The rules by which the canonical texts are selected tend to favor the powerful and to exclude or marginalize the powerless

1.   Synthesizing all the readings/films you’ve completed over the last eight weeks, describe a unifying thread joining all or most of these works. (This could be a theme, message, tone, literary style, etc.)

2.   The Goucher article in this week’s lesson states, “The rules by which the canonical texts are selected tend to favor the powerful and to exclude or marginalize the powerless, regardless of the merits of their work.” Using the readings from the course, make an argument for or against this statement.

Please divide your response into paragraphs for easier reading. Please note your post should equally answer both sections. Note that I will be checking to see if you actually completed the readings and used critical thinking within your discussion.

Readings:

Gulliver’s Travels – “Voyage to Lilliput” by Swift. This can be found widely on the internet. The best place to view the full text is the website of the Gutenberg Project, gutenberg.org. Search for Gulliver’s Travels. You can also listen to the first chapter here: Gulliver’s Travels Audiobook Chapter 1.

Another version can be found here: http://www.complit.illinois.edu/242/Schedule_files/swift.pdf The Declaration of Independence.  http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html Notes on the State of Virginia – Query XI. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/jefferson/ch11.html

James Joyce’s “The Dead.” This work can be found on Project Gutenberg. Search for Dubliners and then click on the link for “The Dead.”

Sherwood Anderson’s “Death in the Woods.”

TS Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” and “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.”  You may also listen to these poems on YouTube:  TS Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” and “The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock”

Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” and “A Girl”

Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est.”

View: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, who wrote both the screenplay and original novel

The Joy Luck Club (FF)

Read the following short stories: “Medicine” by Lu Xun “Madman’s Diary” by Lu Xun “Town of Cats” by Haruki Murakami “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan (This story is illustrated in the movie this week.) Begin reading the novel, assigned next week: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Chapter Three. This work can be found on Project Gutenberg. Search for Heart of Darkness.

 

View: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Read “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov

“Requiem” by Anna Akhmatova – Page 57-62 of the PDF.

 

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela. This can be found widely on the internet. The best place to view the full text is the website of the Gutenberg Project, gutenberg.org. Search for The Underdogs or Mariano Azuela.

“Canto XII: From the Heights of Macchu Picchu,” by Pablo Neruda. Go to page 20.

“Drake in the Southern Sea,” by Ernesto Cardenal.

“To See Him Again,” “Pine Forest” by Gabriela Mistral.

 

View: A Passage To India by EM Forster

Read: EM Forster’s A Passage to India: Chapters 1-3, 16

Read: Mahatma Gandhi’s “Quit India.” Also read Gandhi’s “Treatment of the the Depressed Classes” and “Treatment of Indians Abroad” from Freedom’s Battle. This work can be found through The Project Gutenberg.