John Stenzel
English 180, Fall 2005

Journal Exercise 4--Play Time is Serious Business
Due Tuesday, November 22; e-mailed to me, jastenzel@ucdavis.edu, with your house name in the subject line.
You may also print it out and slide it under my office door, 379 Voorhies. Under no circumstances may you submit it to English Department staff downstairs--they have orders to set the Dementors on any student who even asks.

In the interests of getting you reading actively, writing freely, and thinking critically about the readings and about the topics of the course more generally, I want to challenge you to examine several passages, from at least THREE of our readings, and analyze them thoughtfully. In particular, I want you to write about the role of play, (including role-playing more generally), at least some of which specifically being child's play of one form or another, or at least behavior that qualifies as non-adult or non-workaday in the ways we have already discussed.

Here's how I want you to do this: select passages that contain what you think are particularly revealing instances of play or child-like behavior, and bring us along on your explanation of them--with an eye toward convincing us that your choices are significant and important. Taken together, your choices should say something significant about the ways in which play is depicted in (and energizes) the literature we have been reading--and why readers should pay attention to the phenomenon of play as they read this literature. First, sketch out what happens in the passage (a kind of outline in sentence form--who does what to whom, then what happens, etc.), giving a sense of context for the play you will focus on. Use present tense for this, and five sentences or so should (usually) suffice to give the basic action of who does what to whom.

But don't stop with "plot summary!" Analysis is key: go on and scrutinize the play in the scene, trying to get at the ways characters play with each other, with words, with ideas, with themes we've been discussing. I'm interested in how things happen, why things happen the way they do, and why these things are significant to the work as a whole. Who sets the rules? Do all the characters know all of them? Does a character learn through play? What? Is there a darker side to play? If appropriate, consider the narrator's role in the section, especially as the narrator affects the way we see play. Feel free to let the ideas flow without a structure in draft form, but then take the time to try to re-work your thoughts, crafting a short introduction that sets up and maps out your passages, and a conclusion that articulates something significant about the different kinds of play you have been discussing. Feel free to e-mail me or the TA's with ideas for chunks to analyze--sometimes we can steer you in productive directions.

Formatting and style: as with the other journals, I'm not expecting you to agonize over this assignment the way you might over a ten-page research paper, but you should know by now to take it seriously. This can be a nice capstone for your term's work on children's literature. Your intended audience is an intelligent person who has read the book, but who hasn't thought about it as much as you have. You should re-read your piece and revise for clarity and coherence. Some of the more interesting and well-written submissions may be shared (anonymously if desired) via the class website. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

As always, pieces that are obviously first-and-final-drafts will not get full credit, nor will overly short or off-topic responses, or responses that are merely strings of plot summary. For ease and consistency's sake, send your submission in the body of an e-mail, and as an attachment. Be sure to print and save a hard copy as a backup--e-mail it to yourself as well, in case of inadvertent deletion.