Notes

How Fiction Can Change Reality:

- Story can change people’s perspective
-

What is New Criticism?

- New Criticism: Literary criticism with textual focus rather than meaning interpreted by
author/reader
- Text should stand alone (exclude author’s message and reader’s interpretation)
- Close Reading
- Look for tension
- E.g. Elsa & Anna had tension
- Explore the tension resolved in unity
- E.g. Elsa & Anna unified despite the tension
What is Feminist Criticism?
- Examines woman in literature
- Tension between male and female imagery
- Bowls depict women, keys depict men
- Bowls receive, keys open
Marxist Criticism
- Marxcist Critic:
- Ideology: system of beliefs that underlie our actions and material lives
- E.g. Social relationships such as men must be providers is engraved in our minds
- Hegemony: Those in power create a worldview to dominate others without using force
- 3 Classes
- Aristocracy
- Royalty
- Bourgeoisie
- Wealthy with societal power
- Proletariat
- Workers
What is Psychological Criticism?
- Psychological criticism: taking ideas of psychology and applying it to literature
- Two ways to focus this way of reading:
- Author
- Psychology of author
- Characters
- Psychological analysis of characters
Mythological/Archetypal Criticism
-
What Critical Race Theory Actually is- And Isn’t:
- Field where people concluded racial disparity was consistent
- Misconceptions
- White people are inherently evil
- Everything and everyone is racist
- Anti-white or racist

Analyzing and Evaluating Media Texts:

What is an Archetype?
- Archetype: Behavioral pattern and reflection of that pattern in a story
- Think of as “pattern”
- Two examples
1) Wise old man archetype
a) Yoda
b) Karate Kid sensei
2) Petrification (turning to stone) by beasts
- First instinct when seeing is a monster is to “freeze” (“turn to stone”)
- Common ancestry results in patterns throughout the world

Danger of A Single Story

-take notes on passages that stand out to you

-brainstorm why they stand out to you and what comes to mind when you listen to her message
-listen to this speech through two literary theories, what connections do you make when you listen with two
different perspectives? What kind of details stand out with these theories/lens?

Stand out:
- Chimamanda’s roommate treating her with pity and being surprised that she knew how to use a
stove
- The lack of stories being shared from other cultures, resulting in “a single story”
- Woman telling Chimamanda what to write about in the sequel of her novel
- Law that women were required to receive consent from husband before renewing passport
-

Race Theory:
- Majority of the books she read contained caucassians with blue eyes, resulting her believing that
all literature must contain these types of characters
- Discovering African stories saved her from viewing literature this way
 - In American literature, Africa was seen as a dark place with people who were half human and
half devil
- Chimamanda’s roommate thought she didn’t know how to use a stove
- “African Authenticity”, Chimamanda was told that her characters weren’t authentically African
because they were too similar to the typical caucassian characters
Marxist Criticism:
- The danger of a “single story” affect her and her roommate as Chimamanda saw her friend as
proletariat while her roommate saw Chimamanda that way
- People with power are able to share more of their stories
- America has a lot of power and they are able to create many different stories
- Africa is not as strong of a country and isn’t able to have as many stories, resulting in
many people having only a single story

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

- HeLa cells (“He” for Henrietta and “La” for Lacks)
- Cells originated from Henrietta’s cancer cells
- Grow and divide endlessly
- Historical Fiction vs Creative (Historical) Nonfiction
- HIstorical
- Story takes plain in past
- Characters, actions, and other details are fictionalized
- Creative (Historical) Nonfiction
- Events are not fictionalized
- Work reads likes a novel rather than a history textbook
- “If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that’s dishonest. It’s taking
away their lives, their experiences, and their selves”
Prologue

Rhetoric

Rhetoric: Art of speaking or writing effectively

- Choice of words, volume, and tone affect effectiveness of speaking
- Pathos - appealing to the emotions of audiences
- Ethos - Credibility
- Logos - Logical presentation of arguments

Rhetorical Texts: Study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion

Satire & Parody

● Satire: A rhetorical piece of writing which makes fun of an individual or society in order to
convince you to see its stupidity and shortcomings.
 ○ Intends to warn the public to change their opinions about the prevailing
corruption/conditions in society.
○ Critique
● Origins of Satire:
○ Ancient Greece had a type of theatre called satirical drama which displayed serious
events with lewd pantomime and subversive mockery.
■ Make jokes about sex, governments, and systems of power to criticize important
figures in Greek society and mythical heroes.
○ The Ancient Romans were inspired by the Greeks
■ “Satura” was the word scholars used for satire meaning “DISH OF MIXED
INGREDIENTS”.

The Anthropocene Reviewed

Kentucky Bluegrass
- Kentucky Bluegrass (Native to Europe)
- More water is dedicated to lawn grass than farms
- ⅓ of clean water in America is used to water lawns

Googling Strangers
- Thesis: There are dangers and benefits of having the ability to google strangers
- A lot of personal info can be find online

Prom

Stanford Marshmallow Experiment

- Synopsis: Walter Michelle (Psychologist) experimented on preschool kids → gave kids options to
immediately eat one marshmallow or wait to earn an extra marshmallow. Those who could delay
gratification had “better lives” in general → connects to people’s ability to invest in their future
rather than receive gratification in the present

- Theme:

Early Mornings Anthropocene Reviewed

Story of Your Life

Determinisms: All events are determined by causes outside of human free will
Free Will: Power of acting without constraints of fate
Heptapod consciousness: Experience past, present, and future all at once. There is an underlying
purpose, act out the past, present, and future for the sake of this purpose.

Exam Prep

Themes
- Innovations of life/butterfly effect
- Story of Your Life
- Louise Banks knew her past, present, and future but decided to go through with
the planned future despite pain she would endure
- “Greater purpose”
- Heptapods live this way
- Henrietta Lacks
- HeLa cells helped science
- Danger of a SIngle Story
- Only knew stories about caucasians and believed all stories had to be about
caucasians
- Googling Strangers
- John Green saw a boy’s parents being told that the boy may pass away. Years
later, Green discovered the boy was alive through his facebook page
- Miscommunication
- Henrietta Lacks
- Henrietta unaware of treatment and infertility
- Doctors
- Story of Your Life
- Confusion between Heptapod language and English
- Perspective: Understanding multiple perspectives brings us closer to the truth
- Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Scientific perspective and ramifications of her cells
- Henrietta’s children’s perspective
- Historical perspective → Henrietta’s story occurred during time of segregation
- Anthropocene Reviewed: Prom
- Teenagers view prom as “best night of their life”
- Not inclusive of LGBTQ
- Green has his own view of prom
- Marxism
- Anthropocene Reviewed: Mario Kart
- Players more head receive weaker items than players more behind
- Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks → systematic racism is prevalent in our society
- African-Americans are treated as less than
- The way we deal with trauma impacts our future
 - Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Deborah vs Joe
- Deborah faced different mental illnesses while Joe acted out and was
arrested
- How does society deal with trauma and healing?
- Story of Your Life
- Louise Banks knew her daughter would die if she had her but still followed
through with giving birth to her
- Accepted the trauma because of the good memories that came out of it
- Acceptance
- Importance of Living in Present
- Story of Your Life
- Despite knowing her future, Louise Banks focused on her present and enjoyed
her present experiences
- Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Deborah was hung up on her mother and her own past → suffered from mental
illnesses as a result
- Meeting Rebecca Skloot helped to deal with the trauma and focus on
her present
- David Lacks neglected his kids after Henrietta passed
- Was too focused on the past of Henrietta passing away
- Immorality: People live on through their memories
- Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Henrietta is remembered through her traumatic experiences and cells
- Courage: Courage comes from perseverance
- Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Rebecca Skloot was courageous in researching Henrietta’s story
- Optimism: Optimism for Future
- Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Henrietta was told that her cells would make a change
- Story of Your Life
- Louise was able to be optimistic for her future even though she would suffer
- Anthropocene Reviewed: Humanity’s Temporal Range
- John Green is afraid for humanity but wanted to be optimistic → gave
humanity’s temporal range a ⅘ stars
- Marxism: Money gives power
- Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- People with money were able to get better treatment
- Anthropocene Reviewed
- John Green received extra benefits from his bank upon becoming successful and
wealthy
DIfferentiate topic and theme
- Topic: Trauma
- Theme: The way we deal with trauma impacts our future

Exam Essay Notes:

- 1st body paragraph about 1st text
- 2nd about 2nd text
- 3rd comparing both
- Try to mention pathos, satire, etc. in the third paragraph to establish how both texts mention the
theme.
- Keeping the first two content heavy
- Maybe use lenses