Animal Studies

Question: How do "Likeness" & "Othering" affect the cultural perspective of Anthropocentrism when encountering animal representations in Literature?

Ecocriticism

Test question: What would be a reading in an eco-centric perspective in the following excerpt of Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller?

(Uncle Ben, carrying a valise and an umbrella, enters the forestage from around the right corner of the house. He is a stolid man, in his sixties, with a mustache and an authoritative air. He is utterly certain of his destiny, and there is an aura of far places about him. He enters exactly as Willy speaks.)

WILLY: I’m getting awfully tired, Ben.

(Ben’s music is heard. Ben looks around at everything.)

CHARLEY: Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better. Did you call me Ben?

(Ben looks at his watch.)

WILLY: That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben.

BEN: I only have a few minutes. (He strolls, inspecting the place. Willy and

Charley continue playing.)

CHARLEY: You never heard from him again, heh? Since that time?

WILLY: Didn’t Linda tell you? Couple of weeks ago we got a letter from his

wife in Africa. He died.

CHARLEY: That so.

BEN (chuckling): So this is Brooklyn, eh?

CHARLEY: Maybe you’re in for some of his money.

WILLY: Naa, he had seven sons. There’s just one opportunity I had with that

man...

BEN: I must make a tram, William. There are several properties I’m looking at

in Alaska.

WILLY: Sure, sure! If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything

would’ve been totally different.

CHARLEY: Go on, you’d froze to death up there.

WILLY: What’re you talking about?

BEN: Opportunity is tremendous in Alaska, William. Surprised you’re not up

there.

WILLY: Sure, tremendous.  (Miller, 30 - 31)

Criteria: Students should be able to apply the key concepts of Ecocriticism such as anthropocentrism, outdoor environment (wilderness, scenic sublime) or balance and imbalance in the excerpt and use evidence from the text to support their answers.  It is also useful relate these concepts to Marxism.

“You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you. And you feel like you’ve done something terrible, like robbed a liquor store, or swallowed pills, or shoveled yourself a grave in the dirt, and you’re tired. You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and you’re trying not to tell him that you love him, and you’re trying to choke down the feeling, and you’re trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you’ve discovered something you didn’t even have a name for.” - Richard Siken

Test Question: Considering the poem of Richard Siken, can you find any homosexual aspects coded within it or some degree of internalized homophobia?
Criteria: The students should identify the elements, or key words that portray these terms in the text, and find explicit or internalized discrimination based on the views of the binary oppositions between heterosexual and homosexual, and then determine which one is being undermined.

Feminist Criticism

"It'll show you how I've gotten to feel about – things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.' "(1.118)

In this excerpt of The Great Gatsby by Scott Fritzgerald we can see that Daisy is dissapointed about having a girl. In a feminist approach, why would you say that she is dissapointed and why does she hope she will become only a "beautiful little fool"?

Postcolonialism

Test Question: Identify elements within the following excerpt of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid that could support a postcolonial reading of it.

“I know what you want,” said the sea witch; “it is very stupid of you, but you shall have your way, and it will bring you to sorrow, my pretty princess. You want to get rid of your fish’s tail, and to have two supports instead of it, like human beings on earth, so that the young prince may fall in love with you, and that you may have an immortal soul.” And then the witch laughed so loud and disgustingly, that the toad and the snakes fell to the ground, and lay there wriggling about. “You are but just in time,” said the witch; “for after sunrise to-morrow I should not be able to help you till the end of another year. I will prepare a draught for you, with which you must swim to land tomorrow before sunrise, and sit down on the shore and drink it. Your tail will then disappear, and shrink up into what mankind calls legs, and you will feel great pain, as if a sword were passing through you. But all who see you will say that you are the prettiest little human being they ever saw. You will still have the same floating gracefulness of movement, and no dancer will ever tread so lightly; but at every step you take it will feel as if you were treading upon sharp knives, and that the blood must flow. If you will bear all this, I will help you.”

“Yes, I will,” said the little princess in a trembling voice, as she thought of the prince and the immortal soul.

“But think again,” said the witch; “for when once your shape has become like a human being, you can no more be a mermaid. You will never return through the water to your sisters, or to your father’s palace again; and if you do not win the love of the prince, so that he is willing to forget his father and mother for your sake, and to love you with his whole soul, and allow the priest to join your hands that you may be man and wife, then you will never have an immortal soul. The first morning after he marries another your heart will break, and you will become foam on the crest of the waves.”

“I will do it,” said the little mermaid, and she became pale as death.

“But I must be paid also,” said the witch, “and it is not a trifle that I ask. You have the sweetest voice of any who dwell here in the depths of the sea, and you believe that you will be able to charm the prince with it also, but this voice you must give to me; the best thing you possess will I have for the price of my draught. My own blood must be mixed with it, that it may be as sharp as a two-edged sword.”

“But if you take away my voice,” said the little mermaid, “what is left for me?”

“Your beautiful form, your graceful walk, and your expressive eyes; surely with these you can enchain a man’s heart. Well, have you lost your courage? Put out your little tongue that I may cut it off as my payment; then you shall have the powerful draught.”

“It shall be,” said the little mermaid.

Criteria: Students should be able to link concepts of Postcolonialism such as mimicry, identity crisis, colonial oppression or Eurocentrism with the excerpt and use evidence from the text to support their answers.

Cultural Studies

Question:
Regarding the movie "Invictus" (2009), create a thesis statement based on Cultural Studies' approach complementing with another literary approach at the same time, in order to validate your thesis.
+++We encourage you to go beyond the Marxist theory to support your thesis (that's the easiest way to do so).

Criteria:
The thesis must be acquainted with the context of the movie; there must exist a distinction of at least one of the problematics present on the story and also, a brief reflexion on the social struggle between the two classes.

Post-structuralism

Question: Having in mind the plot of "The Hunger Games", write a thesis statement that destroys the unity of the text. For this, apply the theory of deconstructivism and provide examples where the author contradicts herself.


Criteria: The thesis statement should focus in a specific part of the text/movie and the examples could show any of the three stages of deconstruction, such as verbal, textual or linguistic.