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What is iambic pentameter
It adds an extra syllable to the word. Shakespeare used it.
The climax of a Shakespeare play is always in which Act? What is the climax of A Merchant in Venice? In which was is it a turning point?
The climax is always in Act 3
In AMiV, the climax is when Antonio’s ships sink and Bassanio gets married
It is a turning point because Antonio is not longer the big shot
When Gregor first wakes up, what is his attitude toward his situation?
Denial→ he thinks he should still be able to catch his train to work
Who is the first person to knock on Gregor’s door and what do they ask him?
His mother → “Don’t you want to catch that train?”
Gregor spends a lot of time thinking about how he might accomplish what task?
Getting out of bed
At the end of Part 1, Gregor is injured. How does this injury occur?
He is attacked by his father and shoved through the doorway
What is free indirect discourse
A literary term that refers to writing a character's first-person thoughts in the voice of the third-person narrator. It is a style using aspects of third-person narration conjoined with the essence of first-person direct speech
Magical realism
origins in Latin America
combine dreamlike and fantastical elements with realistic elements
asks us to look beyond the limits of the knowable
rejects Western modernity
Subjective realism
challenges the logical connection between what happens
everybody’s reality is subjective, depending on their ideas, upbringings, temperaments, religions, and life experiences
The uncanny
“the weird tale” or literature of the strange
presents a mystery beyond our world and engages the subconscious
narrative doesn’t quite add up
allows us to discover what it means to be human or inhuman
Climate fiction
accelerated pacing, punctuated by crisis
an anxious and fearful mood
a plot that centers around the emotional arcs of the characters because climate change is a deep-rooted systematic problem that cannot be solved by one protagonist in a single story, so the drama resolves around emotions
a setting that undergoes dramatic transformations
about the effects of climate change and global warming
Afrofuturism
expresses notions of Black identity, agency, and freedom through creative works that envision a liberated future for Black life
social and political movement that imagines a world where African-descended people and their cultures play a central role in the creation of that world
offers an escape from real world troubles and examines problems that African Americans face in the world today
The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka
follows the bizarre transformation of Gregor Samsa into a giant insect and the impact it has on his family
set in the Samsa family apartment
important characters
Gregor
Grete Samsa
Mr. Samsa
Mrs. Samsa
genre: surrealist fiction
major themes: alienation, debts and what we owe to each other, expectations and roles for men and women, transformations, absurdity of life, disconnect of mind and body
major conflicts
finding out gregor is a boy
apple scene, where an apple gets stuck in gregor’s body
mother seeing gregor and passing out
gregor’s death
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
genre: magical realism
tells the story of when an Angel comes to town but he is held captive by a poor couple who charge people to come see him. eventually, people lose interest, and towards the very end, he grows his wings back and leaves
set in a town on the coast of South America
major characters
the old man
father gonzaga
payelo
elisanda
themes: faith and religion, patience and empathy, the sacred vs the mundane
Liddy, First to Fly
by Kim Fu
genre: magical realism
follows a group of teen girls who discover that their friend Liddy, has grown wings. the girls bond over this secret and explore her new power.
set in modern world
major characters
chloe
liddy
mags
grace (narrator)
themes: puberty and girlhood
major conflict:
when liddy tries to jump off the cliff
The Famished Road
by Ben Okri
genre: subjective realism
tells the story of Azaro, an abiku, a child spirit who repeats over and over again the cycle of life and death
set in an unnamed African city
themes: boundaries and life and death
The Nose
by Nikolai Gogol
genre: the uncanny
tells the story of status obsessed Kovalev, who wakes up w/o his nose one day. he finds his nose walking around in a uniform of a high ranking officer. he places ads and accuses people of taking his nose, as his rank and power start to decrease. around two weeks later, he wakes up with a nose.
Main characters:
Kovalev
Ivan Yakovlevich
set in Russia, St Petersburg, during the 19th century
themes: social status, identity, reality, and masculinity
The Enormous Radio
by John Cheever
genre: the uncanny
tells the story of a middle-class couple who find out that their radio allows them to listen in on the conversations of their neighbors. Irene becomes obsessed while it annoys her husband. the conflict reaches a peak when she hears a neighbor beating his wife but Jim refuses to get involved. he asks Irene why she cares bc she has also done bad things. then he tells her they need to return the radio because they cannot afford it. the story ends with a story about a natural disaster on the radio.
major characters:
Irene Westcott
Jim Westcott
setting: the Westcott’s apartment in NYC, sometime in 20th century
themes: Reality, social respectability, innocence vs ignorance, obsession, and control
The Barn at the Very End of our Term
by Karen Russell
genre: the uncanny
setting: a farm, we don’t know when or where
tells the story of 11 American presidents ranging from John Adams to Ulysses Grant who have been reincarnated as horses and live in a farm. the narrator, Rutherford B Hayes, spends his time thinking about his wife, Lucy, and how little he enjoyed being president. while the other presidents plot their escape, Hayes contemplates their existence and why they’re on the farm, as it is a very random order. on the night all the presidents/horses decided to fight for their liberty, Fitzgibbons leaves Hayes’ gate open so he tries to jump over the fence, and he is successful.
main characters
fitzgibbons (owner of farm)
fitzgibbons’ niece
Lucy Hayes
Rutherford B Hayes
themes: legacy, impact on society, and not taking oneself’s too seriously
Lieland
by Etgar Keret
genre: the uncanny
tells the story of a boy Robbie who is a chronic liar of sorts. for years he has been telling lies about things like finding a hurt german shepard on the road to get out of stuff. however, after his mom’s death, he has a dream about her and she tells him to look under a stone where he hid her money years ago. there, he encounters all of his former lies. he also meets Igor, the product of someone else’s lies. later, at work, he hears Natasha telling a lie about Igor. he confronts her and then introduces her to Igor. she apologizes and the story ends with Robbie thinking about aksing her out.
main characters
Robbie
Igor
Natasha
The german shepherd
setting: unknown
themes: childhood vs adulthood (in some ways Robbie doesn’t grow up), mother son relationships, and the consequences of lies
Mother Ocean
major by Vandana Singh
genre: CliFi
setting: South Asia
Paro, a young South Asian woman, has been taught by her mother to avoid the ocean — her grandmother drowned under circumstances her mother won't share. Despite her mother's warnings and secrecy about their familial history, Paro has always been drawn to the ocean, as it is where she feels most alive. In a threatening, rapidly modernizing India led by a mysterious authoritarian who demeans nature, scientists work in secret to combat climate change and explore the environment. Paro joins a renegade scientific ship to track a blue whale, with whom she builds a deep personal relationship. When the scientist's ship is stormed by island rebels, Paro dives underwater and rescues her whale from tangled wires. Afterwards, she realizes that she's not from mainland India, but is actually an island girl who lost her homeland to colonization. (summary from https://writingatlas.com/story/4737/vandana-singh-mother-ocean/)
Main Characters:
Paro
~>~^ (the whale)
themes: survival, climate change, mother daughter relationships, the impacts of colonization on families, and the future of our environment
major conflict:
when the ship is stormed by rebels
when Paro has to save the whale
when Paro learns the truth
Valedictorian
Zinhle is a high school senior living in a near-future dystopian society. The last remaining humans live in a small society enclosed by "the Firewall," a remnant from "the war," which the humans lost, designed to keep out "the enemy." Zinhle doesn't know who or what the enemy is, just that they are not human. Each year, the humans send the enemy the lowest 10% of their graduating class of high school seniors, as well as the single valedictorian. These teenagers are never seen again. The lowest 10%--"the cull"--are taken as a way of curating the gene pool of the near-extinct human race. One morning, Zinhle's mother asks if she's considered getting pregnant, suggesting someone who could impregnate her. Zinhle firmly declines. Later, it becomes evident that her mother was suggesting this as a way to avoid Zinhle being taken away by the enemy. Zinhle excels in school and confronts her teachers when they're wrong. Very few people like her. Some of the other students, led by a girl named Samantha, insult her family and frequently beat her up. Her only friend, Mitra, asks her if she has to make all the other students look so bad. One day, after Zinhle aces a post-graduate placement exam, one of her teachers warns her that a representative is coming from beyond the Firewall to meet her. When Zinhle meets with the representative, she is surprised by how human he looks. He tells her that he is part-human part-artificial intelligence, as is everyone beyond the Firewall. He explains how the AI originally blended with humans on accident, with some poor school children using an ancient library computer, without the necessary protections to keep the AI out of their minds. As those people merged with the AI and the AI spread, those who were originally outside the Firewalls consolidated and hid inside, unwilling to adapt or change. He reveals that those given away to the outside are invited to join them--to merge their bodies and souls into the collective AI network.He tells her humankind can live alongside them without joining them when they become unwilling to give their children away and show they can live in harmony .Throughout the conversation, Zinhle begins thinking of not just the AI, but also her own society, as "them." She has never been able to fit in. The AI man tells her he's intervening because many valedictorians lose resolve and deliberately fail near the end of their senior years; he wants her to continue to succeed. She realizes her determination to stay herself, to not assimilate, makes the AI's intervention unnecessary. She would have continued to excel anyway.
by N.K Jemisin
genre: afrofuturism
main characters:
Zinhle
AI Man
themes: adapting to new society, finding where you fit in, and machines vs humans.
A Merchant in Venice
by William Shakespeare
themes: prejudice, mercy, self interest vs love (think bassanio and portia), revenge, and friendship
main characters:
Bassanio
Antonio
Shylock
Jessica
Portia
Nerissa
Gratiano
Lorenzo
genre: comedy
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