A Touch of Communism

After taking my own Labor Day break from Book Pairing of the Week (never fear…I’ll do one later this week), I’m back with a brand new English course! This week, I’m looking at Communism, both as a setting for literature around the world and as a philosophical debate in America. The first unit is all about shorter works that focus on many different characters and many different stories, all of which have different relationships to Communism. The second unit takes a deeper look at families who undergo a revolution. The third unit looks at the debate over Communism from an American perspective (of course), and the course ends with 1984 (because it would simply be a sin not to) and a lovely discussion about the likelihood of an Orwellian future. This is not a philosophy or economics course, so I did not include any Marx or other philosophers. Mostly, it’s about how Communism as social change and social structure affects people.

Also, I’d like to say that I use The House of the Spirits a lot for these, but it encompasses so much that I want to talk about! I am aware of it. I just don’t care.

 

A Touch of Communism 

 

Unit I: Glimpses of Life (2 weeks)

Texts: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera, Man by Kim Thuy

Unit II: Changing Times (4 weeks)

Texts: Spring Moon by Bette Bao Lord, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Unit III: The Debate in America (10 weeks)

Texts: Living My Life by Emma Goldman, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Unit IV: The Future is Now?

Text: 1984

 

Questions: What are the characters’ relationships to Communism? How does it change their way of life? What does it not affect? How do the authors represent Communism? From what social position do the characters make their judgment?

 

Magical Realism around the World

This week’s Dream English Course is a look into magical realism, focusing less on its homeland, Latin America, and more on how it has influenced literature around the world. Unit I looks at Latin American magical realism, mainly to define what magical realism is and where it comes from (and, of course, for the pleasure of reading it). Unit II gives an overview of literature from a diverse group of authors, set in different places and times. From these works, we can look at how the genre changes based on location and the different feelings/themes it can create.

Magical Realism around the World

Unit I: Magical Realism in Latin America (6 weeks)

Texts: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernieres

Questions: What is magical realism? What aspects of Latin American culture/politics/history led to creating this genre? What is the magic’s purpose? How much is magic, and how much is real? What are the rules for magic and reality?

Unit II: Magical Realism in Other Cultures (12 weeks)

Texts: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle  by Haruki Murakami, Beloved by Toni Morrison, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Life of Pi by Yann Martel,The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Questions: How does magical realism change based on the setting and author? How does the magic differ? What is taken from Latin American magical realism? What is new? What about these cultures leads to using this genre? Is it effective? Again, how much is magic, and how much is real? Are the rules always the same, and if not, how do they differ? Ultimately, does magical realism lend itself to a particular type of book more than another?

Life in Location

Some of my favorite, favorite types of novels are those which feature many different characters living in a specific place at a specific time, leading lives which are completely intertwined without their knowledge. In such novels, the place becomes a character unto itself, influencing the characters’ lives and shaping their experience of life. This week’s dream English course features these long, intricate stories about living in a place.

Life in Location

Unit I: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (2 weeks)

Book Specific Questions: How do the lives of the women change throughout the generations? How much of their behavior depends on their time and place? What about the men? How does politics affect their daily lives?

Unit II: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (6 weeks)

Book Specific Questions: What role does the law play in the characters’ lives? How do they use it and abuse it? How do their moral codes differ? What is a criminal? What systems are outside of the characters’ control? What is the role of religion? How do their lives change throughout the generations? How does their attempted revolution compare to the revolution in The House of the Spirits? Does the city exist in a liminal space?

Unit III: Middlemarch by George Eliot (4 weeks)

Book Specific Questions: How does Middlemarch’s isolation affect its culture? What role does gossip play? If the novel is essentially a romance, why is it titled Middlemarch? How does Dorothea’s outlook compare to the women in The House of the Spirits and Les Miserables?

Unit IV: City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg (4 weeks)

Book Specific Questions: How do the different areas of 1970s New York compare to the different areas of 1830s Paris? How does a character’s location affect his or her behavior? What revolution is happening, and is it similar to the revolution in The House of the Spirits? What about to the one in Les Miserables? Are the Hamilton-Sweeneys the same as the Truebas?

Overarching Questions: How are the different parts of the cities/towns characterized? Do they directly affect the characters lives, and if so, how? What role does social class play? How do the titles relate to the text? What are the novels’ narrative structures, and are they similar? How does the structure affect the story and the place? How are the places changing? What is the effect of seeing so many different viewpoints? Are seemingly universal experiences–such as eating, sleeping, and sex–the same or different across the novels?