On-Line Survey for FYS Students

December 11, 2009

Greetings-

As you have just completed your First Year Seminar, I am writing with a request for your assistance to help us evaluate the First Year Seminar experience. Your experience in your First Year Seminar and the feedback you provide will help us learn about the First Year Seminars we offered this semester and will give us valuable information to help us make improvements for next year.

I am asking you to go to the link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GN5MTQB and answer a few questions about your experience in your First Year Seminar. Your responses will be kept completely confidential. The results from the survey will be used to make improvements in the FYS we will be offering next fall.

To thank students for participating in this survey, we will randomly select two students to receive gift certificates from the University of Hartford Bookstore. The survey will be available until December 22, 2009.

Thank you, in advance, for your help.

Joseph Voelker

Dean, College of Arts and Science

Questions for “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”

Some thoughts that occurred to me as I watched the film….

Choose some questions for your blog response.

1. Why do you think we have this for a title? Why not, “Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Grail”? What does the title imply about the film as a whole?

2. The film opens with Indiana Jones as a child (played by the late River Phoenix). Think about why Spielberg chooses to begin with this “background” to the film and its main character. What characterization do we get of the “young Indy”?

3. How does this “young Indy” play into how we perceive Indiana Jones as an adult? The first scene we see with him is a structural “hold-over” from this childhood scene – he has (re)found the cross, for which he has been searching “all his life” as he states. What is it about this cross? Why a cross? How does this relate to the “adult Indiana”?

4. We do not see Indiana’s father until much later in the film, though there are hints of him earlier – a quick scene of his study in Indy’s childhood home in Utah and more importantly the “Grail book.” What does this Grail book contain? Why is it so important (yes there are obvious explanations, but are there any hidden meanings here)?

5. What is the role of Indiana’s father in the film? Why this connection to the father? (In other Grail quests, the feminine was so important – do we have something similar in the film? Why or why not? Or maybe -- why the shift away from the feminine / maternal?)

6. Describe / explain the latter part of the film – what does Indiana have to do to achieve the Grail? How do you interpret these actions? (We also have, of course, the injury and rescue of the father from death – how do you interpret this?)

7. Explain these quotes from the film: “The search for the Grail is the search for the divine in all of us.” “Why do you seek the cup of Christ, for his glory or for yours?”

8. Why do you think attaining the Grail must involve choosing the correct Grail from all the false ones? What might this imply about the search / the notion of the quest?

9. Why do you think the Grail cannot (1) move beyond the Great Seal and (2) is lost. What is it about the notion of a Grail that is ALWAYS unattainable (as we saw in all three of our Grail quests – Perceval’s, Persse’s and now Indiana’s)?

10. Anything else you’d like to discuss.

Question from Caroline and Allen for "Small World" (Day Four / Parts Four - Five)

Pick a character and create a question (and write the answer) about the resolution
that this character had.

Small World (Day Three / Part Three)

As you did with Part Two, I'd like you to come up with two questions and answers on your own -- relate your questions to the themes raised in this section of the novel.

Small World (Day Two / Part Two)

I'd like you to come up with two of your own questions and answer them. Try to keep them in line with the general themes of the text (mainly, the idea of questing) and how they relate to your analysis.

Monday in class I'll use your questions to spark the discussion of the novel.

Extra Credit Time (Copied from Sara's Blog)

Here is a chance for you to get some extra credit for FYS 100. It will make up for two missed blogs, or if you've done them all, this will count as extra credit toward your blog grade.
This is what you should do: Come to the Hartt Dances performance at Millard Theater (in the Hartt School building) on Friday, December 4 or Saturday, December 5 at 7:30 PM, or on Sunday December 6th at 3 PM. Since you are all students at the university, you get 1 free ticket with your student ID. To get a ticket, you can go to the Lincoln Box Office at Lincoln Theater during their business hours, or just get to the theater an hour (or less) before the show to get a ticket.
Once you have seen the show, write a paragraph or two about the medieval themes or values that you saw in the different dances. You can pick one dance to write about, or a few of them. Some medieval themes that you might see are chivalry (especially prevalent in partnering between a man and a woman), court life, and magic. However, I'd love to see what YOU can come up with!
Email your responses to me at fastow@hartford.edu by December 12. I'll email you back to let you know that I got your extra credit.

Small World (Prologue and Part One / pp. 1 – 79)

Please answer at least three questions.

1. David Lodge has tried to create a “contemporary medieval romance,” and to that end has included a prologue to the novel. As we saw with Chrétien de Troyes, Lodge here tries to direct the reader and introduce the main themes of the text. How do you analyze this prologue? What ideas does Lodge bring forth here that you think will help with an overall understanding of the text? (What is the “road” he sets us on here?)

2. Persse McGarrigle is naturally the central character of this academic romance. How does Lodge first present him to us? Give an analysis of his character. Refer to specific quotes and / or scenes in order to support your answer.

3. Chapter one of part one is set almost entirely at a conference at the University of Rummidge (which is a fictional place based on the University of Birmingham). Describe the conference settings. How might Lodge be trying to parallel and / or parody what we saw in the first third of Chrétien’s “Story of the Grail”? What does Lodge try to accomplish / demonstrate in doing this?

4. Angelica is the natural love interest of the story. How does Lodge describe her character? What do you make of her? Why is Persse so taken with her? What may Lodge be attempting to do by including this character? Refer to specific scenes / quotes in order to support your answer.

5. We have quite a lively set of background characters, most notably Morris Zapp and Philip Swallow. Analyze these characters. What do they represent in the novel? We get a lot of their background history especially in chapter two. Why do you think Lodge includes so much of their story in this novel?

6. Morris Zapp gives a lecture at the conference which we have in full in the novel (pp. 24 – 27). What does he say about literary interpretation (the underlying message beyond the sexual references)? Do you agree with him? Does it go along with some of the goals for this class?