12/24/2010

【比較文學 writing assignment #3】J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Otherness (deadline: 1/3, 12 p.m.)


The question which keeps haunting much of Coetzee's writing is how to do justice to the (racial/gender) Other in the dominant language that has historically been one of the instruments ensuring that this Other is kept subordinate. This question is about taking sides: would you side with the dominant history written by the victors? Or would you side with the vanquished in the unfailing quest for justice, even if the possibility of restorative justice is limited? In Waiting for the Barbarians, the Magistrate is tormented by this ethical question. In his strange relationship with the barbarian girl, he tries to respond ethically to the otherness of this individual who has been classified as inferiro by virtue of race and gender. This (im)possibility of representing the Other constitutes the Magistrate's version of hell and his obsession with shame, damnation, ethical responsibility, and searching for salvation.

Here are three audio clips regarding this well-known South African novelist and his work. Listen carefully and write down anything that inspires you.

【文讀writing assignment #5】 (deadline: 1/4, 12 p.m.)


Flannery O'Connor wrote that "im my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace" and that violence "is the extreme situation that best reveals what we are essentially." Choose one from the two stories we have read ("A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Everything that Rises Must Converge") in light of these statements about violence. What "moments of grace" do you see?

12/07/2010

【文讀writing assignment #4】"What the Hell Happened to Maggie?" --Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" and Jewel's "Pieces of You" (deadline: 12/15, 12 p.m.)

In Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" (1983), Maggie is a crippled, mute, deaf old woman who is constantly conjured up in Twyla's and Roberta's memories. However, the memory about Maggie is constantly rewritten and revised; each woman has a different recollection of an incident in which Maggie either fell down or was knocked down in the orchard at St. Bonny's.

Why are they so fascinated with Maggie? How do you explain the women's paradox of secretly identifing with Maggie and silently abusing/bullying her in their imagination?

Below is the lyrics of "Pieces of You," written by American singer/song writer Jewel. After listening to the song and comprehending its lyrics, can you find any clues to understanding "the Maggie thing"?


"Pieces Of You"

She's an ugly girl, does it make you want to kill her?
She's an ugly girl, do you want to kick in her face?
She's an ugly girl, she doesn't pose a threat.
She's an ugly girl, does she make you feel safe?
Ugly girl, ugly girl, do you hate her
'Cause she's pieces of you?
She's a pretty girl, does she make you think nasty thoughts?
She's a pretty girl, do you want to tie her down?
She's a pretty girl, do you call her a bitch?
She's a pretty girl, did she sleep with your whole town?
Pretty girl, pretty girl, do you hate her
'Cause she's pieces of you?
You say he's a faggot, does it make you want to hurt him?
You say he's a faggot, do you want to bash in his brain?
You say he's a faggot, does he make you sick to our stomach?
You say he's a faggot, are you afraid you're just the same?
Faggot, Faggot, do you hate him
'Cause he's pieces of you?
You say he's a Jew, does it mean that he's tight?
You say he's a Jew, do you want to hurt his kids tonight?
You say he's a Jew, he'll never wear that funny hat again.
You say he's a Jew, as though being born were a sin.
Oh Jew, oh Jew, do you hate him
'Cause he's pieces of you?

12/06/2010

星期五導生面談(12/10)

這禮拜五下午我們來安排導生面談,時段如下:
2:30-3:00
3:00-3:30
3:30-4:00
有興趣的同學趕快登記,揪團亦可,地點在我研究室 (文A303)。

11/30/2010

星期五導生面談(12/3)

這禮拜五下午我們來安排導生面談,時段如下:
2:00-2:30
2:30-3:00
3:00-3:30
3:30-4:00
有興趣的同學趕快登記,揪團亦可,地點在我研究室 (文A303)。老師會準備每個人兩百元圖書禮券,交換條件是:要準備至少一個問題問老師。

【文讀】writing assignment #3 (deadline: 12/8, 12 p.m.)



In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" (1894), Mrs. Mallard received two shocking news within an hour. The first news revived her, while the second news killed her. This famous short story expresses Chopin's dissatisfaction regarding women's roles in marriages and their desire to break free from the patriarchal restriction and oppression. Love, for Mrs. Mallard, is in fact a violence in disguise because it is carried out by "imposing a private will upon a fellow-creature." Nobody understood her; they thought she was all right; they thought her sorrows were ordinary ones. What is even worse is that everybody misunderstood the cause of her death. They believed that she died from the joy of seeing her husband; only we readers know that she died from the grief of losing what she thought she might have had.

If Mrs. Mallard's husband were dead and she had opportunities to realize her dreams, what would her dreams be? Write a creative essay imagining the future of Mrs. Mallard as a widow.

11/23/2010

思潮影展2010──台灣有愛‧紀錄片精選展──

時間 12月17日 16:00 - 12月19日 21:00

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地點 花蓮縣文化局圖書館文化電影院(花蓮市文復路6號)

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召集人 空間與文學研究室

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詳情   
  
  
如果你覺得島嶼上充滿營私暴戾,
那是因為你不曉得愛在哪裡──
⋯⋯
如果你覺得故鄉變得愈來愈陌生,
那是因為你不曉得怎麼去愛──

12月17日~12月19日
請你看電影
讓你發現愛


入場方式:開放所有民眾現場免費索票,限索當日場次。場地座位有限(僅50座),不劃座,每人每場限索2張。


播放資訊如下──

12/17(週五)
16:00 開放現場索票
18:00 進場
18:15 開幕式
18:30~20:50 影片《遮蔽的天空》‧紀文章導演座談

12/18(週六)
10:30 開放現場索票
12:45 開放進場
13:00~15:00 影片《T婆工廠》‧陳素香導演座談
15:20~17:20 影片《我愛高跟鞋》‧賀照緹導演座談
18:30~20:50 影片《沉沒之島》‧黃信堯導演座談

12/19(週日)
10:30 開放現場索票
12:45 開放進場
13:00~15:00 影片《天線寶寶之停車暫借問》‧郭明珠導演座談
15:20~17:20 影片《森之歌》‧柯金源導演座談
18:00~20:40 影片《被遺忘的時光》‧楊力州導演座談
20:40~20:50 閉幕式


主辦單位:國立東華大學空間與文學研究室
協辦單位:國立東華大學英美語文學系
補助單位:教育部顧問室
特別感謝:花蓮縣政府文化局

研究室主持人:郭強生(國立東華大學英美語文學系教授)
影展策展人:王君琦(國立東華大學英美語文學系助理教授)

國立東華大學空間與文學研究室聯絡方式──
助理:廖律清
E-Mail:luching@mail.ndhu.edu.tw
Tel:0936-177017
Fax:03-8635290
Web:http://www.literatureinspaces.tw/

【文讀】writing assignment #3 (deadline: 12/1, 12 p.m.)


This link can lead you to the audio clip that briefly describes the life and works of Borges. Click "real media" on the right side, listen careful, and write down anything that impresses or inspires you. For example, how fantastic are Borges's concepts of time, reality, and identity? How dos he influence the world and its readers outside Latin America? What are his insights into aspect of human psychology?

11/06/2010

【文讀】writing assignment #2 (deadline: 11/18, 12 p.m.)

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (200-250 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1) In “The Lady with the Dog,” the characters’ responses to their environment are integral to the action of the story and its effect on the reader. Describe the significance of various “settings” used by Chekhov to symbolize the protagonists’ inner psychology.

2) In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” why does the spider girl attract more people than the angel?

3) In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” what’s the secret the woman discovers behind the patterns of the wallpaper? Why does Charlotte Perkins Gilman make her narrator go crazy at the end of the story?

【比較文學】期中考essay questions

Choose two questions to answer. Allow no less than 2 pages (single-spaced) for each answer. Cite the texts to support your argument.

1. According to Mary Russo, making a spectacle out of oneself appears to be "a specifically feminine danger" (318). How does Cindy Sherman negotiate this "feminine danger" in her bold affirmations of feminine performance, bodily exposure, and gender masquerade? What does the idea of the "grotesque" and its subversive implications have to do with her various boundary transgressions?

2. Compare and contrast the representation of the grotesque in Kafka and Sherwood Anderson.

3. Compare and contrast Kafka's punishment fantasies in "In the Penal Colony" with CJ Chen's aesthetic of horror.

Please print out your essays and drop them in my departmental mailbox BEFORE 5 pm Friday,November 19th. Late papers are not accepted.

10/22/2010

【比較文學】writing assignment #2 (deadline: 10/28, 12 p.m.)

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (250-300 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1)What did Kafka try to express through the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa?

2)What is the central theme of "First Sorrow"? Compare it to the same theme in "A Hunger Artist."

3) Compare and contrast Kafka's punishment fantasies in "In the Penal Colony" with CJ Chen's aesthetic of horror.

4) In Winesburg, Ohio, communication is failed because the feminine qualities of tenderness, intimacy, creativity, and vulnerability are devalued in a patriarchal culture in which femininity is regarded as weakness. Analyze any story that manifests this thwarted feminine dimension of life. How does Anderson suggest that an integration of the feminine qualities is necessary for the artist?

10/10/2010

【比較文學】writing assignment #1 (deadline: 10/20, 12 p.m.)

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (250-300 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1)In his study of Rabelais, Bakhtin looked at 16th-century France as a site of competing languages and social groups. How does this have to do with Bakhtin's antipathy towards authoritarianism and his penchant for the folk culture and its emancipatory potential?

2)The word "grotesque" comes from the same Latin root as "grotto." Therefore, the many connotations of the grotto--earthiness, fertility, death--link to the various incarnations of the grotesque. Can you find these incarnations in Bakhtin's depiction of the carnivalized body? How? Explain.

3) The image of the Siamese twins is a recurring motif in CJ Chen's Revolt of Body and Soul (《魂魄暴亂》系列). The Siamese twins halppily killing one another, self-mutilating figures modelling on Chen himself, Chen as the executed and the executor, and so forth reveal that the seemingly oppositional relationship between Self and Other is in fact ambivalent. How do you interpret this Self-Other ambivalence in relation to the project of modernity? How do these grotesque images function as Chen's critique of the State Apparatus?

10/07/2010

在帝國的邊界上─陳界仁 編年展 1996-2010

今年最值得我們關注的展覽!

展期|2010/8/28 - 2010/11/14
地點|台北市立美術館 地下市 D~E~F

台灣當代藝術家陳界仁1960年生於台灣桃園,高職美工科畢業,目前生活在台灣台北。

1980年代─臺灣的冷戰/戒嚴時期,陳界仁曾以游擊式的行為藝術和策劃體制外的地下展覽,干擾當時的戒嚴體制。

1987年台灣解除戒嚴後,陳界仁停止創作沉寂了八年,這段期間他在擺地攤的弟弟支助生活下,開始經由重新審視自身的成長經驗、家族歷史和其生活環境中的軍法局、兵工廠、加工區、違章建築區等空間,省思台灣在歷經殖民統治、冷戰/戒嚴時期,成為資本主義生產鏈的加工基地和逐漸進入消費化社會的演變關係,以及解嚴後被納入新自由主義全球化的背後根源和台灣處於國際政治的「例外狀態」下,人的處境與其精神的變異過程。

陳界仁認為台灣在經過長期的被支配過程後,無論是在地的社會現實或歷史脈絡,已被新自由主義主導的主流論述層層遮蔽和抹除,並成為了一個「快速遺忘」和失去「歷史性地思考未來」的社會。

1996年重新恢復創作後,他開始通過平面影像和拍攝影片等藝術行動,對邊緣區域的現實處境、內在的精神狀態,以及如何翻轉新自由主義治理邏輯的可能性,進行各種「再書寫」、「再想像」和「再連結」的創作計畫。他認為通過與在地人民的合作,以及通過美學的實驗和影像詩學的開放性,可以與觀眾共同創造出多重對話的場域和相互連結的可能性;雖然他的作品背後總有其所關注的政治議題,但他認為藝術的意義,更在於將那些語言、文字難以訴說的氛圍、精神的幽微狀態、身體的記憶和感性經驗,通過藝術的想像性進行「書寫」;尤其是在被新自由主義日趨宰制的時代,創作不僅是為了抵抗遺忘,更在於如何對「人民書寫」的形式和「多元民主」的可能性提出新的想像。

陳界仁的作品曾個展於:台北市立美術館、洛杉磯Redcat藝術中心、馬德里蘇菲雅皇后國家美術館、紐約亞洲協會美術館、巴黎網球場國家畫廊等機構。參加過的聯展包括:威尼斯雙年展、里昂雙年展、聖保羅雙年展、利物浦雙年展、雪梨雙年展、伊斯坦堡雙年展、台北雙年展、光州雙年展、上海雙年展、福岡亞洲藝術三年展、布里斯本亞太三年展等當代藝術展覽,以及西班牙、里斯本、阿爾等攝影節與倫敦、溫哥華、愛丁堡、鹿特丹等電影節。曾獲2009年台灣國家文藝獎─視覺藝術類、2000年韓國光州雙年展特別獎。



演講會:
主講人/陳界仁(當代藝術家)
09/12(日) 14:30-16:30 在帝國的邊界上─我的游擊工作報告
主講人/林志明(台北教育大學藝術與造型設計學系)
10/24(日) 14:30-16:30 位於歷史極限的影像與記憶─閱讀陳界仁作品

(本文轉載台北市政府文化局)

10/05/2010

【文讀】writing assignment #1(deadline: 10/15, 12 p.m.)

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (200-250 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1) In "Roman Fever," what are the hints of hidden conflict between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley? What details in part 1 bring out the differences in their personalities and their lives?

2) In "The Cask of Amontillado," what can you infer about Montresor's social position and character from hints in the text? What evidence does the text provide that Montresor is an unreliable narrator?

3) The story "Araby" is about a boy's "epiphany." Describe it in relation to the story's setting and its atmosphere and its impact upon the boy.

4) Look closely at the setting of the story "The Birth-Mark," from the laboratory to the boudoir. Note teh similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech that help characterize these places. How do these different patterns of imagery contribute to the symbolism of teh story? to an allegorical reading of the story?

5)Some feminist critics argue that "A Rose for Emily" exposes the violence done to a woman by making her a lady? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

9/17/2010

賀照緹作品 <我愛高跟鞋> 預告片(My Fancy High Heels trailer )


試映會
時間:9/27(一)下午兩點 
地點:台北誠品敦南店B2視聽室

首播:9/28 晚上 10:00
重播:9/29 凌晨 03:00
紀錄觀點 公共電視13頻道

這是個關於願望的故事,也是一個由美麗高跟鞋串起來的故事。售價美金300-1000元的奢華名牌高跟鞋,到底是誰做出來的呢?從取得皮料、製作、代工到套進一雙雙白皙的腳上,要經過多少人的手?這些養牛的農婦、工人、代工管理者和穿高跟鞋的紐約名媛,都有自己生活上的難處和小小的快樂。本片以他們的願望為主軸,呈現出美麗高跟鞋背後的故事。

本片歷經兩年的拍攝,追著名牌高跟鞋的足跡,從中國和俄羅斯的邊境,一路拍到紐約的曼哈頓;從貧困的農村,殺牛取皮的血腥現場,到時尚奢華的大都會;春天,小牛的皮剛被割下,女工在生產線上,精心修飾每一個細節。到了那一年的冬天,那些細節就穿在紐約時尚女性的腳上。

全球化對這個世界的影響,從這一雙雙高跟鞋中顯現。每個製作高跟鞋的環節,是一個小短片,裡面有不同的故事主角。透過攝影機,看到了主角腳上所穿的鞋,價格從人民幣2元到美金600元不等。片中有女工的喜怒哀樂,也有台商作為代工者,和國際客戶協商的現場;有紐約名媛的內心世界,也有屠牛場的殘酷實境。這些主角的願望,顯示了他們生活處境上的差異性。全片在平靜中潛伏巨大能量,猶如一首浩瀚浮於世事的詩篇。


About the Film

This is a film about dreams, and a tale bound together by beautiful high-heeled shoes. Brand-name high heels costing anywhere from $300 to $1000 -- exactly who is it that makes them? From procuring the leather, to the assembly line, to the contract manufacturer, to the moment when lily-white feet slip into each pair of high heels, how many people's hands do these shoes pass through? The farming woman who tends the cattle, the worker, the manager of the contract manufacturing firm, the young New York woman from a wealthy family who wears the shoes -- they all have their own difficulties and little sources of happiness in life. This film adopts their dreams as its central theme, and reveals the story that lies behind a pair of beautiful high heel shoes.

Filmed over a period of two years, this documentary traces the footsteps of a pair of name-brand high-heeled shoes, from the border of China and Russia to the streets of Manhattan, from an impoverished farm town and the sanguinary spectacle of slaughtered cows and skinned hides, to the fashionable, prosperous metropolis. In the spring, the hide of the calves have just been skinned, and the woman assembly-line worker meticulously touches up every last detail of the shoes. By winter of the same year, those tiny details can be seen on the feet of a fashionable woman in New York City.

The impact of globalization on this world manifests itself in each pair of high heel shoes. Every link in the manufacturing chain is its own segment with its own story, and each has its own protagonist. Through the camera, we see the shoes the protagonists wear, ranging from 2 renminbi to 600 US dollars. The film reveals a young female assembly-line worker, with her own feelings of joy, disillusionment and sorrow; a Taiwanese businessman in China, managing a contract manufacturing firm and negotiating with international customers; the inner world of a fashionable, well-off young woman of New York; and the cruel realities of the slaughterhouse. The dreams of all these people reveal the disparities in their positions in life. Beneath the calm and quiet of the entire film lurks an enormous energy, like an immense poem floating amidst the affairs of the world.

9/13/2010

2010年秋【比較文學】課綱

Comparative Literature—the grotesque in art and literature
Fall 2010
Thursday 1:10-4:00, 文D221
Instructor: Prof. Jen-yi Hsu
Office hours: Fri. 2-4 p.m., and by appointment (jyhsu@mail.ndhu.edu.tw)
Course Description:
As an idea, “grotesque” is hard to pin down and capable of assuming many forms. The word itself comes from the same Latin root as “grotto,” meaning a small cave or cavern. Therefore, the many connotations of the grotto—earthiness, fertility, femininity, darkness, death—link to the various incarnations of the grotesque. In this class, we will explore the grotesque in art and literature. Three forms of the grotesque will be examined: 1) the grotesque as a way of challenging authority and official order, 2) the grotesque and its associations with the feminine, and 3) the grotesque and its racial representations.
Required Books: 1) course packages available at the Xerox Center 2) books to be purchased at the University Bookstore:
--《陰性顯影:女性攝影家的扮裝自拍像》
-- Waiting for the Barbarians
-- The Bluest Eye
Grading Policy:
Midterm 30%, final exam 30%, presentation and class participation 30%, blog entries 10% (http://literarycollage.blogspot.com/)
Course Schedule:
Week1: 9/16 Introduction

Part I: The grotesque as a way of challenging authority and official order
Week2: 9/23 〈大眾文化的狂歡節〉(in《對話的喧聲:巴赫汀文化理論述評》by劉康)(Zark, Andy, Tim) ; ”The Banquet, the Body and the Underworld” (in The Bakhtin Reader)(Kevin)
Week3: 9/30 〈陳界仁的歷史肢解與死亡鈍感〉(Lena, Joanne),〈症狀─賤斥─恐懼──另外一種觀看的方式〉(怡安&怡潤) (both in 《心的變異:現代性的精神形式》by劉紀蕙); “Approaching Abjection” (in Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection)
Week4: 10/7 “In the Penal Colony” by Kafka (Connie, Dalia); 〈狂人日記〉(“A Madman’s Diary) by 魯迅 (Lu Xun)
Week5: 10/14 The Metamorphosis (Jasmine, Abby, Stacie), and "First Sorrow" by Kafka
Week6: 10/21 selections from Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919): “The Book of the Grotesque,” “Hands”(Jodie), “Paper Pills”(Stacy), “Mother”(Norah), “The Strength of God,” “Death”

Part II: Female grotesques
Week7: 10/28 《陰性顯影:女性攝影家的扮裝自拍像》by劉瑞琪( Ch3&4, pp.143-243)(Nina &Emma); “Female Grotesque: Carnival and Theory” by Mary Russo (in Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory, edited by Conboy, Medina, and Stanbury)
Week8: 11/4 Orlando;〈兩種《歐蘭朵》──文字/影像互動與性別/文本政治〉by張小虹 (in 《性別越界:女性主義文學理論與批評》)(Angela, Maggie)
Week9: 11/11 midterm (take-home exam)
Week10: 11/18“A Temple of the Holy Ghost” by Flannery O’Connor; “Freak Photography” by Rachel Adams (in Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination)(Bella, Maggie, Vanessa)
Week11: 11/25 no class
Week12: 12/2 The Ballad of Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers (Claudia, Brant)
Week13: 12/9 finish The Ballad of Sad Cafe; “Two Bodies in One” by Sarah Gleeson-White (in Strange Bodies: Gender and Identity in the Novels of Carson McCullers) (Alvis, Monica)

Part III: Racial grotesques
Week14: 12/16 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee (Sasha, Susan)
Week15: 12/23 finish Waiting for the Barbarians (Sharyl)
Week16: 12/30 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Chet, Mike)
Week17: 1/6 finish The Bluest Eye
Week18: 1/13 final exam

開工大吉:2010年秋《文讀》課綱

Approaches to Literature ( 文學作品讀法 )

Fall 2010
Tuesday 9:10-12:00, 共二講堂
Instructor: Prof. Jen-yi Hsu
Office hours: Friday 2-4 p.m., and by appointment (jyhsu@mail.ndhu.edu.tw)

Course Description: This class will introduce students to fiction, poetry, and drama and open up a complex field of interpreting and analyzing literature. While the first semester focuses on fiction, the second semester will focus on poetry and drama. We will learn how to approach literature as a distinctive genre with its own specifications and acquaint ourselves with the cultural and historical contexts surrounding the texts. The concern of this class is to engage literature with a critical eye and to introduce students to the complex interactions of region, gender, race, class, and narrative technique. Some basic knowledge of critical theory and its terminology will also be introduced as a preparation for further study.
Required Text:
The Norton Introduction to Literature (Shorter 10th Edition)—to be purchased at the University Bookstore
Course Requirements:
1. Class Prep: You are expected to finish the reading assignments before each class meeting.
2. Attendance: Attendance is mandatory; you are responsible for coming to class on time. Excessive and consistent lateness will also harm your grade. I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. You will automatically fail the course if you miss more than 2 classes. If you must be absent for an extended period of time, you must consult with me to determine the best alternative for completing the course.
3. Oral Report: Two students as a group will be assigned one text for your group report. In the report, you have to introduce the biographical information of the author, summarize the plot of the story, analyze the main characters, and select passages that play crucial roles in the whole development of the story. I encourage creative presentation ideas. You are expected to present in front of the class, ready to take questions.
4. Midterm and final exams: Remember, there will be no make-up exams. Missing the exams will result in failing the course.
5. Blog entries: You are expected to submit 10 blog entries throughout the semester. Deadlines will be announced on the blog: http://literarycollage.blogspot.com/
Grading Policy:
Midterm 30%, final exam 30%, presentation and class participation 30%, blog entries 10%
Course Schedule:
Week 1: 9/14 Intro

Week 2: 9/21 (Plot) “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin (63-85); “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton (85-94)

Week 3: 9/28 (Narration and Point of View): “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe (101-5,Linda and Erica); “Araby” by James Joyce (503-7,Stanley and Bert)

Week 4: 10/5 “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (213--24,Patty and Una); “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner (391-7, Peace and Lily)

Week 5: 10/12 (Setting): “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov (169-80, Sherry, Sammi, and Ethan); “Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter (180-88, Winni, Fion, and Vedran)

Week 6: 10/19 (Symbol and Figurative Language): “The Thing in the Forest” by A.S. Byatt (224-38, Celina, Katherine, Judy)

Week 7: 10/26 Film Screening: Age of Innocence

Week 8: 11/2 (Theme): “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Marquez (271-5, Nick and Edison); “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (354-65, King, Sai, 徐浩嚴)

Week 9: 11/19 Midterm

Week 10: 11/16 no class

Week 11: 11/23 “A Hunger Artist” by Kafka (507-13, Beatrice, Maggie, Daphnie); “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges (463-9, Joanna Taphy, 劉黃芸芸)

Week 12: 11/30 “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence (513-24, Daniel, Jim, Jamison); “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (353-4, Jojo, 洪睿琦)

Week 13: 12/7 “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison (139-52, Jenny, Linda, Alice); “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro (570-9, Ashley, Cherry, Sammy); “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid (116-7, Clare and Vera)

Week 14: 12/14 Film Screening: Beloved

Week 15: 12/21 “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (299-310, Andrew and Jeffrey), and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor (323-33, Andy and Bruce)

Week 16: 12/28 “The Management of Grief” by Bharati Mukherjee (559-70, 岑藹欣and黃翊紘); “The Prophet’s Hair” by Salman Rushdie (579-89, Ben and James)

Week 17: 1/4 Film Screening: The Namesake

Week 18: 1/11 final exam

8/18/2010

【轉貼】移工小劇場 展演真實壓迫

【立報記者李宜霖台北報導】「不是家人不能一起吃飯。」菲籍看護工Anna用不流利的中文說著。Anna蜷居在小閣樓裡,沒有自己的房間,還受到雇主爺爺的性騷擾。這是編導兼演員藍貝芝的《無枝nostalgia離家行動計畫》裡,呈現的台灣社會底層移工情況。

藍貝芝提到,她的戲想處理外籍看護工的生存狀態,以及曖昧、無法分辨是非的情感流動。運動的論述很清楚看到壓迫者與被壓迫者,但比較難看到移工幽微情感的部分,她認為,戲劇可以去探索複雜、灰色地帶的東西。

藍貝芝試著探索看護工在照顧老人時,跟這一個家庭的關係是什麼?她是家人?勞雇關係?因為有情感的付出,讓勞雇關係更加複雜,權利的關係更不清楚。

糾結的家庭關係
藍貝芝的創作緣起於再拒劇團公寓聯展,主題是家,不同組的創作者,在公寓的各個角落,包括廚房、客廳、臥房演出,每組選擇家裡不同成員,用不同故事去呈現。藍貝芝選擇在儲藏室,處理外籍幫傭這個角色。

藍貝芝對性別議題感興趣,她的外婆中風多年,家裡面長期請外籍看護,因此聯展對藍貝芝來說是一個機會,從親人的經驗出發去思考這個議題。

藍貝芝演出獨角戲,一人分飾二角,劇情跨越時空。她飾演菲籍看護工Anna。Anna在擁擠的家中移動,幫阿公搧風講故事、處理家務,或者到自己的小臥鋪望著家鄉的照片。她也飾演雇主太太,在客廳跟一群貴婦講話。

藍貝芝提到,如何在同一空間,讓觀眾感受到不同的對象,而觀眾本身也是不同的對象,有時候演員把觀眾當成朋友,有時候是貴婦,有時候是旁觀者。她認為,單人表演跟觀眾的距離,有很多範圍可以調整,可以很近,也可很遠,可以讓觀眾感受不同層次的敘事觀點。

空間的權力
《無枝》劇第一版的呈現是在特定的空間裡,藍貝芝說,空間處理是這個戲的重點之一,《無枝》劇在台北小地方酒館演出,前兩個月在澳門,接下來要去花蓮巡演,每一個場地都不相同,但她認為,演出需要小的場地,去呈現出外傭生活、工作所面臨的擁擠與壓迫,實體空間的壓迫,隱喻了移工所面臨壓迫的處境。

由於每個地方空間不一樣,必須做調整。藍貝芝說,澳門演出是在藝廊的客廳,比較舒適,但她還是把20幾個觀眾擠在客廳裡;台北小地方酒館的2樓,有閣樓的感覺,她把桌椅全部堆疊,好像住在雜物堆裡,有觀眾反映,就如同外傭住在家裡的閣樓。

《無枝》劇是彈性的做各種改變,不像一般劇場會有一個固定場景。藍貝芝說,花蓮的展演,將會在辦公室的小儲藏室,屆時感覺又會不同。

移工知識問答
《無枝》劇中,Anna想要放假,想要出去玩,可是她無法休假,這也是移工普遍的狀況。Anna只能幻想到哪裡去玩。她幻想黃金計程車電視節目的情境,只要你答對問題,計程車就可以帶你想去的地方。藍貝芝藉著電視問答這個機會把觀眾帶進來,她認為,戲需要有跟觀眾互動的部分,去詢問觀眾對於移工的常識。

例如,藍貝芝問觀眾:四方報沒有哪種語言?答案是四方報目前有越文、泰文,沒有印尼、菲律賓語,讓大家知道台灣有發行東南亞語言、關注移工的報紙。

藍貝芝在機智問答中,曾問到誰不能捐血。她認為,過去曾規定同性戀、外勞、性工作者不能捐血,她想藉由機智問答,暴露出原來台灣社會有這樣荒謬與歧視的規定,可是一般人平常不會知道。

藍貝芝表示,目前還有很多人不知道最低工資是多少,現在基本工資調高為1萬7,280元,但仍有很多移工拿的是未調的工資1萬5,840元,她希望藉由問答去呈現移工的狀況。

《無枝》劇中有類似紀錄片《T婆工廠》的部分,有著移工同性伴侶的關係。藍貝芝在寫劇本時,曾遇到這些同性伴侶,有一些移工可能在母國有男友、先生及小孩,當她們來到台灣,她們選擇同性伴侶的關係。藍貝芝認為,在一個離鄉背井的環境裡,人需要溫暖跟支持,同性伴侶的關係其實是常態,戲劇可以呈現這樣的生存樣態。

藍貝芝本來試圖演爺爺角色,賦予爺爺聲音,但一直沒有找到對的方式呈現。藍貝芝說,Anna跟爺爺有著勞雇權力不對等關係,爺爺是雇主比較強勢,爺爺希望Anna幫他性服務,但爺爺另一面在體能上實際上非常弱勢,年紀老且生病,需要Anna的協助,Anna在這一層面看來又具有權力。

藍貝芝回憶,她自己的外婆跟外籍看護的關係,有時也會有微妙的轉變,外婆心情不好,責備看護,看護在外婆下次需要服務時,會假裝沒有聽見,這種情況就會出現誰比較有力量的權力關係。

藍貝芝後來決定不賦予爺爺聲音,爺爺在性騷擾上很強勢,但另外一方面又很弱勢,他不能說話,他的發言沒有人想聽,不賦予爺爺真實的聲音,具有這層意義。

藍貝芝認為,戲劇未來還會持續發展;仲介在移工的勞動關係上是很重要的角色,她以後會在劇情上處理這層關係。她也希望戲劇在與台灣移工處境類似的國家,如東亞香港、新加坡、韓國地方巡演,在國際上交流彼此工作、政策上的異同,讓更多人理解移工的身分。

10月15到17日晚上7點半,《無枝》劇在花蓮的乙皮畫廊(原心關係畫廊)演出。

7/27/2010

【好文分享】張鐵志:台北花博的華麗與空虛分享

【聯合報╱張鐵志】 2010.07.23 02:39 am


上海世博在海峽那頭進行,台北也正在熱烈籌備年底開幕的「台北國際花卉博覽會」。只不過一頭熱的似乎主要是台北市政府,市民多半不太關心,不少人則認為預算高達一百廿八億的昂貴花博是「花而不實」。

花博宣稱的三大目的是:一、表現園藝、科技與環保之技術精華;二、達成減碳排放等環保目標;三、結合文化與藝術之綠色生活。但市府的許多作法根本與其宣稱理念背道而馳。

首先,這個號稱生態與綠化的活動,卻移植了一千多棵美術公園及中山公園的樹木。這種砍樹種花的邏輯,以及興建大量花俏的展館(和可笑的行動巨蛋)來展現減碳排放理念的矛盾邏輯,令人難以苟同。如果這一百億預算拿來種下成千上萬的樹,不是更能綠化城市、降低排碳嗎?或者,如果能將二○二兵工廠溼地規劃為一個生態園區,不是更能成為我們呈現給世界的一個美麗城市奇蹟嗎?

再者,如同上海為了世博拆遷成千上萬戶人家,台北花博也為了興建花博場館搬遷圓山站附近四十九戶老舊住家。官方理由是為了塑造花博重要入口意象,所以要變更雜亂窳陋之公有土地。於是,為了一個短期活動,竟然要強迫弱勢公民搬離一生的居所。

此外,花博強調文化與藝術,並徵求民間舉辦六千場與花博主題相關的藝文活動,但這種為了政府目標大規模動員資源推動的文化活動,讓人真以為這是威權上海。尤其文建會在二○一○年度的預算只有九十二億,故花博的預算比文建會還高。顯然,這種目標集中的大型歡樂節慶反映了官方文化想像的貧乏;他們追求的是文化節慶化、城市奇觀化,剝奪這些資源被用在更多草根的、長期的文化實踐的可能。

如同最近出版的《博覽會的政治學》一書所說,博覽會一向是極為政治性、意識形態性的文化戰略,且在過去是帝國主義的權力展現、是現代性商品的展示場。台北花博當然也是政治性的:其所宣稱的美好宗旨只是表面的修辭,真正的目的是要創造巨大商機、吸引眾多遊客(官方估計六百萬人),來建築起一個偉大的政績———雖然似乎很少人相信真能吸引多少國際遊客。

真正核心的問題是,如此金額龐大的超大型活動應該要連結起城市的長期願景。然而,沒有人知道花博會為台北帶來什麼長遠的改造視野,沒有人知道在一場熱鬧之後,一百億將會留下什麼。而且,在這個龐大城市節慶的規劃過程中,市民沒有機會充分參與,沒有機會拋出他們對城市的想像與期待。於是,民主的台北和威權的中國城市竟然如此接近,都是由官方由上而下強制給人們一套自以為是的城市幻夢,都是用人民的稅金創造了一場空洞而短暫的華麗,而我們卻只能觀望著這場黑色幽默的拚政績遊戲。

上海世博是一場展現中國躍上世界舞台的權力投影。如果民主的台北真的要與上海世博較勁,那麼不是應該要比「大」,而是應展示一個「草根力量」的城市:這個「草根」既是由下而上的市民公共參與,也是字面上的草———遍布各角落的生態綠意,而非建構少數大型的綠色展館,並提出對於市民生活、生態環境與城市願景的深度反思。(作者為作家、美國哥倫比亞大學博士候選人)

7/25/2010

【空間與文學】身體操演研習營

國立東華大學 【空間與文學】研究室
98學年度空間與文學學程單元Ⅲ身體化之書寫
身體操演研習營
報 名 表 (可於下載)

時  間:2010.08.24(週二)~2010.08.27(週五),10:00~17:30
主辦單位:國立東華大學空間與文學研究室
協辦單位:國立東華大學英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所
指導及補助單位:教育部顧問室
上課地點:台北市忠孝東路一段31號1樓 青輔會台北市青年志工中心(近捷運板南線善導寺6號出口)
姓  名 性  別
就讀學校 生  日 年  月  日
系/所 年  級
E-Mail 聯絡電話
通訊地址
其他事項 是否需要研究室安排活動期間之台北市住宿?□是 □否
研習營內容概要

身體操演~~~
 ◎研習主題:東京身體操演/台北身體操演/紐約身體操演
 ◎授課師資:
      涂銘宏老師(U. of Wisconsin-Madison比較文學博士,淡江大學英文學系助理教授)
      郭強生老師(NYU戲劇博士,國立東華大學英美語文學系教授)
      陳建志老師(淡江大學英文系學文學博士,淡江大學英文學系助理教授)
      張靄珠老師(NYU戲劇博士,國立交通大學外國語文學系教授)

── 說明事項 ──
1. 本學程研習營得教育部顧問室補助,學員免學雜費。
2. 為維持研習營研習品質,擬招收學員30人為限,以各大專院校大三以上學生優先,系所不拘。
3. 研究室提供非台北縣市住民之外地學員活動期間(08/23、08/24、08/25、08/26四晚)之台北市住宿,惟提出住宿申請之學員,必須於完成報名手續之後預繳保證金2000元。確實參與活動者,待研習營結束,保證金將全數退還;非確實參與活動者(含遲到早退、無故缺席等),保證金恕不退還。
4. 報名方式:一律以e-mail方式報名。
5. 報名截止時間:2010.08.15.(逾期報名,請預先來電0936-177-017洽詢)
  本研究室保留報名核准與否的權利。研究室收到報名表之後,將以e-mail回覆是否得以參加研習營。
6. 【空間與文學】研究室聯絡資訊──
計畫主持人:郭強生教授
計畫助理:廖律清
地址:974 花蓮縣壽豐鄉志學村大學路二段一號 國立東華大學 英美語文學系
電話:0936-177-017   傳真:03-8635290   E-mail:luching_whale@yahoo.com.tw或luching@mail.ndhu.edu.tw
網址:http://www.literatureinspaces.tw

7/15/2010

【居無定所 掌鏡拍出嚮往的天堂】

The following news article is originally from 《台灣立報》:

【記者呂苡榕台北報導】城市裡的流浪者,長期處在貧無立錐的痛苦中,在快速發展的都市裡,終日勞苦,為城市的興建勞動的人,自己卻居無定所。台灣當代漂泊協會舉辦的「居無定所攝影展」,呈現大都市光鮮亮麗的糖衣下,遊民移動的身影。

這次影展是第三屆,「居無定所」的主題是攝影班的遊民們共同構想的。從一開始不敢拿起相機,到現在以「遊民」為主體,希望透過文化行動做點什麼,當代漂泊成員之一的戴瑜慧說:「這是一個漫長的集體認同建構的過程,或者說培力吧。」於是,遊民有了主體性。

戴瑜慧說,一開始當代漂泊有一個公民新聞平台,會搞出這個平台,是因為媒體報導遊民擔任舉牌工作,日薪僅有3百元但實際上是8百元,擔心勞動行情被拉低,當代漂泊借來機器設備,在Peopo弄了「漂泊新聞網」反映街友的真實狀況。

戴瑜慧說,當時大家有點奮力一搏的感覺,畢竟被社會打壓很久了,總是會想反抗一下。短短5分鐘的影片,整個拍攝過程卻是組織形成集體認同的重要時刻,當代漂泊另一位成員郭盈靖說,那時大家搬了一台除濕機過來充當主播台,整個準備過程也是手忙腳亂,但就是這些小事,鋪滿組織成長的過程。

由於攝影難度相對較高,戴瑜慧等人開始思考如何讓街友以平易近人的方式更便捷的發聲,加上許多街友不識字,因此他們選擇以影像傳達。

郭盈靖表示,攝影班成立之初,大家根本亂照一通,當時重點不是影像品質,而是建立自信。許多遊民剛拿到相機時會說:「不要給我啦,這樣浪費了。」漸漸地,大家開始越拍越有心得。

教室就像他們的家
攝影班平均10到15名學員,每週一次課,學員幾乎不缺席,每堂課都報到。課堂上大家分享拍照的過程和想法,互相給意見,小小的教室就像他們的家,每次上課就像回家。

郭盈靖說,漂泊新聞網之後,外界迴響很大,剛開始大家都不覺得自己能做到什麼,沒想到達成了,過程中彼此扶持幫忙,讓組織建立起「能夠一起完成什麼」的信心,對自我有新的認知。

攝影班累積一定作品後,發現當中有些共通性質,決定舉辦攝影展。戴瑜慧說,每一步都是摸索,直到今年第三屆,在年初尾牙聚會上,遊民主動表示要以「居無定所」作為主題,「想替我們這些遊民做點事情。」戴瑜慧說,整個過程讓他們認識自我,進而產生「公義」,想做點事情。

遊民眼中的世界
這一次的展覽分為4個子題,分別是:「豪宅下的血汗」、「隔板屋的蒼白世界」、「公園,遊民勿入」和「創作。生命的交集」,讓遊民拍出他們眼中的世界。戴瑜慧說,遊民和一般人最大的差別在於「住所」的有無,一般人可能工作不如意,至少還可以回家睡一覺,遊民卻得想好今晚睡在哪裡。

整個城市空間對遊民越來越不友善,公園的椅子上加裝把手,讓遊民不好躺臥等手段,都是城市驅趕這些所謂「污穢」的方式。豪宅底下是居無定所的遊民,小小一塊棲身之地,是遊民夢寐以求的天堂;公園裡的公共空間拒絕遊民;只有藉著創作,讓大家相遇,也讓外界看見他們。

現實的場所制約了一般人的行動,被迫逗留在底層的遊民成為城市的影子,無所不在,卻也不曾存在。日本作家村上龍的作品《到處存在的場所,到處不存在的我》裡序言提到:「想要超越場所,是這些平凡的角色,幾乎要變得不平凡的一刻。」藉著影像向這個拒絕聽見他們的社會大喊,也是底層遊民不平凡的一刻。

【7/17買不起,租不起---文化批判論壇】


【7/17買不起,租不起—文化批判論壇】

買不起,租不起—

貧窮化社會下的居住權危機與文化行動反抗策略

2001年開始預售的帝寶,揭開了豪宅當道與房價狂飆的21世紀台灣,也在奢華風下激起高漲的民怨。然而,除了「買不起」房子的抱怨,在貧富差距持續拉大,工薪階層日益貧窮化下,也產生了「租不起」房子,生存權與居住權頓遭威脅的社會現象。尤其在勞動彈性化下,工作不穩定,低薪資,與缺乏勞動保障,使底層勞動者經常性的徘徊在失業與就業不足之間,也使其遭遇居無定所的生存困境。一旦無法負擔房租,底層者開始進入街頭,成為遊民,也改寫當代台灣社會遊民的結構與成因。然而,面對這個社會的新現象,既有的媒體體制卻反以聳動誇張的手法,以鏡頭追捕人數日益擴大,夜宿車站街頭的底層人群。政府體制更是擴大採取驅趕的手段,在公園長椅增加橫桿,在車站巡查丟棄遊民家當。

鑒於居無定所對人權的戕害極大,以及既有媒體與政府體制的做法,非但未解決問題,反以妖魔化手段擴大對底層者的社會污名與社會排除。故本論壇期望藉此機會,探討當代台灣在貧窮化情況下造成的居住權危機,以及透過2010年「居無定所攝影展」,探討弱勢團體以文化行動實踐的方式,做為反抗策略的經驗。

日期:2010年7月17日(六)

時間:下午2:00 ~ 5:00

地點:UrbanCore Café & BookShelf (台北市中正區中華路一段89-6號1樓)(捷運小南門站1號出口,步行3分鐘)

主持人:戴瑜慧(美國南伊利諾大學大眾傳播與媒體藝術研究所博士候選人、遊民攝影班創辦人)

與談人:

王增勇(陽明大學衛生福利研究所副教授)

黃麗玲(台灣大學建築與城鄉研究所助理教授)

朱傳炳(中華電信工會理事長)

郭盈靖(當代漂泊成員、遊民行動聯盟召集人)

當代漂泊成員

戴瑜慧(美國南伊利諾大學大眾傳播與媒體藝術研究所博士候選人、遊民攝影班創辦人)

郭力昕(政大廣電系副教授兼系主任)

主辦單位:台灣當代漂泊協會、遊民行動聯盟

贊助單位:台北市文化局、行政院國家科學委員會

協辦單位:中華電信工會、文化研究學會

聯絡人:卓小姐0927-470314

email:homelessoftaiwan.hot@gmail.com
網址: http://homelessoftaiwan.pixnet.net/blog

7/01/2010

98學年度【空間與文學】學程單元Ⅲ--身體化之書寫: 身體想像工作坊

國立東華大學 【空間與文學】研究室
98學年度空間與文學學程單元Ⅲ身體化之書寫
身體想像工作坊


時  間:2010.07.20(週二)~2010.07.22(週四),10:00~17:30
主辦單位:國立東華大學空間與文學研究室
協辦單位:國立東華大學英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所
指導及補助單位:教育部顧問室
上課地點:台北市忠孝東路一段31號1樓 青輔會台北市青年志工中心(近捷運板南線善導寺6號出口)

工作坊內容概要

身體想像~~~
 07/20 ◎主題:COSPLAY與台灣的身體想像
     授課師資:文婉珍老師(美術教師,Cosplay達人,多年Cosplay實務活動經驗)
 07/21 ◎主題:好萊塢的身體想像
     授課師資:郭強生老師(NYU戲劇博士,國立東華大學英美語文學系教授)
 07/22 ◎主題:服裝與身體想像
     授課師資:陳明莉老師(英國伯明罕大學文化研究與社會學博士,世新大學性別研究所助理教授)

── 說明事項 ──
1. 本學程工作坊得教育部顧問室補助,學員免學雜費。
2. 為維持工作坊研習品質,擬招收學員30人為限,以各大專院校大三以上學生優先,系所不拘。
3. 研究室提供非台北縣市住民之外地學員活動期間(07/19、07/20、07/21三晚)之台北市住宿,惟提出住宿申請之學員,必須於完成報名手續之後預繳保證金2000元。確實參與活動者,待工作坊結束,保證金將全數退還;非確實參與活動者,保證金恕不退還。
4. 報名方式:一律以e-mail方式報名。
5. 報名截止時間:2010.07.15.(逾期報名,請預先來電0936-177-017洽詢)
  本研究室保留報名核准與否的權利。研究室收到報名表之後,將以e-mail回覆是否得以參加工作坊。
6. 【空間與文學】研究室聯絡資訊──
計畫主持人: 郭強生 教授
計畫助理:廖律清
地址:974 花蓮縣壽豐鄉志學村大學路二段一號 國立東華大學 英美語文學系
電話:0936-177-017   傳真:03-8635290   E-mail:luching_whale@yahoo.com.tw或luching@mail.ndhu.edu.tw
網址:http://www.literatureinspaces.tw

6/18/2010

【英史】期末考essay questions 題庫

Shown below are some possible questions that will appear in the final exam. Good luck!

I. Mrs. Dalloway
See the 5/13th blog post
II. The Virgin and the Gipsy
See the 5/28th blog post
III. T.S. Eliot:
1. Describe the various schools and influences from which Eliot inherited to create his peculiar brand of modern poetry.
2. When Prufrock arrives at the “room,” he finds that the women are talking of Michelangelo. What does this “talking of Michelangelo” suggest to us about Prufrock’s emotional situation, his psychological conflict and dilemma?
3. Explain Eliot’s “Impersonal theory” of poetry as he proposes in his “Tradition and the Individual Talent.”
4. How does Eliot manipulate the tension between contemporaneity and antiquity in “The Waste Land”? Use at least two examples to demonstrate his technique of juxtaposition of the present and the past.
5. Name the titles of the 5 sections of “The Waste Land.”

5/29/2010

東華大學英美語文學系2010年度戲劇公演--Suddenly, Last Summer (夏日癡魂)

東華大學英美語文學系2010年度戲劇公演
時間:6/5(六) 18:00入場
地點:東華大學校本部演藝廳
劇名:Suddenly, Last Summer (夏日癡魂), by Tennessee Williams

本劇憑票可先行入場,免費索票。

索票請洽:

校內:英美系辦(文學院3F)
志學:9803 空間 
花蓮市區:聲子藝棧

※此劇為英文演出,現場舞台兩側備有中文字幕同步放送。
※官方部落格:http://blog.yam.com/NDHUeng2010dpt

5/28/2010

【英史】Questions for D. H. Lawrence's The Virgin and the Gipsy (deadline: 6/6, 12 p.m.)


Choose one from the following questions to write an essay. Cite texts to support your argument.
1) The story of the Lady of Shalott is used as an intertextul allusion in The Virgin and the Gipsy. What are the implications and significance of this citation?

2) The followings are said to be the recurring themes of Lawrence's work: the war between conscious, mental puritanism and unconscious, primitive sensuality, the contest for a woman between a supercivilized man and an inarticulate man of organic earth, antagonism toward authority, degradation of the man whose sterility is caused by an industrialized society, and the search for the potential powers of a subconscious mind.

Identify at least one above-mentioned theme(s) in The Virgin and the Gipsy and explicate it/them.

5/25/2010

【文讀】different views of history (deadline: 6/2, 12 p.m.)

As a poet laureate, Tennyson made himself the spokesperson of the glory of his period. "Ulysses" can be said to be a poem praising the triumphant ascendancy of his era. However, when we bid farewell to the Victorain era and move forward to the 20th century, we can detect the changing view of history in many modernist poems, for example, in W. B. Yeats's "Leda and the Swan" or "The Second Coming."

Compare and contrast Tennyson's "Ulysses" and Yeats's "Leda and the Swan" (or "The Second Coming"). Describe their different views of history as demonstrated in their poems.

5/20/2010

英美系專題演講:陳俊志《美麗少年的彩虹紀事—紀錄片創作與同志生命》

《美麗少年的彩虹紀事—紀錄片創作與同志生命》

講者:陳俊志
時間:99年5月24日(一) 14:00-17:00
地點:壽豐校區文學院A207室

講者簡介:

陳俊志,紀錄片導演,關注弱勢議題,向不義戰鬥,用文字和影像實踐社會運動。作品有《不只是喜宴》《美麗少年》《玫瑰的戰爭》《幸福備忘錄》《我的愛滋朋友》與《無偶之家,往事之城》《酷兒舞台》和《沿海岸線徵友》。常上街頭及媒體為同志議題發聲,作品社會性強烈,《美麗少年》登上華納威秀及學者全球影城,創下新高票房,獲頒1999年台北電影獎商業類年度特別獎,2000年台灣國際紀錄片雙年展觀眾最愛獎。歷年來作品獲邀參展於國際同志影展,亞美影展,山形影展,新加坡影展,福岡影展。2005年作品《無偶之家,往事之城》記錄中老年同志的人生滄桑,創作了繼《美麗少年》《幸福備忘錄》之後的同志三部曲完結篇。2006年獲邀拍攝台灣國際紀錄片雙年展開幕片系列之《酷兒舞台》,2007年改編詩人鯨向海的詩作,拍攝影像詩短片《沿海岸線徵友》。

2007年,以台美移民家族史寫作計畫《台北爸爸,紐約媽媽》獲得台北文學獎寫作年金首獎。

2008年,以高樹少年死亡事件為本,寫作《人間‧失格》,獲得時報文學獎報導文學類首獎。


陳俊志導演拍攝之性別紀錄片,這十年來除了參展邀映於國內外主要影展,與其他台灣紀錄片最大的不同是,最重要的是其系列性別紀錄片是長期致力於促進校園內外的性別教育,十年來巡迴映演於國內各級學校,從小學到大學、研究所,在性別教育週、教師研習營、或全校週會採取單片放映暨專題演講方式。

2006年,國立暨南大學首度以導演專題的方式,在校園內以一週的時間邀映陳俊志導演的所有作品,成功\舉辦了陳俊志影展。

2007年,日本的東京大學、早稻田大學,以及日本大學,也舉辦了陳俊志導演的專題講座。

2008年,嘉南藥理科技大學以及國立成功\大學,又以「文化創意產業」及「性別多元影像」的切入點,配合大學內相關科系,舉辦一週放映完整作品之陳俊志影展。

2008年12月,美國加州大學柏克萊校區(UC Berkeley)東亞研究所,邀請陳俊志導演及他的性別紀錄片於「中國新媒體─紀錄的衝動」(New Media in China--Documentary Impulse)國際論壇發表,造成轟動。

2009年8月,陳俊志導演以副教授資格,應聘為國立中正大學駐校藝術家。



美麗少年電影工作室為紀錄片導演陳俊志創立之獨立製片電影工作室,自1997年拍攝製作第一部性別議題紀錄片《不只是喜宴》迄今,已完成八部性別議題紀錄片,表列如下。

歷年累積之作品觀影人次── 電視播映,影展放映,校園巡演,網路youtube傳閱\,加上戲院上映── 十年來八部影片,國內國外估計超過數十萬人次以上。1999年《美麗少年》登上華納威秀院線上映,以紀錄片締造當年國片票房第三名的佳績。以性別影片開創台灣紀錄片新局,開啟了日後《翻滾吧男孩》《無米樂》《生命》紛紛登上戲院的台灣奇蹟。

美麗少年電影工作室/陳俊志導演歷年製作拍攝之紀錄片作品參展及映演紀錄:


沿海岸線徵友 Fragile in Love (12分鐘)2007年

2007年公共電視「影像詩」系列作品之一。入選2007年台北電影節《全球華人影像精選》單元。詩人導演鴻鴻評論此片為,「陳俊志以男同志的戀情與胴體,對應鯨向海的抒情詩行,可視為有意的誤讀,也可視為詩中潛意識的挖掘與翻譯,卻成就可比美法斯賓達《霧港水手》的同志意象。」


酷兒舞台 Queers on Stage (10分鐘)2006年

2006年台灣國際紀錄片雙年展開幕片「大台中紀事」系列,獲選2007年紐約現代美術館MOMA當代紀錄片收藏系列,以及2008年榮獲“澳門國際電影及錄像展”邀請參展。此片中,同志導演陳俊志以自然主義的筆觸鏤刻了台中歌仔戲圈內圈外,舞台上下,虛實交錯的酷兒浮世繪,探索了性別表演的遊移界線


無偶之家,往事之城 Scars on Memory (54分鐘)2005年

2005年6月,公共電視紀錄觀點首播。記錄西門町台客老gay三溫暖的故事。入選2005年台北電影節《全球華人影像精選》單元,2005年台灣國際民族誌影展《家的變奏》系列,2005年東京國際影展《亞洲之風》單元,及日本早稻田大學第二屆台灣映畫展、2006年金穗獎優等獎(Merit Award),2006年釜山亞洲短片影展、及2006年台灣國際紀錄片雙年展「台灣獎」競賽片。2007年,為印度Film of Desire影展唯一獲邀的台灣影片。


我的愛滋朋友 My Positive Friends (23分鐘)2003年

2003年12月,台視、中天、緯來、JET台播映。記錄四個愛滋感染者的短片。衛生署疾病管制局委託同志導演陳俊志拍攝的這部真實紀錄片在7000種政府出版品中脫穎而出,獲得行政院研考會舉辦的第四屆「優良政府出版品獎」。

本片為全國公衛系統及社區大學公衛及醫療倫理相關課程譽為教學效果最佳及難得真實呈現台灣愛滋感染者的生命處境的紀錄片。


幸福備忘錄 Memorandum on Happiness (53分鐘)2003年

2003年,公共電視紀錄觀點首播。記錄作家許\佑生與葛瑞的婚後生活,及第一對公開結婚的女同志湯姆與漢娜的婚姻過程與隨之而來的婚暴故事。

本片的放映傳播以及陳俊志導演的現身說法同志家暴經歷,與現代婦女基金會以及民間司法改革基金會,顧玉珍出版的《傷害我的是最親密的人》,在2006年,共同努力,促進了家庭暴力防治法修法將同志同居伴侶納入保護範圍內。

入選2003年台北電影節《對位與凝望》單元,2003年《跳躍性別光譜─高雄‧兩岸三地影展》,及2004年台灣國際紀錄片雙年展。

2008年,獲邀映演為美國加州大學柏克萊校區(UC Berkeley)東亞研究所「新媒體─紀錄的衝動」(New Media in China--Documentary Impulse)主題電影。


玫瑰的戰爭 War of Roses (52分鐘)2001年

台灣本土首部對抗性騷擾紀錄片。由同志導演陳俊志與婦女新知基金會合作。入選2002年女性影展邀展之性別紀錄片。巡迴各級校園放映演講,迄今邀約不斷,為促進性騷擾防治議題,貢獻良多。


美麗少年 Boys for Beauty (63分鐘) 1999年

1999年3月及4月,華納威秀及學者影城兩度上映,以紀錄片創下與《徵婚啟事》、《魔法阿媽》同樣亮眼的票房,並稱《新新國片的文藝復興》

1999年日本山形國際紀錄片影展New Asian Current競賽片,並為山形影展中唯一被日本藝術電影發行商Image Forum挖掘於東京上映發行。同年並獲得台北電影獎商業類影片年度特別獎(Independent Spirit Award)

2000年 第18屆舊金山亞美影展邀展、新加坡國際影展國際參展、以及第14屆日本福岡亞洲影展參展。同年並獲得第2屆台灣國際紀錄片雙年展觀眾最愛獎(Audience Award)

《美麗少年》問世八年以來,如今仍廣獲各級學校邀請演講放映不斷,可說是台灣性別議題紀錄片的開路先鋒與長青樹奇葩。


不只是喜宴 Not Simply a Wedding Banquet (50分鐘)1997年

本片於1997年間獲邀入選於:舊金山、夏威夷、匹茲堡、佛羅里達、紐約、加拿大蒙特婁及韓國漢城八大國際同性戀影展,以及,在紐約由崔明慧所主持的短片觀摩展:「崛起中的華人電影作者」。及1998年的日本東京錄影藝術祭、東京國際同志電影節、多倫多、紐西蘭、雪梨...國際同性戀影展,以及英國影藝學院(British Film Institute)三月在倫敦舉辦的同志影展。1998年4月的「不只是喜宴抗議新聞局事件」更建設性地促成了「中華民國錄影作品參加國際影展獎勵要點」的立法通過。


備註:本活動可計入學生電子學習履歷,請同學們記得攜帶學生證到場聆聽。

主辦單位:英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所

5/19/2010

下週的演講

下週系上有三場演講,分別是:

1)【美麗少年的彩虹紀事—紀錄片創作與同志生命】
時間:5/24 14-16
地點:文A207
講者:陳俊志

2)【個人的文學創作經驗──胡續冬vs.劉克襄】
時間:5/26 19-21
地點:文學院八角亭
講者:胡續冬VS劉克襄

3)【翻譯的忠實與背叛:以《都柏林人》的中譯為例】
時間:5/27 14-16
地點:文D221
講者:莊坤良

5/13/2010

【英史】Questions for Mrs. Dalloway (Deadline: 5/21, 12 p.m.)


Choose one from the following questions to write an essay. Cite texts to support your argument.
1) What’s the difference between Clarissa’s party and Lady Bruton’s?
2) What’s the function or purpose (aesthetic and ideological) of creating a morbid figure like Septimus in such a novel that seems to center on the life-affirmative dinner party?
3) Analyze any character's relationship with food in Mrs. Dalloway. How is the relationship between food and sociopolitical power linked in Woolf's depiction of different eating scenes?
4) Explicate some “connective devices” that Woolf uses to integrate the seemingly disconnected private consciousness of various individuals in Mrs. Dalloway.

5/11/2010

【文讀】The Love Poetry of John Donne (deadline: 5/18, 12 p.m.)

In Petrarchan sonnets, woman was always disdainful; the male lover was always sighing, weeping, and tends to alternate bouts of fever and chill. Donne's love poetry rejects this tradition and pleas for a more realistic vision of the relationship between men and women. Oftentimes, cynicism replaces idealism as the reigning mood in Donne's love poetry. Although Petrarchanism is acknowledged in Donne's poetry, it is always referenced with a witty cynicism.

Do you agree or disagree with the view that this "cynicism" might jeopardize sincerity in Donne's love poetry? Are you convinced by the speaker's slick tongue when he dramatizes, analyzes, and illustrates by a wealth of metaphysical analogy the state of being in love? Explain your reasons; cite any love poems from the mass of Donne's poems we read so far to prove your points.

4/29/2010

【英史】Virginia Woolf and her narrative modes for presenting consciousness in Mrs Dalloway (deadline: 5/7, 12 p.m.)


According to A Glossary of Literary Terms edited by M. H. Abrams, stream of consciousness "is the name for a special mode of narration that undertakes to reproduce, without a narrator's intervention, the full spectrum and the continuous flow of a character's mental process, in which sense perceptions mingle with conscious and half-consious thoughts, memories, expectations, feelings, and random associations" (202). Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway is a quintessential example of this mode of narration. Listen to this NPR story, in which Woolf's stream-of-consciousness technique was said to anticipate what neuroscientists' study of the human mind and memory. After listening to the story, write down things you feel impressed when you read Mrs. Dalloway, particularly with regard to her keen observation of human mind. Examine any character's interior monologue, observe the flow of their mind, and describe their conflicting feelings, emotions, desires, or fantasies.

4/27/2010

《一閃一閃亮晶晶》4/30(五)早場開始於花蓮影城播放

曾獲得柏林影展銀熊獎最佳導演,也曾經擔任過英美系駐校藝術家的林正盛,目前即將上映的紀錄片《一閃一閃亮晶晶》將在花蓮影城從4/30開始持續播放一週。這部片是有關自閉症的小朋友,透過這部片,我們有機會了解這些小朋友的生命獨特性,他們替我們生命開了另一個窗口,讓我們學習尊重不同生命的差異,體會到世界因為差異而美麗。

《一閃一閃亮晶晶》部落格:http://blog.yam.com/twinklestars1313
官網:http://twinklestar.hanmine.com.tw/

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson (Deadline: 5/4, 12 p.m.)

Being one of the two mid-19th-century American geniuses (the other is Walt Whitman), Emily Dickinson knew her poetry was unacceptable by her society's standards of poetic convention, and of what was proper for a woman. Fewer than a dozen of her poems were published in her lifetime; more than a thousand were laid away in her bedroom trunk, do be discovered after her death. A genius who knew what she wanted and chose her seclusion in her self-claimed poetic house of "possibility," Dickinson declared that only the "fairest" visitors were admitted, indicating her aversion to publicity. Being a recluse, she nevertheless presented to us an amazing mind that is inquisitive and profoundly penetrating. The way she observed human vicissitudes was original and unorthodox. Her frequent ways of blending the holy and the profane, the eternal and the homely gave her poetry unexpected turns and startling twists.

We read quite a few poems by Dickinson in today's class. Have you found any poems that impress you as exceptional and unconventional? Which poem inspires you the most? What kind of profound understanding have you gained--in terms of human destinies, nature, a female artist's interior struggles, and so forth?

4/23/2010

《台北星期天》東部隆重首映:04/30(星期五)晚上6:30

被多位媒體記者譽為本年度最佳國片之《台北星期天》東部隆重首映:04/30(星期五)晚上6:30東華演藝廳準時放映, 六點開放入場, 加導演映後座談。

校內免費索票地點:英美系、中文系、東華書坊。
校外索票地點;璞石咖啡。

備註:
1.放映前十分鐘開放自由入場
2.本活動可計入學生電子學習履歷,歡迎同學們攜帶學生證到場聆聽。

2010 台北金馬奇幻影展開幕片《台北星期天》Pinoy Sunday 東部首映暨導演映後座談

放映時間:99年4月30日(五) 18:00 憑票入場 18:30 開映

放映地點:東華大學壽豐校區演藝廳

【電影介紹】:

監製 胡至欣
導演 何蔚庭
編劇 AJAY BALAKRISHNAN / 何蔚庭
攝影 JAKE POLLOCK
音樂 蔡曜任
剪輯 許\惟堯

就像是勞台與哈台、王哥與柳哥的組合,喜劇裡的一個胖子搭配一個瘦子那種。身為近萬在台菲勞大軍的其中兩人,馬諾奧,年輕單身、自命風流,一心肖想能和雇主有一腿的美麗菲傭賽西麗拍拖。而在同一工廠上班的老鄉迪艾斯,篤實憨厚、內斂寡言,一方面時刻掛念遠在家鄉的妻小,卻又和同在台灣工作的安娜勾勾纏纏,搞七捻三。每到星期天,兩人總是懷抱不同的期待,用力把工廠、門禁拋諸九霄雲外,直奔台北市中心。

但這個星期天,馬諾奧和迪艾斯的美夢卻一個一個破碎。一張被遺棄在路邊的火紅沙發,勾起了兩人的目光。閉目想像這樣一張沙發放在宿舍的天台上,喝著冰涼的啤酒、看著天上的星星,這大概就是天堂了吧。就這樣,馬諾奧與迪艾斯這兩位天兵,一前一後,在這尋常的週日午後,扛起沙發,上山下海,一起穿過台北城市的大街小巷,展開一段爆笑連連,卻又萬般滋味的奇幻旅程。


導演‧何蔚庭‧馬來西亞籍,畢業於美國紐約大學電影製作系,多年在台灣拍攝廣告及電影、紀錄片。

《台北星期天》為何蔚庭第一部劇情長片,耗費四年時間籌畫與拍攝,自嘲自己在台灣也是外籍勞工的他,首次挑戰外勞議題,希望可以打破以往對於外勞較為悲情的刻板印象,透過幽默詼諧的基調,以菲律賓人的視角呈現台北生活。在風格上,也突破前兩部短片作品,希望可以帶給大家煥然一新的感覺。
(引用自電影官網:)

4/08/2010

【英史】the rhetoric of "discovery" and its gendered ideology (deadline: 4/18, 12 p.m.)


In this famous picture drawn in 1575, Jan van der Straet depicts the "discovery" of America in an allegorical way--as a pornographic encounter between a man and a woman. Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer who "discovered" America, is portrayed in the drawing as a fully clothed man who stands masterfully before a naked and sexually inviting woman, who extends her hand in a gesture of seduction and submission. Vespucci, a god-like figure who represents civilization and technology, was about to conquer, to "penetrate" or to "pierce" the virgin land, which is allegorically portrayed as a naked woman. In other words, the rhetoric of "discovery" hinges on a gendered ideology, in which male is conventionally seen as active or aggressive while female viewed as passive and vulnerable.

However, this kind of male-centered imperial discourse cannot always be that triumphant and cocky. In the background of the drawing, we can see a cannibal scene in which human bodies are dismembered and roasted, suggesting threat and danger lurking in the wilderness. The "feminized" wilderness, in fact, is never that passive and vulnerable as imagined by male explorers; oftentimes, it provokes anxiety and fear.

In "Heart of Darkness," can you find similar portrayals of the wilderness that is being "feminized" or "eroticized"? Besides the imperial hubris and narcissism, with its delusional fantasy of male might and unstoppable pillaging and looting, can you also spot a contradictory fear of engulfment or castration? Identify passages and explain them. Make your answer into a 250-300-word essay. Cite texts to prove your points.

4/01/2010

【英史】The ideology of "whiteness" in "Heart of Darkness" (deadline: 4/11, 12 p.m.)



In 1899, an advertisement for Pears' Soap in McClure's Magazine announced: "The first step towards lightening THE WHITE MAN"S BURDEN is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness. PEARS' SOAP is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances, while amongst the cultured of all nations it holds the highest place--it is the ideal toilet soap."

In this ad, we can see the admirable captain wearing white uniform, supposedly using Pears' Soap to wash his hands. Here commodity capitalism goes hand in hand with imperialism. Cleanniss and whiteness guarantee white power and justify the domination of aboriginal people (which is shown in the bottom right corner--a mini-picture of the genuflection of a naked African man). Ships, seaports, and buildings suggest not only trades but also imperial progress. White civilization needs to be brought into the wilderness; the lesson of hygiene needs to be taught to those "savage" people who don't know the "virtues" of clieaniness and whiteness.

It is an interesting coincidence that Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" was also published in 1899, the same year that the Pears' Soap ad came out. In Part I of the novel, Marlow encounters a wonderfully sleazy accountant whom he describes as a "hairdresser's dummy." Re-read these paragraphs (pp. 1902-3). Do you see any irony in these paragraphs? How does the accountant achieve his sartorial spruceness? Why is maintaning cleaniness so important for this accountant? How do you make of his obsesission with cleaning and grooming rituals?

Make your answer into a 250-300-word essay. Cite texts to prove your points.

3/31/2010

【英史】feedbacks on Stan's course on Utopia (deadline: 4/9, 12 p.m.)

After Stan's 3-week course on modernist utopia, I think you have learned a lot about the British utopian tradition, the significance of the two World Wars, and the changing attitudes towards culture and literature in the 20th century. If there is a "lesson" to be learned from Stan's course, what do you think it is? Are there discussions or readings in or out of the classroom that shed new light upon things you used to think or opinions you used to hold?

3/30/2010

【文讀】認識憂鬱:閱讀普拉絲與《瓶中美人》 by 紀大偉

我在大四的時候,首次聽聞希薇亞.普拉絲(Sylvia Plath)這個名字。那時候,「美國文學史」是大學英文系畢業前最後的必修課,時數苦短。教授拚命趕課,幾乎無暇顧及較近文本──但我們竟然還是讀了二次世界大戰之後的一位古怪女詩人,作為大學四年的句點。她是文學課程不容疏漏的人物,自然具有經典地位,她就是普拉絲。

  普拉絲的詩作充溢女兒對父親的愛恨情結;如〈爹地〉(Daddy)中居然寫「爹地,我早就該殺死你的。你在我來得及殺死你之前就死去──」,追思與詛咒合而為一。不過,我們為了更有效率地消化文學作品,只好為她匆匆貼上一張方便歸檔的標籤,將她視為反抗父權的叛逆女詩人。

  大四那一年,同時也是人心惶惶的時刻。女生們忙著申請學校或打聽工作市場,男生們只能坐以待斃等著畢業入伍,要不然就拚命考各種研究所藉此延長學生時光。在集體焦慮的精神狀態下,我也將報考英文研究所當作唯一的救贖,又不經意看了幾回普拉絲。在準備考試前後,我聽了一些耳語。聽說某朋友勤於尋求心理輔導,有人甚至出入醫院的精神科。也在那時首次聽聞憂鬱症藥物百憂解(Prozac),據傳是一種可以改善心情、調整性格的心理藥物。此外,也有幾位朋友像無蒼蠅亂竄,老是嚷著要自殺。對於這些傳言,我大抵一笑置之,以為大家只要寬心就可以熬過畢業情結。但我們終究不是自己的主宰──我的一位摯友在自殺未遂數次之後,終於成功跳樓身,化為晚報一角的鉛字。初聞她的死訊,我只覺得荒唐好笑;但是在的告別式現場,看見她埋在花朵裡的粉白臉孔時,我幾乎崩潰,根本不像想像中的那般強韌。

  她為什麼非走不可?我不確知,只能攀附一些流言敘述。其他遭受折磨的諸多朋友們遇上何等困境,我也不甚了然。後來才逐漸了悟,原來我們一直欠缺合宜的語言文字來呈現這些苦難者,所以才無法認識苦難。當苦難者在自我陳述的時候,可能會運用「心情不好,沒有鬥志,不想社交,想要自殺」之類的詞語,但是這些詞語未能換取體諒和協,卻可能引起誤會和嘲笑。一般人誤以為,只要樂觀、進取、自立自強、立下生活目標,就可以充分解除上述魔咒。如果無法自救,一定是因為軟弱。苦難者的心理困境也會浮現在身上,例如化為反覆出現的感冒、失眠和頭痛,但這些症狀大抵被人簡化為現代人的流行病,也不會得到正視。有些苦難者具備不錯的學歷甚或中上的社經地位,因而被人指責為溫室之花,他們的呼喊被解讀為無病呻吟。他們被視為撒嬌的林黛玉。

  後來「憂鬱症」這個詞語開始在我們身邊出現。

  憂鬱症並不只是心理困擾,更是生理苦痛。終於可以用這個詞語來描述一些朋友,這個詞彙仍舊帶來誤解。就字面上來說,這詞語不像「癌症」「肝炎」「骨折」之類一樣駭人,也因此得不到尊重,反而遭人訕笑。在英文中,depression則讓人想起「經濟蕭條」,旁人未必理解憂鬱人士的苦難。大多數人對憂鬱症所知其少,卻又經常自以為是,以(有偏見的)常識來訓斥憂鬱症受難者(例如,勸阻他們看心理醫生,不准他們吃安眠藥,強迫他們參加社交生活),反而惡化憂鬱的處境。現今仍然很難透過語言文字充分認識「憂鬱症」所指稱的人口,雖然我們經常從新聞媒體看見、聽見,又有憂鬱症人士自殺身亡的消息──那些外島軍人、家庭主婦、獨居老人、年輕作家、高薪工程師,甚至醫師本身,爭先凋零,彷彿趕赴另一個世界的盛宴。也因為語言文字未能妥當地呈現憂鬱,人們在漠視憂鬱症人士之餘,極多數的憂鬱症人士也不知道自己身受憂鬱症之苦,因而未曾尋求協助,或者救助之後遭人嘲笑軟弱,只得繼續躲在家裡吃偷偷蒐集的安眠藥。

  語言文字究竟是必要之惡──唯有練習述說憂鬱症,我們才有機會認識憂鬱。《神奇百憂解》(Listening to Prozac; by Peter D. Kramer)、《躁鬱之心》(An Unquiet Mind; by Kay R. Jamison;但此書談論「躁鬱症」,和「憂鬱症」略有不同)、《超越百憂解》(Beyond Prozac; by Michael J. Norden)等書展示了鬱的詞典,李安的電影《冰風暴》顯現出憂鬱的身影,但我們還需要更綿長的文字生命史。於此,憂鬱症守護女神普拉絲的作品絕對不能絕席。普拉絲是美國當代詩壇的代表人物,不過她唯一的長篇小說《瓶中美人》(The Bell Jar)對憂鬱症著墨甚,比她繁多的詩篇更具影響力。書名「鐘形瓶」形象,已經成為憂鬱症的代名詞:《瓶中美人》第十五章寫過,「我坐在同一個玻璃鐘形瓶下面,在我自己的酸苦之氣中慢燉慢熬,自作自受。」

  重新識普拉絲,是在大四生涯多年之後。《瓶中美人》是以大學生活為題材,而我在閱讀過程中也另眼重見大四當年。普拉絲的大學生活曾如此憂鬱?當然,小說文本和作者生平之間的關係必定迷離,不宜對號入座,但一般認為普拉絲的小說(甚到她所有的文字創作)充盈著自傳色彩。閱讀普拉絲,或許也可以同時辨識出你我擦肩而過的幢幢人影。

  普拉絲於一九三二年生於美國麻省,父親是波士頓大學著名的蜜蜂專家;她八歲就會寫詩;獲獎學金進入麻省史密斯學院,這是當時最大的女校;她在暑假前往紐約「Mademoiselle」雜誌擔任實習編輯,只有才女才能享有這份榮譽;她得富爾萊特伯獎金赴英國劍橋大學進修,在英國結識後來的丈夫泰德.修斯(Ted Hughes)──修斯就是後來享譽甚隆的英國桂冠詩人;婚後她並參加著名詩人勞勃.羅威爾(Robert Lowell)的寫作課,另一位詩人謝歌絲登(Anne Sexton)是她的同學。

  普拉絲美麗聰明又幸運,是惹人嫉羡的模範生,而她拚命讓自己符合主流價值。但事實恐怕不盡如此。父親在她年幼時過世,成為她終其一生的傷痛。她在大學期間飽受失眠之苦,在紐約擔任見習生的經驗又讓她心力交瘁。之後,她陷入嚴重憂鬱,曾經割腕、服食過量安眠藥,後來輾轉於幾家精神療院之間,並接受多次電擊治療。好強的她卻又回校完成學業,並以卓越成績爭取到赴英獎學金。旅英期間她倍感苦悶,但寄給母親的家書卻佯裝樂觀進取;後來隨丈夫遷居鄉村,心靈煎熬更甚,可是她依舊在家書上說謊,自稱無憂。

  普拉絲的瘋狂太過彰顯,她一開口便無法住嘴,一有錢便浮誇消費,旁人再也不相信她沒病;她的丈夫開始外遇,母親雇人照顧普拉絲的小孩。這正切合普拉絲心意,她有餘暇研究魔法,向不忠的丈夫下咒。在生命最後一年,她獨自帶了兩個小孩蝸居倫敦,身無分文,感冒纏身。生活困頓,她只好熬夜寫詩賺錢,並且將十年前的大學記憶寫成《瓶中美人》書內人物都採化名,作者也以筆名示人,不過還是詳述了普拉絲從客居紐約到接受電擊治療的過程──那是從天堂重重跌落的一條路。普拉絲在一九六三年二月十一日以瓦斯自盡,時年三十歲。她的老同學謝歌絲登也在十年後自盡。

  書外的普拉絲為何毀滅──以及,書裡的女大學生為何崩潰──至少可以引出三種解釋空間。一,文本內外的女詩人身為女性:她們(我不想輕易地將普拉絲和女大學生視為同一人)的作者可解讀為針對性別歧視社會的抗議,而她們則被視為女性主義英雄;二,她們身為詩人,符合瘋狂詩人的既有形象,任憑文學創作的死慾驅策;三,她們身為憂鬱症受難者,言行光怪陸離,只不過是想要摸索出一條得以倖存的曲折路。誠然,三種身分都是她們身上的元素,化約任何一種身份都無法全然解釋。不過,在此時空,我卻寧願強調她們的第三種身分:憂鬱症受難者。現實情境中,早已有太多人的生命被政治的口號召喚(如被拱為女性主義先驅),或為了藝術的理由犧牲(如被尊為藝術鬥士)──憂鬱症受難者躲在家裡圖個清靜,難道我們還要以外在世界的喧囂來捉弄人?如何正視憂鬱症受難者的苦楚,比送上光環更有誠意。

  憂鬱症人士往往極其寂寞。普拉絲在《瓶中美人》裡準確說道:「一起嘔吐過的人最容易結為知交。」陪自己的朋友受難,才會知道她吐得多辛苦。《瓶中美人》的中譯本雖然姍姍遲來,但我們終究得以陪憂鬱症人士嘔吐一回,一種由內往外翻的呼喊。夜半時分,整應城市響遍嘔吐的聲音,不知你是否願意傾聽。

【文讀】Sylvia Plath's inverview (deadline: 4/6, 12 p.m.)

In today's class, we talked about how "good literature" can have this wonderful ability to defy the erosion of time and to stay forever young and awe-inspiring years after it's production. Reading Sylvia Plath's poem such as Daddy gives us such kind of feeling. Her poetry, with its emotional intensity and macaber savageness, can still give us the shudders today. Below is an audio clip of Plath's interview. Listen carefully. In this interview, she mentioned Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, whose "confessional poetry" inspired and excited her. Why? What kind of subject she felt drawn to? What does she mean when she talked about the "dangerousness of gentility" in England? What's the difference between being an American poet and an English poet? Write down anything that you feel interesting or inspiring after listening to this sound clip. Pay attention to Plath's commanding and yet beautiful voice.

3/16/2010

【文讀】tensions in John Keats's poetry (deadline: 3/23, 12 p.m.)


As we talked in class, tensions fascinate artists and writers because a tension presents an ever-fluid situation in which two forces are flirting, combating, wrestling,intercoursing with one another. Tensions defy status quo, bringing forth oppositions that stir imagination and trigger narration. In other words, a tension or an opposition is forever intriguing, forever evocative, and forever provocative for artists.

In fact, you can find out this "tension" or "opposition" operating throughout John Keats's poetry. His poems such as "Old to a Nightingale" or "Ode on a Grecian Urn" are built upon oppositions. Although he likes to set up a tension, he does not want it fully resolved. However, much of the pleasure we derive from his poetry stems from this opposition between dreams of something better and the pains of reality.

Here comes your assignment: Pick up any sections of his poem, looking at the details of the poem. Identify a central opposition in the poem and analyze this "opposition."

3/15/2010

東華文學翻譯獎

The Dong Hwa Translation Prize invites submissions of translations from Chinese into English and vice versa. Please see below for details:

東華文學翻譯獎設立緣起:
本系曾珍珍教授為了紀念從小喜愛翻譯的長子張式均,特別邀請花東文教基金會共同贊助,從2010年起每年在東華校園定期舉辦文學翻譯競賽活動。

宗旨:
鼓勵東華大學大學部學生發展文學翻譯技能。初期以英翻中、中翻英為主。

參賽資格:
東華大學大學部學生。

比賽項目:
分英翻中、中翻英兩項。每項包括指定作品和自選作品。指定作品請至英美系網頁連結下載,自選作品文類不拘,但以不超過五千字為原則。參賽者可同時參加英翻中、中翻英兩項。

徵稿截止日期:
2010年4月30日前將指定作品與附上原文的自選作品譯稿繳交或寄達東華大學英美系辦公室「東華文學翻譯獎委員會」收(以郵戳為憑)。隨函務必附上東華大學學生證影本。(辦公室地址:974花蓮縣壽豐鄉志學村大學路二段1-17號,英美語文學系)

譯稿格式:
以Microsoft Word格式繕打,列印於A4紙上,一式三份。

得獎公告及獎金金額:
得獎名單將於六月一日公佈於東華大學英文系網頁。得獎人獲頒獎狀及獎金,每項獎金第一名七千元、第二名五千元、第三名四千元、佳作三名,每名三千元。

得獎作品將發表於英文系網頁學生園地。

3/09/2010

關於【英史】加簽

Hi folks!【英史】課要加簽的同學請舉手,讓我知道要印幾張加簽單。人數統計完後,我會把簽好名的加簽單放在英美系辦 Diane 那裏,請需要的同學跟 Diane 拿。

【文讀】"Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins (deadline: 3/15, 12 p.m.)

How many ways of expressing mixed color can you find in this poem? How does Hopkins expand the meaning of "pied beauty"?

3/05/2010

【英史】Questions for James Joyce's "The Dead" (deadline: 3/12, 12p.m.)


In our first week of class, we talked about the meaning of being "modern." To be modern is to find ourselves thrown into a turmoil that is simultaneously exciting and threatening. It is exciting because the dizziness comes from the drama, joy, adventure, and power promised by the arrival of modernity; however, it is at the same time threatening because our old "solid" systems of belief (regarding everything we know about ourselves and about the world) are shattered so mercilessly, as Marx described in the Communist Manifesto:"All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned." This "melting" vision is later to be found in Yeats's famous poem "The Second Coming": "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold."

In other words, modernity is the age of doubt. Old confidence in History and Truth evaporates. If the Truth (with a capital "T") of God, selfhood, empire is no longer valid, the exploration of "truths" (in a plural form) becomes a modernist task for writers and artists to pursue. Since the objective,rational, or transcendental "Truth" has been rejected, writers begin to focus on subjective, everyday, personal "truths." And usually these "truths" imply a critique of the traditional, the masculine, the Victorian values.

With this in mind, if James Joyce's name is synonymous with modernist literature, how does his work participate in this "de-centering" project? How does his fiction disrupt conventional expectations about self, narrative certainty, and religious faith? If all that has once been holy is now profaned, how can a modernist writer like Joyce manage to do? Can a semi-holy glimpse of redemption be possible for Joyce in this disenchanted modern world which is irreversibly secular?

You can link the aforementioned questions to a detailed consideration of Gabriel in "The Dead." For example, how does Garbriel's "certainty" crumble after several incidents happened in the story? Examine those incidents and anaylze Gabriel's confrontations with different female characters. In what way do these confrontations bring about Gabriel's awareness of his limitations as a lover and a human being?

Make your answer into a 350-400-word essay.

3/02/2010

【文讀】the power of creative imagination in "Kubla Khan" (deadline: 3/9, 12 p.m.)

In today's class, we talked about the hallucinatory genesis of Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan" and the uncanny visions that are invoked by the poet as a seer. The poem itself is also a demonstration of Romantic art-making. Kubla Khan represents the artist; fantastic Xanadu is the world of art; and the "stately pleasure-dome"--a "miracle of rare device"--is the intricate artwork.

The poem, written in 1797 and published in 1816, is considered a Romantic poem. The Romantic Period is generally considered to be a period revolting against the 18th-century rage for order and reason. Traits or style of the period can be characterized in the following list of Romantic elements:
1) Orientalism: Romantics were interested in the Orient for its exotic and rich colors.
2) Primitivism: Romantics believed that a less advanced stage of culture, even a savage condition, gives people more happiness than complex modern society.
3) The Supernatural and Psychological Extremes: Romantics were fascinated with stories of bewitchings, hauntings, and possession. The 18th-century concepts such as "reason," "order," and "discipline" were disdained by them; instead, they favored supernatural happenings, strange adventures, and violent fits of passion.
4) Celebrations of Creativity and Individualism: The Romantic period, simultaneously the period of imperial expansion and boundless revolutonary hope, was also an epoch of individualism in which poets had high expectations for human potentialities and powers.

In "Kubla Khan," can you detect any Romantic elements listed above? What are they? Use concrete examples from the poem to prove your points.

2/23/2010

英史課綱

English Literature since 1901
Spring 2010
Thursday 9:10-12:00, 文二講堂
Instructor: Prof. Jen-yi Hsu (許甄倚)
Office hours: Wednesday 2-4 p.m., and by appointment (jyhsu@mail.ndhu.edu.tw)
Course Description:
This class will introduce students to major English authors of the twentieth century such as Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, D. H. Lawrence, and T.S. Eliot. The twentieth century is the period which launches a rejection of Victorian confidence and begins a move toward skepticism and a reevaluation of the Enlightenment project. We will discuss the consequences of this “epistemological rupture” as reflected in intellectual history, literary and aesthetic movements and will investigate how different writers use different techniques and ways of representation to respond to various issues of their concern (e.g. changing sexual mores, clashes between tradition and modernity, the technological domination of nature, imperialism and British identity, etc.).

**From week 3 to week 5, Professor Stankomir Nicieja from Poland’s University of Opole will give us a 3-week course on Utopian literature. Two books—George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World—are required to read as a preparation for this session. You can read them in Chinese if your reading speed is too slow to finish two English novels in 3 weeks.
Required Books:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (8th Edition‧Volume 2)
Mrs. Dalloway (書林)
1984 by George Orwell (喬治‧歐威爾)(both English and Chinese version)
 《美麗新世界》( Brave New World) by 赫胥黎 (Chinese version)
 All books can be purchased at the University Bookstore (東華書坊)
Course Requirements:
1. Class Prep: You are expected to finish the reading assignments before each class meeting.
2. Attendance: Attendance is mandatory; you are responsible for coming to class on time. Excessive and consistent lateness will also harm your grade. I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. You will automatically fail the course if you miss more than 2 classes. If you must be absent for an extended period of time, you must consult with me to determine the best alternative for completing the course.
3. Blog entries: Each week we will have some discussion questions posted to the blog (http://literarycollage.blogspot.com/). You are expected to post your answers for the discussion questions. Try to think each blog question as an essay question and proceed to write in a formal and an organized essay format. Deadlines will be announced in the blog.
4. Midterm and final exams: Remember, there will be no make-up exams. Missing the exams will result in failing the course.
Grading Policy:
Midterm 30%, final exam 30%, blog entries and class participation 40%
Course Schedule:
Week1: 2/25 Introducing the Period: The Twentieth Century (pp. 1827-50)
Week2: 3/4 James Joyce, “The Dead” (pp. 2163-68; pp. 2172-99)
Week3: 3/11 Stan’s session on Utopian Literature (texts to be discussed: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; 1984 by George Orwell)
Week4: 3/18 Stan’s session
Week5: 3/25 Stan’s session
Week6: 4/1 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (pp. 1885-87; pp. 1891-1918)
Week7: 4/8 finish Heart of Darkness
Week8: 4/15 Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (pp. 2080-82; pp. 2092-2152)
Week9: 4/22 midterm
Week10: 4/29 Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (pp. 1-98)
Week11: 5/6 Mrs. Dalloway (pp. 99-197)
Week12: 5/13 finish Mrs. Dalloway
Week13: 5/20 D. H. Lawrence, The Virgin and the Gipsy (Chapter1-5)
Week14: 5/27 The Virgin and the Gipsy (Chapter 5-10)
Week15: 6/3 T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” (pp. 2286-93); “Journey of the Magi” (pp. 2312-13); “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (pp. 2319-25)
Week16: 6/10 T. S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” (I, II)
Week17: 6/17 finish “The Waste Land” (III, IV, V)
Week18: 6/24 final exam

2/22/2010

開工大吉:2010年春《文讀》課綱

Approaches to Literature II(Spring 2010)
Tuesday, 9:10-12:00 a.m., 文D221
Instructor: Prof. Jen-yi Hsu
Office hours: Wednesday 2-4p.m., and by appointment (jyhsu@mail.ndhu.edu.tw)
Required Book:
The Norton Introduction to Literature (Shorter 9th Edition)
Course Requirements: Midterm 25%, final exam 25%, presentations 25%, poetry memorization 15 %, and blog entries 10%. Every other week we will have some discussion questions posted to the blog (http://literarycollage.blogspot.com/). You are expected to post your answers for the discussion questions. Try to think each blog question as an essay question (not an informal discussion forum) and proceed to write in a formal and an organized essay format. Deadlines will be announced in the blog.
** Please be reminded that attendance is crucial and two absences will result in failing this course.

Course Schedule:
Week1: 2/23 Intro
Week2: 3/2 Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll” (p. 619)
W. D. Snodgrass, “Leaving the Motel” (p. 620)
William Blake, “London” (p. 625: Eva)
Adrienne Rich, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (p. 628:Sophie)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (p. 979: Krystal Huang)
Week3: 3/9 William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow” (p. 694)
“This is Just to Say” (p. 695)
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty” (p. 695: Fatima)
Ben Johnson, “Still to be Neat” (p. 697: Annie)
Robert Herrick, “Delight in Disorder” (p. 697)
Oscar Wilde, “Symphony in Yellow” (p. 699)
Ted Hughes, “To Paint a Water Lily” (p. 701)
Week4:3/16 John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale” (p. 843: Zenobia)
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” (p. 845: Sandy)
“To Autumn” (p. 846: Vickie)
Week5:3/23 Robert Browning, “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” (p. 644: Grace)
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” (p. 827: Vivian Fu)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “To George Sand” (p. 829)
Week6:3/30 Sylvia Plath, “Morning Song” (p. 675: Jade)
“Point Shirley” (p. 666: Janet)
“Daddy” (p. 948: Emily)
“Lady Lazarus” (p. 1001: Cleon)
Week7:4/6 (no class)
Week8:4/ 13 Film Screening: Sylvia
Week9:4/ 20 Midterm
Week10:4/ 27 Emily Dickinson, “After great pain, a formal feeling comes” (p. 690)
“I dwell in Possibility” (p. 694: Amy)
“Wild Night—Wild Night” (p. 716: Vivian Tu)
“A narrow Fellow in the Grass” (p. 747: Ted)
“The Wind begun to knead the Grass” (p. 768)
“My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun” (p. 811: Cherry Liang)
“Because I could not stop for Death” (p. 980: Alier)
“I stepped from Plank to Plank” (p. 981)
“We do no play on Graves” (p. 981)
Week11:5/4 John Donne, “The Flea” (p. 661: Joanne)
“Batter my heart, three-personed God” (p. 712: Erica)
“The Computation” (p. 712: Jessie)
“The Canonization” (p. 713: Tony)
“The Good-Morrow” (p. 674: Teresa)
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (p. 985: Kate)
Week12:5/11 John Donne, “Death, be not proud” (p. 982: Sophia)
“The Sun Rising” (p. 983)
“Song” (p. 984)
Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (p. 671: Joyce)
Andrew Marvell, “On a Drop of Dew” (p. 702)
“The Garden” (p. 997: Sue & Sugar)
Week13:5/18 T. S. Eliot, “Journey to the Magi” (p. 987: Cherry Lin)
W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming” (p. 1023: Ronny)
W. B. Yeats, “Leda and the Swan” (p. 1024: Kelly)
W. B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium” (p. 1025: Daniel)
Week14:5/25 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Tears, Idle Tears” (p. 1008: Wee)
Lord Tennyson, “Tithonus” (p. 1009)
“Ulysses” (p. 1011: Frank)
Week15:6/1 Sophocles, Antigone (pp. 1423-1454)
Week16:6/8 finish Sophocles’s Antigone
Week17:6/15 poetry memorization
Week 18: 6/22 Final exam

1/05/2010

【空間與文學】學程單元Ⅲ-身體化之書寫- 流形與異體研習營 招生

98學年度【空間與文學】學程單元Ⅲ-身體化之書寫
流形與異體研習營 招生


◎時  間:2010.01.18~2010.01.22
 上課地點:花蓮縣壽豐鄉志學村大學路二段一號 國立東華大學 文學院D221教室


◎主辦單位:國立東華大學【空間與文學】研究室
 協辦單位:國立東華大學英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所
 指導及補助單位:教育部顧問室


報名表下載


◎研習營活動內容─

01/18(週一)09:00~12:00 不男不女(王秀雲老師‧高雄醫學大學性別研究所)
01/18(週一)14:00~17:00 喬依思的身體政治(廖勇超老師‧臺灣大學外國語文學系暨研究所)

01/19(週二)09:00~12:00 全球化下的瑪丹娜身體轉變(廖勇超老師‧臺灣大學外國語文學系暨研究所)

01/20(週三)09:00~12:00 卡夫卡小說裡的變形身體(許甄倚老師‧東華大學英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所)
01/20(週三)14:00~17:00 情色身體的視覺政治(王君琦老師‧東華大學英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所)

01/21(週四)09:00~12:00 卡森‧麥克勒斯《小酒館的悲歌》裡的酷異身體(許甄倚老師‧東華大學英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所)
01/21(週四)14:00~17:00 戀上賽伯格(王君琦老師‧東華大學英美語文學系暨創作與英語文學研究所)

01/22(週五)09:00~12:00 Film Society
01/22(週五)14:00~17:00 障礙‧身體與社會(張恆豪老師‧臺北大學社會學系)



◎說明事項─

1. 本學程研習營得教育部顧問室補助,學員免學雜費。全日研習時,供應午餐\餐\盒。

2. 為維持教學研習品質,本活動招生人數有限,以各大專院校大三以上學生優先,系所不拘,但學員必須具備英語閱\讀能力。

3. 報名方式:一律以e-mail或傳真方式報名。
  報名截止時間:2010.01.15. (逾期報名,欲中途聽課者,請預先來電0936-177-017洽詢)
  本研究室保留報名核准與否的權利。研究室收到報名表之後,將以e-mail回覆是否得以參加研習營。

4. 【空間與文學】研究室聯絡資訊──
  計畫主持人:郭強生教授
  計畫助理:廖律清
  地址:974 花蓮縣壽豐鄉志學村大學路二段一號 國立東華大學 創作與英語文學研究所
  電話:0936-177-017   傳真:03-8635290   E-mail:luching@mail.ndhu.edu.tw或luching_whale@yahoo.com.tw
  網址:http://www.literatureinspaces.tw

Jhumpa Lahiri Finds Roots in Writing (deadline: 1/13, 12 p.m.)


April 8, 2008 (by Tom Vitale from NPR.org)

In all her work, acclaimed author Jhumpa Lahiri has focused on the lives and struggles of Bengali-Americans. Her stories are about strangers in a strange land, trying to fit in.

It's a world she knows well: Lahiri was born in London in 1967, the daughter of immigrants from Calcutta. When she was 7, her family moved to New England, where her father still works as an academic librarian at the University of Rhode Island. She now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

"I never felt that I had any claim to any place in the world," says Lahiri. But, "in my writing, I've found my home, really, in a very basic sense — in a way that I never had one growing up."

Lahiri's fiction has certainly found a home in the literary world. Her debut book, The Interpreter of Maladies, won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and her novel, The Namesake, was adapted into a Hollywood film.

Her new collection of stories is called Unaccustomed Earth. The title comes from a passage in Nathaniel Hawthorne's introduction to The Scarlet Letter:

"Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children … shall strike their roots in unaccustomed earth."

"I stopped when I got to those words," Lahiri says. "I just thought about how much they stand for everything that I had been writing about: the experience of being transplanted, and people being transplanted."

Time Magazine book critic Lev Grossman likens the stories in Lahiri's new collection to those of Hemingway or Chekhov. He says that while the literary fashion these days is to entertain and to grab the reader's attention with plot twists, wordplay and humor, Lahiri's style harks back to the 19th Century.

"She builds her stories slowly, out of simple, declarative sentences," says Grossman. "But once she builds them ... that final square in the Rubik's Cube just clicks into place, and suddenly ... you realize that that's life. That's truth."

Mira Nair, who directed the film adaptation of The Namesake, describes moments in Unaccustomed Earth as "gasp-worthy."

"I just gasp, suddenly, in the middle of the story. I have to close the book!" says Nair. "And then I finish it, and then I almost always re-read it because I just want to then savor it."

Lahiri says now she's working on a new idea she thinks is going to be a novel. But for all of her success, the 40-year-old author says writing hasn't gotten any easier.

"I think writing something new each time is a very daunting, scary journey," she says. "And I just want to have the strength, and the clarity of mind, to continue to make those journeys."

Listen to the story and write down anything that strikes you as unusual, fascinating or inspiring.