Literary Criticism as a Philosophical Journey Keep your eyes open for a new perspective . . .
Thank you for listening and asking good questions during presentations. Continue taking notes and looking for connections between selections or approach to analysis.
Analyze this very short poem about a very long meeting--What approach is best for you? At the Very Lengthy Meeting by Kevin McCaffrey At the very lengthy meeting I actually felt my soul leave my body and rush toward the ceiling-- and fly around the walls and flare toward daylight, toward the windows-- to throw silently its impetuous emptiness against the glass in vain. It could not go anywhere, the clear moth. Then it lay on the rug, not exhausted but bored and so inert that it almost-- though nothing-- took on a hue, stained with all the breaths and words and thoughts that filled the room: the yellow-green color of old teeth. "At the Very Lengthy Meeting" by Kevin McCaffrey from Laughing Cult. © Four Winds Press, 2014. Reprinted with permission. |
Criticism: Practice Your Skills
Directions: These two selections were presented this morning on Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor. How do they relate? Use any approach that helps you to link the two together. Do not forget to annotate the selections. By the Front Door by W. S. Merwin Rain through the morning and in the long pool a toad singing happiness old as water "By the Front Door" by W.S. Merwin from The Moon Before Morning. © Copper Canyon Press, 2014. It was on this day in 1817 that the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason was founded in Philadelphia. It was the first private mental health hospital in the United States. The Asylum was founded by a group of Quakers, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, who built the institution on a 52-acre farm. It is still around today, but goes by the name Friends Hospital. At the time that Friends Hospital was founded, mental illness was widely misunderstood and treated as criminal behavior. Mentally ill people were tied up, put in chains, isolated, or beaten. The Quakers wanted to model a new type of care. They wrote out their philosophy in a mission statement for the hospital: "To provide for the suitable accommodation of persons who are or may be deprived of the use of their reason, and the maintenance of an asylum for their reception, which is intended to furnish, besides requisite medical aid, such tender, sympathetic attention as may soothe their agitated minds, and under the Divine Blessing, facilitate their recovery." The group purchased the 52-acre farm for less than $7,000, and tried to create a beautiful place with gardens and lots of outdoor space. These days, the hospital occupies 100 acres, which include flower gardens and about 200 varieties of trees. Much of this was the work of one man who started out at the hospital as a bookkeeper in 1875 and ended up working there and managing the grounds until his death in 1947. One day, he found an azalea that a family member had brought for a patient and tossed out. He tended it in the greenhouse until it was healthy again, took cuttings, and planted those, and from that one plant more than 20 acres of the Friends Hospital are now planted in azaleas. Based on the U.S. National Library of Health timeline |
After reader response to the complete work, choose three approaches and apply them.
Research the work, the author, the genre and/or the time period to support or deepen your analysis.
A good place to start is the Salem Literature Series (Novels or Short Stories for Students).
Research the work, the author, the genre and/or the time period to support or deepen your analysis.
A good place to start is the Salem Literature Series (Novels or Short Stories for Students).
- Go to the JMB Media Center link.
- Choose Salem Literature.
- Choose "Remote Access" tab and use the password: jmbennett
- You may need to search both the title and the author
- No entries? Go to Google and try a search with "literary criticism" and your title or author.
lit_crit_2014_project.docx | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | docx |