Final results

Dear students,

this will probably be the last post in our course! First of all, I’d like to say that I think this was a very enriching experience – and a pleasant one! Hope you share my feelings…

My criteria for evaluating you were:

1. Blog – As I stated in the very first post of this course, all students were required to post at least one comment for each short story. There were 31 activities total, and I decided to disconsider one, so as to have an easier number to deal with. Your initial grade was then given according to quantity. However, some students who did not comment all the activities presented very good quality comments on the posts in which they actually participated. I rounded up these students’ grades, as a bonus for the quality of their work. Note that I didn’t bring the grades up a lot, especially to be fair to those students who participated in all the activities without losing the quality of their comments. Also, note that I never brought any grades down for lack of quality in the comments – or for agreeing with a former comment, as long as this position was justified in the comment. On the other hand, I disregarded those comments which consisted simply of “I have nothing to say” or “I agree with everybody”.

2 – Study notes – I have read all your study notes and graded them in terms of relevance of the topics chosen and clarity of ideas. I did not give any low grades to your notes – those who got a low average are totally responsible for that, as it means they haven’t delivered one or more assignments. (Note, however, that I have only read your notes, not revised them, and that’s why I’m not sending the files back to you. If any of you, by any chance, does not have a file and would like to have it, please let me know).

3 – Final paper – Congratulations on your choice of themes! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how creative some of your choices were! In some minutes you’ll receive your papers by email.

Have a very nice vacation, all of you!!!

Last call!!!

Dear students,

I have just received an email saying that the deadline for delivering the final grades has been changed to July 15th. I have already finished evaluating your participation in the blog and your assignments, and am halfway through the correction of your final papers.

As I will have this extra weekend, I have decided to give a final chance to the students who haven’t delivered all the study notes. Note that failure to deliver one of these assignments brings your grade down considerably – let alone not delivering two or even all of them. Some of the students listed below have had very little participation in the blog and are at risk of failing the course if they don’t deliver the missing assignments. (Of course, late comers won’t have the same grade they probably would if they had delivered the assignments on time, but it may make a difference between a failing and a passing grade – don’t waste the chance!)

1. Anderson Petrucelli – Assignment #3;

2. Anderson Elias – Assignment #1;

3. Bárbara – Assignment #2;

4. Danyelle – Assignments #2 and 3 (Dany, I got your email and asked you to resend everything - I haven’t received your final paper either…)

5. Diana – Asignments # 1 and 3;

6. Érica – Assignment #2;

7. Maria Fernanda – Assignments #2 and 3;

8. Renata – Assignment #3;

9. Simone – Assignments #1, 2 and 3;

I will send a general email to the class about this post, but I know not all of you check your emails every day. So, please, whoever sees this post, call your friends and let them know about this final chance! And those of you listed above, don’t waste this opportunity – remember, there’s no “V.S.” to students who don’t do the required assignments.

Comments for this post are open without moderation, so feel free to ask any questions!

Update: I forgot to say that the deadline for sending these late assignments is Monday, July 14th!

The magic barrel

We finally come to our last short story in the course… You’re going to miss it all, you’ll see!

The first step to take here is to consult one or two sites about Bernard Malamud, the author of “The magic barrel”:

- American Literature on the Web;

- The Unofficial Bernard Malamud Homepage;

- Encyclopedia Britannica Online

It is also a good idea to read something about the Jewish tradition of matchmaking, so that you understand the context of the short story better…

And you are free to make your final comments!

No name woman

The short story we are going to discuss today is a short story, of course, but it is also a chapter of a novel, Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, a Chinese-American writer from California.

There are some sites you can consult to learn more about this author:

- Voices;

- Maxine Hong Kingston;

- Time Magazine: 60 Years of Asian Heroes;

- Maxine Hong Kingston After the Fire.

You are free to make your comments!!!

Last day of class

Hi everybody!

I will try to post the two final activities today, so you will have the whole content of the blog almost one week in advance, Ok?

Also, I have decided to postpone closing the blog – instead of closing it on June 30th, I will leave it open until July 1st. If you read between the lines (and I hope you’re getting really great at this!) you will understand that I wouldn’t want anybody to miss our last meeting (on the 30th, at 6 p.m. – don’t forget!) because of the blog…

See you Monday!

Everyday Use

All right, before anyone thinks he/she or his/her computer is going nuts, I’m already telling you that this post was supposed to be published on Monday only – but I’m in a hurry to wrap things up around here so I can stop worrying about the blog, Ok? You don’t have to comment in advance – but if you want to, that’s fine with me…

The first step to understanding whar this short story is about is reading about the Civil Rights Movement, which you can do here.

You can also read a bit about the author, Alice Walker, ( here, here and here ) …

… who also wrote The Color Purple, adapted, her to the movies by Steven Spielberg in 1986, featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey – seen it?

You’re still free to make your comments, but I would like you to pay close attention to the quilt and its significance. What does it symbolize?

Bien Pretty

In relation to Sandra Cisneros’ “Bien Pretty”, your first step must be to learn about Spanglish, the language that is a mixture of Spanish and English. You can read a bit about it – and even listen to some examples – here.

You can also visit the author’s official website, by clicking here.

Cisneros’ most sucessful novel is The House on Mango Street, which is available at the library, for those who would like to know her works better.

Even though this post is being published a little bit in advance, I’ll go on letting you free to make your comments without guiding lines – probably till the end of the term…

The apple orchard

Before we even start talking about Rudolfo Anaya or Sandra Cisneros, you need an introduction to Chicano culture and literature. If you follow the link I posted here, you will be able to download a lecture I once gave about it: introducao-historia-cultura-e-literatura-chicanas

Next, you can read some information about the author if you click here or here.

If you would like to have better contact with his works, my suggestion to you is his best-selling novel Bless Me, Ultima.

But, as for now, let’s comment on “The apple orchard”…

The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven

Today we cross the Atlantic definitively. From now up to the end of the course, all the authors we are going to study are from the United States.

But… as is stated in the title of this unit, we are studying “other voices”. That means the authors we are going to discuss from today on are not part of the canon – they represent the “submerged groups” we have been discussing throughout the semester.

The author of today’s short story is Sherman Alexie, a Native American author who grew up in the Spokane Reservation. To learn more about him, you can consult the following web sites:

- The Official Sherman Alexie site;

- Modern American Poetry;

- Native American Authors’ Project;

“The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven” was published in the collection of short stories by the same title.

Once again, you are free to make your comments, but don’t disregard the title…

Which new era would that be?

I believe the name of Nadine Gordimer must be familiar to you – am I right? Not only because she is a Nobel Prize winner and one of the most celebrated contemporary writers of the English language, but also because she was in Paraty last year for FLIP…

You can read a bit more about her if you follow this link here and this other one here.

But the most important homework to do before you read any piece of literary work produced by a contemporary South African writer is to be informed about the historical background of the country, which inevitably means reading about apartheid.

So, let’s start working! You are free to make your comments, but don’t forget what I have just said…