CLASSWORK, MON. MAY 11TH

Students, apologies for my absence.  

We will be discussing the end of the novel, in depth, next class.  Today, I want you to work in groups, to make more predictions about the futures of these characters.  Complete in one document, shared with me (Ms.Fink13@gmail.com).  This will count as a quiz grade for everyone. If you cut class, it will severely bring your quiz grade down.

-you must supply AT LEAST 5 pieces of evidence from the text, to support your arguments, for each

question

-include EVERYONE’S arguments; you are not trying to come to a consensus

1. What do you think lies in store for the relationship between Paul and Sethe?  Explain how you think their neuroses, anxieties, fears or impulses may develop or resolve, and why.

2. What kind of progress do you think Denver has made?  Why do you think so?  Which defenses does she seem to be using healthfully now?  

3. What do you think lies in store for Denver?  Why?

#6 (due Mon, May 11th)

Blog Post #6: write about how the last chapters have either changed or affirmed your previous interpretations of a character's behavior.  Cite a specific quotation, from the chapter, that does so and explain why.

#5 (due Thurs, April 16th): Stamp's perspective

Read to p. 222 in Beloved (to the page break at the top-ends at “holding his wrists between his knees and looking red-eyed”)

Annotate for passages that are especially significant, but focus on Stamp’s perspectives, since he is, in many ways, an objective observer in this story.

Blog Post #5: choose one passage, from Stamp’s perspective, that either tells you something different about a character (Sethe, Paul, Denver, Baby Suggs or Beloved), or affirms what you already thought about a character.  Write out the passage, with page #, and explain how it affirms or goes against what you previously thought about that person.

#4 (due Mon., March 23rd): applying Winnicott

Read and annotate through p. 51 in Beloved, keeping in mind Winnicott’s theories

Blog #4: Choose one statement from Winnicott’s chapter “The Ordinary Devoted Mother”, and use a passage from the novel (p. 24-51), to support or disprove what Winnicott says.  You must quote/cite both passages, from the novel and from the packet, and explain why you think that passage supports/disproves Winnicott’s statement.

#3 (due Thurs. March. 5th): essay prep

FOR THURSDAY

1) Bring to class AND post on blog (so that I have an idea about who’s focusing on what)

1. at least two scenes and/or characters you want to focus on (you will need 3 for the final essay), and how you think they are connected to each other, through their symbolic components.  Remember that symbols, in dreams, can be objects, characters, specific qualities of characters, behavior of the dreamer, physical representations of the dreamer, etc.  Everything in a dream is substitution, so there isn’t much that doesn’t qualify as symbolic.

#2 (due Fri. Feb. 13th): Alice ch. 1-4 and psych. theory

Blog Post #2 (due FRIDAY): two posts

1) post a discussion question that addresses one of the psychoanalytic readings

AND Alice (anything from ch. 1-4).  That means ONE question that attempts to

apply psychoanalytic theory (Freud, Bettelheim, one of the Dreams authors) to the story.

2) respond to someone else’s discussion question (agree, disagree, offer a different piece of evidence, and explain yourself)

**IF YOU POST INCORRECTLY, I WILL NOT COUNT YOUR WORK.  DO NOT START A NEW POST; REPLY TO THIS ONE.

Displacement- An absence of a particular character or object of conflict in one's dream.
Reversal- A shift of focus from one person or object of interest to another in one's dream.
Regression- A shift or distortion in the perspective of a dream that can result in symbols such as pain.

How does the Oedipus Complex factor into dreams that stem from conscious world sources?

"His instinctual impulses were freed from distortion and his anxiety was dissociated from the idea of horses and traced back to its real object."

How do dreams reveal the issues that one has in the outside world?

"In the same early period in which it becomes acquainted with dangerous internal stimuli it also experiences unpleasure which has its source in the outside world."

"Denali in Fantasy" Post#1 Nicole Carrillo

1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions.

Repudiate: to refuse to accept.

Objective Anxiety: results from a real threat in the physical world to one's well-being, as when a ferocious-looking dog appears from around the corner. 

Agoraphobia: fear of extreme or irrational crowded spaces, or enclosed public places.

2) Two major questions about psychoanalysis the chapter raises (either something that confuses you or something that you think is crucial in understanding the concepts addressed).  

In the reading Freud gives various examples of young children who fantasize with animals protecting them. However, in reality the animals represent the children's father who do not protect the children. Therefore, a question this chapter raises is if the child's denial reasonable and healthy for the development of the ego?

Something I was confused about was how the objective anxiety that Hans had connected between his father and the horses?

3) At least two quotations in the reading that address those questions (either answers them or raises them in the first place).

"In these tales for children the anxiety relating to the father has been displaced in the same way as in the animal fantasies"(79). This quote made me think that it is reasonable for the kids to do this for example, if a father is abusive the child having this fantasy relates the father as an animal to better make sense of the father's savage actions, but helps the animal use its strength for protection. This gives the ego relief. 

However, this quote shows how the fantasies can be bad for the ego especially in adulthood. "This meachnism belongs to a normal phase in the development of the infantile ego, but, if it recurs in later life, it indicates an advanced stage of mental disease"(80). 

#1 (due Mon. Feb. 9th): Ana Freud, "Denial in Fantasy"

Read Ana Freud’s Chapter 6, “Denial in Fantasy”, in the big packet, highlighting and annotating for important points.  Make sure that you also note parts that are confusing and write down your questions.

Blog Post #1:

1) Three important psychoanalytic terms, from this chapter, with definitions

2) Two major questions about psychoanalysis the chapter raises (either something that confuses you or something that you think is crucial in understanding the concepts addressed).  

3) At least two quotations in the reading that address those questions (either answers them or raises them in the first place)