From Boston Public Library: Search under Literature, Books, and Reading, including Gale Virtual Reference Library - Contains over 1,000 volumes of scholarly reference.
Google Scholar - In the top left hand corner, you can also save and organize information.
Ripping the Guts from a Text - A quick way to "read" a text during the research process. Read the preface, table of contents, as well as the introduction and conclusion of each chapter.
IF - The "influence factor" is important. You can find out the importance of a source by how many scholars use it as a reference. It is not just about the source. It's tracing it back, and finding the history and context around the subject. Look for "Cited by" in your Google search and it will give you a number of times it has been cited.
Review of Literature - This is a good search phrase that may point you to collections of scholarly journals, biographies, etc.
Peer Review of Journal - This search will help you see what groups of scholars are writing about sources to see if it has literary merit.
Book Reviews - This is a good search phrase to use. Often a collection of major texts will come out at a time, and a researcher will review all the texts. For example, there is a review of three Bronte biographies in The Atlantic Monthly. Reading the review will give you a breadth of information on the books, as well as knowledge of the recent and past scholarship.
Overview: The poetry club would like to put together an AHS Literary Magazine.We are accepting submissions of poems,
artwork, and short fiction.We would
also like to include a section where students share their favorite poems with a brief
paragraph describing its significance for said student.We are also looking for any students who would like to be involved in
compiling and editing the book with us.There
will be informational meetings on Wednesday after school in room 201 with me.
Further, we are looking for anyone interested in
attending the LTAB poetry workshop Cypher at Emerson College on Saturday, May 4th
with Mr. Pellerin.It is an opportunity to
engage in poetry workshops with published authors and young people from
surrounding towns.Please see me for
details.
Overview: In December, we composed literary analysis essays for Jane Austen using Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion and list of other sources. We are about to engage in a project where we have a debate the best author, either Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte, or Charlotte Bronte. This formal essay assignment is the first step in that process.
Directions: Please reread the prompts, below. Next, go to Turnitin.com and read your Jane Austen Literary Analysis Essay. USING THE SAME PROMPT you used for the Austen essay, please continue your analysis, this time using your Bronte work. Feel free to use the same framework and essay outline. Just focus on the Bronte novel for this exercise. In the future, we will be looking at why one is stronger than the other. Use additional sources if you can. Use MLA style, and visit the links below. When you finish your essay, please post it to Turnitin.com. When we engage in our group projects, each student will have two essays on the same topic, and we will turn those pieces into our arguments and counterarguments.
Prompt 1. In many novels, a character has a misconception of himself or his world. Destroying or perpetuating this illusion contributes to a central theme of the novel. Choose a novel with a major character to whom this statement applies and write an essay in which you consider the following points: what the character’s illusion is and how it differs from reality as presented in the novel and how the destruction or perpetuation of the illusion develops a theme of the novel.
Prompt 2. A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work. Prompt 3. Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot.
Prompt 4. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit.
Prompt 5. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much "the reader's friend as the protagonist's." However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay on one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do not write on a poem or short story.
Prompt 6. Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime. Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Overview: Our final project for this unit will be an open debate between Team Bronte and Team Austen. We will watch an actual literary debate and use it as a model for our class project.
Directions: Please watch the video. In your blog response, please explore the following questions: Who do you think won the argument? What examples and insights won you over. Did you see any missteps? Remember, you may personally disagree; you are looking at the examples and techniques used to make the argument. Next, can you think of any Austen or Bronte points you would like to make? What scenes would you like to read aloud and perform while making your argument?
Directions: Please finish reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. (Below, you will find the complete text and an audiobook.) Next, compose a COMPREHENSIVE blog response using the questions below as a guide. Use at least 3-4 direct quotations in your response, and make sure to cover a little something from the beginning, middle, and end of the section. As always, read and engage with each other. I look forward to your responses.
NOTE: When you come to class on Wednesday, April 24th, you will be composing an in-class essay on your novel. Be prepared!
1. What is the balance of power between Jane and Rochester when they marry? Does this balance change from the beginning of the marriage to the time ten years later that Jane describes at the end of the novel?
2. In a romantic relationship, does one partner inevitably dominate the other?
3. Should an individual who holds a position of authority be granted the respect of others, regardless of his or her character?
4. In Jane Eyre, nothing can better show a man's moral worth than the way in which he treats the women in his life. How is Rochester's character reflected in the way he treats Jane, Adele, Bertha Mason, and Miss Ingram, and in his reported treatment of Celine Varens? How is St. John's character reflected in the way he treats Jane, Miss Oliver, and Diana and Mary? Why does this serve as such a good gauge of a man's morality and worth? What other relationships serve similar functions in the novel?
5. Throughout the novel, questions of identity are raised. From her identity as an orphan and stranger in the hostile environment of Gateshead Hall to that of a ward of the church at Lowood; from her being a possible wife of Rochester, then of St. John, to being the cousin of Diana and Mary, Jane is constantly in transition. Trace these changes in identity and how they affect Jane's view of herself and the world around her. Describe the final discovery of her identity that becomes apparent in the last chapter of the novel and the events that made that discovery possible.
6. Throughout the novel, Charlotte Brontë uses biblical quotes and religious references. From the church-supported school she attended that was run by Mr. Brocklehurst to the offer of marriage she receives from St. John, she is surrounded by aspects of Christianity. How does this influence her throughout her development? How do her views of God and Christianity change from her days as a young girl to the end of the novel? How is religion depicted in the novel, positively or negatively?
7. Many readers of Jane Eyre feel that the story is composed of two distinct parts, different in tone and purpose. The first part (chapters 1-11) concerns her childhood at Gateshead and her life at Lowood; the second part is the remainder of the story. Is creating such a division justified? Is there a genuine difference of tone and purpose between the two sections as they have been described? Some critics and readers have suggested that the first part of Jane Eyre is more arresting because it is more directly autobiographical. Do you find this to be true?
8. Upon publication, great speculation arose concerning the identity of the author of Jane Eyre, known only by the pen name Currer Bell. Questions as to the sex of the author were raised, and many critics said that they believed it to be the work of a man. One critic of her time said, "A book more unfeminine, both in its excellence and defects, it would be hard to find in the annals of female authorship. Throughout there is masculine power, breadth and shrewdness, combined with masculine hardness, coarseness, and freedom of expression." Another critic of the day, Elizabeth Rigby, said that if it was the product of a female pen, then it was the writing of a woman "unsexed." Why was there such importance placed on the sex of the author and why was it questioned so readily? What does it mean that people believed it to be the product of a man rather than of a woman?
9. Scenes of madness and insanity are among the most important plot devices in Jane Eyre. From the vision Jane sees when locked in the bedroom at Gateshead to her hearing the "goblin laughter" she attributes to Grace Poole, to the insanity and wretchedness of Bertha Mason, madness is of central importance to the plot and direction of the story. Give examples of madness in the text, and show how they affect the reader's understanding of the character experiencing the madness and how these examples affect the reader's understanding of the characters witnessing it.
10. There is probably no single line in the whole of Jane Eyre that has, in itself, attracted as much critical attention as the first line of the last chapter: "Reader, I married him." Why is the phrasing of this line so important? How would the sense be different-for the sentence and for the novel as a whole-if the line read, "Reader, we were married"?
Directions: Please finish reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. (Below, you will find the complete text and an audiobook.) Next, compose a COMPREHENSIVE blog response using the questions below as a guide. Use at least 3-4 direct quotations in your response, and make sure to cover a little something from the beginning, middle, and end of the section. As always, read and engage with each other. I look forward to your responses.
NOTE: When you come to class on Wednesday, April 24th, you will be composing an in-class essay on your novel. Be prepared!
1. To what extent do you think the setting of the novel contributes to, or informs, what takes place? Do you think the moors are a character in their own right? How do you interpret Bronte's view of nature and the landscape?
2. Discuss Emily Bronte's careful attention to a rigid timeline and the role of the novel as a sober historical document. How is this significant, particularly in light of the turbulent action within? What other contrasts within the novel strike you, and why? How are these contrasts important, and how do they play out in the novel?
3. Do you think the novel is a tale of redemption, despair, or both? Discuss the novel's meaning to you. Do you think the novel's moral content dictates one choice over the other?
4. Do you think Bronte succeeds in creating three-dimensional figures in
Heathcliff and Cathy, particularly given their larger-than-life metaphysical passion? Why or why not?
5. Discuss Bronte's use of twos: Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange; two families, each with two children; two couples (Catherine and Edgar, and Heathcliff and Isabella); two narrators; the doubling-up of names. What is Bronte's intention here? Discuss.
6. How do Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean influence the story as narrators? Do you think they are completely reliable observers? What does Bronte want us to believe?
7. Discuss the role of women in Wuthering Heights. Is their depiction typical of Bronte's time, or not? Do you think Bronte's characterizations of women mark her as a pioneer ahead of her time or not?
8. Who or what does Heathcliff represent in the novel? Is he a force of evil or a victim of it? How important is the role of class in the novel, particularly as it relates to Heathcliff and his life?
Directions: Please finish reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. (Below, you will find the complete text and an audiobook.) Next, compose a COMPREHENSIVE blog response using the questions below as a guide. Use at least 3-4 direct quotations in your response, and make sure to cover a little something from the beginning, middle, and end of the section. As always, read and engage with each other. I look forward to your responses.
NOTE: When you come to class on Wednesday, April 24th, you will be composing an in-class essay on your novel. Be prepared!
1. In Chapter 16, Helen's aunt uses the language and imagery of military engagement to describe courtship. How consistent is Bronte with the use of this metaphor, and why do you think she uses it?
2. Helen says that she is an excellent physiognomist: someone who can determine a person's character by their looks. Do you think Bronte supports the science of physiognomy, or is she critiquing it in her novel?
3. What do we make of Helen's thought processes in the long opening paragraph that begins Chapter 18?
4. In Chapter 18, what is the significance of the fact that Helen is unable to adequately draw Huntingdon's portrait?
5. What is the significance of hunting in this part of the novel?
6. In Chapter 20, what is the significance of the part played by Helen's uncle?
7. The early stages of Chapter 22 find Huntingdon revealing that Lowborough is a recovering gambling addict. What is the significance of his description of the evening when Lowborough finally gives up gambling?
Chapters 23-43
1. What is the significance of Helen's father being an alcoholic?
2. Why is Helen deceived by the profligate Huntingdon, and yet always seems to be on her guard against the far less offensive Hargrave?
3. What analogy can be made between Helen's difficulties in checking Hargrave's advances in the chess game and her inability to draw Huntingdon's portrait (and thereby, "contain" him)?
4. The language of chess can make for all manner of innuendo and double meaning. Support this idea with reference to the chess game between Helen and Walter.
5. What are the similarities and differences between the "Two Evenings" in Chapter 33?
6. In Chapter 37, Helen is attempting to do her best to avoid Walter Hargrave's attentions. What are some of the differences between Hargrave's pursuit of Helen, and Gilbert's pursuit of her earlier in the novel?
7. Do you ever have the sense that Helen's characterization as a moral woman goes overboard--if so, is this a weakness in Bronte's writing or is there something else at work here?
8. Why does Bronte allow Hattersley to be reformed and yet makes Huntingdon pay for his profligacy with his life?
Chapters 44-53
1. Chapter 45, in which Gilbert is reconciled both to Helen and her brother, reminds us that there are a great number of parallel episodes in the novel. What are the effects of some of these parallel scenes?
2. In Chapter 46, Gilbert takes a great deal of delight in nursing Mr. Lawrence back to health. What are the reasons he gives and what is to be made of the language with which he describes this experience?
3. In Chapter 50, Gilbert tells Halford--and therefore, us--what has happened to some of the other characters in the story. What is Bronte's point in having Gilbert do this?
4. What is to be made of the fact that the novel ends with Gilbert's voice and not Helen's? Is this merely what needs to happen from a purely structural point of view, or is there something more disturbing at work?
5. The field of literary onomastics examines the significance of names and naming in literature. What is the significance of Bronte's use of names in the novel?
