"It's the truth even if it didn't happen."
For this unit we will be reading and discussing Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as we begin applying critical theory to literature. This unit will ask students to apply a variety of critical lenses to the text before selecting one lens to use as they compose an analytical essay about the text.
Essential Questions:
Applying Critical Theory at home:
As we read Cuckoo's Nest, we will use critical lenses to question why Chief Bromden, McMurphy, and the rest of the patients have been placed into a ward for psychiatric care. Consider the world around you. Who have you labeled as "crazy," or heard labeled as such? Using the critical lenses we have discussed in class, consider these groups or individuals from a new perspective. Can a literary lens reveal something that you hadn't previously considered?
Major Assessments:
Students will have a choice of 3-5 prompts, from which they will be expected to write a literary analysis essay.
Essential Questions:
- How does the use of an unreliable narrator alter a reader's understanding of a text?
- How do an author's opinions, prejudices and experiences inform his or her fiction?
- How does society define sanity and insanity?
Applying Critical Theory at home:
As we read Cuckoo's Nest, we will use critical lenses to question why Chief Bromden, McMurphy, and the rest of the patients have been placed into a ward for psychiatric care. Consider the world around you. Who have you labeled as "crazy," or heard labeled as such? Using the critical lenses we have discussed in class, consider these groups or individuals from a new perspective. Can a literary lens reveal something that you hadn't previously considered?
Major Assessments:
Students will have a choice of 3-5 prompts, from which they will be expected to write a literary analysis essay.