Literary Reformations: Denver and Beloved

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Denver and Beloved

Two out of the four main characters in Beloved have me quite confused: Denver and Beloved.
From the beginning Denver has had me confused. She seems moody and angry. She’s all over the place! One minute she’s rude and angry at Paul D for simply being in her house and for making her mother happy, and the next she’s completely fawning over Beloved, nursing her back to health and waiting on her hand and foot. I can’t wrap my head around her motives most, if not all of the time.
Then there’s Beloved. She doesn’t ever seem to form complete sentences and she acts so peculiarly, sick and sad one minute and dancing the next. Not only does she seem a little out of it, but she showed up out of nowhere. I completely understand Paul D’s reservations about her. With her clean feet and her strange behavior, her existence in the story is most definitely going to stir things up in 124. I also feel like she’s supposed to be representative of some theme but I cannot quite put my finger on it.
The most confusing parts about Beloved and Denver so far is their conversation at the end of this most recent segment we were to read. Beloved reveals something of her motivations for showing up at 124 to Denver and Denver immediately understands.
But I didn’t. And I feel like maybe I was supposed to? Either way, I’m looking forward to catching up with Denver and Beloved.

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Course objectives

This course has three objectives. First and foremost, this class will introduce you to literary genres (poetry, drama, and prose fiction), to the skills you need to analyze different forms of literature, and to the key terms we use in literary analysis (ranging from sonnet structure to unreliable narrators). Therefore, this course is also an introduction to the English Literature major (although you need not be an English major to succeed in the class). Through readings and in class discussion, we will work throughout the semester on improving close reading and critical analysis skills.

Second, this class will provide an intellectual space in which you can discuss formal, thematic, and cultural aspects of literary texts. We will view all of our texts as cultural products, and we will think critically about some of the ways in which literary works might be responding to, commenting on, and even working against some of the dominant assumptions of their time and ours. We will consider a wide range of subjects—including racial and cultural identities, formations of gender and sexuality, and strategies of resistance and counter-narrative through literary form. As the semester progresses, we will think about the following key question: How does the form of a work enhance its project?

Our final objective is to develop tools for effective writing. Writing is, at its core, a process; this course will introduce you to different ways of thinking about this process. Eventually, you’ll need to define your own individual process, since we all write and think in different ways. You will begin by thinking about your own strengths and identifying your goals for the course. In this class, we will be focusing on specific genre of academic writing: the argumentative analysis essay. Remember, this essay is one specific type of writing – just because this type of paper is our focus does not mean that other forms are invalid. I mention this because we’ll spend a significant amount of time learning about this type of essay. Therefore, the class includes writing workshops that focus on the various aspects of writing a successful argument essay: 1) choosing a subject and crafting a daring, debatable thesis; 2) selecting appropriate evidence for your argument; 3) analyzing evidence; 4) writing effective sentences and paragraphs; 5) editing, proofreading, and revising.

Ideally, you will leave this course with strategies that you will be able to use beyond the boundaries of the “college essay” and literary analysis alone, such as thinking critically, analyzing evidence carefully, developing original and creative opinions and arguments, and most importantly, communicating effectively.

Literary Reformations

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Denver and Beloved

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Course objectives

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