This is the forum where you will submit your weekly discussion posts. Please be aware of the due dates posted in the course calendar for each discussion post.\u00a0Discussion Posts are due before\u00a0the weekly face-to-face session (see the calendar for due dates).
In each discussion post prompt, I offer one or two suggested discussion prompts. Scroll down to see those prompts (or you can see them in the content module for the week).
You may choose to respond to one of these suggested prompts. Or you may pursue your own topic, as long as your post pertains to one of the readings for the given week (i.e. not earlier or later weeks).\u00a0
Please review the document\u00a0“What Makes an Effective Discussion Post?”\u00a0or\u00a0the screencast version\u00a0for guidance, especially if you choose to pursue your own topic.\u00a0
Avoid summarizing or providing a “book report” on the readings in this discussion post.
Instead, focus on exploring genuine questions or points of confusion you have about one or more of the readings.
If you want to pursue your own approach, here are three commonly-used, productive literary approaches that you might adopt:\u00a0Linguistic Analysis:\u00a0Focus on an unfamiliar but prominent word or phrase the author uses. Look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary (see Resource link) and use your post to define the word, point to a few important places it occurs in the reading, and explain why you believe the word or phrase is especially important \u2014 how does a better understanding of this term lead us to a better understanding of the reading as a whole?\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Genre Analysis:A “genre” is an established form of writing with an expected audience and set of conventions (rules that the genre follows). A letter is a type of genre, for instance, with set rules: letters are typically addressed to a specific audience (Dear X) and include a greeting and closing. “Romance novels” are also a genre, with expected plots (for instance, the main character pursues a specific desire or love interest). In a genre analysis, you can ask these questions:\u00a0What is the genre of the reading? What are the conventions or rules of the genre? Who is the expected audience? What are the main “goals” or purposes of the genre, if any?\u00a0
How does this reading meet (or conform) to the expectations of its genre?
How does this reading depart from, disrupt, or challenge the expectations of its genre?\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Character AnalysisSelect a major or minor character of interest in the reading. Ask:\u00a0What does the character want?This is especially important to ask about the main character (or protagonist).
What is the “problem” (if any) that the main character or author is trying to solve? How do they try to solve it? Are they successful or not? How do you know any of these things?\u00a0 <\/p>\n
NOTE: You can ask the questions above of an\u00a0author\u00a0as well, though this is generally considered a\u00a0rhetorical analysis\u00a0since the author is generally not considered a “character” (though a\u00a0narrator\u00a0is a character: see below for questions).\u00a0
In general, is this character someone the reader is supposed to like or dislike? How do you know?\u00a0
If a minor character, what “role” does this minor character play? How does this character relate to or interact with the main character?
The narrator is often an especially interesting character to consider:Who exactly is the narrator? How can you tell?\u00a0
Is the narrator “inside” or “outside” the story \u2014 with limited knowledge or with “omniscience” or more complete knowledge?
Is the narrator speaking of “past” (likely completed and known) events or “present” (likely incomplete and unknown) events?
Does the narrator withhold knowledge? If so, what knowledge and where?\u00a0
Is the narrator reliable or unreliable? How can you tell? <\/p>\n
Rhetorical Analysis\u00a0focuses on understanding the “rhetorical situation” around a text \u2014 its author’s intended purpose and audience, and the different strategies (like evidence, narrative) the author employs to try to achieve their purpose with the intended audience.\u00a0
Let’s use this prompt to look at one way a rhetorical analysis might proceed with Bradford’s\u00a0Of Plymouth Plantation. I’ll set you up with a “big question” that can go a few different directions. You choose a direction to follow, consult the textual evidence I suggest, and try to “build on” or “develop” this interpretation with your own insights.
Bradford is writing a chronicle about a religious sect (English Separatists, who we commonly call Pilgrims) for their future descendants (the Puritans). One of Bradford’s rhetorical goals is to persuade the reader that the Separatists’ decision to travel to America was an act of Providence, according to God’s will. Bradford believes (and wants us to agree) that this small group of religious dissenters who decided to separate from the state-sanctioned religion and eventually leave their country were not mistaken, selfish heretics but in fact the true, righteous Christians. How does he try to persuade us?
One way he tries to persuade us is to portray \u2014 often at length and in detail \u2014 the significant amount of suffering these dissenters had to undergo in their pursuit of God. In Chapter I, they are persecuted for their beliefs at home. In Chapter IX, at sea, they must be “delivered” from several “peril and miseries” (76). And when they arrive at Cape Cod, they are beset by multiple compounding issues \u2014 no friends, a difficult season and terrain, hunger, and fatigue \u2014 and go on to face trial after trial as they try to establish themselves.\u00a0
In some way, for Bradford, the Separatists’ perseverance through intense suffering is an important sign of Providence: the more they suffer, and the more they persevere through suffering, the more it proves that their actions were indeed righteous and providential, not mistaken or against the will of God. The suffering is both a test and a sign of their commitment to God’s vision.
Now that we have observed this important assumption Bradford seems to have about suffering, we can start to investigate it a little more closely. So, the “big question” might be framed this way:\u00a0How does this assumption about suffering inform Bradford’s decisions about what to include in this chronicle and what to leave out \u2014 or what to emphasize, and even what to downplay?
There are different ways to explore this question. If a specific one occurs to you, go for it. If not, I want to give you two possible routes, which I will characterize as reading “with the grain” and “against the grain.”\u00a0
Reading with the grain: When we read “with the grain,” we “go along” with the author’s assumption to see the different ways it “plays out” consistently across the text. To read Bradford with the grain, you mightLook for specific scenes or instances of suffering and how they “fit with” or “conform to” or “follow” or “illustrate” or “illuminate” this bigger assumption about suffering; or
Choose to focus on one of the more intense and detailed instances of suffering;
Look for patterns across different “types” of suffering (for example, suffering at the hands of other people vs. suffering at the hands of Nature).\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Reading against the grain: When we read “against the grain,” we read more skeptically and try to look for “inconsistencies” or “blind spots” or “difficulties” created by an author’s belief system or assumptions. For instance:When does suffering mean something different? And what does it mean? How does Bradford interpret the suffering undergone by the two “lusty” young men at sea (75, top of 76), or of the Native Americans, or others who are either not Separatist or who Bradford believes behave in an ungodly way? What about a person like Mr. Morton, who Bradford believes deserves to suffer but ultimately doesn’t. How does Bradford view such a case, which doesn’t neatly fit?\u00a0
Or, taking another route, are there any instances of suffering within the Puritan community that don’t fit neatly with Bradford’s assumption? For instance, Bradford doesn’t have much to say about the death of William Butten, the only death among the Puritans at sea (76). Does he treat this moment of suffering differently than other similar moments? If so, how and why? Or what about the other group of Separatists that undergoes extreme hardship and loses over half their members?\u00a0 <\/p>\n
One final possible angle \u2014 different than the two above \u2014 would be\u00a0to look for the\u00a0origins\u00a0of this assumption about suffering. This assumption seems firmly grounded in the Bible and scripture, for instance. So you might notice where and how Bradford references or incorporates stories from the Bible to “comment on” or help “shape” and “explain” different parts of his narrative.
You can use any of these ideas as a take-off point for your own reflection. You can even copy 1-2 sentences to get started. But your goal should be to add new information and insight to help pursue these questions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is the forum where you will submit your weekly discussion posts. Please be aware of the due dates posted in the course calendar for each discussion post.\u00a0Discussion Posts are due before\u00a0the weekly face-to-face session (see the calendar for due dates). In each discussion post prompt, I offer one or two suggested discussion prompts. Scroll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-50618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}