Here’s everything you need to play along today in our third asynchronous session. First the video (be sure to have your copy of the book in hand). Note: disregard the occasional mentions of days of the week, etc.: I recorded it last semester for a different section:
lecture (email if there’s a problem accessing it)
Here’s the text of the lecture, more or less, if you want it.
And here’s the prompt for the blog post that’s due by Friday at 5pm. Note that this post counts as Blog Post #4 on the syllabus! Definitely take in the lecture before writing; the writing assignment will be easier and make more sense after the lecture.
The middle of the novel tracks back in time to relate the “subject formation,” if you will, of Pecola’s parents, Pauline and Cholly. It’s almost as if, to tell the story of Pecola’s formation, it has to start before the beginning in order to find the source of Pecola’s pain, her feeling of “ugliness,” and her identification with an alien whiteness. For both Pauline and Cholly, growing up and forming a self is interrupted in ways that traumatize them and prevent them from fully flowering (to use a botanical metaphor that the novel also employs). Choose either Pauline/Polly or Cholly and explore their backstory. You might think about:
- what sites of unalienated pleasure and power does s/he find along the way, what moments and places and people and practices sustain him/her, providing pleasure and returning respect?
- how does this “mirror,” so to speak, get shattered or distorted: who or what disrupts their development, and what are the effects of this disruption?
Write at least 500 words and no more than 1000. Have an argument. Cite the text. Due by Friday at 5pm on the course blog. This exercise fulfills the “Blog Post #4 on the syllabus in addition to substituting for today’s (Thursday’s) class.
