Lit 160 Lyrics for Last Day

Here are the links for the songs we'll be covering in class this week.

Public Enemy: "Blacksteel in the Hour of Chaos"

NWA: "Fuck tha Police"

Lit 160: Essays for class on Dec 5/6

Here are six essays for class on Wed/Thurs 5/6 December 2012. Choose at least two and be prepared to discuss them in class.

Alexander, Michelle. "Introduction." The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010. Print. This is the introductory essay from Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Kennedy, Randall. "Who is Black?" Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal. New York: Pantheon Books, 2008. Print. This is the first chapter from Randall Kennedy's book, Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal.

Hopkinson, Natalie and Natalie Moore. "Tyronity." Deconstructing Tyrone. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2006. Print. This is the second chapter from Hopkinson's and Moore's book, Deconstructing Tyrone.

Reed, Ishmael. "Obama Scolds Black Fathers, Gets Bounce in Polls." Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: The Return of the Nigger Breakers. Montreal: Baraka Books, 2010. Print. This is the fourth chapter of Ishmael Reed's book, Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: The Return of the Nigger Breakers.

---. "Black Men and the White Left: Why Some White Progressives Make Me Sick." Going too Far: Essays About America's Nervous Breakdown. Montreal: Baraka Books, 2012. Print. This is the second chapter from Ishmael Reed's book, Going too Far: Essays About America's Nervous Breakdown.


Toure. "Thirty-Five Million Ways to be Black." Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness: What it Means to be Black Now. New York: Free Press, 2011. Print. This is the first chapter from Toure's book, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness: What it Means to be Black Now.

Lit 201 Final Exam

Here is the first three groups of questions for the final exam. Respond to one question from each group. Be thorough and complete while citing the works we covered. There will be fourth group in class on the final exam period.


Group A
1) How does Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep confront the issue of the “Simulacra” (the simulation or copy of reality)? In what ways are the animals used to blur the line between origin and proxy? Why might Dick be focusing on this line between the two? How have other works like The Lathe of Heaven dealt with this issue?

2) In what ways does Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? seem to be commenting on religion? How is religion used in a similar way in Kindred and The Handmaid’s Tale? Why does religion get used by the power structures in these books as a way to control people? How was religion dealt with differently in works covered earlier in the semester?

Group B
1) In what ways might The Handmaid’s Tale and Kindred be seen as feminist works? How do they confront issues of gender and sexuality differently than earlier works we’ve covered? In what ways might it be possible to read other works we’ve covered from a feminist perspective?

2) How do Kindred and The Lathe of Heaven deal with issues of race? Why is this so different than earlier works like Armageddon 2419? How might this relate to the concurrent issues of class and economics at play in these works?

Group C
1) How do works like A Clockwork Orange and How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe use the narrative structure to comment on the themes of the novels? In what ways are these worked placed in the category of Post-Modern fiction? How might other works we've dealt with also fit into this category?

2) How might works like How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe be using traditional science fiction themes like time travel metaphorically? Why are writers choosing this metaphorical approach rather than being more straight forward? How might this be seen in other works we've covered this semester?

Lit 160 Finl Exam

Here are the first two groups of questions. Be thorough and clear while making specific references to the literature. Be sure to bring a pen and your Literature anthology. Do one question from each group... DO NOT DO BOTH QUESTIONS IN EACH GROUP!!!

Group A
1) What is Modernism? How does it differ from the ideas of the 19th Century writers? How does Richard Wright's "The Man Who Lived Underground" relate to this era? Discuss how at least two other works we covered this semester relate to this school of thought.

2) Discuss Fred Daniel's journey through the sewers. What objects does he find and what do they seem to represent? How do these things seem to teach him about the universe? How does this relate to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"? How do other works we’ve covered this semester seem to relate to this allegory?

Group B
1) How do writers like Robert Hayden and Loraine Hansberry deal with the place of Africa in the American imagination? In what ways is Hansberry commenting on the ignorance of the American people when Beneatha and Mm discuss Tarzan? How might June Jordan's comments about African politics suggest that writers are expecting more from the readers since the 1960s and 1970s? How do Kindred and "Everyday Use" deal with issues of heritage differently?

2) Discuss the issues of family and responsibility in "A Raisin in the Sun." How does Walter grow into his role as head of household through the play? How are these issues brought to the forefront in other works we've covered recently like Kindred and Hold it 'til it Hurts?

Group C
1)How do "Facing It" and Hold it 'til it Hurts deal with the memories of war? In what ways might the works be commenting on veterans' issues in general while also be relating compelling stories in their own right? How do these works (as well as poems like "In Memory of Radio") suggest that our understandings of reality are always filtered through our ability to "read" our previous experiences?

2) How do works like Hold it 'til it Hurts, "Beautiful Back Men," and "Poem About my Rights" deal with sexuality? In what ways is the sexuality metaphorical and representing things other than simply sex? How might the sexuality lend itself to a feminist reading of these works?

121 Movie Extr Credit

Pick a film from the list and write an analytical response focused around how the film relates to writing. All of the films are available locally. Most are available at local video rental places or at public libraries. If you are a member of on-line rental services, they should be easy to find that way too.

The Front: Martin Ritt, 1976
The Shining: Stanley Kubrick 1980
The Color Purple: Steven Spielberg, 1985
Barfly: Barbet Schroeder, 1987
Dead Poets Society: Peter Weir, 1989
Henry and June: Philip Kaufman, 1990
Barton Fink: The Cohen Brothers, 1991
Naked Lunch: David Cronenberg, 1991
The Basketball Diaries: Scott Kalvert 1995
Il Postino / The Postman: Michael Radford, 1994
Deconstructing Harry: Woody Allen, 1997
Finding Forester: Gus Van Sant, 2000
Quills: Philip Kaufman, 2000
Wonder Boys: Curtis Hanson, 2000
Adaptation: Spike Jonze, 2002
Swimming Pool: François Ozon, 2003
Shattered Glass: Billy Ray, 2003
American Splendor: Shari Springer Burman & Robert Pulcini, 2003
The Libertine: Laurence Dunmore, 2004
The Secret Window: David Koepp, 2004
Stranger than Fiction: Mark Forster 2006
Freedom Writers: Richard LaGravenese 2007
The Rum Diary: Bruce Robinson 2011

Lit 160: Film Extra Credit

Extra Credit: Pick a film from this list and write a page and a half analysis. Discuss how it relates to some of the issues we’ve been talking about in class. Don’t choose to write about a film you’ve seen repeatedly. This is due before Thanksgiving.

Watermelon Man: Melvin van Peoples 1970
Cotton Comes to Harlem: Ossie Davis 1970
Sweet Sweetback’s Badd Asss Song: Melvin van Peoples 1971
Shaft: Gordon Parks 1971
Superfly: Gordon Parks Jr. 1972
She’s Gotta Have It: Spike Lee 1986
School Days: Spike Lee 1988
Hollywood Shuffle: Robert Townsend 1987
Do the Right Thing: Spike Lee 1989
Boyz in the Hood: John Singleton 1991
Daughters of the Dust: Julie Dash 1991
Higher Learning: John Singleton 1995
Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored: Tim Reid 1995
Rosewood: John Singleton, 1997
Compensation: Zeinabu Irene Davis 2000
Love and Basketball : Gina Prince-Bythewood 2000
D.E.B.S: Angela Robinson 2004
LadyLike: Safiya Songhai 2006
For Colored Girls: Tyler Perry 2010

lit 201: Mid Term Exam

Lit 201 Mid-Term Exam
Due: Oct 31/Nov 1

Answer one question from each group. Use specific references from the works we’ve covered. Be sure to be thorough and complete. Each response should be about two pages in length. Write it in MLA format and be sure to cite the works you discuss.

Group A
1) Discuss Mary Shelly’s narrative structure in Frankenstein. Why did she choose to use at least three clear narrators? How does this affect how we read the novel? How to the narrators differ? How is this similar to the structures of works like The Time machine?
2) How do the early writers we covered deal with the “Sci” of “Sci/Fi”? In what ways do Shelly and Wells focus on scientific theories while also ignoring some basic scientific laws? How can a book like Armageddon 2419 AD be considered “Science Fiction” while simultaneously lacking any basic science?

Group B
1) How do The Time Machine and “All You Zombies” seem to deal with time travel differently? Why do Wells and Heinlein present such contrasting views of the future? In what ways does the Time Traveler get surprised by what he finds in the future? How does “All You Zombies” relate to the “Grandfather Paradox”?
2) How do The Time Machine and Armageddon 2419 AD integrate characters who don’t belong into the society? In what way is Tony Roger’s relationship with Wilma similar to that of the Time Traveler with Weena? How do other works we’ve covered seem to deal with characters who are out of their elements?

Group C
1) What are Asimov’s three “Laws of Robotics”? How does LVX-1 seem to contradict them? How do they relate to other works we’ve covered that deal with robots? In what ways do the robot stories seem to be commenting on subjectivity and individuality in general? What might they be saying about idea like “Free Will” or “Human Rights”?
2) How do works like The Time Machine, “The Nine Billion Names of God,” and “The Tunnel Under the World” deal with the problems of technology? In what ways do they seem to be suggesting that we are becoming tools for the technology just as it was created to be a tool for us? In what ways do we see the characters reacting against the rise of technology?

Group D
1) Discuss the futuristic worlds of We and A Clockwork Orange. In what ways are the authors using dystopian stories to comment on the times eras in which they were writing? How do they present different views of the future? In what ways might they be commenting on free will and individuality?
2) Why did burgess choose to use a first person narrator in A Clockwork Orange? How does this affect the nature of the book? In what ways does this influence how we interpret The Ludovico Technique? How is this similar to what happens to D-503 in We?

Lit 160: Mid-Term Exam

Answer one and only one question from each group. Your responses should be thorough and specific using plenty of references to the works we’ve covered to back up what you’re saying. Each group should be about two pages long.
Due: Oct 24/25

Group A
1) Consider the discussions about the slave trade in Equiano and Wheatley. How do they use religion to explain the situation? In what ways do they use comparison to attack the institution of slavery in the New World? How and why does Equiano explain life in his Ibo village?

2) In what ways do the slave narratives differ? How do Jacobs and Douglass discuss the brutality more precisely? Why do the earlier writers like Equiano and Wheatley need to be less graphic? How did these writers demonstrate and awareness of their audience?

Group B
1) Discuss the “Oral Tradition.” How do the “Brer Rabbit” and “Stagger Lee” stories evolve and grow over time? How does this tradition differ from a written one? In what ways might subversive ideas be hidden within these works under the guise of simple animal tales? How might Wheately and Washington be doing something similar in their writings?

2) What is a “Trickster Figure”? In what ways does this character undermine the status quo by working against the system? How can we see this influencing more recent forms of popular entertainment? How do writers like Douglass portray themselves this position in order to undermine the systems of oppression within which they were operating?

Group C
1) Discuss Douglass, Washington, and Du Bois in terms of their focus on education. In what ways do they seem to differ? What are their main goals? How did Douglass use education as a means to escape? In what ways might Du Bois be influenced by Douglass? How might Washington and Du Bois find some common ground within their approaches?

2) What does Du Bois mean when he claims to have lived “Behind the veil”? How does this relate to his discussion of “Double Consciousness”? How might this relate to Washington’s ability to address his rich, white audience? In what ways might this relate to Dunbar’s poetry?

Group D
1) Consider the works we’ve covered by female authors. In what ways are they addressing issues differently than the male authors? How did they face a “double discrimination” while trying to get published? In what ways can “Sweat” be read as a feminist text?
2) Consider the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Why were certain writers attempting to follow traditional European styles? What is sonnet? How and why did Hughes decide to construct poetry in a different way?

Mark Jackson: "The Liberl Arts - A Practicle View"

Here is the link for the reading assigned for class on Tuesday morning. "The Liberal Arts: A Practical View" by Mark Jackson. Write a comparison between it and Ehrenreich's "Premature Pragmatism" from Thursday's class.Explain how they view college studies and what they see as the goal.

Premature Pragmatism

Here is the link to Barbara Ehrenreich's essay, "Premature Pragmatism". For Thursday, read it and explain in a page and a half her main point. Use quotations and paraphrasing to back up your essay.