Hi guys!
For my unit, I'm attempting to explore if there is a possibility of having a "perfect" society. Sarah recommended questioning whether or not utopias and dystopias can define one another. Originally I was going to make it a "versus" concept, but thought that might be too vague.
I could explain how each literary piece is meant to define society as one or the other, and my students would essentially think critically as to how they perceived it. Is it one or the other? Both?
My Shakespeare play is The Tempest. I was thinking about arguing (thanks Stela for the idea!) whether or not the island is a utopia or dystopia as well. That being said, I might just have the students read excerpts of this play, rather than studying the whole thing.
I plan on exploring literary examples of those societies.
For example:
Using the Bible as literature, Genesis 2 &3: Is the Garden of Eden a utopia or dystopia? What characteristics lead you to that conclusion? Would you live there? Are we dissatisfied with "perfection"?
Short Stories:
"The Lottery"
"Harrison Bergeron"
Young Adult Novel:
1984 or The Giver (perhaps just read excerpts from these)
Would The Hunger Games be too obvious of an option? (I thought this might be an easy way out, in terms of planning. It's becoming more popular in classrooms, and I don't want to make it seem as though I'm just following the crowd with this one).
Divergent - it was an option, but I think this might be a bit too much for my students to take on. It's much longer than the other choices; however the Chicago setting is what is keeping it on my list.
I've noticed that my students are interested in what is more "current", which makes me wonder if the older texts would be successful in the classroom. Hence, my HG option.
Film
The Hunger Games (depending I choose the novel or not)
Wall-E
Fahrenheit 451
V for Vendetta
Clearly, some of my movie/book choices can easily be interchangeable.
I've always believed that even a society that is meant to be utopian has dystopian qualities. Also, if you're read THG or Divergent, those societies were meant to be utopias (and were seen as such by the characters), but ultimately it was proven to be otherwise.
Keeping my students at Back of the Yards in mind, for a final assessment, I don't think a compare/contrast (or something of the sort) paper would truly be able to depict their understanding. Instead, I think I would like them to create their own society and how they define it (U or D). What are the underlying issues? Just a thought...
I know I'm completely rambling...sorry! I would love to know what you think of this.
Criticism or ideas?
I can't wait to see what everyone else is planning :)
Sam
Hi Samantha,
ReplyDeleteVery first of all! Use both *Divergent* and *Hunger Games*! Have different students read both and them put them into conversation! The Chicago Public Radio show, *The Afternoon Shift*, is currently reading, for the Book of the Month Club, *Divergent*, and last Monday I kept hearing so many things about *The Hunger Games*. If you're able to study the motifs and generic conventions of dystopian novels, it might be interesting to get students talking about and measuring the value of two very popular examples. In this way, you can still get them to practice skills related to compare/contrast, but have them do it in ways where they do things like have book talks! Write book reviews! And so on.
Could there be a way to bring in the un-ironic utopian? Like children's books that celebrate cliched notions about everyone getting along? The whole happily ever after framework that's equally as pervasive in contemporary children's and teen literature?
We already talked about the problem of "versus," and have discussed briefly the great idea of using the icon of Eden. Which reminds me of the poem "Nature's First Green is Gold," and also the way in which we tend to put things into categories without even thinking about it. Like: Utopia goes with beauty, goes with immortality, goes with gold, goes with all things good. Dystopia goes with grief, goes with death, goes with pestilence, goes with evil, goes with problems.
The thing is--there's no such thing as anyone every experiencing either. So why are we so fascinated with texts that isolate these into these categories? That's, for me, what the Frost poem gets at . We're pretty silly. There's so much you can tease out in this unit! Very exciting.
sarah
I love your unit, Sam. Really cool ideas :)
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