Akasha’s Comments (group member since Nov 14, 2012)

Akasha’s comments from the The Regent Squares group.

Our first World Lit class is all old plays and epics. Now in the second World Lit class we are reading all modern stuff from this century. Right now we are reading Jpod. It's pretty interesting so far. We are also reading Animal's People, Gabriel's Gift, Tropic of Orange, Purple Hibiscus and The Fat Years. They all look really interesting. I'm so excited!

Hey guys! I started the semester again and am taking a World Lit class, which has a lot of really interesting looking modern books on the syllabus.

Anyways, I wanted to share with you this cool list of discussion ideas/questions my professor gave us because I thought it could help fuel stuff. It's cool if you think they are a little lame, I just thought some of them were good topic starters.

40 Heuristics

0. The five W's: Who? What? Where? When? Why?
What form or structure does the text exhibit? What role does the genre of the text play? Are previously established forms followed or altered in their use?
Does the text make allusions to other texts or historical events? If so how do these allusions portray or invoke the “original” text?
How do we know what we know about the text?
What are the possible intentions/motivations for the author's writing of the text?
What is the intended audience for this text? Who has access to this text? Is there an intended or unintended political meaning behind the distribution of this text?
What symbols exist in the text? What are their possible meanings?
What points of view exist in the text? If, and when, the text changes its point of view how, when, and why does this change occur?
Is/are the narrator(s) reliable?
How does the author/narrator manipulate/influence the reader's thoughts and feelings?
What is excluded? What is minimized in the text? What role does silence play in the text?
What role does psychology or the unconscious play in the text?
What role does fantasy and desire play in the text? How are objects of desire and fantasy scenarios portrayed? How do they contrast with the portrayal of “reality”?
What roles do institutions and power structures play in the text? How are they represented? Is there resistance to these power structures? How is/are resistance and/or submission portrayed?
How does the text portray the norms and values of the immediate, local, and/or national community where the text takes place? How do the individuals represented in the text conform to or resist these norms and values?
Is leadership portrayed in the text? If so, how is leadership portrayed in the text?
What role does knowledge play in the text? What kind of knowledge is it? How is knowledge achieved? How are those with knowledge portrayed? Are there those who are especially wise or have mystical abilities and intellegences?
What role(s) do/does class and ability play in the text? Are these characteristics portrayed as creating hierarchies between people in the text? If so, are these hierarchies rigid and binding, or can people move up and down the social ladder and between social groups?
What role(s) do/does race and ethnicity play in the text? Are groups portrayed as homogenous or are there divisions within these distinctions?
How is personal, interpersonal, local, and/or national identity constructed? Do characters see themselves as belonging or not belonging to a group? How do they feel about this relationship?
How is the surrounding community represented in the text? If they exist, how are outsiders or how is the Other represented?
Are members who belong to different social/ethnic/national/gender/ability/generational groups capable of communication? If not, what factors hinder the ability to communicate across these divisions?
Does change occur in the text? If so, how does it happen? What is the reaction to change? How are the time periods before, during, and after change portrayed?
What role does tradition play in the text?
How is the passage of time portrayed?
What does the text say about the time and place it represents?
What does the text say about the time and place where and when it was written? Is there a difference? If there is a difference does the time and place chosen to be represented provide some insight on the time and place it was written?
How is gender represented? (Note: This is just not how men and women are represented, but how the concepts of masculinity and femininity are represented. What behaviors or traits make a man a “man” and a woman a “woman?” How do the characters perform their gender rolls?)
How is the body, or how are bodies, represented?
What role does fear play in the text? What, if anything, is feared? How is the source of that fear portrayed?
What role, if any, does violence play in the text? Is the violence physical, psychological, and/or structural? Does violence occur in the present, past, or is there a future threat of violence? Is violence or victimization glorified? Is the effect of violence hidden or obvious?
What role does nature and the environment play in the text? How is it portrayed? How does the setting of the text influence the behaviors of the characters or the tone of the text? Can the argument be made that the setting functions as a character in the text?
What is the relationship between people and the environment? Are there those who seem “at home” or alienated from their environment? Do some have a “special” understanding of their immediate surroundings and the larger world? Do individuals try, and perhaps fail, to conquer their surroundings?
What role, if any, does non-human intelligence play in the text? (Note: This can mean animals, computers, or robots etc.)
What role do commodities and wealth play in the text? How are those who do and do not possess those commodities portrayed? How are commodities themselves portrayed?
How is wealth generated and accumulated? Who has access to this process?
What role does technology play in the text? Does everyone in the text have access to this technology? How does technology affect the lives of those who do and/or do not have access to technology?
What role does trade and travel, if any, play in the text?
Are there separate public and private spheres in the text? Do the characters act in a manner befitting polite society? What are those rules? Are there circumstances where the rules are violated or no longer apply? As a reader, are we looking “behind closed doors”?
What role does social justice play within the text? Is there social justice or a fight for it? How is that fight portrayed?
Which of these questions seem like they obviously relate to the text? Why?

I could do the 5th!