gump
Good Will Hunting
His Girl Friday
Hollywood Shuffle
It's a Wonderful Life
La Bamba
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Primary Colors
You Can't Take It With You
Essay
Ralph Waldo Emerson: The
Conduct of Life
Song
Brooks,
Garth: Against the Grain
Burton, Michael: Night
Rider's Lament
Madonna:
Material Girl
Key Concepts and Problems
What values of a society help to determine what counts as success? Can success
according to one criterion affect success according to another? If success is
defined according to the acquisition of power and money, what are possible consequences
for both the successful person and for others? Do different social and cultural
groups define success in different ways? How can individual people develop systems
of belief and codes of conduct that enable them to consider themselves to be
a success?
TECHNOLOGY, NATURE, AND SOCIETY
Handy links:
The Role
of Technology
Themes in Nadia
Literature, Science, and
Technology: The Wonders of the World
Poetry
Blake, William: London,
The
Chimney Sweep
Hobson, Geary: Buffalo Poem #1
Wordsworth, William: The World
Is Too Much with Us
Short Stories
Bruchac, Joseph: Bears
London, Jack: To Build
a Fire
Szilard, Leo: Voice of the Dolphins
Updike, John: The Music School
Novels
Dickens, Charles: David
Copperfield, Oliver
Twist
Ing, Dean: Systemic Shock
Norris,
Frank: The Octopus
Orwell, George: 1984
Sinclair,
Upton: The Jungle
Smith, Martin Cruz: Stallion Gate
Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath
Nonfiction
Burke, James: Connections
Emerson, Ralph Waldo: Nature
Mailer, Norman: Of a Fire on the Moon
Thoreau, Henry David: Walden
Wolfe, Tom: The Kandy Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby
Music
Clegg,
Johnny: Into the Picture
Clegg,
Johnny: Brave New World
Clegg,
Johnny: New World Survivor
Films
Continental Divide
The Stepford Wives
Dr. Strangelove
2001: A Space Odyssey
Robocop
Images of Technology, Nature, and Society
Key Concepts and Problems
Does human nature change depending on whether the environment is dominated more
by nature than by machine? How do machines affect the ways in which people live?
How does the natural world affect the ways in which people live? When nature
comes into conflict with technology, which one triumphs? Why? Is technological
change positive, negative, or neutral? Why?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on the Tragic
Hero
The Dislocated Tragic
Hero in Latvian Drama
Epic Poetry
Homer: The Iliad
Novels
Conrad, Joseph:
Lord Jim
Hardy, Thomas:
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Mann, Thomas: Doctor Faustus
Updike, John: Rabbit Run
Wharton, Edith:
Ethan Frome
Drama
Aeschylus: Prometheus
Bound, Persae, Oresteia,
Agamemnon
Chekhov, Anton: The
Cherry Orchard
Euripides: Medea,
Heracles
Ibsen, Henrik: Hedda Gabler,
The
Wild Duck
O'Neill,
Eugene: The Emperor Jones
Shakespeare, William: Hamlet,
King Lear,
Macbeth,
Othello
Shaw,
George Bernard: St. Joan
Sophocles: The Oedipus
Cycle, Prometheus Bound, Antigone
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of the tragic hero? How is the character affected
by fate? Does the tragic hero have free will? What is characteristic of tragic
plot structure? How do you feel about what happens to the tragic hero? What
statement about life is the author making through the tragic hero?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on the Trickster
The Trickster
Fool's
Paradise
Native American Trickster
Tales
Folk Tales/Fables/Children's Stories
Aesop: The Fox, the Crow,
and the Cheese
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm:
Little Red Riding Hood
Harris, Joel Chandler:
Br'er Rabbit stories
La Fontaine: Reynard
the Fox stories
Dr. Seuss: The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
The Bible
The Fall
(Genesis 3)
Epic Poetry
Homer: The Odyssey
Milton,
John: Paradise Lost
Short Stories
Alexie, Sherman: Somebody kept saying Powwow
Benet,
Stephen Vincent: The Devil and Daniel Webster
Brant, Beth: Coyote Learns a New Trick
Conley, Robert J.: Wili Woyi
Dorris, Michael: Groom Service
Earling, Debra: Jules Bart, Giving too Much-August 1946
Henry, O.:
The Ransom of Red Chief
Salisbury, Ralph: Aniwaya, Anikawa, and the Killer Teen-Agers
Twain, Mark: The
Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, The
Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Novels
Bulgakov, Mikhail: The Master and Margarita
Cary, Joyce: The Horse's Mouth
Dickens, Charles:
Oliver Twist
Kesey, Ken: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
O'Brien,
Flann: At Swim Two Birds
Twain, Mark: Tom
Sawyer
Drama
Jonson, Ben:
Volpone
Moliere:
Tartuffe
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characteristics of the trickster? What are the trickster's motives?
How does the trickster affect the other characters? Would you classify the trickster
as good, or bad? Why? What are typical plot patterns involving tricksters?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entries on Utopias
and Dystopias
Anti-Utopia
The
Possibility of Utopia
Utopian Literature: A
Selective Bibliography
Utopia
& Dystopia
In the Virtual Library, see:
A
Perfect World? (2005) by Jennifer Brown, Lindsey Giddens Stewart, & Jennifer
Watson
Short Stories
Benet, Stephen Vincent: By the Waters of Babylon
Grigoriev, Vladimir: The Horn of Plenty
Singer, Isaac Bashevis: Fool's Paradise
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.:
Harrison Bergeron
Novels
Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale
Bellamy, Edward:
Looking Backward
Butler, Samuel: Erewhon
Dante: The Divine Comedy
Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
Graves, Robert: Watch the North Wind Rise
Hudson, W. H.: A Crystal Age
Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
More,
Sir Thomas: Utopia
Morris,
William: News from Nowhere
Orwell, George: 1984
Skinner,
B. F.: Walden Two
Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's
Travels
Tarde, Gabriel: Underground Man
Nonfiction
Erasmus: The Praise of Folly
Hamilton, Alexander,
James Madison, and John Jay: The Federalist Papers
Machiavelli: The Prince
Marx and
Engels: The Communist Manifesto
Plato: The Republic
Plutarch: Lycurgus
Rousseau, Jean Jacques:
The Social Contract
Wells, H. G.:
A Modern Utopia
Wooden, Kenneth: The Children of Jonestown
Xenophon:
Cyropedia
Song
Lennon,
John: Imagine
Mitchell,
Joni: Woodstock
Comics/Graphic Novels
Moore, Alan, & Lloyd, David: V for Vendetta
Images of Utopias and Dystopias
Key Concepts and Problems
How is this society different from our own? What are the assumptions behind
the author's utopian or dystopian vision? What are the consequences of such
a society? Is the society envisioned by the author possible? Why or why not?
What is the relationship between human nature and utopia?
Handy links:
The Search
for Human Values in Literature
Teaching
Jewish Values through Literature
Short Stories
Benet, Stephen Vincent: By the Waters of Babylon
du Maurier, Daphne: The Birds
Kariara, Jonathan: Her Warrior
Kelley, William Melvin: Enemy Territory
Kimenye, Barbara: The Winner
Matheson, Richard: Duel
Niland, D'Arcy: The Parachutist
Nzioki, J. Mutuku: Not Meant for Young Ears
Novels
Auel, Jean: The Clan of the Cave Bear
Bradbury,
Ray: The Martian Chronicles
Cather, Willa:
O Pioneers!
Childress, Alice: A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich
Clarke, Arthur C.: Childhood's End
Farrell, James: Studs Lonigan trilogy
Jackson,
Shirley: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Kayira, Legson: I Will Try
London, Jack: The
Call of the Wild
Momaday, N. Scott: House Made of Dawn
Rolvaag, O. E.: Giants in the Earth
Solzenitzen, Alexander: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Theroux, Paul: The Mosquito Coast
Wells, H. G.:
The War of the Worlds
Nonfiction
Elder, Lauren, with Shirley Streshinsky: Survival
Krakauer, Jon: Into Thin Air
Autobiographies
Brown, Claude: Manchild in the Promised Land
Films
School Daze
Seven Beauties
Key Concepts and Problems
What values are under stress? What factors are causing stress? How does the
character respond to the stress? What is the outcome? How do the character's
values withstand the stress? How does the character change during the story?
What is the relationship between survival and values? When will values triumph?
When will the need to survive triumph?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on the
Victorian Era
Victorian Literature Overview
Literature of
the Victorian Period
Victorian Literature--Directory
of Online Resources
The Victorian Literature
Website
Poetry
Arnold,
Matthew: Dover Beach
Bronte,
Emily: The Night Wind
Browning,
Elizabeth Barrett: Sonnets from the Portuguese
Browning, Robert: My
Last Duchess
Rossetti,
Christina: By the Sea
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel: The
Blessed Damozel
Meredith, George:
Modern Love
Morris,
William: The Earthly Paradise
Swinburne,
Algernon Charles: Atalanta in Calydon
Tennyson, Alfred: Ulysses
Short Stories
Eliot,
George: The Lifted Veil
Novels
Bronte,
Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Bronte,
Emily: Wuthering Heights
Dickens, Charles: Oliver
Twist, Hard
Times
Eliot,
George: Middlemarch
Meredith,
George: The Egoist
Nonfiction (Essays)
Carlyle, Thomas: The French Revolution
Huxley, Thomas
Henry: A Liberal Education
Mill, John Stuart:
What Is Poetry?
Newman, John Henry Cardinal:
The Idea of a University
Pater, Walter: The Renaissance
Key Concepts and Problems
What literary precedents led to the Victorian Age? What historical events separated
the Victorians from the Romantics? What distinguishes the Victorians from other
British writers in terms of (a) style and (b) themes?
Handy Links:
The Atomic
Bomb: How It Was Built, Why It Was Used, and How It Changed The World
Johannessen,
L. (1992). Illumination Rounds: Teaching the Literature of the Vietnam War.
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English
First World
War Literature
Writers and Literature
of the Great War
War Literature
First World
War Poets and Prose
History
of War Literature
A Sampler of Civil War Literature
Civil War in Literature
The Literature of
War
In the Virtual Library, see:
The
Vietnam War (1998) by Michawne Heess & Kimberly Stembridge
Literature
of the Holocaust: A Study of Human Issues (2002) by Erin Rose Wilder
War: What
is it good for? (2004) by Brant Chesser
Preserving
Memory: Holocaust Literature and the Quest for Remembrance (2006) by Mary Michael
Sellers
Poetry
Brooke,
Rupert: The Soldier
Crane, Stephen: War
Is Kind
Hardy, Thomas: The Man He Killed
Melville, Herman: Battle Pieces
Owen, Wilfred: Greater
Love; Futility;
Sonnet:
On Seeing a Piece of Our Artillery Brought into Action; Anthem
for a Doomed Youth; Strange
Meeting
Larsen, Wendy Wilder, and Tran, Thi Nga: Deciding
Floyd, Bryan Alec: Private Rex Jones U.S.M.C.
Berry, Jan: Floating Petals
Ehrhart, W. D.: Fragment: 5 September 1967
Short Stories
Belin, Esther: indigenous irony
Bierce, Ambrose:
Parker Adderson, Philosopher
D'J Pancake, Breece: The Honored Dead
Fowler, Karen Joy: Letters from Home
Grau, Shirley Ann: Homecoming
Heinemann, Larry: The First Clean Fact
Mailer, Norman: The Language of Men
O'Brien, Tim: Don't I Know You
Robinson, Kim Stanley: The Monument
Roscoe, Judith: Soldier, Soldier
Rossman, Michael: The Day We Named Our Child We Had Fish For Dinner
Szilard, Leo: Voice of the Dolphins
Novels
Crane, Stephen: The
Red Badge of Courage
Frazier, Charles: Cold Mountain
Heller, Joseph: Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
Jones, James: From Here to Eternity
Mahfouz, Naguib: Love in the Rain
Mailer, Norman: The Naked and the Dead
Mason, Bobbie Ann: In Country
O'Brien, Tim: Going After Cacciato, The Things they Carried
Remarque, Erich Maria: All Quiet on the Western Front
Shaara, Michael: The Killer Angels
Collections
Kingston, Maxine Hong (Editor): Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace
Films
Apocalypse Now
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Coming Home
The Deerhunter
Platoon
Saving Private Ryan
The Thin Red Line
Songs
Battle Hymn of the
Republic
Barenaked Ladies:
Helicopters, Fun
& Games
Caissons
Go Rolling Along
Clegg,
Johnny: Inevitable Consequence of Progress
Clegg,
Johnny: Boy Soldier
Creedence
Clearwater Revival: Fortunate Son
Michael Franti And Spearhead:
Light up Ya Lighter
The
Fifth Dimension: The Age of Aquarius
Haggard, Merle: The
Fighting Side of Me, Okie
from Muskogee
Hendrix,
Jimi: Machine Gun
Jefferson
Airplane: Volunteers
Key, Francis Scott: The
Star Spangled Banner
Kingston
Trio: Where Have all the Flowers Gone?
Lennon, John: Give
Peace a Chance, Merry
X-mas (The War is Over)
Lynn,
Loretta: Dear Uncle Sam
Marine's Hymn
(Halls Of Montezuma)
Sadler,
Barry: Ballad of the Green Berets
When Johnny Comes Marching
Home
Wright,
Johnny: Hello Vietnam
The
Youngbloods: Get Together
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the characters' reasons for going to war? What do they learn from their
experiences? How do they change? What are the reasons for the fighting? What
are the characters' visions of peace, before and after their experience in war?
How do the characters' attitudes toward war change?
Handy links:
Wikipedia entry on the
Western (genre)
Western Films
The Western:
An Overview
Top Western Movies
Western Fiction
The
Western Genre Fled Across the Desert, and Stephen King Followed
Novels
Berger, Thomas: Little Big Man
Cather, Willa: My
Antonia
Clark, Walter Van Tilburg: The Ox Bow Incident
Faust, Frederick Schiller: Destry Rides Again
Ferber, Edna: Cimarron
Gann, Walter: The Trail Boss
Grey,
Zane: Riders of the Purple Sage
Guthrie, A. B., Jr.: The Way West
L'Amour, Louis: The Ferguson Rifle, many
others
Le May, Alan: The Searchers
Sandoz,
Mari: Cheyenne Autumn
Schaefer,
Jack: Shane
Film
Cheyenne August
High Noon
High Plains Drifter
The Searchers
The Unforgiven
Key Concepts and Problems
Describe the white characters' attitudes toward (a) nature, (b) Native Americans,
and (c) the law. How does the author feel about the white characters' attitudes?
How do the whites "settle" the land? What types of conflicts arise
in the story? How are they resolved? With whom do your sympathies lie in the
story? What are the common properties of Westerns?
Handy links:
Revisiting the Common
Adventure Concept: An Annotated Review of the Literature, Misconceptions and
Contemporary Perspectives
Scenic and Wilderness
Travel Literature, c.1850-1920
Reviews of the Winners of
the Literature Category National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA)
In the Virtual Library, see:
Adventure
(1999) by Todd Hedden, Shane Orr, and Allison Shroyer
Short Stories
Buford, Jim: Swam Justice
Davidson, W. E.: The Jaguar Sprang to Kill
Freedman, Benedict and Nancy: Fire in the Wilderness
Judson, William: Survival on Cold River
McPhee, John: A Postponed Death
Vandercook, John W.: The Man Who Loved Elephants
Novels
Defoe, Daniel:
Robinson Crusoe
Dickey, James: Deliverance
Stevenson,
Robert Louis: Treasure Island
Theroux, Paul: Mosquito Coast
Verne, Jules: A Voyage to the Center
of the Earth
Nonfiction
Brown, Joseph E.: The Mormon Trek West
Curry, Jane: The River's in My Blood: River Boat Pilots Tell Their Stories
DeVoto,
Bernard (Ed.): The Journals of Lewis and Clark
Graham, Robin Lee: Home Is the Sailor
Heyerdahl, Thor: Kon Tiki; Aku Aku: The Secret of Easter Island; The Ra Expeditions
Lindemann, Hannes: Alone at Sea
Severin, Tim: The Brendan Voyage
Images of Wilderness Adventures
Key Concepts and Problems
What are the obstacles that the characters face? How do they overcome them?
What are the characters' goals? What characteristics enable the characters to
triumph? How do the characters benefit from their adventures? How does the environment
affect the characters?