posted
I am putting together a reading list for my oral exam to finish my masters degree in English. I have to choose 15 authors from a master list for the 4 different sections. There's British Literature I and II, and American Literature I and II. The 15th selection in each section can be something not on the master list.
I wanted to include Ender's Game or Enchantment for my wildcard in the American Lit. 2 section, but in true form for English professors, I was told those aren't canonical enough. I am sure Card would have plenty to say about that! In any case, I need suggestions for my wildcard selection. I am trying to do a loose theme of science-fiction, fantasy, or horror for my lists. My professor for the American Lit. 2 section recommended Octavia Butler's Kindred or any of her other works. I looked in wikipedia, and Kindred is the one of her works that is less science-fiction than the others.
So, suggestions?
While I'm at it, I could also use suggestions for early American Literature, and early British literature and later British literature.
posted
I'm not really sure. I think it means that if it's fun to read, it's not canonical?
Seriously though, I think it means that there are things in the book that students can sit around a table and argue about. Like, this book has feminist or marxist undertones... or this book exposes the racist, sexist, etc. agenda of this group or that group. I would say that it feels as though the author has an intention beyond simply telling a good story. They're trying to say something else, or push an agenda. But then, I think Pride and Prejudice is just Austen trying to tell a good story. We give it all those other meanings later.
So, in summary... I don't know. I think "Canonical" is defined as something that you point to and say, That's Canonical." (Like Poetry)
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Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land Asimov, Foundation trilogy Wells, War of the Worlds (alt. 20k Leagues under the Sea) Kipling, With the Night Mail Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions
Oh wait, you said American. Ignore Wells and Kipling then. And I was just about to list Clarke, curse it.
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posted
Clarke's Childhood's End is a classic, often reviewed, and covers the potential evolution of the human species. I bet that one would work, and it is a god read too, although a bit dated.
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posted
Also, I have to take this test at the end of July, so I could also use information on if the suggestions are easy or quick reads. I don't mean easy as in simple, but if the author likes overly complex sentences or writes in incomprehensible dialect all the time, I'd rather skip it! Also, just one novel for each, or a collection of short stories. If you recommend a trilogy, which one should I read?
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posted
Octavia Butler is canonical but Ender's Game isn't?! OK... Not to diss Butler, but c'mon.
In my mind, off the top of my head, Tolkien, Lewis, Asimov, Clarke, Herbert, Heinlein, Bradbury, Kafka, T.H. White, Lewis Carroll, Weels, Verne, George MacDonald, Anne Rice & Orwell would all qualify.
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1. William Bradford (1590-1657) Of Plymouth Plantation 2. Anne Bradstreet (1612-72) complete poems, such as The Works of Anne Bradstreet 3. Mary Rowlandson (1636-1711) Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of… 4. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) The Autobiography 5. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) The Last of the Mohicans 6. Ralph Emerson (1803-1882) “Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” “The American Scholar,” “The Poet” 7. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) The Scarlet Letter (Trying to get approval to switch this to his short stories, which fit my theme better) 8. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Selection of stories and essays 9. Henry Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden 10. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 11. Herman Melville (1819-1891) Billy Budd, "Bartleby the Scrivener," "Benito Cereno" 12. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Song of Myself 13. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Selection of poems 14. Mark Twain (1835-1910) Huckleberry Finn 15. Henry James or Edith Wharton (Would LOVE to switch this to a science fiction or fantasy novel, but don't know of any early American sci-fi/fantasy authors.)
As you can see, there's not much on this list that fits in with my theme, but it is a pretty hard theme to match. Of these, I haven't read #7 or #15.
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1. Robert Frost (1874-1963): selection of poems 2. Wallace Stevens (1879-1955): selection of poems 3. William Carlos Williams (1879-1955): selection of poems 4. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965): selection of poems and/or essays (Lovesong, not the Wasteland) 5. Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960): Their Eyes Were Watching God 6. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940): The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald 7. William Faulkner (1897-1962): Light in August 8. Langston Hughes (1902-1967): selection of poems 9. Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979): selection or collection of poems 10. Ralph Ellison (1914-1994): Invisible Man 11. Arthur Miller (1915-2005): Death of a Salesman 12. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000): selection or collection of poems 13. Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964): A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories 14. Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965): A Raisin in the Sun 15. Toni Morrison (b. 1931): novel 16. Sylvia Plath (1932-1963): selection of poems
This is the list that I wanted to add Card to. I only need 15 per list, so I can take one of these off, and I can also substitute one with a wildcard. I haven't read #6 or #15.
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1. Beowulf (Author unknown, written ca. 725-850 A.D.) 2. Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400) The Canterbury Tales (General Prologue and a selection of tales) 3. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (author unknown, written ca. 1375-1400) 4. Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) Utopia 5. Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) The Faerie Queen, Book 1 6. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Selection of essays 7. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) Dr. Faustus 8. William. Shakespeare (1564-1616) Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream 9. John Donne (1572-1631) Selection of poems and sermons 10. John Milton (1608-1674) Selections from Paradise Lost (to include books 1, 2, 9, 12) (middle war in heaven section) 11. Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) Blazing World 12. John Dryden (1631-1700) Play 13. Daniel Defoe (1659-1731) Robinson Crusoe 14. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Selections may include "Preface" to the Dictionary, Lives of the Poets, Rasselas 15. Anne Radcliffe (1764-1823) The Mysteries of Udolpho
I still have tons to read on this list: #4, #5, #6, #11, #12, #15, and I need to finish #13 and #14. Ugh. Some of the things I haven't read are on the list because they fit my theme well, but I'd love to substitute one of the others with something else. But again, I don't know of any other options for my theme.
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posted
Godric, so did I. And I also taught them when I was a high school teacher. Hated them then, too! Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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1. William Blake (1757-1827) Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience 2. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Selection of poems; could include “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” 3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 4. Jane Austen (1775-1817) Pride and Prejudice 5. Charles Dickens (1786-1851) Great Expectations (or Hard Times or A Tale of Two Cities?) 6. John Keats (1795-1821) Selection of poems; could include selected significant letters. 7. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) Frankenstein 8. Robert Browning (1812-1889) Selected poems (Include "Porphyria's Lover" and “My Last Duchess”) 9. Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) Jane Eyre 10. Emily Brontë (1818-1848) Wuthering Heights 11. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) "A Pair of Blue Eyes" [fantasy] 12. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The Picture of Dorian Gray 13. George Shaw (1856-1950) Pygmalion or Man and Superman 14. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Heart of Darkness 15. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) Selection of poems 16. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) To the Lighthouse 17. Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Waiting for Godot 18. Seamus Heaney (b. 1939) Selected poems 19. Angela Carter (1940-1992) The Bloody Chamber
Possible wildcards: 1. Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale (Canadian author, but I got permission to add her to the British list.) 2. H.G. Wells (1866-1946) The Island of Dr. Moreau
I only need 15 for this list, too, so I have up to 5 that I can remove from the main list, if I add one wildcard. Of this list, I haven't read #10, #11, #12, #13 (Man and Superman), #14, #16, #18, or #19. Most of those are recent suggestions by the professor. I have to decide which I want to add.
ETA: I also haven't read Wells. That book was another suggestion by the professor.
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quote:Originally posted by Katarain: Hated them then, too!
Really? Seeing that list brought back (mostly) good memories for me.
Well no, not really. I'm exaggerating. I just find early American literature extremely dry and boring. I'm specifically referring to Bradford and Rowlandson. It starts getting interesting around say... Washington Irving.
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posted
For Brit Lit 2, if your theme is sci-fi & fantasy, I don't know how you could leave out George MacDonald - a direct influence on Tolkien and Lewis.
Also, for horror, H.P. Lovecraft for American Lit 2 is a perfect fit, bridging the gap between Poe and modern day authors such as King.
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quote:Originally posted by Katarain: Hated them then, too!
Really? Seeing that list brought back (mostly) good memories for me.
Well no, not really. I'm exaggerating. I just find early American literature extremely dry and boring. I'm specifically referring to Bradford and Rowlandson. It starts getting interesting around say... Washington Irving.
Ha! Bradford was specifically why I added "mostly."
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posted
What I would really like is personal recommendations. I can read the lists of author names, but it would really help to know who to choose if I knew why the good people at hatrack liked this book or that author.
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posted
Thanks for the suggestion of MacDonald. I never heard of him, but I see on his wiki page that he wrote some fairy tales. I think that would go beautifully with Angela Carter's stories in The Bloody Chamber--which I had also never heard of, but when my professor suggested it, I looked it up and I loooove reworked fairy tales. Do you have any specific stories or novels by him to suggest?
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posted
Vonnegut is actually on the master list for American Lit. II, so he wouldn't have to be a wildcard. I'll put him on my list as an option.
I've read 1984, so that is definitely a positive for adding it to the ... British II list. Didn't know he was English. Well, this is good. He would fit in well with my interest in dystopian literature.
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posted
Yes, I think it makes sense to replace Toni Morrison with Kurt Vonnegut, because Morrison really has nothing to do with speculative fiction, and when I started to read Beloved, I couldn't get past the dialect it is written in.
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quote:Originally posted by Katarain: Thanks for the suggestion of MacDonald. I never heard of him, but I see on his wiki page that he wrote some fairy tales. I think that would go beautifully with Angela Carter's stories in The Bloody Chamber--which I had also never heard of, but when my professor suggested it, I looked it up and I loooove reworked fairy tales. Do you have any specific stories or novels by him to suggest?
I've only ever read Phantastes and Lilith. A few of his other works I believe are on Project Gutenberg, but I really prefer reading actual books, and those are the only 2 I've ever found. Of those, I would recommend Lilith.
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posted
I would go with Tolkien's version of Beowolf, it's considered one of the best ever, and it made his reputation. Plus, I like that it's Tolkien. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I don't see it in my library's catalog, and I am not having luck finding information on it in Google. Do you have any more information on it to help me find it? Maybe a specific title?
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posted
No mentions of Isaac Aasimov? That's about as canonical as sci-fi can get. I suppose "Foundation" would be the best one to recommend, though a collection of his short stories could also work.
Also on the short stories note, while Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle are a bundle of laughs, might I recommend Vonenguts short stories instead? Welcome to the Monkey House is a brilliant book.
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posted
Might I suggest Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus? It may have been the very first science fiction novel. I think there is alot to recommend it.
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posted
Frankenstein has a firm place on my list. I wrote a paper or two on it. It ain't going no where.
I am definitely open to switching to a bunch of short stories for Vonnegut. I'll ask my professor if it's okay.
I can only add up to four authors not on the regular reading list, and there's very limited sci-fi on it in the first place. I'm almost done with my lists. It's a good feeling!
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quote:Originally posted by Dr Strangelove: No mentions of Isaac Aasimov?
Yes, there were two.
But Katarain, I'm a little confused - are you asking for canonical science fiction, or science fiction that can pass as canonical literature? (or something else?)
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posted
Urs ula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness lends itself nicely to discussion, isn't impenetrable like most of Samuel Delany, and is in the American sf canon, although probably not the American "Lit" canon.
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quote:Originally posted by Katarain: Frankenstein has a firm place on my list. I wrote a paper or two on it. It ain't going no where.
I am definitely open to switching to a bunch of short stories for Vonnegut. I'll ask my professor if it's okay.
I can only add up to four authors not on the regular reading list, and there's very limited sci-fi on it in the first place. I'm almost done with my lists. It's a good feeling!
Whoops, missed your Brit Lit II list.
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I actually only need a "wildcard" now for my American Lit. I list. I may end up adding Irving. My professor also mentioned someone called Charles Brown. He had a middle name, but I don't remember it.
I did a little research, as much as I could, into Tolkien's version of Beowulf, and from what I found, it can be viewed in a museum, but it's never been published. It was suggested somewhere on the web that people may be thinking of his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
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posted
Left Hand of Darkness was fairly canonical at the colleges I attended (Berkeley, SF State). Granted, Le Guin was shunted more in to the Women's Studies/Queer Studies ghetto of the Lit Departments, but nobody raised an eyebrow at the presence of that novel on a syllabus or used for a thesis, paper, etc.
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posted
Wieland is so delightfully weird! I loved it. Many of my classmates hated it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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