http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2070/lodz24lores954bbaea6.jpg
Students,
For formal reading response #2, after reading DDS, you were to engage/discuss the text by answering ONE of the following 20 questions . . .
. . . Remember, your response should have had a clear thesis with arguments presented in a logical manner. Your thesis should have been related to the topic you selected and any information in your paper should have been “pointing to” your thesis statement. See tonight's assignment below (beneath topic #20)
-------
Topic #1
Go back over our readings on “character” and see what you can (or can’t) apply about “literary” characters (fictive) to the “historical character” (non-fictive) of Dawid based on his notebooks. Discuss the “character” of Dawid, his hopes, his dreams, his personality, his role in life, his role in his family, etc. How do you think Dawid perceived himself?
Topic #2
Why does someone keep a diary? Is it important? Do you think Dawid’s “motives” for keeping a diary were similar to those of children today? Why or why not? What are those motives?
Topic #3
Go back over our readings on “character” and see what you can (or can’t) apply about “literary” characters (fictive) to the “historical character” (non-fictive) of Dawid’s Mother based on his notebooks. Discuss the “character” of Dawid’s mother, her hopes, her dreams, her personality, her role in life, her role in his family, etc. How do you think the others may have perceived her?
Topic #4
Go back over our readings on “character” and see what you can (or can’t) apply about “literary” characters (fictive) to the “historical character” (non-fictive) of Dawid’s Father based on his notebooks. Discuss the “character” of Dawid’s Father, his hopes, his dreams, his personality, his role in life, his role in his family, etc. How do you think the others may have perceived him?
Topic #5
Think about what you personally “expect” from your community leaders. Do you expect them to protect your interests (or actively destroy them)? Now, go back over our readings on “character” and see what you can (or can’t) apply about “literary” characters (fictive) to the “historical character” (non-fictive) of Rumkowski based on Dawid’s notebooks. Discuss the “character” of Rumkowski, his hopes, his dreams, his personality, his role in life, his role in the community, etc. How do you think the others may have perceived him?
Topic #6
The narrative of DDS moves from a time of peace to a time of war. How would you characterize the different reactions in the community (portrayed in the notebooks) to the invasion? What do these reactions tell us about the children’s view of the situation? How might you and your friends respond should you find your own country invaded and occupied by foreign soldiers?
Topic #7
Take a moment to recall your own neighbors as a child and think about how you normally expect your “neighbors” or community to act. Now consider the neighbors of Dawid. What was their behavior like during the course of the narrative? What kind of messages/signals/examples did the children “receive” from their neighbors’ behavior?
Topic #8
Think about all the different kinds of “changes” that occurred during the course of Dawid’s story. Identify and explain as many as you can. How did the children in Dawid’s world experience the changes which occurred in their environment?
Topic #9
What does school mean for a child? For society? What was the “meaning” of the first day of school for you? Were you “escorted”? Try to imagine if you were told that you couldn’t attend school because of “who you are.” In light of Dawid’s testimony about the Lodz school system after the invasion, how do you think the Jewish children felt about being barred from school?
Topic #10
When you were a child, did you depend on someone to take care of you, buy your food, and prepare it for you, etc.? Try to describe how Dawid felt after his father became unemployed. How do you think this affected day-to-day life in his family? How did Dawid “react” to this situation throughout his story compared to his father, mother, and siblings, for example?
Topic #11
Many of us, at least some time in our lives, have worn tee shirts or pins, for example, or some other “signifier” that identifies us with some particular “group” whether it was for a particular music group or religious jewelry. In any case, you’ve probably never been “forced” to wear such an “identifier.” In war occupied Poland, the Nazi regime forced Jews to wear badges that identified them by ethnic group. What do you think the badge meant to those who were forced to wear it? What does it mean to be singled out, labeled, or profiled? How would you react?
Topic #12
We hear about people living in “ghettos” today but what did the word originally mean? Dawid and his family were forced to live in a ghetto and he described different aspects of “ghetto life.” What picture arises from his descriptions? How is the ghetto of Dawid alike and/or different from the places some people refer to as “ghetto” today? How would you feel if you were required to live in only one, narrowly
defined area of your city/county and nowhere else?
Topic #13
Go back and review our readings from Appendix B in the Roberts text called “Critical Approaches.” How can you apply the “Moral/Intellectual” approach (pp. 182-183) to Dawid’s diaries? Is there a message? If so, what? What is Dawid “teaching” us essentially, as his readers?
Topic #14
Go back and review our readings from Appendix B in the Roberts text called “Critical Approaches.” How can you apply the “Topical/Historical” approach (pp. 183-184) to Dawid’s diaries? Are there things in the narrative that are just impossible for the reader to understand without outside research? If so, what? What do we know about Poland in the years 1939 to 1943 from Dawid that we probably couldn’t get from a “traditional” book of history about famous leaders and battles?
Topic #15
Go back and review our readings from Appendix B in the Roberts text called “Critical Approaches.” How can you apply the “New Critical/Formalist” approach on pages 184-185—normally reserved for works of fiction—to a work of “non-fiction” such as Dawid’s diaries? Consider what you’ve learned so far in this course about character, point-of-view, plot and structure (go back and review Roberts if you need to). How can these ways of dissecting a story into its basic “parts” be applied to Dawid’s notebooks? Does it work? Why or why not?
Topic #16
Go back and review our readings from Appendix B in the Roberts text called “Critical Approaches.” How can you apply the “Structuralist” approach on pages 185-187—normally reserved for works of fiction—to a work of “non-fiction” such as Dawid’s diaries? Consider what you’ve learned so far about patterns that are paralleled in other stories (go back and review “Every Trip is a Quest” in the CP if you need to). Is there a symbolic “journey” in this story? Are there any similarities in the journey patterns of DDS, WD and/or any of the other stories we’ve read thus far? Explain.
Topic #17
Go back and review our readings from Appendix B in the Roberts text called “Critical Approaches.” How can you apply the “Feminist” approach on pages 187-188 to the content found in Dawid’s diaries? How are women portrayed or ignored in DDS? How important are they, as depicted by Dawid? How are they treated? Why is this an important piece of the puzzle?
Topic #18
Go back and review our readings from Appendix B in the Roberts text called “Critical Approaches.” How can you apply the “Economic Determinist/Marxist” approach on pages 188-189 to the content found in Dawid’s diaries? How are the different economic classes represented in the narratives (poor, middleclass, rich, etc.)? Who has it the best and who has it the worst and why? Do understand what is meant by the “survival of the fittest” model? How is the “survival of the fittest” evidenced in the world of Dawid? What are Dawid’s ideas about what’s wrong and how things “ought” to be? Are they different from “the enemy’s” idea? How?
Topic #19
Go back and review our readings from Appendix B in the Roberts text called “Critical Approaches.” How can you apply the “Psychological/Psychoanalytic” approach on pages 189-190 to the content found in Dawid’s diaries? Do you know the following popular “concepts” from pop-psychology: depression, anxiety, addiction, dependence, abnormal, obsession, compulsion, introvert, extravert, chronic, phobic (phobia), etc.? How is Dawid’s character/personality affected by his ordeal mentally/spiritually? How are his friends and families (you may discuss individually)? How are they alike, different, related?
Topic #20
Dawid’s notebooks are historical documents. But, taken collectively, is the ‘diary” (as prose) a work of “Literature” (with a capital “L”)? Go back and review our first few readings in the Coursepack and on pages 1-4 in the Roberts text to see how others have defined literature and decide. If yes, explain your answer and support your argument with citations from the readings. If you don’t think it is classified as literature, do you think it should? Why or why not? Cite any evidence from the readings.
--------------
A few comments about your last papers:
Remember, AFTER your reading responses are already submitted to me is NOT the time to ask about a writing problem you had if you wanted a good score. You should know that I routinely answer MANY students questions about papers via e-mail, even during the weekends and breaks, believe it or not (who pays me for that?). If you take the time to e-mail me, even if I don’t answer, at least you have a “case” to make. However, if you don’t even try, how can I sympathize with your plight?
Also, as I’ve said repeatedly in class, there is always the IUP Writing Center in Eicher Hall. As IUP students, ALL OF YOU have already paid for its services, so it’s absolutely free for you to use. The staff there (other students) are there to help you with your writing: if you having problems on where to put commas, for example, you should go there for help. So show some initiative and take a little responsibility folks. It’s not really my fault if you don’t use the writing center: I know that several students in the class ARE using it. I’ve also suggested that it's a good idea to have other people (outside of class) proofread your papers (roommates, friends, etc.). Again, it’s not my fault if you don’t ask anyone for help. Finally, I’ve met with humanities literature students during my office hours MANY times this semester to proofread papers and suggest changes. Looking back, have you ever asked me if that could be arranged?
