From: RIHISPEECH@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 16:40
To: AP-English
Subject: [ap-english] Re: teaching Portrait of the Artist

I approached the novel with first an overview of painting movements - from 
realism to impressionism to modernism, then with a more focused overview of 
"portrait" paintings in the same genres - I did this with a PowerPoint 
presentation - though it could be done with color copies, or passing around 
art books.  The students easily grasp how different painting becomes by the 
early 20th century.  I use this to lead into Portrait because it allows me to 
open them up to Joyce's choice of literary techniques and how, in some ways, 
his DIFFERENT style is a conscious choice just like Cezanne and Picasso and 
Monet.  I received some feedback that I had "prepared them well" in adapting 
their thinking and expectations of what a book can be like - though, they 
definitely still struggled with the text.  

We skipped reading the first page or so (Stephen's early early childhood - to 
return to it later), and began where Joyce begins his narrative flow of 
Stephen's early school days - and I explained how Joyce flips back and forth 
between narration and Stephen's daydreams or "stream of consciousness" before 
they read the first night's assignment.

It is challenging, but I think if you stress that art was changing, and 
people's worlds (from technology, etc) philosophy and perception were 
changing, and show them some examples with painting (easy to display several 
to many examples), they are able to open up to Joyce somewhat easier.

Wes

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