grades have been submitted

I don't know when they will be viewable, but I have submitted the grades.

Have a good break and good luck on your educational journey.

Final Tuesday, December 9th

EWRT1A-37: 4-6 p.m.
EWRT1A-63: 6:15-8:15 p.m.

Bring:

• paper
• pens
• copy of Fun Home
• Reading Responses 7-10
• yourself

Did Alison Bechdel betray the memory of her father?

This question came up in section 37. As the quotation (from this article) below shows, Bechdel has been confronted with this.

When I interviewed Bechdel in 2012 for The Times of London, Bechdel told me that at one reading event for Fun Home, a man had stood up, a friend of her father’s, clearly upset, she thought, “because I had betrayed my father’s memory by writing about him.”
The gentleman had news to impart: The man and her father, who died aged 44, had a friend in common, the doctor on call when her father arrived at the hospital. “I learnt my father was alive when he got to the emergency room. I’d always thought he’d died instantly,” says Bechdel. “Over 20 years later I find this out on stage, in front of 200 people.”

And from another article, Bechdel herself says this:

She admits to vetting material according to her subjects’ sensitivities and also that her father was more playful than she drew him in Fun Home. “It feels kind of bad I didn’t provide a three-dimensional picture of him.”

And as I mentioned in class, one of her brothers was not happy with her portrayal of Bruce.

John feels that she has been too negative about her father, while Christian “is not completely functional in the world” and has obsessive compulsive disorder. Bechel and her mother both had the disorder as children. “I think we all have Asperger’s,” Bechdel says.

Just some food for thought.

EWRT1A Essay 3 due Thursday

Here are some thoughts on Essay 3 in light of the first drafts I have read.

• Have a specific thesis statement. Vague thesis statements are almost impossible to prove. This is especially a problem for people who chose prompt 1. "Words and pictures add depth to Fun Home" is not a very analytical thesis and would be hard to actually prove.
• You don't have to write a three point thesis statement. I know some of you are more comfortable with this, but given the page limit and the need for synthesis, having a three point thesis makes students rush through their examples. In other words, a three point thesis often makes for a weaker, less developed essay.
• Name the texts you are analyzing in your introduction. The focus of this essay is on Fun Home and at least one other text. So make that clear when you introduce your readers to your essay.
• Show and explain the points of comparison between the texts. Name what Fun Home and the other text have in common and explain that when you provide the examples.
• Obstacles and assets are effects. This is the same point I made about Essay 2. If something is an obstacle then it holds someone back. So in order to demonstrate it, you need to show that effect on the person. Just saying someone's mom was mean does not show the effect that had on the person.
• MLA citation is required. This means both in-text citation and a correct works cited list.
• Two drafts are required. Even if you didn't turn in a first draft, it is still required. And a draft is a real attempt at an essay. A paragraph is not an essay and so is not a draft. 

As always, if you have any questions ask me, either in person or via e-mail.

Fun Home process videos

Here are the videos I showed in class.

first draft of Essay 3 due Tuesday

As I said in class, I realize that we have not finished the book, but really rough first drafts are better than none at all. As always though, the more you have in your first draft, the more it will help you with your final draft. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Read chapters 5 and 6 before you start your draft.
• Focus on analysis, not summary.
• Show your analysis. In other words, explain how you read the texts.
• Remember that the goal is synthesis. Show connections between Fun Home and another text form our class.
• In Fun Home, the images are as much evidence as the words.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Reading Response 9

Reading Response 9- after chapter 4 of Fun Home

Keeping in mind what you have read of Fun Home so far, respond to one of the prompts below. Please use specific evidence from the book to support your response.

1. Compare and contrast how Alison Bechdel’s father uses books in his life to how Bechdel as a young college student does. How do books relate to their identities? To their sexual identities?

2. What assets does Alison Bechdel have that help support her coming out as a lesbian? What are her obstacles?

3. On page 85, Bechdel claims that her father prefers “fiction to reality.” How does this relate to the fact that Bechdel uses so many other stories– Daedalus and Icarus, Camus, The Great Gatsby, etc.– to understand her father?

4. On page 104, Bechdel mentions the Stonewall Riots. Do some research about this. Why is it significant that Bechdel and her father are in New York just weeks after the Stonewall Riots?

5. Choose a scene from the book and compare the narration with the monstration. What relationship do these share? In other words, what do the images show in comparison to what the words explain and how do the two work together in the scene to create meaning? Consider using McCloud.

6. Choose your own focus for analysis

Due Thursday November 20th.