The Conscious Reader

by Shrodes, Caroline F., Late; Shugrue, Michael F.; Matuschek, Christian; DiPaolo, Marc F.

• ISBN13: 9780205803286
• ISBN10: 0205803288
• Edition: 12th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-27
• Publisher: Pearson
• More Book Details

Summary

This classic thematic anthology has long been hailed for its exceptionally rich collection of essays, personal writing, fiction and poetry, and for its ground-breaking inclusion of classic and contemporary images. Renowned for the quality and range of its selections,The Conscious Readerpresents over 150 readings representing a range of genres, a wide array of culturally diverse authors and fascinating topics, and a broad range of academic disciplines, including art, cultural studies, education, psychology, philosophy, politics, science, technology, and environmental studies. The works range from the classical-Plato'sCrito-to the contemporary- Jhumpa Lahiri and David Gelerntner-and from political figures like Colin Powell and Wesley Clark to generational icons like Melissa Etheridge, John Lennon, and Tupac Shakur. Brief, flexible apparatus includes an introduction to each theme and helpful headnotes, discussion questions, and writing assignments for each selection. Perhaps the most distinguishing feature ofThe Conscious Readeris its inclusion of a cutting-edge selection of images designed to provoke discussion and analysis.

Table of Contents

Contents

** indicates new to this edition

 

Preface                                                                                                                                 

I.   READING IMAGES                                                        

Scott McCloud: The Language of Comics

E. M. Forster: Art for Art’s Sake                                     

Susan Sontag: Regarding the Pain of Others                   

**David Wall: It is and It Isn’t: Stereotypes, Advertising, and Narrative

Peggy Orenstein: What’s Wrong With Cinderella?            

**Chris Sullentrop: Transformers            

**Margaret Atwood: Pornography                                    

Color Art Portfolio

 

II. CONSCIOUS READING, INTELLIGENT WRITING                                       

Notebook    

Stephen King: On Writing                                               

Malcolm X: A Homemade Education                               

Flannery O’Connor: The Teaching of Literature

 

Personal Writing                                        

Virginia Woolf: The Angel in the House                           

 

Essays

Joseph Williams and Greg Colomb: Argument, Critical Thinking, and Rationality        

Patricia Kubis and Robert M. Howland: How to Develop a Good Style                             

**Martha Brockenbrough: Does IM Make U Dum?

**Katie Hafner: Seeing Corporate Fingerprints in Wikipedia Edits

**Julie J.C.H. Ryan: Student Plagiarism in an Online World

 

Fiction                                                                      

**Henry David Thoreau: Reading

 

Poetry

**Taylor Mali: The The Impotence of Proofreading

 

III. PERSONAL VALUES AND RELATIONSHIPS                   

Notebook

**Dan Quayle: Restoring Basic Values                            

Constance Matthiessen: Harry Potter and Divorce Among the  Muggles

 

Personal Writing                

Colin Powell: The Good Soldier

Judith Ortiz Cofer: Casa: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood                                                

Mohandas K. Gandhi: My Faith in Nonviolence                

Jhumpa Lahiri: My Hyphenated Identity                            

Nancy Mairs: On Being a Cripple                        

Alfred Lubrano: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams                                         

 

Essays         

Benoit Denizet-Lewis: Friends, “Friends with Benefits,” and the Benefits of the Local Mall        

Carson McCullers: Loneliness … an American Malady                                          

 

Fiction

Kate Chopin: A Respectable Woman                              

 

Poetry                                                                       

 **Rudyard Kipling: If

T. S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock              

Anne Sexton, Her Kind                                                              

William Shakespeare: Sonnet 29,  Sonnet 116                   

 

IV. EDUCATION                                                                                        

Notebook

**Samuel G. Freedman: New Class(room) War: Teacher versus Technology                                           

**Maggie Jackson: Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the  Coming Dark Age         

                       

Personal Writing                                         

**Katha Pollitt: Summers of Our Discontent                    

 

Essays                                                                                  

**Plato: The Allegory of the Cave                  

**Earl Shorris: Education as a Weapon in the Hands of the   Restless Poor                           

**Drew Gilpin Faust: The University’s Crisis of Purpose    

Lewis Thomas: The Humanities and Science

Bruno Bettelheim: The Child’s Need for Magic                 

 

Fiction

Anton Chekov: The Bet                                                  

 

Poetry

Langston Hughes: Theme for English B                          

 

V.  POPULAR CULTURE                                                                                                 

Notebook                            

**Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan: Why Vampires Never Die      

**Christine Seifert: Bite Me! (Or Don’t!): Twilight as Abstinence Porn

 

Personal Writing

**Michael Albernethy: Male-Bashing on TV                      

**Gloria Steinem: Wonder Woman

 

Essays                                                                      

Steven Levy: Facebook Grows Up                                     

**Jay Weiner: How to Take Back Sports

**Sherry Turkle: Cuddling Up to Cyborg Babies                

Joe Woodard: Pumped, Pierced, Painted, and Pagan          

Eric Schlosser: Fast Food Nation                                      

                                                           

Fiction

Steven Moffat: “What I Did on My Christmas Holidays” By Sally Sparrow                                                  

 

Poetry

John Lennon: Working Class Hero                                    

 

VI.       ART AND SOCIETY                                                           

Notebook

Melissa Etheridge: Music as a Safe Haven                         

Marilyn Manson: Columbine: Who’s Fault is It?                  

**Charles Taylor: The Morality Police

 

            Personal Writing                                         

**Ludwig von Beethoven: The Helligenstadt Testament     

Glenn Kurtz: Practicing                                                    

 

Essays                                                                     

**Andrea Frasier: Why I Would Rather Have a Day Job                

**George Orwell: Politics and the English Language         

Roger Ebert: Great Movies                                                

**Roger Rosenblatt: What’s That to Us?  

Pete Rojas: Bootleg Culture                                              

 

Fiction

Willa Cather:The Sculptor’s Funeral                                  

 

Poetry

Sonia Sanchez: A Poem for Ella Fitzgerald                        

Walt Whitman: Poets to Come

 

VII. SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION              

Notebook

**David Smith: 2050, and Immortality is Within Our Grasp  

Paul Davies: How to Build a Time Machine                         

 

Personal Writing

**Tom Wolfe: One Giant Leap to Nowhere                       

                 

Essays                                                                                 

Stephen Jay Gould: Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs                       

David Quammen: Was Darwin Wrong?                               

Nicholas Kristof: Warm, Warmer, Warmest                        

**James Howard Kunstler: The Long Emergency                          

Steve D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner: Freakenomics: The Hidden Side of Everything        

                                                       

Fiction

Alan Lightman: A Place Where Time Stands Still               

 

Poetry

**Affonso Romano De’Sant Anna:Letter to the Dead        

 

VIII. FREEDOM AND HUMAN DIGNITY                                       

Notebook

Anya Kamenetz: Generation Debt                      

**Barbara Ehrenreich: Selling in Minnesota                      

 

Personal Writing     

**Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail       

 

Essays

Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence    

                        The Declaration of the Rights of Man                                 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Coffin Mott: Seneca Falls Convention                                                      

Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address                        

William Faulkner: Nobel Prize Award Speech                     

Chief Seattle: Speech on the Signing of the Treaty  of Port Elliott, 1855                                                     

Cornel West: On Affirmative Action                                   

**Andrew Sullivan: A Conservative Case for Gay Marriage  

**Mary Gordon: A Moral Choice                                      

 

Fiction

Edwidge Danticat: Breath, Eyes, Memory                                       

 

Poetry

Reynolds Price: Tom, Dying of AIDS                                 

Matthew Arnold: Dover Beach                                           

Taha Muhammad Ali: Revenge                                          

 

IX. GLOBALISM, NATIONALISM, AND  CULTURAL IDENTITY                                                                  

Notebook

**Barack Obama: A Lasting Peace

Anthony Shadid: Legacy of the Prophet                                      

Wesley Clark: The Next War

Howard Gardner: Leading Beyond the Nation-State             

 

Personal Writing     

Chris Hedges: The Ten Commandments in America          

**Salman Rushdie: Imagine There’s No Heaven               

 

Essays

**Peggy Noonan: The Case for Getting Off Base             

Niccolo Machiavelli: Of Cruelty and Clemency, and

Whether It Is Better to Be Loved or Feared              

Aung San Suu Kyi: Freedom from Fear                              

**Oscar Wilde: The Soul of Man Under Socialism            

Anna Quindlen: Immigration: Newcomers by Numbers        

 

Fiction

Sherman Alexie: What You Pawn I Will Redeem                

 

Poetry

Sarah Littlecrow-Russell: Apology to the Wasps                 

Wilfred Owen: Dulce et Decorum Est