Transcript 4.15 | The Leading Man (EWP#2)

4.15 | The Leading Man (EWP#2)
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Questions, comments, concerns?
Structure / Pattern
Break
Active reading / Careful reading.
HW
– Be ready to write on Leading Man for Thurs.
• Same format: lecture on using quotations, composition
time, featured writers.
• Prompt: Close-reading of “The Leading Man.”
Structure
• Always a good idea, when reading or after you
read, to keep track of structure, how the text
is organized.
• Equally useful for literary texts as well as
arguments, essays, etc.
• For narrative, there are several ways to do
this. You may have done the plot mountain:
climax
rising action
background
falling action
resolution
Structure
• We are going to keep more general, less
hierarchical and simply divide the stories into
blocks that make sense.
• What are you looking for with structure?
Pattern
– Of all kinds: linear, recursive, circular, entropic, etc.
– Not just in plot points, but also can include tone, style,
voice, imagery, etc.
How would you divide up “The
Leading Man”?
• With a partner, decide on an organizing logic.
– Will you line it up with the 9 doors? If so, where
do you put the in between material?
• Remember, we are looking for patterns,
parallels, sets, linearity, circularity, etc. in
events, styles, tone, etc.
• Put them on the board.
Why do structure?
• Helps understand context for quotations.
• Can reveal important aspects of the plot,
character development, etc. by setting up
comparisons.
10-MIN. BREAK
Careful, active reading: UNPACK!
• Identifying structure is an important part of
active reading.
• Here are some others:
– Annotation: underline, circle, box terms,
important passages, recurrances or themes, etc.
– Awareness of context or argument: keep in mind
what is happening.
– Ask questions: to whom, for whom, why, for what
purpose, so what?
UNPACK!
• There are lots of kinds of reading and all of
them have their purposes. Speed reading, for
example, is to get through text quickly while
retaining essential info.
• Careful reading asks you to slow down and
UNPACK the meaning-making elements.
• Careful reading brings you down to the
sentence, the phrase, the word level as you
attempt to separate out all its components.
Step-by-step
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What does it say?
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What is happening?
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What do you associate with the passage?
Tone?
Topic?
Any questions?
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Repetitions and echoes
Allusions, Other texts
What do you think of?
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What is the tone?
What words are used?
What images or metaphors come up?
Sound familiar?
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Context
What just happened, what is happening, what is about to happen?
How is it said?
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Literally, what do the words on the page say?
Does this passage raise questions for you?
Does it make you wonder about other parts of the story?
Can your questions be answered or do they go unaddressed?
The big step: Implications?
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For story? For argument?
For reader, real world?
Practice
What does it say?
What is happening?
How is it said?
Sound familiar?
What do you think of?
Any questions?
Implications?
“The boy placed his right
hand of keys into his
father’s open palm: the
security box, the neighbor’s
car, the closet in France,
the docent room at the
Louvre that had been
changed.”
(Bender 197)
“Click.
Practice
What does it say?
What is happening?
How is it said?
Sound familiar?
What do you think of?
Any questions?
Implications?
Hero.”
(Bender 201)
Practice
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4.
Pick your favorite short passage.
Write it on a sheet of loose leaf. Be legible.
Write the “What does it say?”
Stand, move two places to the right. Sit at a
piece of loose leaf, not your own. Make an
observation.
5. Repeat step 4.
Prompt for Thurs.
UNPACK! Paper.
– 400-500 words
– Select short passage, phrase, or word from “The Leading
Man.” Quote it as your title.
– UNPACK it in the style we have practiced in class.
– We are not looking for an argument as much as an
organized brainstorming.
– Each paragraph should take up one topic, demonstrating
an observation, but they need not be in service of a larger
claim.
– Due at 5pm next Monday.
– Featured writers need a paragraph to show off at least.