Available now in the library is an internet research database called JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/).
The goal of JSTOR is to introduce students and scholars to the wide world of literary criticism.[see footnote below] It is also ideal for modeling how to write works of literary criticism.
To familiarize yourself with how to use the system, I would like each of you to:
- print out one scholarly article chosen from the following list of articles and
- submit a one-paragraph “abstract”—a summary of a text, scientific article, document, speech, etc.—on that article to the blog or on hard copy, being sure to indicate the title of the article as well as its author.
Article List:
(you can find and print in full any one of these articles by clicking the PDF link attached to the citations below):
1.
Sonny's Bebop: Baldwin's "Blues Text" as Intracultural Critique Sonny's Bebop: Baldwin's "Blues Text" as Intracultural Critique
Tracey Sherard
African American Review, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 691-705
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2.
"Sonny's Blues": James Baldwin's Image of Black Community "Sonny's Blues": James Baldwin's Image of Black Community
John M. Reilly
Negro American Literature Forum, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Jul., 1970), pp. 56-60
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3.
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music
Suzy Bernstein Goldman
Negro American Literature Forum, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 231-233
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4.
Flannery O'Connor's Rage of Vision Flannery O'Connor's Rage of Vision
Claire Katz
American Literature, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Mar., 1974), pp. 54-67
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5.
Flannery O'Connor's Mothers and Daughters Flannery O'Connor's Mothers and Daughters
Louise Westling
Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Winter, 1978), pp. 510-522
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6.
Flannery O'Connor and the Violence of Grace Flannery O'Connor and the Violence of Grace
Thelma J. Shinn
Contemporary Literature, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Winter, 1968), pp. 58-73
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7.
The Moment of Grace in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor The Moment of Grace in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor
Bob Dowell
College English, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Dec., 1965), pp. 235-239
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8.
Through a Glass Darkly: Visions of Integrated Community in Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood" Through a Glass Darkly: Visions of Integrated Community in Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood"
Susan Edmunds
Contemporary Literature, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 559-585
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9.
Eudora Welty Eudora Welty
Granville Hicks
The English Journal, Vol. 41, No. 9 (Nov., 1952), pp. 461-468
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10.
Eudora Welty's Theory of Place and Human Relationships Eudora Welty's Theory of Place and Human Relationships
Bessie Chronaki
South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 43, No. 2 (May, 1978), pp. 36-44
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11.
To See Things in Their Time: The Act of Focus in Eudora Welty's Fiction To See Things in Their Time: The Act of Focus in Eudora Welty's Fiction
Lucinda H. MacKethan
American Literature, Vol. 50, No. 2 (May, 1978), pp. 258-275
Article Information Page of First Match PDF Export this Citation
You can access JSTOR from the library or from home by clicking the link to the right.
Each of you will have to register individually with an easy-to-remember personal username and password (record them in your journals so that you do not lose them).
DUE DATE: Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Please be sure to submit your article with the proper heading:
Your Name
My Name
ENG 165 / Writing the Essay
Due Date
Article Title:
Article Author:
[footnote]
literary criticism noun
1. a written evaluation of a work of literature [syn: criticism]
2. the informed analysis and evaluation of literature
11 comments:
Mike Mayfield
Bro. Robert Peach, FSC
Eng 165/Writing the Essay
October 22, 2008
Article Title: The Moment of Grace in the Fiction of Flannery O’Conner
Article Author: Bob Dowell
Abstract
The Moment of Grace in the Fiction of Flannery O’Conner by Bob Dowell explains how many of Flannery O’Conner’s characters are misinterpreted and her stories are wrongfully placed into the gothic category. Even though O’Conner’s fiction is grotesque and gruesome, she is generally trying to convey man’s life and death spiritual struggle. In O’Conner’s stories, she sets up her protagonist into a situation that reveals their misconception of reality, which triggers the characters, “moment of grace.” For example, in “Revelation”, Mrs. Turpin lives her life believing that she is above everyone else and places everyone into one of her stereotypical categories, such as, white trash. This is seen when Mrs. Turpin is in the doctor’s office openly and subconsciously judging the people around her. The ugly college educated girl, who Mrs. Turpin judged, attacks Mrs. Turpin and curses at her in front of everyone. This experience leads Mrs. Turpin to realize her sin of excessive pride and leads her into her moment of grace. O’Conner’s use of good and evil in her writing only adds to her overall theme of human experience.
Chris Ranallo
Bro. Robert Peach FSC
Eng 159/Writing the Essay
October 26,2008
Article Title: Flannery O’Connor and the Violence of Grace
Article Author: Thelma J. Shinn
In Flannery O’Connor and the Violence of Grace Thelma J. Shinn explains how Miss O’Connor uses her Roman Catholic background with a mix of southern gothic to convey a message of salvation to her readers. O’Connor has been ridiculed by critics for her use of violence and grotesque characters in most of her short stories and two novels, but many agree that there is a powerful message behind these violent acts and disgusting characters. Shinn shows examples of how O’Connor used simplicity combined with realism to emphasize the violence of the actions to imply a underlying spiritual struggle. Many of her characters commit these acts of violence to save either their own soul, or the soul of another. Her vision of redemptive violence is best shown in the Biblical verse form which she titled her second novel: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of Heaven suffered violence, and violence bear it away” (73).
Chris Galiardi
Bro. Robert Peach FSC
Eng 165/Writing the Essay
October 27, 2008
Article title: A Message in Music
Authur: Suzy Bernstein Goldman
In "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin theme, form, and image blend into perfect harmony and rise to a thundering crescendo. This is Suzy Goldman's thesis in her summary of "Sonny's Blues". She goes on to explain the ongoing theme of the story, communication. Communication is mainly shown through the images of sound and through the dialogue between the characters. These two factors express the story’s meaning to us, which is the struggle between two brothers. This image of sound is best shown in the music that Sonny plays. The climax of the story is finally reached through the conversation between Sonny and his brother after his brother finally hears Sonny’s Music, the blues.
Liam Halferty
Brother Rob Peach, FSC
Eng 165/Writing The Essay
October 27, 2008
Article Title: “Sonny’s Blues”: James Baldwin’s Image of Black Community
Article Author: John M. Reilly
In his article entitled “Sonny’s Blues”: James Baldwin’s Image of Black Community, John M. Reilly discusses the way James Baldwin, author of “Sonny’s Blues,” conveys a parallel with the events that occur in the story with the image of the black community as a whole. The main point that Reilly explains is the choices made in the lives of the narrator and his younger brother have strongly influenced their futures, much like the two polar opposites that many in the black community embark upon. These contradictory points are the course of education and success, and the other is a life of crime and drug use. The metaphor in which Reilly uses to bring the two together is also part of the title, the Blues. He says that the Blues “repairs the relationship between the two men who have chosen different ways to cope with the menacing ghetto environment” (56). Through this quote and also throughout the article, Reilly is stating that the Blues, the music in which Sonny plays, is a metaphor for the black community, being the common ground between the almost completely different brothers.
Jim Limegrover
Bro. Robert Peach, FSC
Eng. 165/Writing the Essay
October 27, 2008
Article Title: Flannery O’Connor’s Rage of Vision (#4)
Article Author: Claire Katz
Flannery O’Connor uses rage in multiple stories but in different ways. According to “Flannery O’Connor’s Rage of Vision”, she puts multiple rage and violence themes to make it real to the reader. One way she puts rage into her stories is by a verbose description of the landscape, “Sun, sky and woods constantly engage in violent interactions” (59). Rage and violence in her stories, also, are displayed with characters that reappear in other stories. Mrs. O’Connor uses fathers in her stories but when she does they are usually displayed as abusive or a sadist. But Flannery O’Connor’s vision of rage is portrayed often in “‘Inconsequential details’” that “evoke fearful primitive fantasies” (61). These small details are what make the rage and suspense build so it explodes into a frightful confrontation. The minute details, the reoccurring character traits and intimidating landscape, all together, form Flannery O’Connor’s vision of rage.
Toby Coleman
Bro. Robert Peach FSC
Eng 165/Writing the Essay
October 27, 2008
Article Title: Flannery O’Connor’s Rage of Vision
Article Author: Claire Katz
Abstract
In Flannery O’Connor’s Rage of Vision, Clair Katz explains O’Connor’s use of pervasive violence. Her purpose, however, is to reveal the need for grace in a world, grotesque without a transcendent context. Although scoffed at by many others, her stories have a powerful underlying message. For example, she believes that and is not afraid to say that the devil is “an evil intelligence determined on its own supremacy” (54).
O’Connor is then mocked and criticized because it seems that for O’Connor, given the fact of Original Sin, any intelligence determined on it’s own supremacy was essentially evil (54). Although all of this talk of evilness, O’Connor had identified her devotion to Christianity. In her works, Christian symbols and biblical references are noted, thus insuring the fact that she is religious and doesn’t always have to resort to violence in her text. The underlying message in her work is a remark made by her, “Violence is strongly capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them for their moment of grace” (55).
Ricky Zavatchen
Bro. Peach
ENG 165 / Writing the Essay
Oct. 27, 2008
Article Title: "The Moment of Grace in the Fiction of Flannery O’Conner"
Article Author: Bob Dowell
In the moment of grace in the fiction of Flannery O’ Connor she tells us about how her writings are always misunderstood. Her writing is placed in the gothic style of writing. Her writing might be grotesque but she is just trying to interpret the struggle people go through in life. Miss O’ Connor explains to us that “the moment of grace” is a crisis that reveals to the character their haughty and willful misconception of reality. In a “good man is hard to find” the grandmother experiences her moment of grace just seconds before the misfit murders her by firing three shot into her chest. The grandmothers dying word were” you are one of my babies”. This shows that her commitment to good is meaningless because she didn’t believe in Christ. Although it is the misfit who kills the grandmother’s family and then her, it’s the grandmother’s fault why this happens because she indentifies the misfit. This causes his to find it necessary to kill the grandmother and her family, for his safety. For the author to get the most significant drama in the realm of human experience they must show the conflict between grace and evil in the characters as Miss O’ Connor says in her last line of her interview(239).
Dan Shea
Bro. Robert Peach FSC
Eng 165 / Writing the Essay
October 30, 2008
Article Title: Flannery O’Conner’s Mothers and Daughters
Article Author: Louise Westling
In Flannery O’Conner’s Mothers and Daughters by Louise Westling, we learn of O’Conner’s feministic point of views within some of her stories. She explains in detail of the relationships of her characters as mothers and daughters in the story as well as her beliefs on women’s role in our society. She explains that O’Conner’s mothers in the story care deeply for their daughters in a special way more so than they do for their sons. She talks about how despite their care and ability to raise, the daughters have always seemed to fail the mother’s expectations and examples. She relates to them as being ‘socially crippled’, ‘physically unappealing’, and ‘sourly independent’. Overall, Westling’s point of view of the connection between the mother and daughter seems to be positive, but also at the same time she indicates downbeat aspect as part of the future of the daughter.
To See Things: The Act of Focus in Eudora Welty’s Fiction
Lucinda H. MacKethan
In MacKethan’s article on Eudora Welty she explores Welty’s emphasis on time and place. She goes on to talk about how she shows the importance of time and place in her many works. The sense of time, place, and setting was instilled in her as a little girl by her now when we read her works we can see in her character and setting how important those aspects of writing are. Mackethan shows this in Welty’s works in her article. She talks about how hard Welty focuses on her characters and this helps the development of them in Welty’s works. Wealty loved the character she created this was evident when we read her works. Stemming from the previous aspect cover, the relationships of Welty’s characters is a complex and we developed and we shown through out her writings.
Eddie Kelly
Bro> Peach, FSC,
Eng 165/ Writing the Essay
November 5, 2008
In Flannery O'Conner and the violence of grace Thelma Shinn shows O'Conners use of grotesque and somewhat hypocritical actions to convey a message. O'Conner also uses these grotesque ideas pertaining to religion. When she uses grotesque characters or actions, the character is usually acting radically for the sake of themselves or others. For example, one of O'Conner's characters, the college girl, in the story we read this year, threw a book at Mrs. Turpin's face. This is a horrible action, but it was used to show the racism of Mrs. Turpin and the yearning of the college girl to end it.
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