Embedded Files
Class Ground Rules
Read all the assignments before class.
Keep yourself on mute unless called on.
Raise your hands electronically.
Focus your comments only on the question at hand rather than straying to other parts of the story.
Refrain from offering a review of the whole story or jumping to the end.
Discuss the author's story, not your own story.
Try to support your comments by referring to details from the text.
Listen to and respond to others with respect.
"One of my favorite quotes that I pulled up was Thorton Wilder saying, 'But art is not only the desire to tell one’s secret; it is the desire to tell it and hide it at the same time.'” — Jill McCorkle
READ (at least twice): Jill McCorkle – “Confessional" pp. 146-157.
A couple purchases an antique confessional booth for their home and use it to share secrets and confessions with each other.
Think About:
Look at narrative structure of the story. How does the author's choice to alternate between dialogue and exposition affect the reader's experience?
How do the man and woman relate to each other inside and outside the confessional?
Look at the progression of the confessions throughout the story. How do they change, and what does this reveal about the characters?
How does McCorkle use humor in the story, and what purpose does it serve in relation to the more serious themes?
How does the antique shop owner contribute to the narrative?
What do you think the exchange of the confessional for a kissing chair says about the couple's relationship?
Antique confessional
Victorian kissing chair
Listen to Jill McCorkle read and discuss the story "Confessional"
Listen to Jill McCorkle read and discuss the story "Confessional"
Start at 2:05 and stop at 5:39.
Purely Optional - Altar Boy - Tom Waits
He's an ol' altar boy
Lying out there in the street
He's an ol' altar boy
Bound up in leather and chains
That's why I'm feeling so blue
I'm an old altar boy
What about you?
Now, I can order in Latin
Make 'em au gratin, Joe
I'm an old altar boy
That's why I'm so depressed
I never got the rest of the dream
Just the ritual
Now I'm habitual
Majoring in crimes that are unspeakable
Cause I'm an old altar boy
That's what happened to me
I'm an old altar boy
He's hoping he can meet a woman dressed like a nun
He knows there's got to be some around here
Drinking across from the church
A little Father Cribari wine
On a Sunday morn' time
I'm an old altar boy
Why is he winking at this time in his life?
He never took a wife, cause he's an old altar boy
Oh, yeah
What about you?
Google Sites
Report abuse