Notes for discussion of Kurt Vonnegut's "More Stately Mansions" (in Welcome to the Monkey House)
Break up into small groups. Delegate one or more members of your
group
to prepare a summary of your group's discussion.
For 1 - Instructor explains de Beauvoir's discussion of "the home"
in The Second Sex ,
Goffmann's theory of the front, and (as time permits) ties this
in with Becker's views in The
Birth and Death of
Meaning and The
Denial of Death.
1. Do you know anyone who identifies his or her self with the way
their home looks, or some other set of appearances. How? Why do
you think they do this?