Invention writing: We started class by making sure you all got feedback to your brainstorming on Eveline. Overall, you did a great job on both the assignments. In general, I'd say the most important things for you to continue to work on would be:
1) to continue work on developing a specific, critical focus (in light of your brainstorming) before you begin to write. Write 5 ( or as many as it takes) approximations of your focus - keep on it!);
2) to go back to the text (one more time) in light of that revised focus to make sure you have relevant/the "best" points/support for your focus;
3) to check in one more time to make sure you are writing to the assignment.
As I said in class, if you don't work out all the details of your essay during the invention/prewriting stage = it is not the end of the world. You can revise your drafts until you get it right. I am suggesting that you spend the time in the pre-writing/invention/planning phase => because it is easier, and even though it might not feel like it=> it is often faster.
Point of View. We started by reviewing what the text said about point of view. We noted the key terms defined in the text: omniscient, limited onmiscient, first-person, unreliable, and objective narration, and observed that these categories were complex and sometimes overlapping.
We then spent some time thinking about what kind of brainstorming you would have to do to write an essay for a "point of view" assignment. We noted that in order to write about point of view for a short story, writers would have to:
- analyze the "what happened"/themes etc of the story;
- analzye the point of view;
- and then brainstorm a focus that makes a point about the relationship between what the story does, says, or shows in terms of point of view.
Very good.
Say Yes. We then spent the rest of class looking at Wolff's story as a way to think about how point of view shapes what a story does.
We started by identifying that the story was in 3rd person/limited omniscience. It is "limited to the thoughts and observations of a single character." At the same time, this character "misses" a lot of the subtler meanings in what the other character, his wife, has to say. He is not exactly unreliable (mentally disturbed or intentionally distorting or misrepresenting facts), he is just "not getting" a lot of what happens - even though he represents what happens accurately. I named this story as written in 3rd person clueless - though that isn't really quite fair.
In terms of the "what happened" - because the story is presented through the husband's report, and because he fails to interpret or comprehend some of what is implied in his wife's words - n many ways it is up to the reader to construct the "what happened" from a partial report. We spend most of the rest of class, section by section, pointing out what he said, what she said, what he noticed (knew correctly) about his wife => and what he missed/didn't get. There is lots of room for interpretation here, and this is not a story where there is one "answer" to what happened => only representations that can be "supported" by the evidence in the story.
We spent some time on the last two scenes = where the "what happened" (realization?) all comes together. Especially that last scene where he perceives her as a "stranger."
Thanks for your good talk about this story! As I said in class - I can't "tell" you what it is about, but I think we had a really good talk about some of the things it does, and how the narrator's limited perspective contributes to what it does. Good class!
For next class:
Write: Jot down your notes about POV and Say Yes. Put down what ever would be useful for you in terms of helping you write a paper on POV. You will probably want to include some writing about what the pov was, what happened, how the author used point of view to make it happen. If, as you work on these notes, you hit blindspots or encounter questions about what to do next = jot those down too and bring them up in class. I'm going to start class with questions about how the POV writing went.
Read: Chapter 10, Writing about setting + Brownies (posted under readings)
I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas about what to write about Say Yes, and to talking about Brownies!
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