Week 1

Jun. 6

Words and Meaning

Reading

• Stanley Kunitz, "The Snakes of September" (with audio clip of Kunitz reading)

  • On "The Wellfleet Whale" and "The Snakes of September"

  • Hillel Italie, "Pulitzer Prize Winner Stanley Kunitz Dies" (obituary)

  • Genesis chapter 1, 2, 3

  • Things to think about when reading Kunitz’s poem “The Snakes of September”

    • Compare what you know about snakes to Kunitz’s description of them. Does he present them in any way that is new or unexpected to you?

    • Lines 15–21 allude to the Genesis in the Bible. If you’re not familiar with it, you can read Genesis chapters 1–3 online.

    • Think about what you feel about snakes and the kinds of emotions and associations that you have when you encounter them. Pay attention to the feelings and associations that the poem evokes. What emotions run through the speaker’s account of his experience? One way you can examine this is to listen to Kunitz reading the poem with your eyes closed and envision each detailed scene along with him.

    • What do you think of the transition when the narrator is no longer a mere observer?

• William Carlos Williams, "This Is Just to Say"

• Margaret Atwood, "Dreams of the Animals," Procedures for Underground (1970)

  • Margaret Atwood, The Art of Fiction No. 121 (interviewed by Mary Morris)

  • Margaret Atwood: Poet (interviewed by Joyce Carol Oates)

  • Biography

  • Genesis 40:5 (What do you think of Atwood's use of this verse from the Bible: "And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison"?)

• Tone (discussion of tone in poetry, definition excerpts of textbooks)

• Tone (explanation of tone with examples from Many Worlds of Poetry)

Jun. 8

Saying More

Reading

• W. H. Auden, "Funeral Blues" (1938)

  • Four Weddings and a Funeral: "Funeral Blues" (video clip, 1:42 min.; John Hannah, as Matthew in the film, reads the poem)

  • W. H. Auden (brief bio)

  • The W. H. Auden Society

  • Poetic Form: Elegy

  • The Blues: What Is the Blues?

  • Satire

Discussion: overstatement, imagery, elegy, satire

Handout: Terms for Literary Discussion, Literary Dictionaries, and Other Books to Explore (download Word file)

Week 2

Jun. 13

Saying What Is Not Said

Reading

• Maya Angelou, "Woman Work"

  • Maya Angelou (biography)

  • Maya Angelou (information)

  • Maya Angelou (official website)

  • Women's History

    • Women in America 1820–1842

    • National Women's History Museum

    • Women's History in America

    • Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being

    • National Archives: Women

  • African American History

    • Slavery and the Making of America

    • Africans in America

    • African-American Women

    • American Women's History: A Research Guide

• John Donne, "Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star" (1633)

  • Jordan Dickie, "John Donne's 'Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star': Analysis"

  • John Donne (brief bio)

  • John Donne (biography)

  • Links

  • John Donne Society

Discussion: imagery, irony

Don't forget to bring your notebook to class always.

Reading Response #1 due (your response to the question "What is reading?" when you observe your own act of reading Atwood's "Dreams of the Animals"; see essays from the following students as examples of how they have responded to a similar question: Ployjai Pintobtang, Anchalee Kamnoedkaeo, and Danai Hengtrakul)

Jun. 15

Saying What Is Not Said

Reading

• Langston Hughes, "Homecoming"

  • Langston Hughes Biography

  • Langston Hughes (brief bio)

  • Langston Hughes (1902–1967)

  • Poetry Foundation: Langston Hughes

  • The Poetry Archive: Langston Hughes

• Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" (1923)

  • "On Robert Frost's 'Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Dana Gioia

  • Gerard Quinn, "Frost's Synecdochic Allusions" (journal article; Chula network access)

  • "On Understanding Poetry" (transcript of 1955 talk at Middlebury College; Saying that "there's a good deal of sway in my poetry," Frost discusses understanding his and others' poems.)

  • The Bible

    • Genesis 2.8–2.25

    • Genesis 3

  • Allusion (brief definition with examples)

Discussion: imagery, understatement, allusion

Test on literary terms (review terms in the dictionaries on the June 8 handout to prepare for this)

Week 3

Jun. 20

Life in Non-life 

• Louis Simpson, "The Battle"

  • Operation Homecoming: Louis Simpson recalls the Battle of the Bulge (WWII) (audio clip)

  • The War (stories and memories of WWII)

• John Keats, "This Living Hand" (1819)

  • Joel Brower's Commentary on John Keats's "This Living Hand"

  • Robert Gittings, "This Living Hand" (1971; lecture)

  • Brooke Hopkins, "Keats and the Uncanny: 'This Living Hand,'" The Kenyon Review (1989)

  • John Keats (1795–1821) (brief bio)

Discussion: metonymy, synecdoche, imagery

In-Class Writing (30 minutes; practice orienting the reader and setting up your argument quickly in the opening of your essay): The Ride of Poetry: Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate, said that a good poem for him should take you somewhere "that's perhaps disorienting, manipulative, or a little off-balancing" ("The Art of Poetry No. 83"). Read Louis Simpson's poem "The Battle" carefully and discuss its movement into that "somewhere." What transformation happens? Where does the poem take you?

Jun. 22

Layers of Stories

Reading

• Christina Rossetti, "Up-Hill" (1851)

  • Commentary on the poem

  • Christina Rossetti - Additional Biographical Information

  • Image and Symbol in Christina Rossetti's Poetry

  • Introductory: Christina Rossetti and the Poetic Vocation

  • Christina Rossetti and the Metaphysics of Spiritual Experience

  • Anthony H. Harrison, "Rossetti's Avante-Garde Poetics"

  • Hoxie Neal Fairchild, "Death As Release From Pain in Christina Rossetti's Works"

  • Metrical Complexity in Christina Rossetti's Verse

• William Blake, "Eternity"

  • William Blake Online

  • The William Blake Archive

  • The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake

  • Madman, Journeyman, Genius, Prophet... (biography illustrated by several of Blake's prints)

  • eE on-line Blake Concordance

• Definition of Symbol

• Allegory

  • Allegory (short definition)

  • Definition of Allegory

  • Introduction to Medieval Allegory

Discussion: allegory, symbolism

Week 4

Jun. 27

Things and Meaning

Reading

• William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXXXVIII ("When my love swears that she is made of truth"; study guide with paraphrase)

  • Commentary

  • Shakespeare's Sonnets

  • A Note on Shakespeare's Sonnets (by Ian Johnston; a good introduction)

  • Edward A. Snow, "Loves of Comfort and Despair: A Reading of Shakespeare's Sonnet 138" (Chula network access)

  • Facsimile (view the sonnet as it was printed in Quarto 1 (1609))

• Sonnet

  • Poetic Form: Sonnet

  • Basic Sonnet Forms

  • Simon Armitage Interview (interview with poet about the sonnet form)

• Paraphrasing

  • Prose Paraphrase

  • What is a paraphrase and how do you write one?

  • Poetry Analysis Fact Sheet

  • Don't Paraphrase

  • The Value of Paraphrasing

  • The Heresy of Paraphrase Revisited

• Marge Piercy, "Barbie Doll"

  • Marge Piercy, "Barbie Doll" (reading, re-reading, explorations, links)

  • Marge Piercy (official webpage)

  • Marge Piercy (brief bio)

• Laurence Perrine, "Janus"

• Irony

  • Irony (classical rhetoric)

  • Literary Devices: Irony (verbal, dramatic, situational)

  • Irony (verbal irony, dramatic irony, irony of situation)

  • Irony (dramatic, structural, verbal)

  • Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Irony

Discussion: irony, paraphrase

Work 1 given (Word file)

Jun. 29

Sound and Meaning

Reading

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Sonnet 21," Sonnets from the Portuguese (1950)

  • Dorothy Mermin, "The Female Poet and the Embarrassed Reader: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese," ELH (1981)

  • The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning (brief bio, poems, external links)

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning (brief bio)

  • Robert Browning Letter to Elizabeth Barrett

  • The Brownings: A Research Guide

  • "Sonnets from the Portuguese," The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

• Rhyme

  • Rhyme

  • Rhyme (short definitions and examples of different kinds of rhymes)

  • Rhyme (benefits, disadvantages)

• Meter

  • Meter (examples of traditional accentual-syllabic meters)

  • Meter and Scansion

  • The Down and Dirty Guide to Scanning Verse: Some Hints to Help with Sounding Shakespeare's Words (good to keep in mind when reading non-Shakespearean verse as well)

  • INTRA - Interactive Tutorial On Rhythm Analysis: Some Introductory Concepts and Terms

In-Class Writing (30 minutes; practice substantiating your arguments with evidence from the poem text): Quiz Practice 1 on Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll"

Week 5

Jul. 4

Sound and Meaning

Reading

• "The Two Ravens"

  • "The Twa Corbies" (the Scottish version with English translation, analysis)

  • "The Twa Corbies" (text of ballad with vocabulary gloss)

• Ballad

  • Ballad (description of the folk and literary ballad)

  • Ballad

  • Traditional Ballads (what is a ballad, web resources)

Quiz 1 (1 hour, 15 points) on an unseen poem

Jul. 6

Anatomy of a Play

Mise-en-Scene

Reading

• Jane Martin, Beauty (2000)

  • Mise-en-Scene

    • Mise-en-Scene

    • Mise-en-Scene

  • Genie (Disney character)

Discussion: set, lighting, space, costume, acting; allusion

Work 1 due

Week 6

Jul. 11

Dialog and Audiences

Reading

• J. B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls (1945; study guide) Act I

  • The J. B. Priestley Society: Biography

• British History

  • Home Front: World War One

  • Home Front: World War Two

  • Edwardian Life

  • A Short History of the British Working Class Movement to the 1926 General Strike chapters 9–12

Work 2 given (Write a 2–5-minute play inspecting something. How might you experiment with the various aspects of live theater, using them to inspect the idea, issue, emotion, problem, relationship, characteristic, memory, place, action, or thing that you want to scrutinize? Consider how humor, word play, setting, actors, music, spatial dynamics, and pace might help to bring points of inspection across to us, your intelligent, perceptive, and receptive audience. Have fun!)

Jul. 13

Characters and Context

Reading

• J. B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls (1945; study guide) Act II

  • J. B. Priestley

  • An Inspector Calls: Historical Context (part 1, 9:38 min. and part 2, 8:58 min.; video clips)

Lit Breakfast: ~7–8 a.m. (make up for our cancelled Lit Lunch and office hours on Monday)

Sonnet Recitation

• Coye, Dale F. Pronouncing Shakespeare's Words: A Guide from A to Zounds. New York: Routledge, 2002.

• Meier, Paul. "In 1595, 'Prove' Rhymed with 'Love'..." American Theatre 28.2 (2011): 48–50.

Week 7

Jul. 18

No class (Buddhist Lent observed)

Jul. 20

Themes

Reading

• J. B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls (1945; study guide) Act III

  • An Inspector Calls (playing at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Jan. 30–Feb. 14, 2009; with audio introduction [12:58 min.])

  • An Inspector Calls (playing in London at the Wyndham's Dec. 3–Mar. 20, 2010)

  • An Inspector Calls (1982 BBC TV mini-series, dir. Michael Simpson, perf. Bernard Hepton) part 1 (14:57 min.), 2 (14:57 min.), 3 (15:00 min.), 4 (14:45 min.), 5 (14:59 min.), 6 (4:53 min.)

  • David Cannadine, The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain (1999)

Work 2 due (Write a 2–5-minute play inspecting something. How might you experiment with the various aspects of live theater, using them to inspect the idea, issue, emotion, problem, relationship, characteristic, memory, place, action, or thing that you want to scrutinize? Consider how humor, word play, setting, actors, music, spatial dynamics, and pace might help to bring points of inspection across to us, your intelligent, perceptive, and receptive audience. Have fun!)

Sonnet Recitation

• The Archaeology of Sound

Week 8

Jul. 25

(Midterm week: July 25–29, 2010)

Midterm Exam (2 hours, in BRK 402; note room change) There will be four essay-type questions covering material on the syllabus from the beginning of the semester through week 7. Formulate an argument in response to each exam question that allows you to address effectively the requirements of the prompt. As always, you will want to show us your critical and analytical skills: demonstrate that you have read and understood the material, that you can critically engage with that material, with discussion in class, and with the test question, that you can synthesize material and knowledge gained, and that you can write clear and effective prose.

• Reading Strategies

  • Reading Strategies and LIE

  • S.O.A.P.S. Document Analysis

  • PDIDLS

  • Tone and Detailed Explanation of DIDLS

• Essay Exam Tips

  • Writing Exam Essays

  • Pointers for Taking Essay Tests

  • Writing Essay Exams (pdf file)

  • Essay Exam Preparation (pdf file)

• Review literary terms

Jul. 27

No class (Midterm week: July 25–29, 2010)

Week 9

Aug. 1

The Elements of Fiction

Things and Meaning II

Reading

• Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery" (1948)

  • Shirley Jackson (bio)

  • Jonathan Lethem, "Monstrous Acts and Little Murders" (1997; note that there are two pages to this essay)
  • Joyce Carol Oates, "The Library of America Interviews Joyce Carol Oates about Shirley Jackson" (2010; pdf file)
    

Discussion: imagery, irony, symbolism

Final paper topic proposal and critique

Aug. 3

Point of View: Knowledge

Reading

• Kazuo Ishiguro, "A Family Supper" (1982; rtf file)

  • A Family Supper (walks you through the literary elements; see if you agree with their reading)

  • National Geographic: Puffer fish video (4:27 min.)

  • Blowfish and Trade

  • Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro

  • January Interview: Kazuo Ishiguro (2000)

Week 10

Aug. 8

Point of View: Tone, Style

Reading

• Kazuo Ishiguro, "A Family Supper" (1982; rtf file)

Work 3 given

Aug. 10

Shapes of Character

Reading

• Edith Wharton, "Roman Fever" (study guide)

  • Edith Wharton: A Life in Pictures and Text

  • Edith Wharton, 1862–1937 (biography at the Yale Edith Wharton Collection)

  • Edith Wharton's World: Portraits of People and Places (National Portrait Gallery exhibition)

  • Critical Responses to "Roman Fever" (summaries of several articles on the short story)

Week 11

Aug. 15

Style

Reading:

• Edith Wharton, "Roman Fever" (study guide)

Work 3 due

Aug. 17

Can Such Things Be?

Reading

• Thomas Hardy, "The Withered Arm"

  • When Does Thomas Hardy's "The Withered Arm" Take Place?

Week 12

Aug. 22

Ambiguity

Reading

• Thomas Hardy, "The Withered Arm"

  • Suzanne R. Johnson, "Metamorphosis, Desire, and the Fantastic in Thomas Hardy's 'The Withered Arm'" (1993)

  • Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny"

Aug. 24

Theme

Reading

• Thomas Hardy, "The Withered Arm"

Week 13

Aug. 29

The Novel Genre

Dystopian Utopia

Reading

• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1990) beginning–"Chapter 5" (study guide)

  • Margaret Atwood (official website)

  • Author Interview

  • Margaret Atwood--The Handmaid's Tale (audio interview; 19:00 min.)

Quiz 2 (15 points, 1 hour) on Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (1936). There will be two essay-type questions.

• Picturing Hemingway: A Writer in His Time

• Introduction to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

• A brief survey of the short story part 34: Ernest Hemingway

• Khantavichian, Sanguansri. "An Aristotelian Approach to 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.'" Thoughts (January 1987): 1, 2, 3, 4.

• The Hemingway Society

• The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum

• Ernest Hemingway, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (text of short story with picture of Hemingway at hunt)

Aug. 31

Dystopian Utopia

Reading

• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1990) "Chapter 6"–"Chapter 12" (end of Part IV) (study guide)

  • Mervyn Rothstein, "No Balm in Gilead for Margaret Atwood," The New York Times (1986; interview about the novel)

Final paper outline due

Week 14

Sep. 5

Dystopian Utopia

Reading

• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1990) "Chapter 13"–"Chapter 24" (Part V "Nap"–Part IX "Night") (study guide)

  • Don Swaim, "Audio Interview with Margaret Atwood" (1986)
  • Betty Friedan, "Chapter 1: The Problem That Has No Name," The Feminine Mystique (1963)
    

Sep. 7

Dream Deferred

Reading

• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1990) "Chapter 25"–"Chapter 29" (Part X "Soul Scrolls"; please finish the assigned reading before watching the video) (study guide)
  • Betty Friedan, "Chapter 2: The Happy Housewife Heroine," The Feminine Mystique (1963)
  • Volker Schlöndorff, dir., The Handmaid's Tale (1990 film; part 1 of 3; video clip, 34:30 min.)

Week 15

Sep. 12

Trust and Betrayal

Reading

• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1990) "Chapter 30"–"Chapter 40" (Part IX "Night"–Part XIII "Night") (study guide)

  • Volker Schlöndorff, dir., The Handmaid's Tale (1990 film; part 2 of 3; video clip, 34:32 min.)

Sep. 14

Interpretations

Reading

• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1990) "Chapter 41"–end (Part XIV "Salvaging"–"Historical Notes") (study guide)

  • Volker Schlöndorff, dir., The Handmaid's Tale (1990 film; part 3 of 3; video clip, 34:31 min.)

  • Geoffrey Chaucer

    • The Life of Chaucer

    • Geoffrey Chaucer

  • The Canterbury Tales

    • Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"

    • The General Prologue

    • Interlinear Translations of Some of The Canterbury Tales

  • Gilead (meanings given in Dirda's review article of Robinson's novel Gilead)

Week 16

Sep. 19

Student Presentations

Sep. 21

Student Presentations

8:00–8:55 a.m., BRK 411

Intro Lit theme potluck breakfast hosted by Section 5. Currently on the menu: fried chicken, nuggets, french fries, orange cake, buttered toast with honey, juice, soda.

Program: (download pdf file)

5.  Latin Sayings, Ives's Playing: The Swiftness and Longevity of Time Flies

8:00–8:25 a.m., BRK 411

Moderator: Ornrumpa Kidmai

Speakers:

1. "Tempus Fugit," Kanchana Manalert

2. "Memento Mori," Chaisopon Ngamlerdsuporn

3. "Carpe Diem," Supamon Rungruangratanakul

Respondents:

1. Isaraporn Kitcholwiwat

2. Lojana Kiatpermsin

3. Proud Permpoolsombat

6.  Self-Discovery through Knowledge in the Short Happy Life of Mrs. Mallard in Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"

8:30–8:55 a.m., BRK 411

Moderator: Kanchana Manalert

Speakers:

1. "Love, the Blind Murderer," Lojana Kiatpermsin

2. "The Unknown Knowledge of Mrs. Mallard," Aimratee Sidhikosol

3. "The Short Happy Life of Louise Mallard," Nawaporn Suksaran

Respondents:

1. Supamon Rungruangratanakul

2. Panrawee Weerapan

3. Punnapa Stapornviriyakul

Week 17

Sep. 26

Final Exam (8:30–11:30 a.m.)

• Preparation

  • Writing Exam Essays

  • Pointers for Taking Essay Tests

  • Writing Essay Exams (pdf file)

  • Essay Exam Preparation (pdf file)

• Sample Responses

  • Sample Poetry Question on Kvlividze's poem "In the Metro" (with sample responses)

  • Example of an 'A' Response to an Exam on Wordsworth's "The world is too much with us"

  • Sample Exam Answer

• Reading Strategies

  • TP-CASTT (brief), Poetry Analysis: TP-CASTT (more detailed)

  • Tone and Detailed Explanation of DIDLS

  • S.O.A.P.S. Document Analysis

  • Reading Strategies and LIE

  • PDIDLS

• Literary terms