Talking Texts: Pairings that Promote Close Reading

1. Talking Texts: Pairings that Promote Close Reading Renee H. Shea NMSI, 20 – 21 October 2014

2. Agenda Talk-Backs Defined Discussion of Paired Texts Small Group Discussions Extensions and Reflection

3. What are Talk-Backs? • More than comparison/contrast • Reversal of subject-object positions • Minority opinion: response to canonical text • Emphasis of continuing problem or issue • Appreciation of well-known text • Parody of well-known text • Time travelers (usually)

4. Why do talk-backs? • To prepare for the AP Exam • To practice close reading • To encourage rereading • To develop a dialogue between past and present • To have fun

5. Musée des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden About suffering they were never wrong,The old Masters: how well they understoodIts human position: how it takes placeWhile someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waitingFor the miraculous birth, there always must beChildren who did not specially want it to happen, skatingOn a pond at the edge of the wood:They never forgotThat even the dreadful martyrdom must run its courseAnyhow in a corner, some untidy spotWhere the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horseScratches its innocent behind on a tree. In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns awayQuite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman mayHave heard the splash, the forsaken cry,But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shoneAs it had to on the white legs disappearing into the greenWater, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seenSomething amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c. 1558, oil on canvas, MuséesRoyaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

6. AP Exam 2000: Homer and Atwood ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION SECTION II Total time—2 hours Question 1 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.) The story of Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens and their enchanting but deadly song appears in Greek epic poetry in Homer’s Odyssey. An English translation of the episode is reprinted in the left column below. Margaret Atwood’s poem in the right column is a modern commentary on the classical story. Read both texts carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare the portrayals of the Sirens. Your analysis should include discussion of tone, point of view, and whatever poetic devices (diction, imagery, etc.) seem most important.

7. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens I Among twenty snowy mountains,    The only moving thing    Was the eye of the blackbird.    II I was of three minds,    Like a tree    In which there are three blackbirds.    III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.    It was a small part of the pantomime.    IV A man and a woman    Are one.    A man and a woman and a blackbird    Are one.    V I do not know which to prefer,    The beauty of inflections    Or the beauty of innuendoes,    The blackbird whistling    Or just after.    VI Icicles filled the long window    With barbaric glass.    The shadow of the blackbird    Crossed it, to and fro.    The mood    Traced in the shadow    An indecipherable cause.    VII O thin men of Haddam,    Why do you imagine golden birds?    Do you not see how the blackbird    Walks around the feet    Of the women about you?    VIII I know noble accents    And lucid, inescapable rhythms;    But I know, too,    That the blackbird is involved    In what I know.    IX When the blackbird flew out of sight,    It marked the edge    Of one of many circles.    X At the sight of blackbirds    Flying in a green light,    Even the bawds of euphony    Would cry out sharply.    XI He rode over Connecticut    In a glass coach.    Once, a fear pierced him,    In that he mistook    The shadow of his equipage    For blackbirds.    XII The river is moving.    The blackbird must be flying.    XIII It was evening all afternoon.    It was snowing    And it was going to snow.    The blackbird sat    In the cedar-limbs. (1917)

8. A talk with Aaron Abeyta

9. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Tortilla by Aaron Abeyta i.  among twenty different tortillas the only thing moving  was the mouth of the niño ii.  i was of three cultures  like a tortilla  for which there are three bolios iii.  the tortilla grew on the wooden table  it was a small part of the earth iv.  a house and a tortilla  are one  a man a woman and a tortilla  are one v.  i do not know which to prefer  the beauty of the red wall  or the beauty of the green wall  the tortilla fresh  or just after vi.  tortillas filled the small kitchen  with ancient shadows  the shadow of Macloviacooking long ago  the tortilla  rolled from the shadow  the innate roundness vii.  o thin viejos of chimayowhy do you imagine biscuits  do you not see how the tortilla  lives with the hands  of the women about you viii.  i know soft corn  and beautiful inescapable sopapillasbut i know too  that the tortilla  has taught me what iknow ix.  when the tortilla is gone  it marks the end  of one of many tortillas x.  at the sight of tortillas  browning on a black comaleven the pachucos of españolawould cry out sharply xi.  he rode over new mexicoin a pearl low rider  once he got a flat  in that he mistook  the shadow of his spare  for a tortilla xii.  the abuelitas are moving  the tortilla must be baking xiii.  it was cinco de mayo all year  it was warm  and it was going to get warmer  the tortilla sat  on the frijolito plate                         (2001)

10. Questions • Besides subject, what is the biggest difference between the 2 poems? • What is Abeyta’s purpose: homage or satire? Combination of the 2? • What effect do the two locations (Connecticut & Chimayo) have on the poems? • Write your own version that looks at a familiar object 13 different ways.

11. Winslow Homer, The Veteran in a New Field, 1865, oil on canvas, 24 1/8”x38 1/8”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

12. Again, the FieldsAfter Winslow Homer by Natasha Trethewey No more muskets, the bone-dragweariness of marching, the trampledgrass, soaked earth red as the wineof sacrament. Now, the veteranturns toward a new field, bright as domes of the republic. Here,he has shrugged off the past—his jacketand canteen flung down in the corner.At the center of the painting, he anchors the trinity, joining earth and sky.The wheat falls beneath his scythe--a language of bounty—the swaths like scripture on the field’s open page.Boundless, the wheat stretches beyondthe frame, as if toward a distant field--the white canvas where sky and cottonmeet, where another veteran toils,his hands the color of dark soil. (2006) the dead they lay long the lines like sheaves of Wheat I could have walked on the boddes all most from one end too the other

13. Questions • The speaker in the poem both describes and interprets Homer’s painting? Which are the literal descriptions; which are interpretive? • How would you describe Trethewey’s attitude toward Homer’s painting? Is she critical? Appreciative? Admiring? Ironic? Nostalgic? Ambivalent? • In what ways does “Again, the fields” stretch beyond the frame of Homer’s canvas? Is it fair to hypothesize or point out what is not included or addressed in a work from an earlier time period? • Compare and contrast Homer’s painting and Trethewey’s poem as elegies (tributes to, lamentation for, or serious reflection on the dead) • How might Winslow Homer have responded to Trethewey’s poem? Research Homer’s participation in the Civil War and then, in his voice, write a letter to Trethewey.

14. The Tempest by Shakespeare & A Tempest by AimeCesaire

15. Shakespeare and Cesaire • What is the power dynamic between Prospero and Caliban in this scene from The Tempest? • How does that dynamic change in A Tempest? • What is Cesaire’s purpose in his “retelling” or “redefining” of that relationship?

16. Your Turn . . . • “To His Coy Mistress” and “Coy Mistress” • “The White Man’s Burden” and “The Black Man’s Burden” • Excerpts from The Jungle and Fast Food Nation • Excerpts from Women and Economics and The House of Mirth • “Elegy of Fortinbras” by ZbigniewHerbert and the ending scene of Hamlet

17. Reflections and Extensions Larger works (e.g., The Great Gatsby and Bodega Dreams)

18. Jane eyre by charlotte brontË& wide sargasso sea by jean rhys

19. Join Webinar Harry S. Truman, “Statement by the President of the United States” Talking Texts: Pairings that Promote Close Reading Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 Time: 4 pm (Eastern Standard Time) Link to Register: https://bfwpub.webex.com/bfwpub/k2/j.php?MTID=tbec3130825973ccfd6f4b17668fdeb7d During the follow-up workshop-style webinar on October 29th, teachers will participate in an interactive experience by sharing the results of their implementation of this approach and discussing their best practices. This will also allow teachers a chance to exchange ideas on other possible text pairings beyond the few that were discussed in the first webinar. Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth

20. Thank You!