Project 3 Topic Brainstorm- Week 13

A room of one's own (336-371)
Kushi Fusako (400 - 408)

- Choose a reading. 

In your project, consider the following: 

What does this work reflect about its historical, social, political and/or economic context? You may focus on race, class, power, cultural values and beliefs, historical events, the author’s biography, gender, psychology, etc. 

I am interested in this project because I think it would be interesting to look at the cultural aspect of the time when the work was written. I think it would be interesting to write about a woman's perspective that counters the culture of the time. Such as A room of one's own (336-371). Where the author talks about not being permitted into the college library unless permitted by a man above her station. She also writes about class and wealth ruling the minds of everyone, 

-You’ve been appointed the student member of a college committee to revise the core curriculum. The committee has decided to require that all students enrolled at LMC must take this course, and you have been asked to nominate 4 to 5 fiction selections (from the selections we have read this semester) that will be required reading for the course. You are, in other words, creating the anthology. 

Think carefully about what constitutes the kind of literature that college students should be reading. Then, nominate the 4 to 5 selections from among those we have read this semester. Your essay should have a clear central idea which suggests how you have made your choices. Your paragraphs should open with topic sentences giving the title and author and genre of each of your selections, and these paragraphs should be developed with your specific justification of each of your choices (why you have chosen these selections). You may take into account the following issues (use whichever ones help you): 

• To what extent will your choices be made on aesthetic grounds? What are your criteria for excellence in fiction? Have you considered how your own cultural background and past reading affect what you consider aesthetic grounds?  

• Will your choices span centuries? Or will you choose only contemporary fiction from the last 40 or 50 years? What will you expect the stories to demonstrate about the times in which they are written? 

• Will your choices represent a range of writers (male and female, black, white, Hispanic, Native American, straight, gay, American, British, Russian, French, Irish, Greek, Norwegian, and so forth)? Why or why not? 

• Are themes or thematic connections important to you? Should all selections center around a single thematic construct, such as “the move from innocence to experience”? 

• Are social issues important to you? Should the fiction selections reflect a variety of social issues: racism, homosexuality, poverty, sexism, alcoholism, and so forth? 

• Is the list you’ve been given sufficient? Are there choices you’d like to make that aren’t included on our syllabus?

I like this prompt because I am interested in being a teacher. I think I would like to use this practice for building a reading list. I find it interesting and I have some ideas about a wide range of views that could be represented. I think that having works that are relatable to the events of today have greater affect on discussions because you cannot change the past. But you can recognize the mistakes that were made and discuss how to not make those mistakes again. thus promoting forward thinking positive action.
- Choose one short story or novel excerpt. Write a piece in which you explore the following:

1. In what ways could this story be considered an artifact of history? 

1. What does this story teach us about history? 

1. How does a story teach us about a time or place differently than a history book? 

I like this one because I think that we can learn a lot about history from literature written during that time. Such as Easter 1916 and even Kushi Fusako (400 - 408). Even though they weren't physically where the event took place they lived the consequences of the history and were told of the actions of those from a generation before. I think that interesting literature also promotes exploration into the time the piece is about.