English A Literature
Individual Oral Presentation (IOP)
Second Semester English A Literature Calendar
Part 1: Works in Translation
Narrative labyrinths & infinite possibilities
A Unilateral Grading Contract to Improve Learning and Teaching [co-written with Jane Danielewicz]
Peter Elbow University of Massachusetts – Amherst, elbow@english.umass.edu
The Short Stories of Jorge Luis Borges
from Ficciones “Part One: Garden of the Forking Paths”
- The Forward
- “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” (Mr. Quale) “Tlon” Discussion Questions
- “The Secret Miracle” or “The Babylon Lottery” (Katie)
- “The Circular Ruins” (Rachel Ecc.)
- “The Library of Babel” (Selma)
- “The Garden of the Forking Paths” (Christina)
from Ficciones “Part Two: Artifices”
- The Forward
- “Death and the Compass” (Rachel Eden)
- “The South” (Sarah)
from The Aleph
- “The Immortal” (Alex)
- “Emma Zunz” (Aidyn)
- “The Aleph” (Cinthiya)
Nonfiction Supplementals
- “Borges y yo,” by J.L Borges (my translation and assignment)
- “When Fiction Lives in Fiction,” by J.L. Borges
- “The Literature of Exhaustion,” by John Barth
- Borges’ Lecture on The Thousand and One Nights, from the collection Seven Nights
- 1001 Nights & “Literature of Exhaustion” Study Guides
- Julio Cortazar’s short story “The Night Face Up” (we will read this in conjunction with our discussion of “The South”)
- “Borges and the Foreseeable Future,” by Noam Cohen for The New York Times
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Garbriel Garcia Marquez
“A Murder Foretold,” by David Grann for The New Yorker
Creative Chronicle Project Resources
Boris and Camilla Videos, from The Mysteries of Love (PBS–videos on right side)
“Drawing the Line Between Facts and Fiction in Memoirs,” by Karen Bates (NPR)
“Coming Home, Again,” by Chang-Rae Lee
“The Art and Craft of Memoir” from Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, edited by William Zinsser
Al Jazeera Reporter’s iPhone Documentary on the Syrian Uprising (New York Times Blog)
This American Life Podcast Archive (Episode 460: “Retraction”, is a very interesting recent one to explore, based on the controversy surrounding Mike Daisey’s screenplay, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
“Translating Murakami,” an email roundtable discussion about translating Murakami’s works from Japanese into English
“Found in Translation,” from the SF Bay Guardian: interview of Jay Rubin and J. Philip Gabriel about translating the works of Murakami.
Haruki Murakami: In Search of this Elusive Writer (Documentary)
“The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami,” by Sam Anderson for The New York Times
“Haruki Murakami, The Art of Fiction No. 182,“ interview with Murakami for the Paris Review
“The Girl From Ipanema, 1963/1982,” by Haruki Murakami
Murakami Tumblr (Pictures, quotes, videos, artworks related to Murakami)
Part 4: Options
Blurring the Lines: Autobiographical Impulses and Fictional Realities
In the Lake of the Woods, by Tim O’Brien
ITLOTW Creative Writing Assignments
ITLOTW Study Guide & Interview
Tim O’Brien, President’s Lecture, 21 April 1999
“Quixote, Colbert and the Reality of Fiction” By William Eggington, for The New York Times
“Authentic? Get Real” By Stephanie Rosenbloom, for The New York Times
“Best + Brightest: The Rise of the Real” By Chuck Klosterman, for Esquire Magazine
“Fame, Ain’t It A Bitch Case File #190: I’m Still Here“ By Nathan Rabin, for The Onion AV Club
“Neo-Neo Realism” By A.O. Scott, for The New York Times
The Fog of War, by Errol Morris (2003)
The Fog of War Packet (Review, Errol Morris Interview and Biography, Glossary, excerpt from Eliot’s Four Quartets)
Errol Morris Video Interviews on Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary
Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot & Walt Whitman
Blurred Poetry (Confessional Music of Sorts)
Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
