This is the second literary piece this module that has dealt with magic in the life of Africans of the Diaspora. In Girl, we see how magical practices are completely knitted into the life of a black family and community from Antigua. In Katherine Anne Porter's short story "Magic" an employer gains total control of her worker, Ninette, by employing the art of Hoodoo.
The time setting for the first story is the late nineteenth century; for the second, the early twentieth. One hundred years later, what relevance, if any, have these stories?
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
It's Complicated
We began our study of literature with film because of the height of film at this time. Most Americans are more used to commenting on film than on literature, and this may also be the case with you.
We have talked at length about "It's Complicated," featuring Meryl Streep (Jane), Alec Baldwin (Jack), and Steve Martin (Adam). We can use the film as an introduction to talking about plot and character. We have said that the plot is a basic boy meets girl story, and we have stated that in order to create a unique story from this very basic plot there must be some twist, perhaps some inherent difficulty, contrived difficulty, or crisis. In this case, the surface difficulty is an adulterous affair that breaks up Jane and Jack's (Jack and Jill's) marriage, but perhaps beneath this surface is the classic question of whether male/female, human relationships are fraught with difficulty. Is the match made in heaven (sanctified by the Bible) actually one full of trouble, and, if so, what is the basis of the problem?
One of the questions for your mid-term will be to speak about the above questions, and you will be asked to consider as well how the specific characters as they are drawn in this film and the casting of Streep, Baldwin, and Martin either serve well or do not serve well the main theme and plot of this film.
For the purposes of this blog post, please respond to the following: how does Jane and Streep's playing of this character point to or not point to a fundamental male/female problem?
We have talked at length about "It's Complicated," featuring Meryl Streep (Jane), Alec Baldwin (Jack), and Steve Martin (Adam). We can use the film as an introduction to talking about plot and character. We have said that the plot is a basic boy meets girl story, and we have stated that in order to create a unique story from this very basic plot there must be some twist, perhaps some inherent difficulty, contrived difficulty, or crisis. In this case, the surface difficulty is an adulterous affair that breaks up Jane and Jack's (Jack and Jill's) marriage, but perhaps beneath this surface is the classic question of whether male/female, human relationships are fraught with difficulty. Is the match made in heaven (sanctified by the Bible) actually one full of trouble, and, if so, what is the basis of the problem?
One of the questions for your mid-term will be to speak about the above questions, and you will be asked to consider as well how the specific characters as they are drawn in this film and the casting of Streep, Baldwin, and Martin either serve well or do not serve well the main theme and plot of this film.
For the purposes of this blog post, please respond to the following: how does Jane and Streep's playing of this character point to or not point to a fundamental male/female problem?
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