1. Thursday, October 29th and Friday, October 30th American Literature
Standard 2 & 3
ACT Prep
The Raven Page 309
Translation activity
The Simpsons--
Young Goodman Brown
Level Questions and pair share
Gothic Story Creation
Vocab for HW

2. Translation activity
I will give you a verse from Poe’s “The Raven” You will thoroughly translate the verse(s) into today’s modern language. Any vocabulary must be simplified and their text must be clearly understandable and must remain within Poe’s original context and meaning.

3. Example Today’s translation
On a dark, foggy, creepy night around midnight, I laid in depression
thinking about curious books about legends that have been long forgotten.
While I was almost asleep, I started to doze, suddenly I heard a knock,
a very light knocking at my bedroom door.
This was strange but I thought to myself, “Must be some visitor knocking so late at my bedroom door.
Yes, this is what it is and nothing else.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore –
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door –
“ ‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door –
Only this and nothing more.”

4. Your assignment Work in groups of 4-5
Take turns around the circle creating a “gothic” story - campfire style mins. in length
Take notes and write down key plot points
Write down gothic elements included.
Turn in when finished.

5. Transcendentalism
An important American Literary and Philosophical Movement (though NOT a religion) 1830s to 1860s

6. Transcend (v)
to go beyond a limit or range, for example, of thought or belief
So, TRANSCENDENTALISM, at its core is about “moving beyond” common experience and understanding.

7. Transcendentalism
The idea that in determining the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world.
Also based on Romantic ideas
Based on intuition; optimistic
Shared the Puritan philosophy that saw signs and symbols in human events

8. Premises of Transcendentalism
There is a direct connection between the universe and the individual soul
By thinking about objects in nature, people can transcend the world and discover a union with the Over-Soul
Follow your intuition and beliefs no matter how much they differ from the social norms
All people are inherently good

9. So who were a few Transcendentalists?
Ralph Waldo Emerson (former Unitarian minister from Massachusetts who became the most well known Transcendentalist.)
Henry David Thoreau (his pupil, the son of pencil maker who dropped out of society to live a solitary and transcendent life).

10. Transcendentalists
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau

11. Why did Transcendentalism become popular?
As with Romanticism, Americans felt that there must be more to life than logical, rational experience.
The Transcendentalists sought to regain a spirituality that they thought was missing from current thought and philosophy.

12. Transcendentalism With a partner answer the following questions.
How are you affected by nature? Do you find comfort in it? Do you reflect the moods of nature?
What is the role of nature in your life?
What is meant by an individual’s spiritual side? How do you define it?
What is the connection between the individual’s spirit and nature?
What does it mean to know something intuitively?
How do you demonstrate that you are an individual? Do you think independently of others or do you follow the crowd?