1.14.08 Hawthorne day1

1
1.14.08 Hawthorne (day1)

• GoPost
• Theory Wrap up
• Stakes?
• The Custom House
• HW
• Keep reading. We will be discussing the first (of
  three) pillory scenes.
• You can being making your responses. Three (3)
  are due by 5pm this Friday, but you can post them
  anytime this week.

2
GoPost

• Pretty good for first effort.
• Same mistakes throughout
• Problem logical leaps are too big.
• Claim to support there is explanation but it
  doesnt explain the relationship.
• Quotation to explanation many times people drop
  the quotation in, seemingly as a warrant to talk
  about whatever.
• Solution
• more explanation
• more transition
• Think about your reader. Ask yourself, have I
  done enough to allow someone to follow the train
  of thought.

3
Theory Wrap-upWhat should I remember?

• Saussure
• Structure of the sign Signifer/Signified
• Connection is arbitrary, but conventional
• Meaning requires chain.
• Not a substance, but a form.

4
Cont.

• Sontag
• Return to the text.
• Dont turn it into symbol hunting, abc your way
  out of the work.
• Overemphasis on content, neglects that it cant
  be divorced from form
• Sensation, surfaces (not emotion) over depth and
  hidden meanings.
• Erotics of the text.

5
Cont.

• Barthes
• Author is not a person, but the term we use for
  origin and true meaning.
• Writing is multivocal
• Reader is the focus point for the voices, but not
  a personality.
• The life of the reader is at the expense of the
  death of the author.

6
What are stakes?

• The stakes are what is at risk. As a result, the
  stakes are often the reason for the writing and
  the reason why readers should care about it.
• What might the stakes be for Saussure, Sontag, or
  Barthes?
• What place do stakes have in the theory we have
  looked at? (just keep this question in mind for
  now)

7
Hawthorne Maybe, he just wanted to write a
nice story

• "The truth seems to be, however, that, when he
  casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author
  addresses, not the many who will fling aside his
  volume, or never take it up, but the few who will
  understand him, better than most of his
  schoolmates and lifemates." -pg. 3"The author
  is constrained, therefore, to republish his
  introductory sketch without the change of a word"
  - pg. xxWho is Hawthorne's audience?What is
  it he hopes they will understand?

8
The Custom House

• What is a "custom house?"
• What does Hawthorne do there, according to the
  story?
• How does he feel about his experience there?
• What effect, if any, does his experience there
  have on his writing?

9
Salem, MA

• What is Salem famous for?
• What is the narrator's relationship to Salem?
• So, what, then, is the context for the writing of
  The Scarlet Letter, which is set in Boston, MA?

10
(No Transcript)
11
How do you tell if she is a witch?

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vyp_l5ntikaU
• SIGNS!!!