Assignments

 

Readings:

There are three assigned books—The Grapes of Wrath, Waiting for Nothing, and A Cool Million. There are also several articles and excerpts from books, all available as links on this page.


Written work:

Posts: There are 12 reading assignments, and for each one, a required blog post. The post should be about 400 words long, and it should include a relevant image. You can write a personal response to what you’ve read, or quote an article and work your comment around it, or link to a helpful source and report on the information it has to offer. Avoid posts that simply summarize the reading or that give opinionated reviews (I liked it, or didn’t). Rather, engage with the reading through analysis and interpretation, or bring in outside material that can help with interpretation and appreciation.

Comments: Also required is a comment on someone else’s post for each assignment. These twelve comments should be about 100 words each. Think about the kind of comment you’d find helpful. Compliments are nice, but it might be more helpful to offer a contrasting view, or further illustration of the writer’s point, or a suggestion for further reading.

Due dates: The dates below indicate the class during which we'll discuss that reading assignment.  The blog post for each reading is due the night before the class (i.e., on Monday and Wednesday night), so there's time to read them over before class.  The comments on other people's posts should be done within a day or two of the original post, while the readings and discussion are fresh in your mind.

 


Thurs., Sept. 8

1. Setting off

Read the website selections from the following introductory chapters of "on the road" books from the thirties, and write a post responding to one or more of them.  Think about the travel theme—what's involved with beginning a trip, why is the writer traveling, what is he looking for, how's he getting around, what kind of sensibility does he bring to his travels, etc.  Other themes—parallels between the thirties and the current economic crisis, social and political issues of the thirties, etc.

 


Tues., Sept. 13

2. Grapes of Wrath (1)

Read The Grapes of Wrath, chapters 1 – 16.  Post a comment, about 400 words, about the reading.  You might take a look at one of the many readings on the book, easily accessible on the website on the Steinbeck bibliography page, or bring something else into the discussion—pose a question, offer an interpretation of some episode, do a little outside research, etc.  Remember to make a text link to any outside sources you use.  As always, in addition to your own post, write a short comment on someone else's post.

 


Thurs., Sept. 15

3. Grapes of Wrath (2)

Read The Grapes of Wrath, chapters 17 – 20, and look over a selection of Steinbeck, Harvest Gypsies, ch 1 - 3.  For the post, you can write about anything related to The Grapes of Wrath, but try to take a different approach from your previous post on the novel.  You might take a look at the links on this page.  Or take a look at one of the many readings on the book (see the Steinbeck bibliography page), or bring something else into the discussion, like a current event or personal experience, or something you find on the Depression Resources page.  Make a link to the article or website you're discussing.  And here's a chapter-by-chapter summary of the novel to help get the whole picture in view (spoiler alert).  Remember to write a comment on someone else's post.
 


Tues., Sept. 20

4. Grapes of Wrath (3)

Finish The Grapes of Wrath (chapters 21 – end). For this final Steinbeck post, read one of the scholarly articles on the bibliography and write about it: discuss one of the points made in the article, quote it, and make link to it.  For the article's URL, copy and paste the link for the article on the bibliography page.
 


Thurs., Sept. 22

5. Writers on the Road

Look over the following selections and read at least three of them, then post a response that deals with the material as it relates to the travel theme.  There's more than enough to write about here, so don't digress to discuss tangentially related topics. 


Tues., Sept. 27

6. Words & Images

Read the following selections, and for the post, please try not to digress too much—engage in a discussion of these photo-text books and the issues they raise.  You might find it helpful to focus the post on a comment from the optional readings, which are scholarly articles about these photo-text books.  Note that the second half of the Goodwin article discusses the first three of the assigned texts; the Cooney chapter provides general background on the documentary impulse in the 30s, and has a discussion of Dorothea Lange and other photographers on pages 173-182; the Trilling review of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men has an interesting theme and is worth reading.  You might also check out the series of blog-articles by documentary filmmaker Errol Morris that appeared in the NY Times last year—"The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock"—about the issue of fakery in 1930s photography by Evans, Lange, and others.

 


Thurs., Sept. 29

7. Travel novels

Read two of the the following selections and post about a travel theme in the readings.

For further reading (optional):



Tues., Oct. 4

8. Waiting for Nothing

Read Tom Kromer's Waiting for Nothing.  The book is available at the NYU bookstore, but not online; you don't need to read the other writings included in the book—just read pp. 5 - 131 and the "autobiography" and Afterword, pp. 257 - 291.  Post a response to the book.  Remember, as always, to write a comment on someone else's blog.  Suggestions for further reading (optional):



Thurs., Oct. 6

9. Open topic

Read the following excerpts. For the blog post, it's an open topic: write about something related to these readings or about anything related to the course.



Tues., Oct. 11  Thurs., Oct. 13

10. A Cool Million

Read the entire novel and post about it.  (The book is not online—It's available at the NYU bookstore.)  It's a strange book, so it might help to check out an article or two on the bibliography of online articles about the novel.  As always, remember to comment on someone else's blog, and if you're behind in the comments, you could do a couple of comments.
 


Thurs., Oct. 13 Tues. Oct. 18

11. Tourism and the Travel Habit

Read the following selections and post something about the readings.  As always, remember to comment on someone else's blog, and if you're behind in the comments, you could do a couple of comments.



Tues., Oct. 18 Thurs., Oct. 20

12. WPA Guides

Read a selection of the online editions of some WPA travel guides available through the Internet Archive and post something about the guides.  As always, remember to comment on someone else's blog, and if you're behind in the comments, you could do a couple of comments.

For further reading (optional):