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Micro-themes Spring 2008
Some General Instructions
DIRECTIONS: On a single typed page, describe how a passage
in The American Experience introduction, or Mr. Ryan's
notes, relates to one of the literary pieces assigned. These
"introductions" include sections which introduce major
sections of the book, individual author or individual pieces.
Some footnotes are also applicable. This assignment is intended
to introduce high school students to literary criticism as a
means to develop critical thinking skills.
* Be exact-use page number, quotations, titles.
* Underline or italicize all titles used.
* If you revise a graded microtheme, hand in the original with
it.
Grading is by word, and due to the limited space, very
few critical comments will be used. If you want to have a graded
microtheme criticized in detail, either give it back to me with
a note to that effect, or bring it to the office. The words used
as grades are as follows:
| "Impressive" |
A |
Your point is clear,
exact, intelligent, and supported. |
| "Good" |
B |
You read the passage
accurately and applied it to the literature well. |
| "OK" |
C |
Adequate. You see the
editor's or critic's point and apparently understand the example.
You may have failed to see the important connections. |
| "NG" |
No Grade |
Your point is too obvious, or your discussion
too abstract, or you have misunderstood either the editors or
the author of the literary selection. |
Composition Checklist:
- - I have chosen one line from the criticism, and I've stated how
it applies to the literary selection.
- - I was exact, using page number, quotations, titles, and I underlined
all titles used.
- - My point is clear, exact, and intelligent, supported with two
examples from the text.
- - The editor's point in the introduction can be seen in the example.
- - I have drawn a conclusion from the evidence of the text.
- - I have used The American Experience as my primary text.
- - I have tried to avoid weak verbs and obvious conclusions.
Intermediate drafts: independent; but please work
together in class.
Final due date: Thursday, May 22
Below you’ll find your author, the story, and the critic’s
point. You will also find several examples of microthemes from the past.
Have fun.
General
Resources
American Authors
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General Resources
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| Supplementary
Resources
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Maps
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Short Stories
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Poetry |
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| More
Short Story Collections
Classic Short Stories
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Selected Profiles of Authors and Literary Movements
The Western Frontier
Connecting Text: The Autobiography of David Crockett
| Early
American Fiction |
19th Century
Washington
Irving
"The
Devil and Tom Walker"
Washington
Irving: Selections
James Fenimore
Cooper
The
Last of the Mohicans
Edgar Allan Poe
Sites
The Works
of Edgar Allan Poe (Poetry and Prose)
Edgar
Allan Poe: Selected Works
Poertry
"The
Raven"
"To
Helen"
Transcendentalism
Walt Whitman
Anti-Transcndentalism: Hawthorne
and Melville
Nathaniel
Hawthorne: Novels and Short Stories
Hermman Melville
Moby Dick:
a hypertext
Supplementary
Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow: Sellections
Emily
Dickinson
Visit The Emily Dickinson Museum
Walt Whitman
Walt
Whitman: Revising Himself This Library of Congress exhibition
traces this evolution of Leaves of Grass and Walt Whitman's
life, tapping a range of editions and drafts of the famous work.
A wealth of interesting biographical material on Whitman, his
friends and associates, his work as a teacher, tending the wounded
during the Civil War, and for the federal government, also appears
in the exhibit
Walt Whitman Archive
The Walt Whitman Archive includes a host of versions of Whitman's
Leaves of Grass, numerous poetry manuscripts witn a related
guide, a detailed biography of Whitman, and a bibliography of
articles, books, chapters of books and poems about Whitman published
from 1975 to the present.
Mark
Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark
Twain
"The Notorious
Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
Regionalism--The WEST
Bret
Harte
The
Outcasts of Poker Flats
The
Luck of Roaring Camp
Ambrose
Bierce
Ambrose
Bierce
"An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
"An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
Kate Chopin
Realism to Naturalism
Jack
London
"To
Build a Fire"
The Jack London
Collection.- If you are a fan of the writings ofJack London,
you will like this site.
Stephen
Crane
"The
Open Boat"
O'Henry
Collection
Zane
Grey
Dime
Novels: American Treasures of the Library of Congress
Edith
Wharton: Selections
Henry
James: selected work
: Hypertext:
"How the Other Half Lives" Social Reform in
19 Century America
Supplementary Photographs
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20th Century |
Ring
Lardner
Sherwood
Anderson
"Sophistication"
Sherwood
Anderson
Ernest Hemingway,
F. Scott
Fitzgerald
Katherine
Anne Porter
Thomas Wolfe
Eudora Welty
John Steinbeck
William
Faulkner
"The Bear"
Supplementary References
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James Joyce
is considered with William Faulkner to be the two greatest, experimental
fiction writers in the first part of the twentieth century. An examination
of Joyce's work will give readers an insight into Faulkner's influences.
Parody
Other American Writers
Early City Life-Sports
Early Horror
Connecting Text: The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitgerald and The Jazz Age
Connecting Text: The Sun Also Rises
The Lost Generation
Connecting Text: The Sound and the Fury
Extra: Mr. Ryan's Favorite Author, William Faulkner
Woody Gutherie
Harlem
Other Places to find the works of Langston Hughes.
Gumshoes
Raymond Chandler Links
Dashiel Hammett
Post Modern World War II-Present
Kurt Vonnegut,
Slaughter-House Five
The Complete Kurt
Voneggut
FLANNERY O'CONNOR
JOHN UPDIKE
JOYCE
CAROL OATES
DONALD BARTHELME
LARRY
McMURTY
Shirley
Jackson Site Online
Modern American Theatre
Arthur Miller
The Crucible
Sam Shepard
Sam
Shepard
Appendix:
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