Write a reflective paper on one of the two themes presented below. By reflective paperI mean something other than a mere summary of the facts involved with the themes described below. I want you to interact and react to the situations Kidder describes--put yourself into the picture. How would you feel? Who would you sympathize with? Who would you like? How might you try to resolve certain conflicts; or would you think they were not resolvable?
Theme One:Houses and Personalities...Conflicts and Causes
Anything requiring human interactions can become complicated and stressful, and humans themselves are products of events and interrelationships throughout their prior history. Reflect on this, and write your thoughts about some of the people involved in the building of House. Don't feel obligated to get everyone into your narrative. Choose the characters and interactions which are most interesting to you, or perhaps those to which you react emotionally as well as intellectually.What questions would you like to ask them, had you an opportunity to meet and talk?
Theme TWO:The Perfect House: Jonathan, Judith, Careers and Gender.
Thinking about the style, plans, and book illustrations in House Reflect on what the house tells us about Jonathan and Judith, and to the degree appropriate, Bill Rawn. Think about the rooms, and their relationships to each other. How does the plan reflect gender. and expectation of male and female roles at the time the house was built? Remember that both Jonathan and Judith are educated professionals. You'll want to think about childrearing, and the placement of bedrooms, among other things.
Extra Credit?
Write a paper on on both.
The better will be for the grade, the other will decide how much extra credit you get.
Optional review: I have opened a draft assignment portal on Bridges. The Portal will through Friday, May6 at 10:00. I notice that three students have already submitted drafts. I'll start working on them tomorrow. When the draft portal closes, I will open a portal for the submission of the final version. That will stay open until the end of May 11, the lst day of finals.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
I'd like you all to get a start on an ongoing semester-long project which we'll be doing. American Studies differentiates itself from American History partly on the basis of subject matter and partly on the basis of resources. American Studies tends to look farther afield for insights into the culture and its character, using a range of literary sources, artifacts, music, art, and popular culture of all sorts. By the end of the semester, each of you will be preparing an informal annotated bibliography on the topic Houses and Homes in American Culture. This will include at least:
1. One Novel
2. One Short Story
3. One Poem
4. One Essay
5. One Newspaper or Journal article
6. One Painting (high style)
7. One popular illustration
8. One piece of popular music
9. One Movie, Play, or Television Program
10. Other..... Something else, of your own choice or devising,
. . .in which American houses or homes are the focus.
Illustrations or examples from our texts are not eligible.
By American, I mean residences within the geographic United States. We will be talking about European houses, but don't include European examples in your bibliography.
I want you to find these largely using the Internet. It is good for you to get as much research practice as possible. You can, of course use other sources as well. However, you will quickly learn that the Internet is a very good way to access even local news stories. For things which aren't current, remember how useful Archive.org is.
The annotation for each one will include:
How you located the item. If you found it on the Internet, include the website address and the search engine you used to find it.
A very short abstract (1-3 sentences) of the content.
A paragraph or two explaining what a consideration of this particular item added to your understanding of the role of houses and homes in American culture.
