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- Literary work: Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Non-literary BoW: Photography by Gordon Parks - “Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1963”, “The Fontenelles at the Poverty Board, Harlem, New York, 1967”, “Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1947”

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- Identity

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- Culture

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- Communication

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- Perspective

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- Creativity

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- Transformation

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- Representation

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- Paper 1
- Paper 2
- Higher Level Essay
- Individual Oral (10+5 mins)

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Readers, Writers & Texts

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How are we affected by texts in various ways?

Every literary work handles different topics from different points of view. While reading, readers gain a better understanding of various topics and absorb the ideas of the author regarding them. This influences the thoughts of the readers and, in a way, causes their ideas to be a mixture of what they’ve read and their own outlook on life. Reading literary work could also help readers to realize/acknowledge/be more aware of the different aspects of topics. All these together could contribute to the knowledge and personal development of the reader significantly.

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Time & Space

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How can the cultural and historical context of a text influence the way it is written or received?

People's traits, behavior and perception of the world gets heavily influenced by the environment that they live/have lived in. Since texts are created by people, who have the mindset of a certain period of time, it could be said texts are, in a way, the product of cultural and historical context.

As time goes by, culture tries to adapt itself to the new standards of the world and changes significantly during that process. Therefore, understanding texts and relating to them become much harder for the readers, and most of the time, the message that's received turns out to be different than what's intended.

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Intertextuality

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How can comparing and interpreting texts be transformative for the reader?

As individuals, we all have our own outlooks on certain topics/issues/themes. As we read, we learn about the thoughts/beliefs of the author and tend to contrast them with our own. We, both consciously and unconsciously, try to interpret texts, so that they can fit to our standards/way of seeing things. These processes play a significant role in widening our perspective and enhancing our knowledge.

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The relationship between CAS and English A:

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The relationship between CAS and English A:

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Studies in language and literature & CAS

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NAZLI ZEYNEP DEMİR - Journalistic Writings

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Literary Elements in A Doll's House - Zeynep, Ela, Selim

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- narrative structure -> determines the way an entity is depicted to the reader
- entity -> could be active or inactive
active entities: interact with the story and are relevant
inactive entities: do not interact with the story (they could be deleted and the reader would still understand the main message)
- there could be one or multiple entities that serve as attention units
- four types of panels (about attention units): macro, mono, micro, amorphic panels
-> macro: depicts multiple active entities
-> mono: depicts a single active entity
-> micro: depicts a part of an active entity (e.g. a part of the head or the body)
-> amorphic: depicts no active entity (e.g. the background is shown with no active entities)
- filmic shots -> used to show the entity in the panel: long, full, medium, medium close, close up, extreme close up shots
-> long shot: shows the subject and the surroundings
-> full shot: focuses more on the subject and less on the surroundings
-> medium shot: shows the subject from the waist up
-> medium close shot: shows the subject from the chest up
-> close up shot: shows the shoulders and the head of the subject
-> extreme close up shot: the reader can see a part of the subject, but always less than the whole head
- panel transitions: character change, spatial location change, time change
-> character change: partial/full character change
-> spatial location change: partial/full spatial location change
-> time change: there could and could not be time change between panels
- multimodality: humans are multimodal beings -> this trait is quite important for understanding comics, as comics are multimodal as well (they use both text and image through which the reader should construct a meaning) -> they vary: semantic weight, grammatical construction
-> semantic weight: the textual or image part
more textual weight: verbal panel
more visual weight: visual panel
both image and text are essential to understand the panel: co- panel
-> grammatical construction
- one modality (text or image): autonomous panel
- both modalities -> “Which modality has grammar?
when they both do: assertive panel
when only one does: dominant panel
- the presence of a structured sequential modality is necessary
- in verbal language, there must be a structural sequention of words
- in visual language, a grammar is present when the visual language is built up through structured sequential images

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NAZLI ZEYNEP DEMİR - brief biography of Henrik Ibsen; historical and literary context

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A Doll's House Character Analysis - Zeynep, Defne, Selim, Emre, Yağmur.

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Questions Regarding A Doll's House pt. 2

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Questions Regarding A Doll's House pt. 2

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English A - Questions about A Doll's House

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Lexia Learning Systems https://www.lexialearning.com/Assets/img/logo.svg 1984 978-405-6232 info@lexialearning.com 300 Baker Avenue, Suite 320 Concord MA 01742 USA

2/13/2017

As students progress through school, they are expected to demonstrate increasing levels of sophistication in their language and reading skills across all content areas. Starting in the elementary years, students are immersed in text and tasked with acquiring words, concepts, and curriculum content through independent reading.

In order to comprehend diverse texts and participate in meaningful discussions in the classroom, students must master abstract and discipline-specific vocabulary as well as the advanced grammar and syntactic conventions used often in academic settings. With increasing numbers of English-language learners and students requiring support with language development in schools across the country, it is an educational imperative that reading and language instruction and assessment promote students' proficiency in these skills, which are collectively known as "academic language."

More closely resembling written language, academic language presents greater difficulties for many students than general, everyday language (Heppt, Henschel, and Haag, 2005). The term "academic language" may be used to refer to formal English rules, structure, and content for academic dialogue and text, and the communicative conventions that allow students to meet the demands of school environments. While there is no established consensus on a definition of this construct (Snow & Uccelli, 2009), a concise definition refers to academic language as "the specialized language, both oral and written, of academic settings that facilitates communication and thinking about disciplinary content" (Nagy & Townsend, 2012).

When applying this concept for actionable, instructional purposes, these specialized language skills include the complex vocabulary and syntactic knowledge required for building understanding through independent reading, engaging deeply with text, and expressing ideas in academic settings. Academic language provides a way to unlock key elements of both oral and written language, supporting the listener or reader in gaining a rich understanding of the message being delivered.
Key components of academic language

Vocabulary and syntactic knowledge in oral and written language encompass specific skills that allow students to meet academic demands across the curriculum. Though commonly used to denote breadth of knowledge of word definitions, the term "vocabulary knowledge" also refers to depth of understanding of word parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc.) and awareness of multiple meanings and word relationships that shape the nuances of vocabulary use. Having proficiency in word parts and relationships helps students acquire new vocabulary, reason about the meaning of unfamiliar words, and comprehend the sophisticated vocabulary that characterizes academic language, including:

Morphologically complex words, e.g., unmistakable; wholesomely

High-frequency, abstract, and multiple-meaning words that are domain-general and often contain Latin morphemes, e.g., principle; approach; lateral

Complex, domain-specific words that typically contain Greek combining forms, e.g., amnesia; biodegradable; monochromatic

Most broadly, syntactic knowledge refers to the understanding of grammatical forms and rules that govern how words and phrases combine into sentences, and how sentences form paragraphs. To comprehend advanced sentence structures and connected text, students must master basic grammatical rules as well as sophisticated knowledge of words and phrases that are used to establish referents, organize ideas, denote relationships between concepts, and develop text cohesion, including:

Use of connective words requiring sentence-level inferencing, e.g., consequently; whereas; similarly

Resolution of pronoun reference, e.g., We examined the extent to which native plants in coastal regions adapted to climatic changes in their environment.

Grammatical agreement between subjects, verbs, and tense, e.g., All of the candidates, as well as the current president, are attending the televised debate.

Given the increasing emphasis on students' abilities to independently engage with and learn from text, reading comprehension is perhaps the domain most impacted by students' academic language skills as they progress through school. In fact, researchers have shown that reading comprehension difficulties are in large part due to students' challenges in understanding the academic language of school texts (Uccelli et al, 2015). Both vocabulary and syntactic knowledge contribute to students' success or difficulty with reading comprehension, and vocabulary knowledge in particular predicts students' literacy achievement, as it contributes significantly to both word identification and reading comprehension skills. In addition, vocabulary and syntactic knowledge have been shown to account for the majority of individual differences in reading comprehension for students in upper elementary school through high school (Foorman, Koon, Petscher, Mitchell, & Truckenmiller, 2015). Vocabulary knowledge and syntactic knowledge help students engage with text and progress toward deep reading comprehension with increasing independence by supporting their abilities to:

Acquire knowledge and synthesize this with previously learned material

Analyze audience, structure, purpose, and tone of texts

Evaluate evidence, main ideas, and details

Understanding the key elements of academic language is the first step to creating a unified mission to help districts and schools improve students' likelihood of educational success. For all students, mastery of academic language provides the tools needed to comprehend our complex world, in school and beyond.

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Defining Academic Language and its Key Elements | Lexia Learning

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As students progress through school, they are expected to demonstrate increasing levels of sophistication in their language and reading skills across all content areas. Starting in the elementary years, students are immersed in text and tasked with acquiring words, concepts, and curriculum content through independent reading.

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English A - Comic Strips_ Calvin and Hobbes

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Elements Significant for Comic Strip Analysis

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Elements Significant for Comic Strip Analysis

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English A - Comic Strips_ Calvin and Hobbes 

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English A - Comic Strips_ Calvin and Hobbes S5 (1)

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English A - The World’s Wife_ Poem Analyses

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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud - William Wordsworth

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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud - William Wordsworth

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“Hope” is the thing with feathers - Emily Dickinson

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“Hope” is the thing with feathers - Emily Dickinson

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English A - Photography_ Lauren Greenfield BoW

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#Black Lives Matter vs. #All Lives Matter Task

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#Black Lives Matter vs. #All Lives Matter Task

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English A - Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter HW

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The Awakening | Summary, Analysis, & Facts

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The Awakening, novel by Kate Chopin, published in 1899. Originally titled A Solitary Soul, the novel depicts a young mother’s struggle to achieve sexual and personal emancipation in the oppressive environment of the postbellum American South. When it was first published, it was widely condemned for…

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The Awakening is the story of Edna Pontellier's gradual understanding of herself as an autonomous person with wants and desires, and her struggle to achieve those desires in a world where they are not valued.

First, Edna realizes that her husband sees her as a possession that he has control over, not a person. In the first few chapters, Edna notices a distinct contrast between how Léonce and Robert treat her that causes her to question her marriage. Léonce only pays attention to Edna and the children when it suits him, preferring the company of the men at his gentlemen's club, yet expecting Edna to offer her full attention when he comes home late. Meanwhile, Robert and Edna have mutually enjoyable conversations, which offer Edna a chance to experience what it's like for someone to listen to her. When Robert treats her as a person with autonomy, Léonce's behavior feels all the more stifling. Edna's newfound awareness culminates in her managing to swim for the first time, signifying her growing sense of autonomy and independence, which ties directly to how Robert has made her feel like a person. Unfortunately, Robert leaves for Mexico, forcing Edna to chase the feeling of freedom that she had when she was with him.

Although Edna has fallen in love with Robert and misses him, her initial forays into exploring her own autonomy back in New Orleans have little to do with romance. Edna begins painting again, a self-expressive act, and neglects the role of society housewife, instead socializing with pariahs like Mademoiselle Reisz and Alcée Arobin. Alcée creates a second awakening in Edna because he teaches her the difference between love and desire. When they first kiss, Edna becomes conscious of her own arousal, and yet understands that love has nothing to do with what she feels. Frustrated by Léonce's insistence that she has an obligation to perform to social standards because he runs their household, Edna decides to move into the pigeon house, a space she can control. Unfortunately, her experimentation with freedom begins to fail here. Léonce's letters that claim Edna has moved for a remodel effectively erase her statement of autonomy in the eyes of society. Alcée pushes Edna's boundaries instead of leaving her when she asks. Worst of all, although Robert returns, he does not appear to believe that Edna can truly leave her husband and start a new life with him.

When Edna returns from visiting Adèle at her sick bed, she sees that Robert has left her. He believes that sparing Edna the scandal of leaving her husband for another man is an act of love. In this sense, Robert chooses what he believes is best for Edna instead of accepting her at her word. Edna's disappointment that she cannot build the life she dreamed of with Robert compounds when she remembers Adèle's admonishment to think of her children. Edna realizes that even if she understands her own desires, she has become trapped by her societal role. Her children tether her to this role, forcing her to care for them and to remain subservient to Léonce. The very men who awakened her passion, Robert and Alcée, attempt to make decisions for her. In this spirit, Edna returns to Grand Isle, where she first swam in the sea on her own and discovered her autonomy. The meaning of her suicide remains ambiguous, whether she drowns in defeat in the current of society or joins the freedom of the sea in a kind of ascension and triumph.

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The Awakening: Full Book Analysis | SparkNotes

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The Awakening is the story of Edna Pontellier's gradual understanding of herself as an autonomous person with wants and desires, and her struggle to achieve those desires in a world where they are not valued. First, Edna realizes that her husband sees her as a possession that he has control over, not a person.

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By Sarah Wyman | On January 17, 2018 | Updated October 25, 2021 | Comments (1)

Following is Professor Sarah Wyman's analysis of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, an 1899 novella telling the story of a young mother who undergoes a dramatic period of change as she "awakens" to the restrictions of her traditional societal role and to her full potential as a woman.

Many times, we find Edna Pontellier awake in situations that signify more metaphorical awakenings to new knowledge and sensual experience.

Consequently, Chopin's work came under immediate attack when published and was banned from bookstores and libraries. The author died virtually forgotten, yet The Awakening has been rediscovered and holds a secure and prominent position as a watershed text in U.S. literature and feminist studies.

The restrictions of marriage and motherhood

Edna's first depicted episode of awakening, literally, comes at the expense of a good night's sleep, and leaves her crying and frustrated but unable to articulate the source of her emotional response to a callous, if affectionate, husband.

From this powerless starting point, Edna will experience a series of discoveries about her world and her self that inspire her to experiment and explore, but leave her ultimately defeated. Vacationing at Grand Isle on the Gulf of Mexico, she undergoes life-changing transformations.

Marriage and motherhood constitute unsupportable restrictions for Edna. Léonce, her well-respected, businessman husband, clearly objectifies Edna when she returns from a sunny beach day: "You are burnt beyond recognition," [Léonce] added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property.

He turns Edna into a thing or a commodity through his perception of her and his desire to control her actions.

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Willa Cather's review of The Awakening
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Acting rebellious, Edna defies social convention in various ways. Back in New Orleans, she stops holding her Tuesday evening "at-homes;" she stomps on her wedding ring; and she moves out of her house into a smaller space of her own. She refuses to attend a family wedding and remembers her own as an "accident," a revolt against her father and sister's wishes.

Simultaneously, she witnesses the growth of her own spiritual life: "There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual."

None of these minor outrages, even the collapse of her marriage, were Léonce to let her go, would necessarily have precipitated her suicide.

The dilemma of how to mother her children appropriately, with the risk of subjecting them to the public shame she brings upon herself, seems to be the decisive factor.

A feminist framework

Chopin problematizes traditional roles and expectations for men and women by illustrating the dilemmas that arise when one troubles the waters by behaving in non-conformist ways. Hélène Cixous' famous critique of the western binary system of gender definition (and conceptualizations that issue from it) provides an interesting framework with which to look at the novel.

The French feminist illustrates basic, two-part description of "patriarchal binary thought" with these contrasts:

Activity / Passivity

Sun / Moon

Culture / Nature

Head / Emotions

Intelligible / Sensitive

Logos / Pathos

On which side (left/right) would you place "male" and on which side "female," according to typical definitions in our culture? The list continues... add your own.

Thinking / Feeling

Demanding / Suggesting

Directing / Manipulating

Teaching / Nurturing

Action / Passion

Mind / Nature

War / Love

Freedom / Security

Defining / Describing

Pointing / Indicating

Linear / Associative

Strong / Reliable

Muscled / Shapely

Sweat / Perspire

Triumph / Succeed

Command / Comply

Of course, such simple dichotomies (or 2-part systems of thought) are "reductive" or "essentializing" (in the words of many critics). These terms simplify complicated characteristics, fitting generalized features into neat boxes. There are gray areas between any polar opposites, and no one belongs, fully, to either of these artificial categories.

Contemporary critics and theorists tend to think more in terms of a "continuum of gender and sexuality" or a vast range of possibilities between so-called male and female characteristics. This newer theory originates, in part, with Judith Butler's work during the 1980s, particularly Gender Trouble.

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Quotes from The Awakening by Kate Chopin
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Considering Edna Pontellier and Adèle Ratignolle

Think about Edna when we first meet her, and as she develops through the course of the novel. How does she fit traditional gender roles for women, and how does she branch away from such expectations? This question constitutes a major theme of the novel.

We can look at Edna specifically in her role as a mother. SUNY-New Paltz graduate student Marissa Caston made an important connection between The Awakening and Cixous' thoughts on mothering with this compelling, if dated quote from "The Laugh of the Medusa":

In women there is always more or less of the mother who makes everything all right, who nourishes, and who stand up against separation; a force that will not be cut off but will knock the wind out of the codes.

Obviously, Edna is not a traditional "mother-woman" like her foil character Adèle Ratignolle. A foil character is one basically similar to the protagonist, yet differing in certain ways that serve to illuminate the protagonist more brightly or clearly (as in a tin-foil reflection).

For example, Adèle is the quintessential mother-woman, an "angel in the house," beautiful, earthy, usually pregnant, utterly ensconced in her domestic role as mother and nurturer. She does not question her position, nor complain of her duties.

In contrast to Adèle, Edna's divergence from expected actions and behaviors becomes all the more striking. Their conversation on mothering is a key to the novel. Edna explains, "I would give my life for my children: but I wouldn't give myself." Perhaps she implies that a selfless or unfulfilled mother is no mother at all. One could interpret this statement multiple ways.

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A rich array of characters

In a somewhat mechanical manner, various characters demonstrate or activate particular aspects of Edna's awakening. The pianist Mademoiselle (Miss) Reisz models the independent woman as artist, utterly unconcerned with personal appearance or public scrutiny. She encourages Edna to sketch, to cultivate her own creativity.

The novel does not put forth a woman who can be both an artist and a mother. Mademoiselle Reisz may even appear less "feminine" because she does not depend on a man, has no children, and takes no heed of social mores.

Two men factor as lovers in Edna's sexual awakening. Robert Lebrun sees Edna as a person and provides a more equal meeting of the minds than her marriage can.

Edna credits Robert with awakening her that summer at Grand Isle. He seems to love her generously, yet his desires are tinged with a possessiveness Edna cannot abide. She rejects outright the possibility of marriage, saying, "I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose.

If he were here to say, 'Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,' I should laugh at you both."

At this point, Edna has been sexually involved with Alcee Arobin, the town Casanova, who "detected her latent sensuality" and with whom she has a purely carnal, adulterous relationship. In contrast, she loves Robert and finds great comfort in him. Nevertheless, she no longer trusts in any sort of permanence in any relationship.

Ultimately, only Dr. Mandalet, well acquainted with human affairs of the heart, seems to understand Edna and may possibly have led her to some alternate solution than suicide. She explains to him at the story's end, "perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life."

The kind doctor encourages her to confide in him saying, "I know I would understand, and I tell you there are not many who would - not many, my dear." If only she had given this male ally a chance, and shared her dilemma with him.

Questions of ethnicity in the Awakening

The novel treats questions of ethnicity in interesting ways. Edna's new, maverick way of life aside, she feels an outsider in both her Grand Isle and New Orleans communities because she is a Protestant rather than a Catholic Creole like her husband and acquaintances.

Via the omniscient narrator, Chopin condemns racist attitudes in her portrayal of Adèle's deeply prejudiced view of Mexicans and African-Americans, particularly the degrading image of the young girl operating the foot pedal of the sewing machine for Madame LeBrun. As a rule in the text, skin color is assumed to be white and only specified otherwise in terms of difference.

Stylistic features and motifs

As an interesting stylistic feature, the novel incorporates episodes written in the Darwinian Naturalist vein, particularly those involving attention to the female, sexual drive.

At various moments, Edna is pictured in an animalistic way, as a sharp-toothed creature of instinct. After waking at Madame Antoine's house, she blooms sensually and tears at the bread with her teeth.

When Robert leaves and she begins to understand her passion for him, she similarly bites her handkerchief. She sticks her pointed nails into Arobin's palm, and she reminds him of "some beautiful, sleek animal waking up in the sun" (emphasis mine).

The motifs of swimming, of birds, of the lyric line si tu savais (if you only knew) all seem to converge in the final scene of the novel. Edna wades out into the sea where she experienced her first sensual awakening and, later, her powerful achievement of learning to swim.

Birth and death converge as she immerses herself in water, the feminine element, par excellence. A few critics including Sandra Gilbert, argue that Edna does not commit suicide. What do you think?

Contributed by Sarah Wyman, Associate Professor of English, SUNY-New Paltz

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More about The Awakening by Kate Chopin

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The Awakening by Kate Chopin: an analysis | LiteraryLadiesGuide

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By Sarah Wyman | On January 17, 2018 | Updated October 25, 2021 | Comments (1) Following is Professor Sarah Wyman's analysis of The Awakening by Kate Chopin , an 1899 novella telling the story of a young mother who undergoes a dramatic period of change as she "awakens" to the restrictions of her traditional societal role and to her full potential as a woman.

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is composed of two novellas (“Kitchen” & “Moonlight Shadow”)

is written in 1988 by the Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto

often alludes to Japanese culture and traditions (religion, norms regarding gender and relationships, and especially food)

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she was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1964

her real name is Yoshimoto Mahoko, but she changed it to Banana, as she loves bananas (female authors, do this often, in hopes having a wider range of readers to buy their books)

she majored in literature in collage

she grew up in a liberal family

her father is a famous Japanese poet & her sister is a popular cartoonist

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What does Urara symbolize as a character in the novella “Moonlight Shadow”?

—> she is very caring - a motherly figure

What is the significance of “the river” in the novella “Moonlight Shadow”?

—> the river: Satsuki doesn’t cross the bridge until she meets her lover again - as she meets him there, and her mood improves significantly after that instance - the river = a bridge between the dark and the bright side (e.g. a depressed state + a mentally-stable state)

What is the significance of the concept of “family” in the novella “Moonlight Shadow”?

—> In “Moonlight Shadow”, it is clearly indicated that one doesn’t have to have be biologically related to someone to be “family” with them (e.g. the relationship between Satsuki and Hiragi) & family relationships (the ones we love and feel comfortable spending time together with) are what keeps us going in life = that love)