English - Thursday 7/3

This is the dress rehearsal (genrep) for the reading comprehension questions!

- We will watch part of Mys video about Bret Easton Ellis and the postmodern Era. A summary of things that signifies postmodernism is: intertextuality, paradox, the unreliable narrator and fragmentation.

- Now you will get the text and I will read the first half of it to you. The last part you will have to read yourself in preparation for the discussion test. During the reading test you will have access to a dictionary. Answer the questions below:

1. Summarize the events in the extract in less than 150 words. Don't use the titles of the chapters (Eleven kan förstå huvudsakligt innehåll och redogöra för detta)
2. "Dawn. Sometime in November. Unable to sleep, writhing on my futon, still in a suit, my head feeling like someone has lit a bonfire, on it, in it, a constant searing pain that keeps both eyes open, utterly helpless". What is Bateman suffering from?
3. Why does Bateman light a cigar at the end of the first paragraph? Answer in your own words.
4. Based on the second paragraph - give three examples of things Bateman has done to the girls body. Answer in your own words.
5. Bateman tries to make two different types of food from the girl's body. Which two kinds?
6. Why does Bateman cry at the end of the first chapter? Answer in your own words.
7. Why does Bateman prefer his Uzi to his Luger (Chapter 2). (Fråga 2-7: Eleven uppfattar tydliga detaljer (E) väsentliga detaljer (C) detaljer (A)

On Tuesday we will have our first discussions on Naked Lunch and Lolita. You need to prepare the discussion questions so that you know what you will say. These are the questions:

Naked Lunch:

1. This is obviously a lifestyle that is chosen by the narrator (based on what we know about the Beat generation and Burroughs) - describe the lifestyle and try to explain why Burroughs preferred this lifestyle to a "normal" life (job, house, wife, kids... a labrador).
2. Part of the Beat ideal was to try to write in an innovative (new, fresh) style, and the writing style in Naked Lunch is certainly not like other books. Do you think, this kind of experimental writing serves a purpose? What is the positive and the negative sides of writing in this way?

Lolita:

1. Humbert Humbert is an unreliable narrator. How do you feel this is noticed in the part of the book we read? If we assume that Humbert is not lying, but just telling us the story the way he wishes to see it, how do you think this situation would have been told if Lolita was the narrator? What would the differences and similarities be?

2. What do you think Nabokov wanted us to feel by creating a narrator that was actually likeable, even though he does things that are so obviously wrong? What is your view on this, is it valuable for the reader to like a character like Humbert?


This is a formal discussion and you should refrain from using slang and informal language. This is an opportunity to show your finest English. Use the correct literary and historical terms that has been presented during the time we have worked on controversial literature. This discussion gives you opportunity to show that you fulfill the two first of the knowledge demands for the task.