Writing Across Cultures

Lab: (Until 8:00) Dracula is written largely in epistolary form. Letters, newspaper articles, phonograph recordings or transcripts, telegrams, or journals allow a multiple narrative account of the events in the plot. Dracula : Chapters 5-7 (some assistance): Enter the women to our narrative. These chapters contain the letters between Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray (later Harker). Both represent the "new" woman in Victorian England. Lucy will be sexualized--an important contrast with her friend, while Mina is really our kick-ass heroine of the novel, being more resourceful and important to the resolution. In Gothic tropes, a female character's chastity (virginity) is threatened. Temptation (having sex) is often a cause for ruin in many novels and films (consider slasher films like Friday the 13th or John Carpenter's Halloween series).  These chapters contrast with the horrors Jonathan Harker experiences abroad, while also hinting at the coming of a great evi...

Lab: (work on your portfolio, workshop, or read...) If you didn't look at last class's resources or notes, please do so today. PROMPT: Write a post-modern story. Use pop culture references or allusions as a way of informing your reader of deeper meanings. Remember that popular culture is not always contemporary culture...contemporary writers are often inspired by everything...from ancient myths to Shakespeare to 19th century novels... PROMPT: Write a zombie story. Inspired by "Sally's Big Adventure" & "A Zombie Walk for Timmy" (see zombie handout collection from last class), write your own zombie story. Feel free to create your own puzzle or game or fake news article or play or creative essay or poem, etc. inspired by the packet reading. PROMPT: Inspired by "A Thing Built to Fly is Not a Promise" choose a well-known popular cultural historical figure (someone real who everyone knows) and tell a story the reader wouldn'...

Lab: Please read/note the following information: Post Modernism (the literary period you are in at the moment) is characterized by some of the following elements: Often views nationalism, politics/government, religion, war, etc. as primitive Loss of confidence in a corrupt Western world largely due to Capitalism & adherence to ancient traditions/beliefs about religion or the environment; The Western world is outdated and hidden behind faceless and uncaring bureaucracies The West's claims of freedom and prosperity continue to be nothing more than empty promises; there is a cheap, jaded, cynical sense of public and private life Truth and ethics (right & wrong) is for an individual to determine for herself Nationalism and Capitalism build walls, create enemies, destroy natural resources, and create unbalanced, unjust societies of "have and have nots" There is no truth, no pure, no absolute. No one has the authority to define meaning for others Theref...

Turn in your homework today. Lab: (Until 8:00) Using the prompt/short story from last class, flesh out your "scene" by doing one or more of the following: Add a scene after the scene you wrote Add details to the scene you wrote Add dialogue to the scene you wrote Add conflict to the scene you wrote Add internal monologues or backstory to the scene you wrote Add literary elements to the scene you wrote Add a symbol, motif, or trope to the scene you wrote Add a description of setting to the scene you wrote Move your story ahead in time and continue... Move your story back in time and continue... Add a subplot that mirrors or develops or comments on the scene you wrote Add a scene after the scene you added to the scene you wrote... See where this draft takes you. Try to write 1-2 pages in the lab today. If you get stuck or need a shift in activity, please continue to workshop or write drafts for your portfolio. See previous posts for details. Perio...

Lab: Please continue writing drafts and revisions for your portfolio and/or workshopping your writing. Some ideas for prompts: Prompt: Write and design a television pilot. You may work with a partner if you'd wish for this. Choose a type of TV show that inspires you, create characters, a title, an episode, etc. and write a script for the show's pilot. Formatting tv shows is similar to film and play writing, but has its own special format. See the handouts for the television script format or here online. Television Script Format Feel free to read the sample scripts. These are only act 1 script samples. TV scripts are usually written in 3-acts (beginning to crisis, crisis to climax, climax to resolution). You can find full tv scripts online for models as well as the handouts. One place to look is here at Simply Scripts . Choose your favorite TV show and go to town! Prompt: choose one of the topics from our brainstorming session and write about the topic. I.E., wri...

Lab, Period 1: Please place any workshop pieces you would like feedback from your workshop groups on in your group's shared folder. Remember to write a note to your peers about what you want them to look at. It is only helpful if you ask for the kind of feedback you need to improve the story, poem, essay, script, etc. If you don't ask, you will not get any feedback (even from me!) Use your lab time to workshop or continue writing material for your portfolio. See previous posts for prompts/details, etc. Prompt: choose one of the topics from our brainstorming session and write about the topic. I.E., write about a specific problem or issue relating to trash culture, pop culture, counterculture, fads, progressive evolution, pop or media icons, popular technology, sports/leisure activities/games, music, fashion, food/lifestyle, etc. Keep writing essays, poems, scripts, stories, making documentaries, podcasting, etc. involving the topics you care or are passionate about. Per...

LAB: Food for Thought: Perfect Grades Don't Always Matter  (5 min.) Please take the first 20 minutes of class today to discuss your novel in your discussion groups. When you complete your discussion, please turn in the Socratic Seminar evaluation and work on your portfolio pieces. You may return your books to the library. By now you should have somewhere between 5-8 pages of new work (that would be averaging about 1-2 pages per week.) If you don't, please use your time effectively in the lab to write new material for your portfolio. See previous posts for prompts if you need them. Note: you may also workshop or revise your work. Next lab class will be devoted to workshopping. Period 2: What is  Popular Culture ? Popular culture studies popular culture from a critical theory perspective. It is generally considered a combination of communication studies and cultural studies. Barriers between so-called high and low culture have broken down, which encompasses s...

Lab: Please use your time in the lab to do the following: PROMPTS from reading the article "The Color of Family Ties" and previous classes: Write a story in the decade that you think you would have preferred to live in...or research that decade and set a story or poem in that decade/setting. What will you miss about your youth/growing up? Project what the world might be like in 10-15-20 years and think about what you are going to miss about your childhood. Write an essay about it. Write a television episode or television pilot using popular culture to guide you as to what the media may want to see. Use your favorite television episodes as models. Check out Drew's Scriptorama website for sample tv scripts. Write about your family. Are you from a traditional family? How or how not so? You may also focus on writing about a family secret, a specific family member, or an important family event that helped shape who you are. Does culture or economic class have more t...