Discussion

This discussion will require you to synthesize your analysis of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin with the academic articles from Reading Assignment Two.

Please make sure you post the initial response by Tuesday of Week 4. Here are the instructions for the initial discussion post:

1. Choose one of the articles on the brain and sex/gender.

2. Write a CLAIM (in essence, a working thesis) about an underlying social message about gender in Le Guin’s novel in a sentence or two. You might consider these questions to help you formulate your claim:

What are the underlying messages about masculinity and/or femininity in the novel? For example, what patterns of behaviors in men and women are evident in the story and novel? What does the novel’s depictions of men and women reveal about what is socially valued in men/women? What messages about relationships between men and women are imbedded in the novel?

In what ways does the novel’s messages about gender seem to uphold or reinforce stereotypical gender roles/behaviors?

In what ways does the novel’s messages about gender seem to challenge or question these gender roles/behaviors?

In what ways does the novel’s messages about gender seem to both reinforce and challenge gender roles/behaviors?

3. Write a PIE PARAGRAPH (Point, Illustrate, Explain) in which you:

First, find at least one passage of 1-4 sentences from the novel that seems to support your claim. Then, state the specific point you are making about how the passage(s) support your claim in a sentence or two. Note that the point is not a mere rewording of the claim but may simply relate to one aspect of the claim or may state a more specific point about the claim.

Second, introduce at least one passage from the novel (primary source) that illustrates the point by setting up the context and making clear who is speaking and about what. Be sure to integrate and quote the passage effectively using one of the types of integration of quotes referred to in the ”Conventions about Writing about Literature” handout. Conventions for Writing about Literature.doc Quote the passage word for word and cite its page number using the MLA format. Keep in mind that now that we are using multiple sources, you will need to include author’s last name in your citation.

Third, introduce at least one passage from your chosen academic article on the brain and sex/gender (secondary source) that illustrates the point by setting up the context and making sure that you honor the integrity of the author’s overall theory/argument and do not take the passage out of context. Be sure to integrate and quote the passage effectively, being aware that integrating quotes from nonfiction is a bit different from integrating quotes from literature. Please use the handout on integrating quotes in nonfiction. Integrating Quotes for Nonfiction.doc

Fourth, explain how each quotation helps the reader to understand the point. Be explicit in saying how the quotation supports the point about the underlying social message in the the short story.

This is an example of what your post will look like (Please note that the example is based on a different academic article and different novel than the academic article and novel that you have been assigned):

Claim:

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich critiques institutionalized racism by showing how an unjust system of privilege creates loss of identity, culture, and family in her Native American characters.

PIE Paragraph:

Erdrich depicts how Gerry Nanapush loses his connection to his family due to the unjust role that systems of privilege play. It is significant that Gerry “believed in justice, not laws” (Erdrich 201) because this implies that there is a difference between justice and laws—that, in fact, the legal system in the United States is unjust. This is made even clearer after he is imprisoned for his fight with the white cowboy. It is then that he realizes “white people are good witnesses to have on your side, because they have names, addresses, social security numbers, and work phones. But they are terrible witnesses to have against you” (Erdrich 201). “Names, addresses, social security numbers, and work phones” are all indications that social institutions such as work, government, and the legal system grant what Allan Johnson calls “unearned privileges” to white people. Thus, it is the white witnesses who are the ones seen as legitimately having power granted by institutions while the Native American witnesses are not seen as legitimate witnesses for Gerry because they lack this institutional power. This is what Johnson means when he says that “a system is dominated by a privileged group” (91). Erdrich further makes her theme of injustice clear through images of weight. Gerry is sent to prison because he kicks “the cowboy’s testicles” (Erdrich 202), and therefore, “his fertility might be impaired” (Erdrich 202). This demonstrates the weight of the white cowboy’s ability to procreate in the eyes of the white-dominated legal system. On the other hand, Gerry ends up in a prison where “no children will ever be engendered” (Erdrich 211), and when his and Dot’s daughter Shawn is literally weighed, “she was too light and did not register at all” (Erdrich 211). Gerry’s ability to procreate is given no weight at all, and even though he does have a child, she is born into an unjust world and does “not register at all” with a white-dominated system. Not only is Gerry literally separated from his family and cut off from creating more family by systems of privilege, his daughter, whom he will now never know, is born into that same system.

In addition, please reply to 2 other posts by Thursday of Week 4 with at least 4 sentences for each post. Note that you won't be able to see other posts until you make your own initial post! Some options for replies: discuss what new insights you gained from the post, connections to your own post, or alternative ideas. Please also keep in mind the reading about "Debate and Dialogue" as you write your replies and try to reply in the spirit of dialogue rather than debate.

For discussion feedback, I will read all your posts and fill out an individual rubric. Although I won't usually give feedback to individual discussion posts, please do refer to the announcements as I will pull out threads from the discussion to give a general class feedback on each discussion. If you have a specific question about your discussion post that my general announcement doesn't address, please feel free to email me!

Please note that if you are using a smart phone or tablet that hitting the “done” button on your phone or tablet will not work! You need to make sure that you click on the “reply” button in Canvas for your responses to actually be posted. Here's another piece of advice: nothing is more frustrating than spending a lot of time typing out a post and having it disappear through a glitch in Canvas or forgetting to click on the "reply" button, so to avoid this potential frustration, I'd suggest typing out your posts in a word document first and then copying and pasting the posts into the reply box in the discussion forum.