Louis Adamic

Given Adamic's political leanings as a teenager in Blato, what part of American democracy is so attractive to him and so lures him to the nation's shores? How/why does his political activism make him feel that American might be an appropriate new home for him? Other than political strife at home and the unrest he experiences, what other elemental life-factors inspire him to recognize that he must move to America?

The City and New Arrivals

Dunbar paints a pretty dismal picture of New York City in The Sport of the Gods. Might we attribute some of the problems that befall the Hamilton family to their status as "greenhorns," as most of the events we see happen in their first year in the city? Does Dunbar make a big deal out of the differences between huge megalopolises like New York City and other, more rural places? What problems in the text are particularly attributable to conditions that cities uniquely promote or enable?

W. E. B. DuBois

Based on your reading of excerpts from DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk, how does his philosophy regarding the uplift of African American people differ from Booker T. Washington's?

Lily and other women

In your response to this prompt, I'd love to hear your assessment of the range of women Wharton presents in her novel. Who do we meet? What are they like? What features characterize each? For what were they trained or not "trained"?

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House of Mirth

So far, you've read half of Wharton's House of Mirth. Given what you know of Lily so far, what or who would you say is chiefly responsible for Lily's various predicaments? What is the central problem she is facing and what kind of social commentary might Wharton be making via this presentaton if Lily?

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Abraham Cahan

So, I jokingly said in class that I was going to require you to use a Yiddish word or two in your response to Cahan's "A Sweatshop Romance." Now, I am going to stick to that! Do a search for "Yiddish/English Dictionary" or for "Yiddish phrases." I am sure you'll find some good ones. Now, tell me about "translation" in the short story. To what degrees does the story concern translation and how might it be considered a kind of translation? I want you to describe this in terms of the "world of the text" as well as the world "beyond" it, the one in which is was written and published. Don't kvetch about it . . . just enjoy this opportunity to share your thoughts about Cahan's story!

Charles Chesnutt

For this post, I want you to think about the original publication context of "The Wife of His Youth." The short story appeared in the December 1989 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.

http://books.google.com/books?id=laMRAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA23&dq=atlantic+monthly+1898+december&hl=en&ei=Lj9xTYWxAYOCsQPT_LHPCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

(Paste the above into your browser. From the page that loads, you'll have to scroll up.)

Visit the GoogleBook version of the issue and scan through it. What do you learn about the Atlantic reader's taste? What other kind of fiction interested this "reader"? What kinds of political stories? For what kinds of products are there advertisements?