Learning By Literary Audio Files

Episode #37

Reading and rhetorical analysis of the feminist masterpiece "I Want a Wife" by Judy Brady. Recommended for high school.

Analysis focuses on syntax and tone, with additional focus on context and audience. 

CW: The whole thing is sexist. Also there's quite a bit about sex.

Feminist Justice #13

Link to the text: https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/i-want-a-wife-by-judy-brady-syfers-new-york-mag-1971.html

Thank you, and good night.

Episode #36

Reading and analysis of the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker. Recommended for high school.

Analysis focuses on diction, characterization, and theme, primarily the themes of practical use vs. ornamentation, substance vs. style

CW: Discussions of racism, sexism, gender roles, family conflict, and injuries caused by fire.

#12 in the Feminist Justice series.

Link to PDF of the story: everyday use.pdf (weber.edu)

Episode #35

Literary analysis of two poems, "Making a Fist" and "The Flying Cat" by Naomi Shihab Nye. Recommended for high school.

Analysis focuses on the use of humor, speaker/point of view, and theme.

CW: one poem is about death, the other is about pets dying; the discussion reflects both themes.

#11 in the Feminist Justice series

The poems are short, so I'm going to put the full text of both here. But also, links.

Making a Fist: Making a Fist by Naomi Shihab Nye | Poetry Foundation

BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

We forget that we are all dead men conversing with dead men.

—Jorge Luis Borges

For the first time, on the road north of Tampico,

I felt the life sliding out of me,

a drum in the desert, harder and harder to hear.

I was seven, I lay in the car

watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.

My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.

“How do you know if you are going to die?”

I begged my mother.

We had been traveling for days.

With strange confidence she answered,

“When you can no longer make a fist.”

Years later I smile to think of that journey,

the borders we must cross separately,

stamped with our unanswerable woes.

I who did not die, who am still living,

still lying in the backseat behind all my questions,

clenching and opening one small hand.

The Flying Cat: Quia - Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye -- The Flying Cat

The Flying Cat

Episode #34

Rhetorical analysis of the popular science essay "Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall" by Diane Ackerman. Recommended for high school.

(And I don't know why I shortened it in the episode to "Why Leaves Turn Color." My bad.)

Analysis focuses on figurative language and theme. 

*CW: mentions of sex, discussions of death

#10 in the Feminist Justice series

Link to PDF version of the essay: http://mssandersonsouthcache.weebly.com/uploads/8/5/8/9/8589339/whyleavesturncolorinfall_2012.pdf

Figurative Language present in the essay and discussed here (*This is an incomplete list):

symbol: Something (usually simple and concrete) which represents something else (usually complex and abstract); i.e., a cross representing Christianity

metaphor: An implied comparison between two unlike things which share a certain trait; i.e., trees encased in glass after a winter storm (glass=ice)

simile: A stated comparison between two unlike things which share a certain trait, most often using "like" or "as" to show the comparison; i.e., thou art like a summer's day, sunny and warm

personification: A metaphor in which human traits are given to a non-human thing; i.e., "The rocks complained and then cursed as the earth quaked"; or an abstract is given a human avatar; i.e., Father Time

hyperbole: An extreme exaggeration meant to show an emotional state; i.e., "I'm hungry" is a statement, "I'm starving" is an exaggeration, "I'm hungry enough to eat a thousand horses" is hyperbole

understatement: An intentional de-emphasizing of a situation, usually for ironic or sardonic effect; i.e., Monty Python's Black Knight saying "It's just a flesh wound" after King Arthur cut the Knight's arm off

euphemism: A less offensive or less jarring term used in place of a more offensive or jarring term; i.e., "passed away" for "died"

allusion: A reference to something already known by the audience, from literature, history, popular culture, etc.; i.e., referring to a couple as Romeo and Juliet

synecdoche: When a piece of a whole is used to represent the whole, or a whole used to represent a piece; i.e., "wheels" referring to an entire car

metonymy: When an associated term is used to represent something, i.e., "suits" referring to businesspeople

pun: Word play based on words that sound similar or that have multiple meanings; i.e., "Make like a tree and leave!"

onomatopoeia: A word that sounds like (or is a phonetic spelling of) the sound or what it represents; i.e., meow, baa, snap, crackle, pop

alliteration: When several words close together have the same initial sound; i.e., Peter Piper picked a pepperoni pizza

assonance: When several words close together have the same vowel sound with different consonant sounds, i.e., I like nice pies

consonance: When several words close together have the same consonant sound in the middle or at the ends of the words; i.e., sounds at the ends of words

irony: When what happens is the opposite of what one would expect, or when one's meaning is the opposite of what one says

Episode #33

Reading and analysis of the short story "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson. Recommended for high school. 

Honestly, no real content warnings. It's a disturbing story, but everything in it is subtle.

Analysis of plot, character, and theme, focusing on selection of detail as well as the use of dialogue, small town 1950's America setting, and narrative point of view to build suspense and central themes.

#9 in the Feminist Justice series.

Text in PDF format here: http://issaquahhighkdean.weebly.com/uploads/8/3/2/6/83262826/the_possibility_of_evil.pdf

*Please note the PDF above is taken from a textbook, and has comprehension questions, etc. Also some wonderful illustrations.

**Where's the cat?

Reading and analysis of the essay "On Being a Cripple" by Nancy Mairs. Recommended for high school.

Warning: discussion of illness, disability, death, suicide. This is a great essay, though as you can see from the title, it is difficult to read in places.

Analysis focuses on diction, both word choice and level of formality; and on syntax, particularly the use of lists.

#8 in the Feminist Justice series, focusing on women authors and feminist themes until this podcast reaches equity.

Copy of the text:

Microsoft Word - MairsOnBeingaCripple.doc (uml.edu)

Reading and analysis of "The Hill We Climb" by Amanda Gorman. Recommended for high school and general audiences.

*The poem was presented at the inauguration of Joseph Biden, January 20, 2021

*Some discussion of political themes are therefore inevitable

*Extensive discussion of rhyme, alliteration, and puns, and the effect of all of these devices particularly in a performed poem

*Analysis of themes and audience

(Seventh in the series focusing on female authors and feminist themes)

Original text and video of performance: (Please listen to Ms. Gorman, who does a fantastic job presenting this poem) Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem 'The Hill We Climb' full text (cnbc.com)

Reading and analysis of two poems by Denise Levertov, "For the New Year, 1981" and "Making Peace." Recommended for high school.

Two free verse poems from a 20th c. English-American poet. Analysis focuses on theme, word choice, syntax and the use of paradox and contradiction.

Very positive tone and themes, to celebrate the new year and new beginnings and new hope. (Not Star Wars. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Sixth in the Feminist Justice series, focusing on female authors and feminist themes in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Text for first poem:

“For the New Year, 1981” 

 I have a small grain of hope— 

one small crystal that gleams 

clear colors out of transparency. 

I need more. 

I break off a fragment 

to send you. 

Please take 

this grain of a grain of hope 

so that mine won’t shrink. 

Please share your fragment 

so that yours will grow. 

Only so, by division, 

will hope increase, 

like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower 

unless you distribute 

the clustered roots, unlikely source— 

clumsy and earth-covered— 

of grace.

Text for second poem:

Link: Making Peace by Denise Levertov | Poetry Foundation

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

A voice from the dark called out,

              ‘The poets must give us

imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar

imagination of disaster. Peace, not only

the absence of war.’

                                      But peace, like a poem,

is not there ahead of itself,

can’t be imagined before it is made,

can’t be known except

in the words of its making,

grammar of justice,

syntax of mutual aid.

                                         A feeling towards it,

dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have

until we begin to utter its metaphors,

learning them as we speak.

                                                     A line of peace might appear

if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,

revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,

questioned our needs, allowed

long pauses . . .

                              A cadence of peace might balance its weight

on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,

an energy field more intense than war,

might pulse then,

stanza by stanza into the world,

each act of living

one of its words, each word

a vibration of light—facets

of the forming crystal.

Reading and analysis of Katherine Anne Porter's 1930 short story, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." Recommended for high school.

*Warning: This story is about death and dying, and also discusses loss, grief, and death in childbirth. 

The story is written in stream-of-consciousness narration, and is one of the more readable examples of that technique. It is filled from top to bottom with figurative language, and so that along with the narrative style is the focus of the analysis. 

Fifth in a series focusing on women authors and feminist themes, this story is less feminist than some, but it's not not feminist, and Katherine Anne Porter was one of the finest short story writers in American literature of any gender. 

Reading and analysis of a one-act play. Recommended for high school.

First warning: I read all five parts myself. May the universe have mercy.

Second warning: themes and descriptions of death, murder, abuse, and animal abuse/murder. 

Third warning: The material for the second warning makes me curse a couple of times, so language warning.

It's an excellent play, though, with much to say about gender, stereotypes and sexism, and about relationships and social mores.

Full text: https://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/trifles.html