To invoke the new media muse, I have chosen to frame my assignment for the student/reader around the form of a familiar new media device: a blog post assignment. This seems to be an easy format for everyone to use, plus it provides the textual evidence of an assignment, but it also proves to be a more accessible and simple way for students to voice their opinions and interpretations, without the demanding format of a paper assignment. Plus everybody on the internet gets to read it. And other students can comment. And so can the teacher.
Also, I'm assuming students have already read the poem at least once. And possibly, this assignment would follow a brief introduction into Whitman's 1855 New York, giving a slight cultural context to the assignment. (In addition to the cultural object that is incorporated into the assignment itself).
I also want to say that it's difficult to write an assignment for an assignment.
That being said...
Consider:
The mentally insane, and the sick and the dying within Whitman's world of "Song of Myself" are found lingering in the shadows of his expansive poem. Often, Whitman's sickness chooses to afflict the heart, the mind, the body, and sometimes all three.
Questions to think about:
- After viewing this cultural object, and considering the separation (physically, mentally or ect.) of the mentally insane within New York, circa 1855ish, how might Whitman's focus and emphasis on mental health within the poem be speaking to the attitudes, social issues and perspectives of America during this period?
- How would Whitman's audience perceive or interpert this theme of mental illness?
- As modern readers of this poem, how do we understand and interpert these sections, excerpts and detours of insanity and sickness throughout the poem? How are the mentally ill percieved today, versus the 19th century?
- How does this theme of sickness/insanity emerge from the poem? How does this connect to other sections of the poem, or play a part in understanding the rest of the poem?
Assignment:
After breaking into pairs that have discussed these questions in class, the student will post to their blog a reply or response to any or all of the questions and thoughts I have listed above. The goal is to generate ideas verbally in class, and expand these through writing in their free form blog posts.
- Students must use textual evidence found in "Song of Myself" to support their ideas.
- The blog post should be 4-5 paragraphs in length, but if you feel like writing more...go ahead.
- Not all of these questions have answers, and many will lead to lingering questions. Many will lead to something entirely else. This is good, for students will be evaluated on their ability to work through these ideas on their blogs, (in whatever form that may take) and their ability to create and form new questions to approach the poem with.
I am so glad you chose this topic! Lunacy was among my top three choices for this assignment, along with sex and suicide! I ended up picking slavery, go figure...
ReplyDeleteOK . . great! This looks like a really interesting and engaging assignment. Let's shape it up a bit!
ReplyDeleteFirst suggestion: by thinking about representations of lunacy, what do you want to lead the students to really engage with in Whitman's poem? his particular takes on "lunacy" or his bigger and juicer takes on high/low, democracy, mind/body, etc.? I'd bet the latter. So let's think about how to build from particular to general and work from more circumscribed (cultural object) to vaster arena (poem).
I really like your questions about us modern readers - - so why not start with that as a way of engaging the students with the idea and with Whitman. I.e. I might start by asking the students to reflect on how they think about "lunacy" - - but via a particular, focussing venue. I.e. thinking of and writing about one image of "lunacy" or mental illness from a movie or a novel. That might help the students to start thinking about the process of moving from concrete to general.
I also really dig your image of the asylum c. 19th century. But let's slow down and really get the students to engage with this object and to develop some of the skills - - in close reading, interpretation - -that will prove helpful when they try to tackle Whitman. E.g. rather than telling them what the image means - - why not have them "read" the image to generate meanings for "lunacy" in the 19th century. You might need a couple of more images to generate a broader net of meaning. But, in either case, think about what the students will need to know to "read" the image - - how can you get the students to pay attention to the meaning communicated by the image? Maybe by asking them to note who is represented? to look at details that populate the scene? to think about the composition of the image? I.e. what image "literacy" skills will they need to take apart the image for its meaning?
Then, the plunge into Whitman! But rather than posing general questions (e.g. ow does this theme of sickness/insanity emerge from the poem? How does this connect to other sections of the poem, or play a part in understanding the rest of the poem?)- - always leaving more room for misdirection and misunderstanding - - why not start with a particular image/event within the poem in re sickness/insanity? How can you encourage them to carry over the skills/meanings/understandings they've developed through their engagement with the print image into the Whitman poem? What kinds of questions can you ask that would push them to pull from the work they've already done - - both in terms of the meaning of insanity and techniques of representation? This is also the the place, I think, to get them to start thinking about how Whitman's "insanity" fits into his democratizing project - - i.e his inclusivity and relativity mania.
I think working together with a targeted section of the poem might make the transition from image to poem easier and might "make visible" the kinds of skills/knowledges that the students have and are developing. Then, maybe turn them loose to carry what they've developed into an a la carte section of the poem - - i.e. ask them to choose their own episode/image of insanity to work on, having armed them with a bunch of ideas and ways of reading.
I think this is an interesting assignment and one that could lead do a deeper, more didactic engagement with the poem and some of the metaphorical reconciliations that Whitman is attempting.
ReplyDeleteThe poem seems to be an attempt at creating metaphors that are based on literal and palpable images/characters that populate its landscape, which will embrace a glimpse of the humanity of the poet (who happens to be the central subject of the poem). The metaphors of sickness and insanity, and the relationship of the two, seem to me a very acute way of entering and understanding these metaphors in a more concrete and referential manner.
This could be a great way for students to engage with what otherwise might seem abstract or alienating in a poem of this length. And I think the coupling of the image of hospitals and asylums with images of the populations associated with those places certainly suggests a way of interpreting and interacting with the larger metaphors at work throughout the poem.
How one would assess or grade the scions of this engagement is a bit more slippery, but I think the final question you ask--"How does this theme of sickness/insanity emerge from the poem? How does this connect to other sections of the poem, or play a part in understanding the rest of the poem?"--is a poignant one, and one that, if engaged with, might suggests learning.
I know I was a little repulsed by Whitman's language surrounding the mental institution and that alone is quite telling of how we as readers have changed since 19th century representations of madness. I like how you ask the students to consider how the perception of insanity has changed. This would be a really great way to bring the students into your world and connect with your framework.
ReplyDeleteIf I were the student given this assignment, I might feel a bit overwhelmed at first. It's open-ended, and I think therefore scary. As a grad student, I love the assignment: there's lots there to think about and play with. It really makes me want to reread the poem to try to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteAs a low-level student, though, I think I might be tempted to try to read your mind. I can remember lots of instances in high school of people prying the teacher for what they WANTED and then going home and trying to replicate it, and freaking out if I had NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!??!?!!
In the end, it might also be easy to get carried away with it, and I think I'd be apprehensive about having a suggested 4-5 paragraphs to talk about an entire poem. I guess I have some faux-student questions for you that I could see students asking:
- What am I supposed to see in the picture? Can you give me an example of a way to tie the picture to the poem in a meaningful way?
- Can you give me an example of mental illness in the media today to give me an example of what kinds of things I might draw on?
- What does this image have to do with the poem? Why would Whitman care about it?
- Can you point me toward some stuff so that I can better understand New York in 1855?
- What does mental illness MEAN, anyway?
Hey Ryan! So today we all have to comment on two blog posts (assignments) and then revise our own posts incorporating the comments (in a new post btw). So here's my comments on yours:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Prof H that it might work to ground your big questions into the text more. Asking them to look at certain images and then possibly finding their own - you have a whole selection of quotes in your previous blog post, why not use those?
Also in reading the photograph, maybe refer more explicitly to the context you found (and presented in previous post too) and how you can 'see' how these people are separated and compartmentalized?
Also, maybe structure the questions to think about from small ideas to big? I get lost reading the questions cus they are each so big. Rephrase them so they lead the reader into the big idea?
Good luck!!