Unit Two: Coming the Terms with Place

Place: Place is a fundamental component of everyday life, the “where” that locates each event and experience in our lives. Place in this sense evokes public identity, the often easily recognized characteristics of behavior that inform our accents, our clothes, and our behavior.

Coming to Terms with Place: For most people, coming to terms with place is ultimately a personal matter. It can mean the smell of roasting chicken in the oven, the sound of a certain song, or the sight of a particular stretch of land. In many respects, place is also about relationships, both among people and between us and our experiences and associations with a particular time and space.

Homework: Find and print a photograph which appeals to you, and bring it to class with you tomorrow.

Exercise: Read “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad” by Edward Hirsch. See handout with same title.

Edward Hopper’s signature vision is expressed in virtually all his paintings, which capture a wide array of American scenes ranging from rural landscapes and seascapes to street scenes, isolated buildings, etc. He expresses the isolation, boredom, and vacuity of modern life in the Depression Era. Read his biography- see handout.

Response #1 As you examine Hopper’s House by the Railroad, where does he direct your attention? What details do you notice about the house, its structure, and its relation to the railroad track and the sky?

Response #2 What features of Hopper’s painting does Hirsch focus on in his poem? What effects does Hirsch create through personification of the house? Do you agree with Hirsch that the house has the look of “someone American and gawky” (38)? Explain.

Writing Assignment: Refer to handout entitled “Edward Hopper writing Assignment.” Closely analyze the painting by Edward Hooper that you have chosen. Knowing that his Depression-era work evokes the mood of the time, write a response to the artwork. This may in developed paragraphs. Use a thesaurus to play with diction. See handout.

A Closer Look at Space… American Portraiture Consider David Graham’s photograph “Matthew Demo” from his book American Beauty

Response #1 Consider the gender conventions displayed in the photograph. In what ways do the objects in the play area reinforce basic assumptions about gender training in American culture?

Writing Assignment JOURNAL: Graham’s photograph provides an insightful view of the area in a young boy’s yard. In what ways did the play area of your childhood differ from this boy’s? Write a descriptive account of the space you played in as a child. To what extent did the toys in that space help define it and your identity?

Assignment: Read “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty

Response #1 To which senses does she appeal in describing the little store? What techniques does she use to reinforce the childlike perspective recaptured in her work?

Consider Eudora Welty’s photograph entitled “Storekeeper, 1935”

Assignment: Refer to handout entitled “Welty Storekeeper” Welty is an accomplished photographer as well as a renowned writer. She seeks to capture the moment in which people reveal themselves. After examining the photograph, what do you think the man reveals about himself? What, for example, do you notice about the man’s stance, body language, and facial expression? How does lighting affect your impression of him? How has Welty chosen to frame her subject? What has she included in the photograph? What has she omitted?

Consider the following photograph from a series called Across the Street by Mark Peterson

Response #1 What exactly is the place captured by this photograph? How did the person in the box create a sense of place?

Response #2 What does the photographer gain or lose by positioning the “place” of the homeless person clearly in the foreground? What effect(s) does the photographer accentuate in the image by including the phrase “HANDLE WITH CARE” and the out of focus Burger King in the background?

A Study in Connotative Meaning Read “I Must Be Going” by Richard Ford

Assignment: “Connotative Language” Emphasizing the negative connotations of words associated with people who move frequently, Ford incorporates several travel related words, sayings, and phrases. For example, he says that transient is a word of reproach.

Writing Assignment: JOURNAL: Ford reinforces his position that “Memory always needs replenishing” by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson: “We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them.” Write two fully developed paragraphs in which you assess the appropriateness of applying Emerson’s aphorism to contemporary American experience. Consider the nature and extent of the ways in which contemporary Americans live “amid surfaces.”

Homework: Visit my website and go the “Desert Gallery” for Unit Two. Find and print a photograph which appeals to you, and bring it to class with you tomorrow.

Defining Space Analysis of a Word and Culture A Study of Richard Misrach

Consider the word desert.

Response #1 Define desert.

Now note the following photographs by Richard Misrach; they come from a collection he calls Desert Cantos.

Response #2 After studying the photographs by Misrach, what do you think the word desert means to him? Why?

Response #3 What evidence do you find in these photographs that illustrates Misrach’s stance on larger issues such as the relationship between people and the environment?

Journal Assignment: Using Misrach’s image as a basis, write at least two fully developed paragraphs in which you support or challenge his claim that “The human struggle, the successes and failures, the use and abuse, both noble and foolish, are readily apparent in the desert.” Validate your assertions with detailed analysis of the photograph. OR Define the space within the image, validate your assertions with detailed analysis of the photograph.

Defining Space Continued… Creating a Personal Narrative Essay

Exercise: See Handouts Read “Coming Home Again” by Chang-rae Lee

In “Coming Home Again," Lee presents an account of the personal pleasures and painful ironies associated with going home. Pay attention to the narrative and descriptive devices that he uses to structure the story and build unity and coherence in it.

Assignment: See Handout entitled “Coming Home Again.” Much of his story is organized around literal senses of place- a kitchen, a motel room, a boarding school. What descriptive details does Lee associate with each of these places, and how is each one related to his expectations of going home?

Assignment: See handout entitled “Coming Home Response” Lee explains that coming home involves a specific sense of place- in his place, the kitchen table. What sense of place do you most associate with home? Describe this place in detail. Since this involves description and narration, please choose details that evoke the widest and deepest array of emotions.

Essay Topic: MAJOR GRADE!!! Choose any writing response from this unit, and develop it into a final essay draft.

“The human struggle, the successes and failures, the use and abuse, both noble and foolish, are readily apparent in the desert.”