Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Form / Style

  • Storified-nonfiction, testimony (Smith 87)
  • Essay dividied into 4 parts--phases?

I. Hotel / describing eclipse

II. Hill / eclipse ocurrs

III. Abstract setting / commentary on eclipse

IV. Restaurant / returning home, back to

normal

  • “One turns at last even from glory itself with a sigh of relief” (Dillard 109)
  • Clown/vegetable painting parallels the eclipse--uncanny images

http://files.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_445/4456605/file/sundown-solar-eclipse-phases-small-12086.jpg

Form / Style (cont)

  • Nature as a vehicle for storytelling
  • First-person narrator, but doesn't use personal life to drive the narrative (Smith)
  • Commentary on the human condition and nature's role
  • Lyric essay: shorter than other essay forms, focus more on language itself, rather than storyline (Tanemura)

http://butnerblogspot.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/ap_eclipse9_090722_ssh.jpg

  • Dillard's commentary:
  • "psychological phenomenon of awareness"
  • "vertical motion of consciousness, from inside to outside and back"
  • "During the incessant tide-like undulation of consciousness, the writer will 'notice' herself--if not only temporarily--during the act of writing, and this brief consciousness of her own thinking, sensing self will solidify the text she composes" (Slovic)

1979 CBS Broadcast

Context

  • Eclipses are historically regarded as omens or portents
  • Star of Bethlehem thought to be a lunar eclipse of Jupiter--perhaps a connection to Dillard's writings about religion and spirituality
  • 1979
  • USSR Invades Afghanistan
  • Margaret Thatcher elected

Prime minister in UK

  • Crisis in Iran increases oil Prices

around the world; public panics and buys

gas making the situation worse

  • Greensboro, North Carolina white supremacists open fire killing five marchers in KKK rally
  • Who fans killed/injured during concert
  • Three Mile Island nuclear accident

Discussion Questions

http://www.mssimmons.com/ms/Washington/Family_small.jpg

Source: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1979.html

  • What does Dillard have to say about the human condition? How does she communicate it? (e.g., metaphors, comparisons, etc.)
  • What characteristics of this text classify this essay as a "lyric essay"? Is this classification / the genre in general problematic?

  • Bb questions:
  • Why the focus on the motel room?
  • Why the four sections?
  • Is the riff about lexicon and grammar too much?

Total Eclipse

http://www.physics.iupui.edu/~fkleinha/Eclipses/N11-fwksm-4.jpg

Writer Characteristics

•“Walden with pizzazz” – Washington Post

•Says of writing, “Sometimes young writers are worried they have to develop their own prose style, but that’s not true. Whatever you write will turn into you” (Lawrence).

•“She has stated her willingness to sacrifice factual accuracy for the greater accomplishment of truth and art” (Smith ix).

•“She often emphasizes that she has a vision to convey, not a message” (Smith x).

"Total Eclipse" first appeared in Dillard's 1982 book _Teaching a Stone to Talk_

http://www.wlbooks.com/wlbooks/images/items/57761.jpg

Works Cited

Dillard, Annie. “Total Eclipse.” _The Next American Essay_. Ed.

John D’Agata. Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf, 2003. 97-10.

Print.

Lawrence, Malcolm. “Lunch with Annie Dillard.” _Tower of

Babel_. 30 April 1982. Web.

Slovic, Scott. “Sudden Feelings: Annie Dillard’s Psychology.”

_Seeking Awareness in American Nature Writing_. Salt

Lake City, UT: University of Utah, 1992. 61-92. Print.

Small, Evelyn. “‘An American Childhood’ by Annie Dillard.”

_Washington Post_ 1 August 2004: BW13. Web.

Smith, Linda L. _Annie Dillard_. New York: Twayne, 1991. Print.

Tanemura, Kenny. “Lyric Essays.” _Purdue Online Writing Lab.

21 April 2010. Web.

Author Background

• Born Meta Ann Doak, 1945 in Pittsburgh, PA

• Won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1975 for

_Pilgrim and Tinker Creek_

• Taught for 21 years at Wesleyan University in the English department

• No religion, but spiritual; democrat

• Contributing editor, Harper's magazine, 1974-1981, 1983-1985

• Usage panelist, American Heritage Dictionary

  • 100 best essays (ed. Joyce Carol Oates) included "Total Eclipse."
  • A painter

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y-1sHijI_zQ/TdH1K5OugCI/AAAAAAAADUc/9GAvfywXsR8/s1600/Annie_Dillard.jpg

Source:http://www.anniedillard.com/curriculum-vitae.html

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi