TALKING TEXTS:
PAIRINGS THAT PROMOTE
CLOSE READING
RENEE H. SHEA
NMSI, 20 – 21 OCTOBER 2014
Talk-Backs Defined
Discussion of Paired Texts
Small Group Discussions
Extensions and Reflection
A
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WHAT ARE TALK-BACKS?
o
More than comparison/contrast
o
Reversal of subject-object positions
o
Minority opinion: response to canonical text
o
Emphasis of continuing problem or issue
o
Appreciation of well-known text
o
Parody of well-known text
o
Time travelers (usually)
WHY DO TALK-BACKS?
o
To prepare for the AP Exam
o
To practice close reading
o
To encourage rereading
o
To develop a dialogue between past and present
o
To have fun
Musée des Beaux Arts
by W.H. Auden
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c. 1558, oil on canvas,
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
AP EXAM 2000: HOMER AND ATWOOD
ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION SECTION II
Total time—2 hours
Question 1
(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)
The story of Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens and their enchanting but deadly song appears in Greek epic poetry in Homer’s Odyssey. An
English translation of the episode is reprinted in the left column below. Margaret Atwood’s poem in the right column is a modern commentary on the
classical story. Read both texts carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare the portrayals of the Sirens. Your analysis should include
discussion of tone, point of view, and whatever poetic devices (diction, imagery, etc.) seem most important.
SIREN SONG
By: Margaret Atwood
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skull
the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can’t remember
Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?
I don’t enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs
I don’t enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.
I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique
at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.
“THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD”
BY WALLACE STEVENS
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
(1917)
A TALK WITH AARON ABEYTA
THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A TORTILLA
BY AARON ABEYTA
i.
among twenty different tortillas
the only thing moving
was the mouth of the niño
ii.
i was of three cultures
like a tortilla
for which there are three bolios
iii.
the tortilla grew on the wooden table
it was a small part of the earth
iv.
a house and a tortilla
are one
a man a woman and a tortilla
are one
v.
i do not know which to prefer
the beauty of the red wall
or the beauty of the green wall
the tortilla fresh
or just after
vi.
tortillas filled the small kitchen
with ancient shadows
the shadow of Maclovia
cooking long ago
the tortilla
rolled from the shadow
the innate roundness
vii.
o thin viejos of chimayo
why do you imagine biscuits
do you not see how the tortilla
lives with the hands
of the women about you
viii.
i know soft corn
and beautiful inescapable sopapillas
but i know too
that the tortilla
has taught me what i know
ix.
when the tortilla is gone
it marks the end
of one of many tortillas
x.
at the sight of tortillas
browning on a black comal
even the pachucos of española
would cry out sharply
xi.
he rode over new mexico
in a pearl low rider
once he got a flat
in that he mistook
the shadow of his spare
for a tortilla
xii.
the abuelitas are moving
the tortilla must be baking
xiii.
it was cinco de mayo all year
it was warm
and it was going to get warmer
the tortilla sat
on the frijolito plate
(2001)
QUESTIONS
1. Besides subject, what is the biggest difference between the 2
poems?
2. What is Abeyta’s purpose: homage or satire? Combination of
the 2?
3. What effect do the two locations (Connecticut & Chimayo)
have on the poems?
4. Write your own version that looks at a familiar object 13
different ways.
Winslow Homer, The Veteran in a New Field, 1865, oil on canvas, 24 1/8”x38 1/8”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
AGAIN, THE FIELDS
AFTER WINSLOW HOMER
BY NATASHA TRETHEWEY
the dead they lay long the lines like sheaves of Wheat I could have walked on the boddes all most from one end too the other
No more muskets, the bone-drag
weariness of marching, the trampled
grass, soaked earth red as the wine
of sacrament. Now, the veteran
turns toward a new field, bright
as domes of the republic. Here,
he has shrugged off the past—his jacket
and canteen flung down in the corner.
At the center of the painting, he anchors
the trinity, joining earth and sky.
The wheat falls beneath his scythe-a language of bounty—the swaths
like scripture on the field’s open page.
Boundless, the wheat stretches beyond
the frame, as if toward a distant field-the white canvas where sky and cotton
meet, where another veteran toils,
his hands the color of dark soil.
(2006)
QUESTIONS
1. The speaker in the poem both describes and interprets Homer’s painting? Which are the
literal descriptions; which are interpretive?
2. How would you describe Trethewey’s attitude toward Homer’s painting? Is she critical?
Appreciative? Admiring? Ironic? Nostalgic? Ambivalent?
3. In what ways does “Again, the fields” stretch beyond the frame of Homer’s canvas? Is it fair
to hypothesize or point out what is not included or addressed in a work from an earlier time
period?
4. Compare and contrast Homer’s painting and Trethewey’s poem as elegies (tributes to,
lamentation for, or serious reflection on the dead)
5. How might Winslow Homer have responded to Trethewey’s poem? Research Homer’s
participation in the Civil War and then, in his voice, write a letter to Trethewey.
THE TEMPEST BY SHAKESPEARE
&
A TEMPEST BY AIME CESAIRE
SHAKESPEARE AND CESAIRE
o What is the power dynamic between Prospero and Caliban in this scene
from The Tempest?
o How does that dynamic change in A Tempest?
o What is Cesaire’s purpose in his “retelling” or “redefining” of that
relationship?
YOUR TURN . . .
o
“To His Coy Mistress” and “Coy Mistress”
o
“The White Man’s Burden” and “The Black Man’s Burden”
o
Excerpts from The Jungle and Fast Food Nation
o
Excerpts from Women and Economics and The House of Mirth
o “Elegy of Fortinbras” by Zbigniew Herbert and the ending scene of Hamlet
REFLECTION
S AND
EXTENSIONS
Larger works (e.g., The Great
Gatsby and Bodega Dreams)
JANE EYRE BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË
&
WIDE SARGASSO SEA BY JEAN
RHYS
JOIN WEBINAR
Talking Texts: Pairings that Promote Close Reading
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Time: 4 pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Link to Register:
https://bfwpub.webex.com/bfwpub/k2/j.php?MTID=tbec3130825973ccfd6f4b17668fdeb7d
During the follow-up workshop-style webinar on October 29th, teachers will participate in an interactive
experience by sharing the results of their implementation of this approach and discussing their best
practices. This will also allow teachers a chance to exchange ideas on other possible text pairings
beyond the few that were discussed in the first webinar.
Harry S. Truman, “Statement by the
President of the United States”
Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth
Thank You!