Bonus Discussion 3 - Hunting Findley

Follow the instructions for Discussion 3 (March 2007).

Choose any motif and part number not chosen by anyone yet. You can do as many bonus postings as you want. For example, if you would like to track Animals / Animal Imagery in Part 1 for Discussion 3, you may choose to continue this in Part 2 (This would count as one bonus assignment).

However, you do not have to track the same motif that you tracked in Discussion 3. For example, if you tracked Animal / Animal Imagery in Part 1, you may choose as a bonus to look at Photographs / Paintings / Artwork in Part 4 and Part 5 ( Yes, this would count as 2 bonuses).

You must indicate in the Discussion 3 (March 2007) discussion your intention for the bonus. Do not reserve your bonus topic in this posting. Reserve your bonus topic in Discussion 3 (March 2007).

Post only your finished bonus post in this thread.

This bonus is due on the last Sunday of the March Break. That gives you one standard week, and one extra week before warning letters to complete this bonus assignment.

Discussion 3 - Hunting Findley

Scholarly writings and criticisms of Findley are sparse. Although The Wars is studied perennially across Canada in high schools everywhere, it becomes challenging for students to acquire critical readings of The Wars. This weeks blog assignment will prepare you for your own criticism of Findley reoccurring motifs.

As you know, your Culminating Activity for ENG4U1 is a comparative essay. As you read the texts for this essay, you have been asked to keep a dialectical journal of each novel. If you have questions about your dialectical journal, please see the Culminating Activity package for a detailed explanation.

To help you in your dialectical journal writing, you will writing annotations for The Wars in this weeks blog assignment.

Using the topic list at the end of this posting, I would like you to compile a list (yes, an actual list, nothing else) of textual examples. Analysis in not required.

An example entry would be:

Part 1 Animals / Animal Imagery "In her lap she holds a large white rabbit."(7)


Notes:

1. State which part of the novel your finding comes from.
2. Use the motif as I have listed them in the Topic List at the bottom of this post.
3. Use quotation marks to encapsulate the actual quote.
4. Use parentheses to indicate the page number.
5. Everyone must have a unique motif and part number. That is, Part 1 Violence is different than Part 5 Violence.
6. You can reserve you motif and part number as soon as you want. Post it here, in this thread.
7. When your assignment is ready, just delete your 'reservation' post, and submit your real one.

The following short excerpts were taken from easily accessible Internet sources. Please read them before you continue, noting the bold text in each excerpt:

1.
"It came as something of a shock, when gathering these stories for collective publication Dinner Along the Amazon (1984)], to discover that for over thirty years of writing my attention has turned again and again to the same unvarying gamut of sounds and images. They not only turn up here in this present book, but in my novels, too. I wish I hadn't noticed this. In fact, it became an embarrassment and I began to wonder if I should file A CATALOGUE OF PERSONAL OBSESSIONS. The sound of screen doors banging; evening lamplight; music held at a distance -- always being played on a gramaphone; letters written on blue-tinted note paper; robins making forays onto summer lawns to murder worms; photographs in cardboard boxes; Colt revolvers hidden in bureau drawers and a chair that is always falling over. What does it mean? Does it mean that here is a writer who is hopelessly uninventive? Appallingly repetitive? Why are the roads always dusty in the man's work -- why is it always so hot -- why can't it RAIN? And my agent was once heard to moan aloud as she was reading through the pages of a television script I had just delivered: "Oh God, Findley -- not more rabbits!"

Library and Archives Canada (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/3/8/t8-2008-e.html)

2.
The Wars remains his most-discussed book. Based partly on the war-time correspondence of his uncle, Thomas Irving Findley, and on family photos, he wrote the novel in guise of a researcher trying to reconstruct the story of Robert Ross, a soldier of the Great War. The book explores many of the obsessions that colour all his writing: violence, loneliness, a concern for animal rights, and the survival of the individual in a world of madness. Findley believes that a writer has a responsibility to speak out about what is wrong with society.

Library and Archives Canada (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/3/8/t8-2008-e.html)

3.
His writing, typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic genre, was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology, and mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. His characters often carried dark personal secrets, and were often conflicted — sometimes to the point of psychosis — by these burdens.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Findley)

4.
Southern Ontario Gothic is a sub-genre of the Gothic novel genre and a feature of Canadian literature that comes from Southern Ontario.

Writers of this sub-genre include Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Douglas Cooper, Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Jane Urquhart, Marian Engel, James Reaney, Susan Swan, George Elliott, Graeme Gibson and Barbara Gowdy.

Like the Southern Gothic of American writers such as William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty, Southern Ontario Gothic analyzes and critiques social conditions such as race, gender, religion and politics, but in a Southern Ontario context. Actions and people that act against humanity, logic, and morality all are portrayed unfavorably, and one or more characters may be suffering from some form of mental illness.

Some (but not all) writers of Southern Ontario Gothic use supernatural or magic realist elements; a few deviate from realism entirely, in the manner of the fantastical gothic novel. Virtually all dwell to a certain extent upon the grotesque.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ontario_Gothic)

Topic List

Violence
Loneliness / The Journey to Identity
Jungian Psychology
Social / Political Commentary
Animals / Animal Imagery
Mental Illness / Madness
Gender / Sexuality
Photographs / Paintings / Artwork
Any motif from Findley's 'Catalogue of Personal Obsessions'
Any motif's from the Southern Ontario Gothic Mode


This assignment is due on the last Sunday of the March Break. That gives you one standard week, and one extra week before warning letters to complete this assignment.

Bonus Discussion 2 - Photographs are worth one thousand words

Go to firstworldwar.com's picture archive at http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/index.htm

There are over 3000 pictures for you to look at. I would like you to find one photo and describe it as if you were writing a letter home from World War 1.

Please note that the menu for the vintage photographs is located on the right hand side. When you have selected an theme, for example Battlegrounds, notice that there are nine pages of images to explore. The menu for page flipping is locate either at the top of the images or the bottom of the images.

Discussion 2 - World War I Poetry

World War 1 poetry is a genre of poetry which flourished in the horror of the First World War. Written predominantly by soldiers in the field, World War 1 poetry struck a chord with readers at home because it portrayed the reality of, The Great War.

As you read Findley's The Wars, I would like you to read World War 1 poetry and write a blog entry.

Your blog posting must include in this order:

• The poem (including title, poet's name, date)
• Your response

Notes:

1. Everyone must have a unique poem.
2. You can reserve your poem by posting the title of the poem you would like to use as soon as you want. Post it here, in this thread.
   
3. When your assignment is ready, just delete your 'reservation' post, and submit your real one.
   

In your response, I would like you to use the following guide to structure your posting.

A Framework for Responding to Poetry

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the title of the poem and name of the poet.
• Try to classify the type of poem it is e.g. sonnet, ballad, haiku, acrostic, shape, lyric, ode, limerick, elegy, dramatic monologue etc.
• Briefly explain the subject of the poem.

Point One: Explore the Themes of the Poem

• Try to group the ideas in the poem is there a story that the poem tells?
• What do you think the poem is about?

Point Two: Imagery used to express themes

• What are the pictures in the poem?
• Are metaphors/similes used to explain ideas?
• Are the five senses used to evoke certain reactions in the reader?

Point Three: Form and Structure

• How is the poem organised e.g. lines, verses, layout and shape.
• Why has the poet decided to structure the ideas in this way e.g. the sequence of ideas, length of lines, patterns etc.

Point Four: Rhyme and Rhythm

• How does the poem rhyme? E.g. abab or aabb etc.
• What is the rhythm of the poem when read aloud?
• Why has the poet chosen this rhyme and rhythm to express these ideas?

Point Five: Language Patterns

• Think about the sound of the poem and choice of words
• The poet uses specific words because they have a certain association in the reader's mind.
• Look out for alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, personification, symbolism. How has the poet grouped words to achieve a desired effect?

Conclusion: Poet's message

• What is the poet trying to communicate to the reader?
• How effective are the devices/language that he uses?
• What is your response to the poem?

(www.englishresources.co.uk)

I suggest trying the school library or the public library before you try the searching the Internet for poems.

Please note, if you use a search engine to look for poetry, please note that "one", "1", and "I" all give different results.