ALEX LU PERIOD 4

AP Lit

Murphy

Directions: Answers to all questions/prompts must be typed, properly formatted, submitted to turnitin.com for credit, and if requested brought as a hard copy to class. All responses should, obviously, be explained in your own words. Study Guide Chapter 1: Thinking About Literature 1 What is Literature? Literature is an art form. However that is not to say that any form of writing, whether prose in the form of a novel or poetry in the form of a rap song is art. Because if ever the question comes up that books are an art form, let me remind you, Stephanie Meyer writes books and 50 Shades of Grey was originally Twilight fan fiction. Just let that sink in and resurface whenever books come into contact with the art debate. Literature, however, bears a certain weight in the mind of the reader. True literature makes you think, it makes you ask questions, it is timeless. There are literary movies that are not literature, take for example the currently in production 50 Shades of Grey movie, is that a literary movie? No, there is plenty of that stuff already on the Internet. It is not literature. True literature is found in books, not movie adaptations, because literature is the written word made art. Literature can be viewed as the science of the written word. What we know becomes an extension of ourselves as we explore the world further with literature. Literature is what we read and re-read and re-read to better understand the truth. But the truth resists simplicity, and that is why we have literature. 2 Complete the activity on page 2 by selecting and explaining ONE of the poems. Vegetarian Physics This author, David Clewell, demonstrates through the immersive metaphor of the refrigerator how new ideas can implant in the mind. The tofu is something new, amongst the hot dogs and other food. What the author does not want to happen is for the tofu to stay in there. Much like in the movie Inception, the tofu is just the seed of an idea. But the author knows that the tofu is taking up space in his mind and desperately wants it gone before he is permanently changed. 3 Why study (not just read) literature? The entire point of separating Literature from the rest of the literary world is to distinguish what is useful and what is not. For us as people in our every day lives, Literature serves a utilitarian purpose because of its roots in the story. We as humans have a need to share our stories, first from cave paintings to show that we are here, to the written word to ask how we got here, and to Literature to find out why we are here, the story follows us as humans wherever we go. The literary merit aspect of Literatures story separates the study from the casual read because while a simple story allows us to escape reality, Literature often gives us a way back into reality to further explore the authorial intent. 4 What is cultural literacy, and why is it important? Cultural literacy is important because without an understanding of cultural idioms, one cannot use Literature to its full potential. As previously stated, literature is a tool that is used to search for truth in writing and real life, and a culturally literate mind has the ability to interpret the context and references of certain literary pieces. In addition, Literature itself creates a reflective idea for the reader and a looking glass for them to peer at the outside world through new eyes and ideas. And without a solid understanding of cultural literacy, readers are not able to fully analyze the world around them with literature. 5 Complete the activity on page 8 by explaining a book that you have recently read independently (NOT one assigned for school). One of the books I recently read was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. The novel explores the world of modern society through the eyes of a 9-year-old child. The reader is left to analyze the metaphorical implications of the two intertwining stories. One part of the story is told through letters written by the main characters grandfather, left for the main characters father. This book explored the issues of human emotion and connections over time through mystery and what appears to be very sophisticated vocabulary spoken by a 9-year-old. These issues can be important to our school community because of what we can glean of human nature from the very human interactions in the novel. Not only that, but the book explores the importance of familial values in a strictly goal based society, something very prevalent in modern culture.

6 What makes an effective reader? Explain the importance of each trait. Well apparently Fearlessness, Patience, Many-mindedness, Attentiveness, and Stamina are all you need. Surprisingly enough the same applies for bird watching but that hardly ever got anyone anywhere. Unlike the bird watcher, the effective reader knows how to tell if something is a waste of time. Fearlessness is the most overrated of the 5 traits, as it not only is the most obvious but the most irrelevant in actual reading. How many bookworms do you know are actually fearless? Theres a reason we stay ins ide. However, when it comes to studying literature, taking the plunge is crucial to a valuable literary experience. Patience is a virtue, and likewise, patience must be used outwardly when reading. After all, even after taking the plunge of fearlessness, the book might not always be what the reader wants it to be, which is when patience is important. Many-mindedness, the quality most lost on the socially inept. This trait goes hand in hand with patience, as the analysis of a novel or story may often take different perspectives to fully flesh out. Attentiveness: when bored, skip lines. Itll get better eventually. Stamina, okay now theyre just getting silly. But in all fairness, stamina does play a certain role in the construction of a more valuable literary environment and greater clarity in the end analysis. 7 Complete the activity on page 9. Explain your response. In the first poem, the author views literature as under-rated, and in the second poem, the author views literature as underappreciated in its truest form: a pursuit of knowledge. The two speakers expectations of readers are hopeful, yet radically different. Shawls speaker is an observer of someone discovering the value of the book while Introduction to Poetrys reader has his/her hopes dashed by the un-inquiring nature of humans, brutalizing the fragile story for its secrets. Shawls speaker uses playful humor to awaken a sensitive side to the poem, meant to show the reader the character paradigm shift, while Introduction to Poetrys re ader uses playful humor to enlighten the reader on a much darker issue: that of impatience and inefficient reading. 8 Complete the activity on page 11. Make sure to discuss your own experience. Superman & Me focuses on the brighter aspects of learning how to read. It creates an air of nostalgia that the reader then empathizes with to fully develop the story. By the end of the excerpt, the reader feels the metaphorical resonance of the books and paragraphs, whereas in Learning to Read, the reader feels empty in the beginning and hopeful in the end. Learning to Read brings the struggle of learning to a much more personal level with the reader, as the author describes his family troubles to provide a backdrop different in content by similar in approach to that of Superman and Me. 9 Explain how one should approach the study of a piece of Literature. What are the steps? Why is each one important? Read. When we read, we give ourselves a taste of a different life. But more than that, the experience of reading is a massive contributor to the overall quality of ones study of Literature. The foundation of which is made of ones ability to empathiz e with the storyteller themselves in order to create an environment that promotes analysis. The aforementioned term, analysis, is the question asking, the time in the reading of a story during which the reader gets to do some of the work. The analysis part of the story requires a certain level of puzzle building skill, as the reader is often left to their own devices to connect the dots and loose ends of the story they have just experienced. By extension, the extension part of reading is when the reader gets to exit the story and enter the real world to make connections to history and/or modern society. 10 Complete the activity on page 16-17 for Snow. Snow draws the reader in from the beginning, absorbing them in with the first word, our. The all inclusive word, our, brings the experience to the reader almost immediately. As I was reading it, her story became intriguing to me in the sense that I really didnt know how to relate to this girl. She is of a different time period, location, gender, social class, and educati on level as me. However, as the reader it was my job to connect the dots in this case. The little tidbits of history interspliced into the story allowed for a more wholesome extension of the analysis. By the end, I was able to relate to the girls story, as she had woven it in such a way that it flowed freely from exposition to punch line. Though it was a bit clichd at the end.