Introduce yourself!

questions to answer:

What are your name, pronouns, major, and year?

Who are you as a reader and writer? How do you relate to literature and art? What role does it play in your life? What kinds of art and literature do you like to consume and why?

Choose one piece of art/literature that you relate to and write a short paragraph explaining why (feel free to include pictures, links, quotes, etc.)

Due: Thursday 9/17 at 11:59 pm

Antigone Post Prompt:

Sophocles’ ancient Greek drama Antigone and Rungano Nyoni’s 2024 film On Becoming a Guinea Fowl are two texts rooted in the ideas of grief and intergenerational trauma. Antigone and Shula, our protagonists, are caught in parallel struggles between their personal interests and the demands of their community and the institutions they serve. An individual pinned against a collective. Keeping in mind not only these texts’ similarities but also their stark differences, I want you to put a scene from Antigone and a scene from On Becoming a Guinea Fowl in conversation with one another. 

First, choose an excerpt from Antigone (no more than 8 lines) and provide a close reading of it. What is being said, and how? 

Quote the excerpt for your reader, including page numbers (the excerpt is not included in your 500-word requirement). Break down the text; analyze the diction, symbolism, characterization, etc. 

Then, isolate a scene from On Becoming a Guinea Fowl that parallels your excerpt from Antigone in some way. Similar to how you deconstructed your excerpt of Antigone, break down your chosen scene. 

Ask yourself: 

What is happening? Why?

Who is it happening to? How do they feel about it? What do they say?

What do you hear, see, feel? 

What is the camera focusing on? 

What conflict is present? 

And most importantly, why is all this important?

(Remember that these posts have a multi-media requirement; consider including a screen-cap of the scene you will be discussing!)

Finally, put the two texts together. Why did you choose the scene to pair with your excerpt of Antigone? Are the two texts communicating the same theme in similar or opposite ways? Do two characters act alike or as foils to one another? Is there a symbol, pattern, or conflict that both texts share that you want to explore in more depth? 

Some themes/topics to consider when reading/watching these texts:

1. Individual vs. Collective
2. Personal vs. Political 
3. Divine vs. Human (Fate vs. Free will)
4. Patriarchy and its effects
5. “Tainted” Blood/Intergenerational Trauma
6. Grief 
7. Loyalty 

Week 5: I Am Not a Witch (Nyoni, 2017)

You have two choices this week:

Option 1

I Am Not a Witch (Nyoni, 2017) Scene Breakdown

Choose one scene from the film (minimum of 1 minute 30 seconds) and close read it using the film terminology from class: mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound (PowerPoint with these terms in the Week 4 module of Canvas). Tell us what’s noteworthy about each part of the scene and provide your interpretation of what these elements mean when looked at together. 

*Approach this the same way we did when close-reading the scene from Perks of Being a Wallflower in class (remember how we used elements of the film [montage, Dutch angle, wide shot, charlie’s outfit, etc.] to support our thesis that the film form communicates Charlie’s anxious, manic mental state). 

Things to consider if you’re stuck:

Mise-en-scène 

• Perhaps you’ll interpret the significance of a certain prop, costume, or recurring symbol that appears in the scene
• What is the setting and how does it look? How are the characters positioned within it and/or in relation to one another (remember that we call this ‘blocking’)?
• How do the characters look? Why does this matter? 

Cinematography

• How far away is the camera from the subject? Is it a long shot (super far) or a close-up? 
• Is the camera steady or shaky? Is the frame level or canted? 
• Is the camera looking down or up at the subject? 

Editing

• At what pace are the shots cutting between one another? 
• What is the relationship between the shots? Why did the film’s editor choose to put these shots next to one another? 

Sound

• What do you hear? Can the characters also hear it? (Remember the difference between diegetic [emanates from the story world] and non-diegetic [only the audience can hear it] sound!) 
• What emotion does the music evoke? 
• When is there silence? Are there times when we are only hearing diegetic sound? (no music or score) 

Option 2

‘Othering’ Free Write

‘Othering’ is the thematic throughline of our course texts this semester. Antigone was exiled for her rebellion; Shula in On Becoming a Guinea Fowl defies her ancestors’ traditions; and Shula in I Am Not a Witch is sent to a witch camp and put on display as a media spectacle. Each protagonist is an individual against a collective/authority; an ‘other.’ 

I want you to explore the role of ‘othering’/being seen as an ‘other’ in I Am Not a Witch (but please feel free to branch out into discussing it as a social phenomenon more broadly or bring in outside texts or sources). You can talk about a particular scene or how you understand the theme of othering to be operating within the film as a whole. As long as your response centers the idea of othering, you can take your post in any direction you’d like (within reason). 

Questions to consider could include: When are people othered and why? Who does othering serve? 

Sula + Burn This Book + “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House” in Conversation  

In the readings for this week, we see a throughline of nonconformity and freedom.

In Burn This Book, the authors assert the power of art in a society trying to diminish its importance at every turn. Then, in “Masters Tools,” Lorde argues that a group cannot achieve liberation or genine change while using methods and tools rooted in systems of oppression; thus sparking a need to envision new ways of resisting, writing, educating, existing, etc. And, Sula, as we will come to learn, is nothing if not a free woman. 

I want you to connect the supplemental readings’ main idea of writing as freedom to Morrison’s 1973 novel Sula. In your post, explore Sula’s status as a radical, subversive* and ultimately liberatory piece of literature. Feel free to do some outside research (with proper citations!) or stay within Morrison’s novel. 

Subversive/Subversity: involving the upset, overthrow, or challenge of an established order and/or traditional beliefs.

If you’re stuck: 

• How does Morrison challenge white, patriarchal ways of thinking with her representation of the Black community in Sula? 
• What literary traditions or [gender, sexual, racial] stereotypes do you see Morrison rejecting as she writes Sula? Where, how? 
• Research Toni Morrison and Sula. What do you find about Sula’s history as a banned book and Morrison’s as an often-banned author? How does this influence your understanding of writing as a radical, free act? 
• How do the characters in Sula exist outside of white, patriarchal ways of living? 

Week 6: Sula + Sister Outsider

This week as we pivot into reading literature through the lenses of different theories and authors, we’re looking at Audre Lorde’s collection of essays Sister Outsider.

In the selected essays, Lorde conceptualizes emotions and experiences unique to Black women:

• The Role of Silence vs. The Power of Language and Action (from “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”)
• The Erotic (from “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”)
• Hatred vs. Anger (from “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger”)

Keeping in mind our conversations about Sula and the ‘other,’ I want you to apply one of Lorde’s concepts to Sula’s experiences as an ‘other’ in Medallion.

First: Choose one of the bullet points above and then outline for your reader how Lorde— as a Black feminist theorist and poet— illustrates this idea. Provide at least one direct quote for your reader to help communicate Lorde’s ideas.

Second: Explore Sula’s status as an ‘other’ and connect her experiences to your chosen Lorde concept/essay. Provide at least one direct quote from Morrison’s novel for your reader.

Selected Essays:

1. Introduction
2. The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action
3. Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
4. Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger
5. (Optional) Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist’s Response

Week 8: Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics

Alison Bechdel’s memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic tells a deeply personal story and touches upon a multitide of important issues from suicide, to parent-child dynanics, to the effects of heteronormativity on the nuclear family. Bechdel chooses to tell her life’s story through a medium that’s traditionally been disregarded as unserious, ‘low art’: the comic.

Scott McCloud, in his book Understanding Comics (The Invisible Art), argues against the devaluation of comics, asserting that this medium should be consumed and studied just as seriously as any other ‘high’ art form such as literature or film.

I want you to explore this idea of ‘low’ art vs.’high’ art that McCloud introduces and Bechdel’s memoir challenges. Answer the following questions, drawing upon both the argument that McCloud makes in his book but also your personal experience as everyday consumers of art and media.

At some point in your response, you should respond to each of the following questions:

1. What is ‘low’ art and what is ‘high’ art? These questions may require some outside research; please ensure you properly cite all of your sources for your reader!
   1. Who has been stereotyped as the audience of ‘low’ art—like comics? What type of content or themes are typically associated with ‘low’ art?
2. Despite its devaluation, how can ‘low’ art, like Fun Home—in arguably a more effective manner than ‘high’ art—deliver serious, political, artistic, etc. messages and themes to their audiences?
3. Have you ever had a piece of ‘low’ art (think: a blockbuster superhero film, a YouTube video, a pop song, a sitcom, etc.) change your thinking in an unexpected way, reveal a serious issue that you otherwise wouldn’t have been aware of, or deliver a political or philosophical message? What piece of art/literature/media was it? How can this text challenge our understanding of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art?
   1. If you don’t have a text in mind, then write about how reading Fun Home challenged your understanding of the difference between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art.