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| So you have to write "A" paper on literature for Dr. Figueroa. What will you do? What will you do? |
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| Take it in steps: |
| 1)Dr. Figueroa is your audience. |
| 2)Dr. Figueroa has been babbling for a reason over the last |
| few weeks about things which he finds interesting and |
| important about literature. What are these ideas? Can |
| I list them? |
| 3)He has created an idea about the function and beauty of |
| poetry as it relates to real life. What are they? |
| 4)He has given to his students specific journal questions to answer. What were they? |
| 5)He has given his students ideas about literature and writing papers about literature on the forum to consider. What are they? |
| 6)He has asked his students to identify recurring patterns |
| as a means of understanding something about the |
| human condition as it is revealed by poems and Hamlet. |
| What are these patterns? Why do they recur? Why |
| are they important to poets and people at large? Why |
| does Dr. Figueroa keep talking about them? |
| 7)He has tried to focus his students' attention away from the |
| ordinary way of reading out a "MEANING" from a poem |
| or play, and he likes to be surprised by distinct viewpoints about literature based on a student's personal reaction to the works in question. |
| 8)Dr. Figueroa likes to see his students refer to specific words or phrases in a text as a means of demonstrating or illustrating the point being made by the student in writing. By "depth is prefered over breadth", he means to ask the students to look into the words/phrases and their "allusions" or references or the things that these words make us think about or suggest in our minds as we read them within the context of the entire poem. |
| 9)Dr. Figueroa is interested in seeing that his students can read beyond the words as well as in between the lines, using the lines as a springboard into their interpretations. |
| 10)Dr. Figueroa is convinced of the relevance and value of |
| poetry to "real life" and likes to see his students make |
| those connections as well. |
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| Allright, now that's all fine and good but how about an example of the kind of thought process Dr. Figueroa wants to generate in his students. |
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| Consider the following: |
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| "To be or not to be?" How does this phrase from Hamlet's mouth make us think about the human condition? Which poems does the phrase make me think about? Why? what are the words in those other works that pull this view of humanity together. |
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| Looking at the play and the poems which the phrase suggests, how can a reader read these "poetic" words to gain a deeper appreciation for the conflicts of life, and why humans struggle with the idea or problem of being. |
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| What are some modern day real life examples of this question or issue in and @1999? |
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| How does it all tie in together? |
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