Schedule of Events

The release of test scores following the implementation of the Common Core in California has signaled educators, teachers, government officials, and the general public that a renewed focus on curriculum and innovative teaching methods are needed. The search is on for educational objectives that possess crossover qualities with the Common Core. Instead of focusing only on new teaching techniques, teachers will be redesigning and repurposing successful pedagogical methods to be appropriate for the Secondary level. Literature Circles are an existing method that, if revised, would benefit the Secondary level English classroom. I demonstrate how the traditional structure of Literature Circles, repurposed to incorporate more intensive student jobs and integrate non-fiction, would be useful to teachers trying to meet the shifts of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards. 

Richard Nordquist’s definition of travel writing as “a form of creative non-fiction” can be applied to the texts of early explorers and settlers like Columbus, John Smith, and William Bradford as well as the later reports of westward expansion by Lewis and Clark.  These and other early journey narratives intentionally affirmed American ideologies. John Smith was particularly interested in promoting the concept of Manifest Destiny. Later writers including Twain, Kerouac, and Steinbeck began a modern interrogation of the philosophical assumptions of those early narratives. As they integrated journey narratives into the literature of American fiction, these authors shifted from championing blanket American ideology through deconstructing them. Emphasizing the experience of the individual during travel, their more personal narratives echoed disillusionment with Manifest Destiny, privileging the nuanced experience of the individual over loyalty to a national identity. This helped expand the national perspective about diversity and opened the door to popularizing the travel writing of previously marginalized writers.

Mythology and fairytale are two of the most tenacious and resilient of literary genres. Elements of myth and even of some fairytales have been incorporated into the majority of the fantasy literature written today. Myths and fairytales have undergone significant changes in their long history, and researching their evolution reveals that it is the fairytales that have endured the most radical transformation. Unlike myths, which emerged as narrative explanations in response to mystifying events and phenomena, fairytales were for the most part created to illustrate life lessons and teach morals. Myths, on the other hand, became increasingly important and weighty as they were intertwined and identified with ideological and political networks. The myths were somewhat altered but mostly remained bound to what some have identified as their 8th century B.C. origins. Fairytales, though, beginning in the 1600’s, were different. They changed dramatically, acclimating naturally to each time and place where they were retold and rewritten. I demonstrate how audience is an important factor in accounting for this difference—as fairytales have always been directed towards children rather than the general public, while myths, not intended for small children but important in stabilizing communities, are less adaptable and have tended to retain their original forms. 

Graphic novels have often been characterized as the public’s choice for easy, informal reading and nothing more. Despite this disparaging reputation, the graphic novel, in its many-faceted narrative, seeks to explore the evolving dialogues and conditions of our society. Examples include Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, The Boondocks: “Because I Know You Don’t Read the Newspaper” by Aaron McGruder, and American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, all of which bring very different issues to the forefront: wartime and the hero complex, racial issues, and the individual’s struggles with identity. Although different in their emphases, these novels, like other graphic texts, help present and promote social dialogue and a wider public understanding of the complex issues that are imbedded in our social fabric. These multifaceted graphic depictions are also important to clarify an otherwise often complex political landscape that affects American culture every day. 

Over the course of the past two centuries the Dystopian genre has seen an unprecedented rise in popularity. With the increase of technological innovation, tumultuous warfare, environmental catastrophe, and the prevalence of psychological and social disorders, Dystopias seem to have become a sanctuary of sorts-- a natural medium in order to provide a discourse on how to navigate in these confusing and uncertain times (and a way in which to understand our ominous future predicaments in a safe and scholarly arena) . Just as our society evolves, so too does the Dystopian genre. Previous prominent Dystopian novels like Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984 focus on Dystopian universes where citizens live in a totalitarian society within a militarized state.  Surveillance, subjugation and total control are common motifs and warn against a society where governments take away freedoms.  In the twenty first century, the Dystopian genre seems to have evolved into something else entirely. Still mimicking some of the motifs of past Dystopias, three contemporary novels, specifically Oryx and Crake, The Wind-Up Girl, and Cloud Atlas, branch off and explore frightening and compelling new topics-- how to survive in a world of continuously decreasing resources, of overpopulation, and of the threat and competition of human subspecies. These novels form a more realistic social critique of a Dystopian future that is becoming more and more possible for our techno-culture world, appearing no longer to be fiction, but frightening prophecies of a future that is looming around the corner.

Aldous Huxley’s dual mindedness and the evolution of his opinions on eugenics mirror society’s stance on the issue—a stance that can be demonstrated by examining changes in both American and British legal codes relative to eugenics. Eugenics was of vital interest to many in British and American legal and intellectual communities in the early twentieth century. British interest was grounded on fears of overpopulation, inheritable diseases, and a perceived decrease in intelligence of the British citizenry, while American eugenicists were more interested in restricting diversity and minimizing marginalized groups. When Hitler cited American eugenics as inspiration and justification for his views on Aryan supremacy, a radical shift in opinions about eugenics took place in Britain and the U.S. alike (1933). Aldous Huxley provides a clear example of this shift as we trace his change of mind in his work. During the 1920-30s he was a staunch supporter of eugenics both in his writings and within the intellectual community; however, in his novel Brave New World (1932) the society he set up on eugenics principles plays out as a dismal utopia. After the fall of Hitler’s regime, Huxley still encouraged countries to alter their ethics to allow eugenics, but emphasized that the toxic combination of eugenics with nationalism was to be avoided at all costs. 

The relatively new Common Core state standards emphasize the development of students’ literacy skills for reading complex informational texts, and it places the burden of teaching literacy on all teachers, not just language arts teachers. Fiction is a tool that teachers can use in any content area to develop skilled readers and critical thinkers. Bringing fiction into the secondary-level content classroom will increase the amount of reading that students are engaging in overall, which will help remove the anxiety that many students feel towards reading. It can serve as a tool for introducing difficult concepts and developing content-specific vocabulary that can then make reading informational texts less intimidating for students. It will also deepen students’ understanding of complex topics and empower them to think in nuanced, critical ways. Reading fiction in content classrooms can empower students to be capable, confident readers and thinkers and will help achieve the Common Core literacy standards.

Studying postmodern authors increases our understanding of complex narrative strategies and techniques. Their texts stimulate critical thinking partly by collaging fragmented narratives in strategic and thought-provoking ways. So too can the texts of graphic narratives. The metafictional comic in particular argues for inclusion in the category of postmodern literature—as it generates a similar result through its creative use of narrative techniques and, further, can complicate narrative as it works with intriguing combinations of visual and verbal rhetoric. Using Art Spiegelman’s popular metafictional comic "Maus," I first identify the following typical postmodern techniques and conventions in Maus’s graphic narrative: intertextuality, reflexivity, fragmentation, and pastiche (all of which are commonly used by postmodern authors). Secondly, I demonstrate how Maus’s provocative visual-verbal dynamic promotes critical analysis as much—and perhaps even more—as does the study of postmodern literature. 

Prescribed dress codes have historically provided insight about social status and the behaviours associated with that status. During the Renaissance, aristocratic rank was, as S.P. Cerasano writes, “theoretically the mark of moral, intellectual, and emotional superiority.” Theoretically is the key word here. The interests and activities of some in the well-dressed upper class were often perceived as inconsistent with “moral, intellectual, and emotional superiority.” But this perception didn’t stop some from dressing “above” their social rank in order to gain advantages denied to them by cultural class constraints—even though their efforts often resulted in public ridicule rather than upper class advantages. “Dressing up” was not confined to those who wanted to appear to belong to the aristocracy. Other societal rogues included women who dressed as men. Such women were ostracized and even criminalized. Examples of cross-class and cross-gender dressing in Renaissance drama not only satirize the hypocrisy of the upper class but also serve to mitigate the harsh public judgment of women cross-dressers by emphasizing the virtues of cross-dressing characters. Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Dekker and Middleton, create cross-dressing Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl as the only character in the play with moral integrity. And Shakespeare’s Viola, perhaps the best example of a cross dresser’s defense against social marginalization, is the most moral person in Twelfth Night.  These and other Renaissance characters continued to insist that moral integrity is not determined by social class or dress, but rather by an individual’s beliefs and actions.