Writing Across Cultures

Today, read Queneau's  Exercises in Style  and play around with a writing exercise. Please turn in your writing by the end of class today. Information on  Raymond Queneau  can be found here. Exercises in Style: 1. Write a short succinct story about "modern" life. This should be nothing more than a short anecdote. In fact, you can title the first entry anecdote. Or Writing Exercise. 2. Rewrite the same short story at least two or three more times (total of 3-4, but you can do more if you'd like) using any of the following writing "Styles": Metaphor Simile Personification Alliterative Anagrams Formal Slang Onomatopoeia Past Tense Present Tense Future Tense Passive Sonnet Alexandrine Exclamations Epic Heroic Cockney Cross Examination Five Act Play Summary Tragedy Comedy Introspective Subjective Objective Apostrophe Awkward Syntax Biased Olfactory Ode Elegy Haiku Villanelle Sestina Journalistic Accented (pick an accent)...

Italy: Umberto Eco: How to Essay. This morning please read the short essay "How to Travel with a Salmon" by Umberto Eco in class together. Then, please retire upstairs to the lab 339 to write your own "How To" essay. As writing exercises, try your own hand at writing a short "How To" essay. This should be short 1-2 page in length (400-600 words, for example) and deal with "How to" do something. Some ideas are: How to Pass a _____ Class, How to Cheat on your Boyfriend/Girlfriend, How to Buy a Dress for Prom, How to Survive Senioritis, How to Eat Unhealthily, How to Train a Dog, How to ... you get the idea (How to Get an Idea...) Turn in your draft by the end of class today. If you finish early, please continue reading and researching the rest of this blog post. There's a lot o' info here today. We are nearing the end of your education here at SOTA. The rest, well, is up to you... Another one of my favorite Italian writers: Italo ...

Key moments in German History: The Reformation Prussian Empire Bismarck Empire Immanuel Kant & Moral Philosophy Franco-Prussian War  (Napolean) Karl Marx Sigmund Freud First World War Weimar Germany Nazi Germany G erman Propaganda German Propaganda (part II) German Propaganda Images East/West Germany  - a country torn in two The Fall of the Wall Images of the Wall Pop Culture articles  (an example made of Germany): Article on German filmmaker & auteur:  Werner Herzog German Newspapers/News sites on line: (in English) German News Germany Info suitable for writer/research The Local Info about  Berlin Symphony of a Metropolis  (formalistic German film) An interesting article:  "Sexual Freedom vs. Fascism in Germany"  by Leslie Feinberg Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany . German Gay Rights Movement Willkommen from  Cabaret  (Joel Gray) The play was based on the life of  Christopher Ishe...

Today, a smorgasbord of Norse culture. For those of you who are not completely exhausted from learning, you may find these resources here helpful in setting your fiction, poetry, plays, and essays in a Norse setting. Since we are running out of time to cover the entire world in this course, we will only briefly glimpse at a very rich and extensive culture. For your benefit (although not our focus) this unit misses  Switzerland , and  Iceland . Click on their links and learn about them on your own time. Some of their literature can be found in the packets of reading. Our focus today will briefly be on: Swedish Culture More Swedish culture info Swedish pop culture Norwegian Culture Nordic Noir (literary trends) Danish Culture Finland For those of you interested in Norse mythology (or mythology) and Vikings, here are a few interesting links: The Creation of the World  (Norse Mythology) The Vikings Erik the Viking (Terry Gilliam) (full film) How To Train Y...