Thursday / Friday May 18 / 19 personal ekphrastic writing

YOUR PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT UPDATE:

You will have next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to organize your photos into the presentation format, write up your reflection and complete the graphic organizer.

Presentations begin on Thursday, May 25.

Please make sure that you have reviewed the requirements carefully on the blog on Friday, May 12.

See below for today's work. This is the last writing assigment.  Be mindful there are very few grades to be added in. 

Marchal Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase and X.J. Kennedy's poem, which follows, by the same title is to illustrate how ekphrasis is used in poetry.

Nude Descending a Staircase

Toe upon toe, a snowing flesh,
A gold of lemon, root and rind,
She sifts in sunlight down the stairs
With nothing on. Nor on her mind.

We spy beneath the banister
A constant thresh of thigh on thigh--
Her lips imprint the swinging air
That parts to let her parts go by.

One-woman waterfall, she wears
Her slow descent like a long cape
And pausing, on the final stair
Collects her motions into shape.

As stated previously ekphrasis, which was created by the ancient Greeks, uses one art form to respond to another, so as to envision the thing described as if it were physically present. In some cases, the subject never really existed, making the ekphrastic description a demonstration of both the creative imagination and the skill of the writer.  

 Murray's The Stranger in the Photo  was the exemplar for how you would write your own response to the photo you were asked to bring into class.  If you did not complete the assignment, please check it out, so you know what is expected in the following assignment. (Any not received have a zero; so at least get it in for 50 points)

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: 

Part 1: Everyone needs a picture of him or herself that is at least five-years old.  (This is the homework assignment from Monday. You will receive either 100 or 0 points.)

Using the essay by Donald Murray as a general model, look at your photo. Take time to study facial expression, the body position and gestures. What is the context? Project yourself back to that moment. Where were in your life? What were your expectations- for the moment?  for the long run? Maybe your long run was only a month away. Compare this to where you are now. This is not a goal oriented essay, as in what would I like to be when I grow up. Ask yourself honestly, who you were then? To make it interesting, use vivid imagery and other figurative language devices such as metaphors or similes. Make the reader connect with this photo, much as Murray did. Careful with the tone. Murray offers no regrets, rather he creates a world into which the reader may step. This should be about 500 words. Grading:  language conventions / sense / beautifully and articulately expressed. Make this a masterpiece.  This is the last major writing assignment.

This is due by midnight Sunday.