Week 10.1: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading:
Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 234-309

Study Question: 
1. You are free to respond to the ending of the novel in any way you choose, however in honor of the penultimate chapter you must do so either in PowerPoint slides. Print these out and bring them into the course to share. 10 pts. E/C for anyone who wants to give a presentation, four people only. You must e-mail me ahead of time. 

Week 9.2: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading: 
A Visit from the Goon Squad, 186-233

Study Questions:
1. What is the significance of the chapter "Out of Body"?

2. What is Ted's relationship to fine art? Is this different than how the other characters feel about rock music? If so, how? If not, why not?

Week 9.1: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading:
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 137-185

Study Questions: 
1. What do the chapters that we will be reading for today have to say about publicity? How might we tie that into our early conversations about advertising?  

2. Bring in a passage that you would like to discuss in class. Type the beginning of this passage out and what you think is interesting about it.

Week 8.2: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading: 
A Visit from the Goon Squad, 84-136
SUNDAY, 12:00 PM (Noon): TEXTUAL RHETORICAL ANALYSIS FINAL DRAFT DUE VIA TURNITIN.COM
MONDAY: HARD COPY DUE

Study Questions: 
1. What role does technology and popular culture play in X's and O's? How does this shape Scotty's experience of the world?

2. What role does age play in "You (Plural)" and "From A to B"? How might this relate to the novel as a whole?

Week 8.1: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading:
A Visit from the Goon Squad 39-83


Study Questions:
1. In the chapter "Ask Me if I Care," how do the character determine what is punk? What is authentic?

2. Why does chapter four follow chapter three? Why is the novel structured in the way that it is? Why does the novel leave the present to tell of future events in this section?

Week 7.2: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan (b. 1962) is the author A Visit From the Goon Squad, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and the LA Times Book Prize. Egan's novel consists of a series of interrelated short stories that document the lives of people involved in the music industry. The short stories date back from the 1970s to the near future.

Reading:
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 3-38

Study Questions: 
1. What strikes you as significant or interesting about the text? Why? Bring in two passages from the first two chapters you think are important.

2. How does the second chapter speak to issues of technology and media?  

3. In Understanding Rhetoric chapter two the authors discuss how to read strategically and to annotate. How do you typically like to annotate books? How will you annotate this one? You will have to show me your annotations today, and while I won't check your annotations for the rest of the semester, I do hope that you keep up with them. You will have to write a paper on this novel after all.

4. Begin to keep a map of how all the characters are related in the novel. Update it as we read. I will collect this with your working draft.