English assignment by reading “The Autobiography of J. G. B”
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE 2 PARTS
Read “The Autobiography of J. G. B”
(Links to an external site.)
and answer the questions in PART A and PART B below.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/05/11/the-autobiography-of-j-g-b
PART A: ANSWER IN 4-5 SENTENCES
What you do visualize and feel at the ending when the whole area becomes a vast aviary filled with birds?
Don’t think this through; only write down the image/s you see and how you feel.
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING CONCEPT CALLED INTERTEXTUALITY– THIS IS A CONCEPT THAT THE MOVEMENT CALLED POSTMODERNISM ADDRESSES
POSTMODERNISM – INTERTEXTUALITY — READ THIS BEFORE ANSWERING PART B
Intertextuality in literature
Literary Intertextuality is a term that describes when a text refers to another text.
For example, when we begin the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot begins with an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno. This reference to Dante, then, is an example of Literary Intertextuality. If we had read Dante’s Inferno, this beginning would mean much more to us.
Many films use intertextuality. In fact, many, if not all, forms of art do.
Literary Intertextuality also refers to us as readers and how we interpret and respond to other texts as we continue to read more. As we read more, we will respond to other writings differently.
Let us look at an example. How do you feel most people would react after reading their very first book? How would they react to reading a book after they have read 10,000 books?
Intertextuality, then, means writing is connected to what is in the text we read AND our experiences reading other texts.
NOTE: Intertextuality also exists in many forms or art (which includes everything). When you watch a comedy and laugh because a scene is much like another scene in another comedy you know, that is intertextuality. Why? If you didn’t know the original comedic scene, what you watch in the new movie would not mean much to you.
Intertextuality has existed long before Postmodernism created this term. With this said, the Postmodernist focus on intertextuality asks us to understand how important context is, and also how our lives change the way we look at something because as we grow older, we gain experiences, and these experiences create more profound responses to what we read.
PART B: ANSWER IN 5-7 SENTENCES
How do our readings of the Romantics, Realists, and Modernists impact how we feel and what we see when we read “The Autobiography of J. G. B.?”
EX: When I see the birds, I do see green parrots! This is from Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart.”
Similarly, look at Poe, Eliot, and Flaubert, and any other readings or music from the Extra Credit Assignment and write down how they impact the way you see the ending with the birds.
NOW: ADD A LINK TO A FAVORITE SONG AT THE END OF YOUR ANSWERS!
