Lesson Plan for Week 4: General Thoughts and Notes

Major topics:

1. Thought for the day:

   (Social) space is a (social) product […] the space thus produced also serves as a tool of thought and of action […] in addition to being a means of production it is also a means of control, and hence of domination, of power.

   — Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space

2. Administrative Issues:
   • There have been some very minor phrasing changes in the Section Requirements and Guidelines handout. I think that most students will not even notice the changes in phrasing, but you are of course welcome to take a look if you are curious or concerned.
   • This week on the section Twitter stream: a long article on the first person identified as a "welfare queen"; the 1930 Hays Office movie production code; additional media and other fascinating information.
3. Questions for discussion:
   1. Think about the ways that social class is marked in the texts that we've read so far this quarter (for instance, Professor Waid has pointed out that titles appearing before an individual's name are very significant in The Awakening). In what ways have you seen social class marked in the texts so far this quarter? In what ways is social class affected by race and gender in these texts?
   2. Describing his community's reaction to his first published story, Richard Wright says, Had I been conscious of the full extent to which I was pushing against the current of my environment, I would have been frightened altogether out of my attempts at writing. But my reactions were limited to the attitude of the people about me, and I did not speculate or generalize. (168; ch. 7) What, specifically, does Wright mean by the current of my environment, and what makes up this current? What might he have realized if he did speculate or generalize?
   3. In Charles Chesnutt's Po' Sandy, Julius says that the field hands, upon first seeing the tree into which Sandy has been turned, found it monst'us quare. What is monstrous about this tree, specifically, and what is queer about it? Why does Chesnutt put these particular words into Julius's mouth?