Analyze the style of Genesis and Darwin's Origin of Species

Genesis	Darwin
Incantations, words have power, authoritarian, repetitive, Biblical, God as agent, persuasive, declarative, simple,	Long sentences, logical, reasoning, persuasive, scientific, complex vocabulary, intellectual, convoluted sentences,
Simple language, rhythmic, concise, omnipotent, forceful, upfront, this is fact, closure, definitive, no other interpretations, dominant	Logical, then poetic, in awe of natural processes, serious tone, instructive, guarded, defensive, explanation, open-ended, for other scientists to follow through, inquisitive
Judeo-Christian believers, for everybody and to create order, explaining our origin	Skeptical readers, scientists, religious critics, explaining our origin, for everyone
Both talk about origins, Darwin about future, Bible about past,

Analyze Genesis and Darwin for Tone and Writing Style

Purpose: Expand our repetoire of skills we bring to texts by examining words and tone.
Don't have an argument about who is right, Darwin or The Bible.
Instead, at first working alone or in pairs, let's analyze Darwin's last chapter of Origin of Species and the opening of Genesis for how language is used, how tone and attitude are conveyed, and anything that jumps out and surprises you.
Annotate both works. Analyze language and sentences in the same ways you did for Hamlet and the passages in Metamorphosis and the graphic novels. From details, draw small conclusions that accumulate into a broader claim.
Contrast the language of both works and your claims about them.
Now, using lots of examples and reading aloud often, let's have an insightful conversation about how both texts operate, how language is used, the implied audience. (Model how you would discuss such a text in a college classroom.)
Together let's draw some conclusions that you can blog about and perhaps use in your next essay.

Student Blog posts on graphic novels of Metamorphosis

The illustration given in the graphic novel isn't exactly what I had in mind of Gregor as an insect. For one, I imagined Gregor as a typical insect, without a face or any human like physical qualities

confirming what I already felt.  Of course, they are exaggerated, but, thats what cartoons are meant to be.  They are also frightening.

Kafka is the most sympathetic to Gregor.  First, he makes the reader almost feel sympathetic for Gregor by using certain words that portray a feeling of remorse for the bug.  However, it is important to also take into consideration that Gregor's family has treated him like an animal his whole life,

Kafka is more sympathetic toward Gregor

Kuper's version is darker and more vivid. Kuper is more sympathetic towards Gregor because he illustrates Gregor as being stuck in a dead-end job. Kafka focuses more on the conformist side of Gregor instead of focusing on the reasons why he enjoys conformity.

Kuper shows the most sympathy towards Gregor because of the way he shows each characters distinct facial expressions.

think that Kuper's illustrations are both humorous and frightening. They are so overly exaggerated that they completely aid in understanding the humor and almost unreal aspect of the situation, yet they also manage to capture each person's reaction very accurately.

I had a specific image in my head of what Gregor looked like, but seeing the graphic novel definitely changed my view.

The fact that Gregor is drawn with a human head greatly takes away from his transformation and undermines my original picture of him. I don't think that Kafka ever intended for Gregor to be part human and part bug. If Gregor did still have a human head in Metamorphosis, the family would probably not have been as disgusted by his appearance and then would have been more likely to talk to him.

Graphic Novel (link)

Watch the graphic novel through this link:

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/metamorphosis/

Essay on Kafka due Sun. March 13

ESSAY ASSIGNMENT on Conformity, Civilization, & Transformation

Use Kafka, and at least one other text: Freud (Dreams, Civilization), Genesis, Darwin, Conrad, Hamlet, graphic novels (Crumb p.981 or Kuper p.988), poems, Frederick Karl, Power in the Classroom, Paolo Freire, Kafka’s letters, (p.978-980), etc.
You are also encouraged to include a PERSONAL INTERVIEW with a grandparent, parent, or somone of that generation about the pressures they felt to conform at your age.
By the conclusion, make this essay personal, using 'I,' to explore the pressure on you and your generation to conform and the costs involved.

Due Date: Sunday March 13 before midnight (or sooner, Wed. March 9)

Requirements for the Essay:

·         3- 5 pages: at least 2 ½ pages, double-spaced, carefully edited, mostly error-free, no fragments, typos, etc.

·         Proper MLA parenthetical documentation, header, first-page info, and works cited page

·         Uploaded with works cited page to Turnitin.com by midnight on date due (Sun. March 13)

·         Works Cited should include Kafka, perhaps a Personal Interview, and any other works consulted, such as Freud, Darwin, Conrad, etc.

·         Inclusion of analysis of the social pressure for conformity expected of you and your generation

·         A clear, debatable point or claim (optionally using the ‘it appears…however’ structure)

·         Evidence of your own clear thinking and analysis about society’s pressure on the individual to conform

Some ideas to get you thinking:

1.      What mechanisms does society have to try to impose more conformity?

2.      What motivates individuals to conform (or not to)? Is there a personal cost for both decisions?

3.      Which are more dangerous for society, conformists or nonconformists? Why? Give examples.

4.      Explore your own family’s, community’s, and society’s expectations for you to conform. How is that subtle pressure communicated? How does it feel to you? What are the pros and cons for you to comply?

5.      Explore the gap between what we profess to be and what we really are in Kafka and personally.

6.      Develop an essay including Kafka, other examples, and a personal example that explores and takes a stand on how society and the individual are in conflict about how much conformity is necessary and how those conflicts are resolved (or not resolved, but always in tension).

7.      Optional: Explore whether protagonists undergo metamorphosis, transformation, and change

Leaderless Discussion Mon. Feb 14

Conformity                             Nonconformist

ß-------------grandparents-----society -------------individual -----------you---------------------------à

Gregor’s mind (superego)               Kurtz (id)

LEADERLESS DISCUSSION on Heart of Darkness, Conformity, Freud, & Kafka

Circle desks and annotate/prep one or two questions below. Jot down follow-up questions to keep the conversation going. Find one quote in Conrad, Kafka, or Freud to read aloud to the group to discuss.

1. Conformity (define): the process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are influenced by other people, both small groups and society as a whole; may be the result of subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure
2. Locate your grandparents, parents, and yourself on the conformity-nonconformist continuum above. Explain why you locate each and give examples.
3. IN OUR HEARTS Are people naturally or morally good? Or bad? Or just instinctual animals?
4. Freud/Conrad Does civilization make people better or worse? Examples?
5. Europe/Congo Where in the world is the most ‘civilization’? Can it be located?
6. MENTAL HABITS: Find examples of Marlow’s, Kurtz’s or Gregor’s habits of thinking. How do habituated thought patterns affect us? Affect you? Your parents? What if your thoughts were like Gregor’s, remaining in the same patterns despite external changes?
7. PHYSICAL DIFFICULTIES: What if you woke up as a bug? Trace the physical difficulties and adjustments Gregor (or you) face? What is the significance of physical instincts? Physical limitations? Physical injuries?   
8. GREGOR’S RELATIONSHIP TO HIS BOSS AND HIS JOB: How would you characterize Gregor’s relationship with the manager and with his job?  Give evidence. How is this different than how you envision your future relationship to your work? What is Kafka saying about the workplace? Is this vision limited to 1915 Germany?
9. RELATIONSHIPS TO FAMILY/GRANDPARENTS: What is Gregor’s relationship to his family members? What is your relationship with your grandparents and parents? Why are different generations more or less conformist? What pressures for conformity do people like you face? Give Examples.
10. WHAT IF YOU WOKE UP AS A “VERMIN”?  Put yourself in Gregor’s shoes. What thoughts would you have if you indulged yourself in habitual patterned thinking or denial?  What thoughts would you have if you woke up fully to your new situation?  Why doesn’t Gregor have more wakeful and responsive type of thoughts?

RECORDER’s name _________  Date:          Topic:

Note below both the PROCESS (keeping it going, listening, responding) and CONTENT (ideas).

Participant
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Your overall observations? _______________________________________________________

Group dynamics? _________________________________________________________

Best idea? _______________________________________________________________

For TONIGHT’S BLOG (2/14/11) response: Pick any topic from our Leaderless Discussion. Form a clear and interesting argument and discuss it. Or you may discuss the dynamics of the discussion.

Compare Translations of Kaka's First Sentence of Metamorphosis

In one carefully written paragraph, explain one difference between the translations below.

How are we dependent on a translator's sensitivity and interpretation in reading literature?  What can we safely assume about language in spite of translation?  What can we not assume?

                                    Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Having decided on the translated version of the story's title, the translator must now grapple with the story's first sentence -- the sentence that announces, without apparent surprise,  that Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to find he'd become an insect. In the boxes below you'll see how this sentence appears in the original German and in a literal (word-for-word) translation. 
LITERAL   As Gregor Samsa one morning from restless dreams awoke, found he himself in his bed into an enormous vermin transformed.
WILLA/EDWIN MUIR As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
J. A. UNDERWOOD Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.
STANLEY APPELBAUM  When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found that he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.
JOACHIM  NEUGROSCHEL   One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.
STANLEY CORNGOLD  When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.
IAN JOHNSON   One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.

QUESTIONS:
1. In your opinion, which translations contribute what nuances of meaning?
2. How reliant are we on the translator?
3. Should the translator merely translate for us, interpret, or match the meaning of the original?