TALKING TEXTS: PAIRINGS THAT PROMOTE

CLOSE READINGRENEE H. SHEA

NMSI, 20 – 21 OCTOBER 2014

Talk-Backs Defined

Discussion of Paired Texts

Small Group Discussions

Extensions and Reflection

AGENDA

WHAT ARE TALK-BACKS?

o More than comparison/contrast

o Reversal of subject-object positions

o Minority opinion: response to canonical text

o Emphasis of continuing problem or issue

o Appreciation of well-known text

o Parody of well-known text

o Time travelers (usually)

WHY DO TALK-BACKS?

o To prepare for the AP Exam

o To practice close reading

o To encourage rereading

o To develop a dialogue between past and present

o To have fun

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c. 1558, oil on canvas, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

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.

Musée des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden

AP EXAM 2000: HOMER AND ATWOOD

ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION SECTION IITotal 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.

SIREN SONGBy: Margaret Atwood

This is the one song everyone would like to learn: the song that is irresistible:the song that forces mento leap overboard in squadronseven though they see the beached skull

the song nobody knowsbecause anyone who has heard itis dead, and the others can’t remember

Shall I tell you the secret and if I do, will you get me out of this bird suit?

I don’t enjoy it heresquatting on this island looking picturesque and mythical

with these two feathery maniacs I don’t enjoy singingthis trio, fatal and valuable.

I will tell the secret to you, to you, only to you.Come closer. This song

a cry for help: Help me! Only you, only you can, you are unique

at last. Alasit is a boring songbut it works every time.

“THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD” BY WALLACE STEVENS

IAmong twenty snowy mountains,   The only moving thing   Was the eye of the blackbird.    III was of three minds,   Like a tree   In which there are three blackbirds.    IIIThe blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.   It was a small part of the pantomime.    IVA man and a woman   Are one.   A man and a woman and a blackbird   Are one.    VI do not know which to prefer,   The beauty of inflections   Or the beauty of innuendoes,   The blackbird whistling   Or just after.    

VIIcicles 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.    VIIO 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?    VIIII know noble accents   And lucid, inescapable rhythms;   But I know, too,   That the blackbird is involved   In what I know.    IXWhen the blackbird flew out of sight,   It marked the edge   Of one of many circles.    

XAt the sight of blackbirds   Flying in a green light,   Even the bawds of euphony   Would cry out sharply.    

XIHe rode over Connecticut   In a glass coach.   Once, a fear pierced him,   In that he mistook   The shadow of his equipage   For blackbirds.    XIIThe river is moving.   The blackbird must be flying.    XIIIIt was evening all afternoon.   It was snowing   And it was going to snow.   The blackbird sat   In the cedar-limbs.

(1917) 

A TALK WITH AARON ABEYTA

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 Maclovia  cooking long ago  the tortilla  rolled from the shadow  the innate roundness

vii.  o thin viejos of chimayo  why 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 sopapillas  but i know too  that the tortilla  has taught me what i know

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 comal  even the pachucos of española  would cry out sharply

xi.  he rode over new mexico  in 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)

QUESTIONS

1. Besides subject, what is the biggest difference between the 2 poems?

2. What is Abeyta’s purpose: homage or satire? Combination of the 2?

3. What effect do the two locations (Connecticut & Chimayo) have on the poems?

4. Write your own version that looks at a familiar object 13 different ways.

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

AGAIN, THE FIELDSAFTER WINSLOW HOMER BY NATASHA TRETHEWEY

No more muskets, the bone-dragweariness of marching, the trampledgrass, soaked earth red as the wine

of 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

QUESTIONS

1. The speaker in the poem both describes and interprets Homer’s painting? Which are the literal descriptions; which are interpretive?

2. How would you describe Trethewey’s attitude toward Homer’s painting? Is she critical? Appreciative? Admiring? Ironic? Nostalgic? Ambivalent?

3. 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?

4. Compare and contrast Homer’s painting and Trethewey’s poem as elegies (tributes to, lamentation for, or serious reflection on the dead)

5. 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.

THE TEMPEST BY SHAKESPEARE &

A TEMPEST BY AIME CESAIRE

SHAKESPEARE AND CESAIRE

o What is the power dynamic between Prospero and Caliban in this scene from The Tempest?

o How does that dynamic change in A Tempest?

o What is Cesaire’s purpose in his “retelling” or “redefining” of that relationship?

YOUR TURN . . .

o “To His Coy Mistress” and “Coy Mistress”

o “The White Man’s Burden” and “The Black Man’s Burden”

o Excerpts from The Jungle and Fast Food Nation

o Excerpts from Women and Economics and The House of Mirth

o “Elegy of Fortinbras” by Zbigniew Herbert and the ending scene of Hamlet

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

REFLECTIONS AND

EXTENSIONS

JANE EYRE BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË&

WIDE SARGASSO SEA BY JEAN RHYS

JOIN WEBINAR

Harry S. Truman, “Statement by the President of the United States”

Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth

Talking Texts: Pairings that Promote Close ReadingDate: Wednesday, October 29, 2014Time: 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.

Thank You!