Geocities and Yahoo 360 are both shutting down, so everything is being moved. My 360 blog is moving to the new aristophanes68.wordpress.com site (at least it will be in English this time!). And my academic portfolio from my Geocities site is now at my UTK page .

Here's what I've done with my American Lit 2 class so far:


1) We read Henry James' essay "The Art of Fiction" and applied it to Mark Twain's "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg." (Students also had to write an essay using the James essay on other authors.)

2) We read three stories by Charles Chesnutt and examined them for similarities to African American oral traditions as well as to James' discussion of fiction.

3) We read four regionalist stories set in New Orleans--George Washington Cable, Grace King, Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Kate Chopin--and discussed the reasons for the tragic endings (as well as differing notions of tragedy).

4) We read selections from the autobiographical works of Native American authors Charles Eastman and Sarah Winnemucca, and a short story by John Milton Oskison; we examined how these authors seek to gain sympathy from white audiences against discriminatory practices by whites.

5) Today, we read three social critiques, "Chickamauga" by Ambrose Bierce, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and selections from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. We discussed different narrative structures by which authors critique the culture, from Sinclair's use of naturalist techniques to Gilman's use of symbolism.

Next up: Jewett and Wilkins Freeman!