Portfolio; Dracula (chapters 1-4 discussion)

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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't know about that person...in other words, make it up. Feel free to throw in metaphorical, figurative or magical realist elements as you deem necessary. 

PROMPT: Inspired by "These Are the Fables" start a linear narrative with a common or ordinary problem, but along the way "surprise" your reader by complicating the situation more and more to the level of absurdity or comedy or parody. By the end of your narrative, return to the common or ordinary problem.

PROMPT: Inspired by the short story "Hollywood!" write a story about your image of Hollywood (or any city). 

PROMPT: Inspired by "Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian...at Woodstock", write a story or essay that incorporates a marginalized culture in our society buying into the popular culture of the masses (or the Hegemony). Consider the conflict involved with an outsider taking on the trappings/culture of an insider group--or a different culture that is foreign to the outsider's peers. Ex. A Korean girl who learns how to yodel. 

Period 2:

 Anyone achieve BINGO? If not, keep reading. The first person to complete BINGO will win a little prize.

Pop Culture: Woody Allen's "Dracula"

 Dracula by Bram Stoker. In pairs, please examine the following regarding chapters 1-4 of Dracula.

Culture includes the social behavior or customs of a group of people, their food, their fashion, their art or crafts, their speech or language, and their beliefs.
  • How does Jonathan Harker react to the "foreign" culture he encounters in chapters 1-4? Find examples from the passages of his attitude or tone regarding the natives or cultural groups of Transylvania. 
  • What does this lead the reader to conclude?
  • Which cultures do you personally regard as "exotic" or unusual, or perhaps dangerous?

HOMEWORK: Read Chapters 5-7. Note new characters and multiple perspectives. How does Stoker transition or shift his narrative structure?

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