- LIT 4303
Dr. Lillios
________________________________________________________________________
Elie Wiesel’s NIGHT
Reading Assignment: Read the book by Thursday, January 27
Schedule:
Thursday, January 27: Discussion of character, setting, and world view. Concentration camp tour of Dachau.
Tuesday, February 1: Continue discussion of spirituality in the novel.
Submit journal entry to http://www.lit4303.blogspot.com (see below) by midnight. Be sure to sign your entry.
Discuss language and silence in the novel.
Thursday, February 3: Discuss blog entries in class (be sure to bring a hard copy of your own entry to class.
Wiesel’s world view in the novel
His message/warning to the world
Journal Assignment:
Read selection from “Behavior in Extreme Situations: Coercion” by Bruno Bettelheim.
In this excerpt, Bettelheim defines what it is that makes a human, human. Discuss his definition and how it applies to the characters in Wiesel’s NIGHT. Do any of them find an area of freedom or purpose in the camps?
Bettelheim also contrasts the human being with the non-human being (the muselmanner), particularly as he shows how Wiesel’s father deteriorates at the end of the novel. How does the son handle this situation? How will he regard his future identity after his father’s death?
Compare/contrast Wiesel’s “hero” with Grass’s.
Write about a page or 200-250 words and then post to blogspot. Please try to read the entries of the other students in class before Thursday. You can post a comment on their entries, if you wish.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Assignment 2
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Assignment 1
Read selections from Language and Silence: Essays on Language, Literature and the Inhuman by George Steiner. New York: Atheneum, 1986.
In this book, Steiner analyzes the role that language played in the atrocities of WWII. He recounts the pressures that totalitarian regimes place on communication, claiming that “the German language was not innocent of the horrors of Nazism” (99). In your first journal entry, analyze how Grass subverts language and imagery in order to make a commentary on Nazi abuses of the German language. Of course, not many of us know German, so we can’t discuss the intricacies of Grass’s word usage. But, you can address Grass’s parody of the conventions of the novel (e.g. chronology, psychological characterization, coherence). You also need to think about how Grass’s novel reinforces his view of the world.
I want to note that I have no expectations regarding your journal entries. I want you to read the critical articles or excerpts, find an idea that interests you, and apply this idea to the text. Your comments should be based on The Tin Drum. Write about a page or 200-250 words and then post to blogspot. Please try to read the entries of the other students in class before Thursday. You can post a comment on their entries, if you wish.
In this book, Steiner analyzes the role that language played in the atrocities of WWII. He recounts the pressures that totalitarian regimes place on communication, claiming that “the German language was not innocent of the horrors of Nazism” (99). In your first journal entry, analyze how Grass subverts language and imagery in order to make a commentary on Nazi abuses of the German language. Of course, not many of us know German, so we can’t discuss the intricacies of Grass’s word usage. But, you can address Grass’s parody of the conventions of the novel (e.g. chronology, psychological characterization, coherence). You also need to think about how Grass’s novel reinforces his view of the world.
I want to note that I have no expectations regarding your journal entries. I want you to read the critical articles or excerpts, find an idea that interests you, and apply this idea to the text. Your comments should be based on The Tin Drum. Write about a page or 200-250 words and then post to blogspot. Please try to read the entries of the other students in class before Thursday. You can post a comment on their entries, if you wish.
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