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?