Archives for January 18, 2015

Final Drafts of 1984 Skeleton Essays Due Tuesday!

1. Slaughterhouse Five–Read up to p. 176 (Stop after the song lyrics)

2. Alanis Morissette Project(Performances on Wednesday)–In preparation for the project, work with the situations in the song (i.e. the lottery winner, black fly, cigarette break, etc) and rewrite one so that it is ironic or write your own fresh situation.  Be thoughtful and creative. Here are the details to the project! Print them out! Don’t fret here! This project is meant to get you comfortable working together and get you comfortable working with irony. Again, TONIGHT you only need to rewrite one of the situations from the song to make it ironic.

3. Satire/Parody Project Prospectus (Due 1/20)–While the final project is due 2/5, I want your group to present a prospectus on 1/20! ONE PER GROUP. Per thefreedictionary.com a prospectus is a formal summary of a proposed venture or project. In the first paragraph, I expect you to identify your chosen option and subject (i.e. what are you satirizing/parodying). Further, in that paragraph I want you to explain why you chose that subject. What was your group’s reasoning/rationale?You must have a valid reason/rationale to have your prospectus approved. In the second paragraph, you will tell me how you plan to communicate your satire/parody (i.e. film, book, etc.). This paragraph is most important! I want to see that each group has put thought and creativity into how the project is to be executed.  Here, I don’t want you to just say that you will create a film.  I want details! Paint an early image of how you envision the final project. The more detailed, the more likely your prospectus will be approved. So, in one TYPED (single-spaced) page detail your idea for your parody/satire. Here are the options:

A) Slaughterhouse Five/1984 parody–For this option you are creating a parody of either 1984 or Slaughterhouse Five. You are not expected to parody the entire novel, only select sections of the novel.

B) Parody—Here you have the freedom to choose any subject you would like to parody. Remember, with a parody you must mimic the form of the subject.

C) Parody Hybrid–For this option, like the 1984 film shown in class, you create a joint parody of one of the texts as well as some aspect of today’s society. (the 1984 film parodied bits of 1984 and the English classroom; someone may choose to parody a bit of Slaughterhouse Five and mix in a parody of The Family Guy…the options here are endless, sorta)

D) Satirical commentary–Here you employ satire to comment on our society–along social, political, or economic lines. The Facebook movie (which you will see soon) is an example of satire. We will review several other examples this week.

The means for communicating your parody/satire are only limited by your imagination. You could create a movie, a comic book, a magazine, a book, etc. You must have both a written and visual component.

VERY IMPORTANT: A group project is a collaborative effort! Everyone is expected to contribute equally to the project’s completion. I do not expect that any one person will have to do more work than any other member due to laziness or general disregard for the project. FAILURE TO “DO YOUR PART” WILL RESULT IN FAILING THE PROJECT!