'Til Tuesday

It's not just a cheesy 80s band; 'Til Tuesday is what you should be working on for English 3.

Read the poems listed for that day.
If you didn't yet read the pages in Gardner's Writing About Literature that were assigned for today, it's time to get caught up. We'll talk about these on Tuesday.

Also, I want you to read the entire book of Rita Wong poems, Forage. That takes time, so I'd recommend starting on it this weekend.

The bonus imagery poems: "Map Shower" is by Richard Brautigan and "A Hemisphere in Your Hair" is by Charles Baudlaire. They make a nice pair because they both use imagery of hair to express love but in deeply different ways. We might take a minute or two on them at the beginning of class Tuesday, so please do read them.

Atwood & LeGuin on Science Fiction and Realism

Here is a pretty cool and informative write-up by someone who attended a Portland public lecture that featured two of the great and critically recognized women science fiction writers of our day discussing literature, science fiction, realism, and twitter...

Shakespeare and the darling buds of May

This is the sonnet I mentioned yesterday when we discussed Rosetti's sonnet.

Sonnet XVIII

1. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2. Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4. And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6. And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
7. And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8. By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
11. Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Presentations

Here is the sign-up sheet. If you didn' t get on the list, email me or leave a comment and I'll add you.

Oct 5 Emily Dickinson--Kirsten
Ted Hughes--Alvaro
Richard Brautigan--Matthew

Oct 7 Gerard Manley Hopkins--Jennifer Garcia
Gary Snyder--Alex

Oct 14 The science and/or cross-cultural elements of a poem--Hank
The science and/or cross-cultural of a poem--Brendan
The science and/or cross-cultural of a poem--Manjinder

Oct 19 Julio Cortazar--Riki
Edgar Allan Poe--Brendon

Oct 21 William Faulkner biography--Serah
Faulkner’s literary themes--Devon

Oct 26 William Gibson biography--Marina

Oct 28 on the tech or culture in this section of the novel--Erin
on the tech or culture in this section of the novel--Robin

Nov 2 Gibson’s twitter--Linda
Gibson’s twitter--Charlene

Nov 4 on the conclusion--Allison

Nov 9 make a map or graph or tree for one or several of our texts--Blair
make a map or graph or tree for one or several of our texts--Kirill
make a map or graph or tree for one or several of our texts--Choua
make a map or graph or tree for one or several of our texts--Jennifer Nguyen
make a map or graph or tree for one or several of our texts--Maris

Nov 16 Karel Capek--Kevin

Nov 18 RUR history of performance/reception…--Perla

A bonus poem for today from Pablo Neruda

Love Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda

(Original in Spanish)

No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de chaveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de si, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que acendio de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber como, ni cuando, ni de donde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
asi te amo porque no se amar de otra manera,

sino asi de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mia,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueno.

(English Translation)

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Blog Writing Assignment: Due 9.30 before class

Our focus for Thursday is imagery/symbolism.

Read all of the poems, multiple times. Now, select one poem and take notice of all the imagery in it. Pay attention to the dominant images as well as those more subtly worked into it. Are there any patterns relating to an image or set of images? If so, are there any breaks or divergences in these patterns? Now get ready to write:

Step 1: Make a comprehensive list of the images in this poem. This can just be a list without complete sentences. The purpose is to create an inventory so you can then decide what to focus on in your writing. This does not count toward the 350-400 words, sorry.
Step 2: Now, select one type of image or a few images you think are somehow connected and/or work together in that poem and write a 350-400 word speculation about how this image offers an interpretation of the poem.

For example, if this assignment was today you might have written a comparative argument about the three images in Shakespeare's quatrains. You might have compared the people and their settings in Wordsworth, whether incorporating the bees or not.

The poems for Thursday are rich in imagery, so this should be an inviting assignment. Please have it posted on your blog before we meet Thursday morning.

Ted Hughes "Crow's Theology"

Crow's Theology

Crow realized God loved him-

Otherwise, he would have dropped dead.

So that was proved.

Crow reclined, marvelling, on his heart-beat.

And he realized that God spoke Crow-

Just existing was His revelation.

But what Loved the stones and spoke stone?

They seemed to exist too.

And what spoke that strange silence

After his clamour of caws faded?

And what loved the shot-pellets

That dribbled from those strung-up mummifying crows?

What spoke the silence of lead?

Crow realized there were two Gods-

One of them much bigger than the other

Loving his enemies

And having all the weapons.

The math/stats of Choose Your Own Adventure Literature

Check out this quantitative/statistical analysis of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" novels that were popular WAAY back in the 1980s.

Mad Scientists in Literature and Popular Culture

Here's a link to a study (featuring a lovely graph!!!) of the specific kinds of experiments fictional mad scientists have been doing, from 1810-2010.

Why "Litter-a-Terre"?

Why “Litter-a-terre"?

In French, this expression, which would more likely be written “litteraterre” without the –s, means “litter on the ground/earth.” I chose this name for our course blog because I want us to purse this “Introduction to Literature” as a re-introduction from a new perspective. Let us proceed, not from a position of accepting the value and estimation of literature, but from a position that asks from the start whether literature is really something more than just human-generated ink-stains on the processed carcasses of trees, something more than litter on the earth.

“Litter-a-terre” also invokes images of environment, ecology, and waste: in short, the world we, and our books, inhabit, and many of the texts we’ll be reading are engaged with ecological concerns and crises from a range of viewpoints and a range of literary genres, styles, and techniques. In particular, we will work with intersections of literature, ecology, science, technology, culture, and society with an openness to rethinking what it means to be human and how we conceptualize human relationships to things like machines, animals, and waste too.

Giving this particular shape to our course is meant to invite you into literature through questions and concerns that are relevant and pressing and that your work as students and later in life will directly shape. Finally, I hope that when our ten weeks are finished, I will have taught you, not what to think of literature, but what are the fundamental tools and approaches to thinking about literature and how to use them to make your own compelling and cogent interpretations.

Welcome to Litter-a-terre!

Gwendolyn Brooks "First Fight. Then Fiddle."

Gwendolyn Brooks's "First Fight. Then Fiddle."
(1949)


First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string
With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note
With hurting love; the music that they wrote
Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing
Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing
For the dear instrument to bear. Devote
The bow to silks and honey. Be remote
A while from malice and from murdering,
But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate
In front of you and harmony behind.
Be deaf to music and to beauty blind.
Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late
For having first to civilize a space
Wherein to play your violin with grace.

English, Science, Math, and Teams Edward and Jacob

An intersection of Physics/Math/Stats and Literature:


Physicists Costas Efthimiou and Sohang Gandhi published a paper"Cinema Fiction vs. Physics Reality" that attempts to prove vampires could not exist.

Efthimiou and Gandhi conduct a thought experiment: Assume that the first vampire appeared on January 1, 1600. At that time, according to data available at the U.S. Census website, the global population was 536,870,911. Efthimiou and Gandhi calculate that, once the Nosferatu feeding frenzy began, the entire human race would have been wiped out by June 1602.

However, mathematician, Dino Sejdinovic published a rebuttal to their argument in the November 2008 Math Horizons called"Mathematics of the Human-Vampire Conflict."

The empirical benefits of reading challenging literature...

A recent psychology study by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and University of British Columbia indicate that reading Kafka can improve your learning. So, consider reading some challenging literature before studying for your statistics midterms.

The Syllabus

ENGLISH 3: Introduction to Literature
Fall 2010
UC Davis
Tues/Thurs, 8-9:50am, Olson 244

Required Texts: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, Light of Thy Countetance by Alan Moore, M Butterfly by David Henry Hwang, Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R) by Karel Capek, Writing about Literature (2nd Edition) by Janet Gardner, Forage by Rita Wong, and other texts available online.

Prerequisite: You must have already completed the “Subject A” requirement to take English 3.

Course Description and Objectives:
One of the most successful novels of 2010 so far is Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story. SSTLS is described as an epistolary, dystopian love-story—a specific subgenre of the novel. Success is defined here in two ways: critical and commercial. In other words, critics and reviewers for newspapers, magazines, literary blogs and websites, and literary journals have generally had written favorable assessments of this novel. As to commercial success, the SSTLS is selling a lot of copies, from traditional hard-covers to e-books.
Before the novel was released, Shteyngart and his publishers launched a multi-media campaign to generate interest and sales in the novel. He was interviewed by Terry Gross on the NPR program Fresh Air, and a video trailer for the book featuring Shteyngart, other famous writers, and James Franco circulated on Youtube. Once the book was available, Shteyngart traveled the country doing reading/signing events. At his event in Berkeley, the author said that he also enjoys television and movies, but that a novel gives the reader something those media cannot. When you read a novel, he said, you empathize with another person’s mind—not their perspective (opinions & attitudes) as in tv and movies, but their whole, complicated mind.
What does all of this have to do with our Introduction to Literature course? Answer: Everything. This short account of SSTLS contains key elements we will focus on this quarter as I (re)introduce you to literature: How does a text fit into literary tradition? What is a genre and what does knowing and labeling genres do for us? How do we navigate our ideas about literature as something produced by artists and as a product for sale? How is literature still relevant and compelling in our era of online social networking and digital media? Can literature be meaningful to individuals and to social groups since reading is mostly done alone? And, what can literature show us about the act of narrating—telling stories, which is the primary mode we make sense of our world and almost everything we do in it?

This class engages with these inquiries and takes as its main objective teaching a core set of skills required to analyze, appreciate, and enjoy works of literature with an interest in content, form, and context. You will develop these skills through close reading a wide range of literary works in a variety of genres, and by writing responses as well as more formal pieces about those works that pique your interest.
Throughout this quarter, you should strive to obtain and cultivate the following abilities:
• Develop a thoughtful, informed, and sophisticated perspective on any given literary text.
• Situate your perspective in the context of the university, the field, and/or the specific literary studies conversations at hand.
• Communicate your perspective clearly through writing to the appropriate audience and through in-class discussions.

Course Assignments:

Blog Writings and Projects
You will create and maintain a blog for this course. There will be weekly writing assignments and/or projects to be completed and posted on your blog by the deadlines indicated. These writings contribute to the 6000-word writing requirement for this course and will range from informal to formal style and will be evaluated based on the requirements established for each assignment.

Reading Quizzes, Attendance, and Presentation
There will be regular short reading quizzes at the beginning of class meetings. These quizzes will be given at the start of class meetings, so be prompt in order to have the full time to complete them. You are expected to attend class regularly and to arrive having completed the reading. Significant absences or late arrivals will lower this portion of your grade. You are also required to give one short presentation to the class.

Formal Paper and Draft Workshop:
You will write two evidence-based, thesis-driven essays this quarter—one on poetry and one on fiction. Your essays will go through draft workshops aimed at helping you revise the final versions. Attendance is required at the workshops—failure to attend or failure to bring a substantial draft will result in an automatic 1/3 reduction of your grade for that paper (i.e. a B becomes a B-). These assignments will be handed out well in advance of the due dates so you can start planning and drafting early.

Final Exam:
The final exam will be Tuesday, December 7th, 3.30-5.30pm.

Grading/Evaluation Policies:
Blog 25%
Reading Quizzes/Part./Pres.: 10%
Formal Essays 50% (Poetry=20%, Fiction=30%)
Final Exam: 15%

Submitting Your Final Essay:
Your essays must be submitted to me on the assigned dates (see schedule below). DO NOT submit any papers to the English or University Writing Program department offices. They do no accept student papers. In case of medical or other emergency, contact me before the due date to discuss an extension; extensions are granted only under exceptional circumstances. Late papers will receive a 1/3 grade reduction for each day past the due date, and no papers are accepted after the final exam.

Office Hours:
You are greatly encouraged to use my office hours early and often! I have found office hour meetings significantly beneficial to students, whether in the brainstorming phases of writing, working through a challenging literary work or idea, or in the midst of final essay revisions. If your schedule precludes you from coming to my scheduled office hours, I am willing to make an appointment. I do not accept drafts over email, so do stop by to see me.

Course Requirements and Policies:

 ENL3 has a 6000-word requirement. You must complete every graded written assignment, including the final exam, in order to fulfill the requirement and pass the course. If you are missing any formal assignment at the end of the quarter, I cannot pass you.
 You must earn a C- or better in order to pass, even if you have turned in all the work.

Academic Honesty:
With regard to plagiarism, don’t do it! Whether the work of others is submitted through purposeful mendacity or for lack of familiarity with what constitutes plagiarism, it is a serious academic offense that you will do well to avoid. Suspect papers will be submitted to the UC Davis Student Judicial Affairs to follow university procedures regarding academic honesty. I am happy to help you avoid this issue, so bring any questions to class or office hours before the assignment is due. A complete outline of university policies and guidelines for avoiding plagiarism can be found at http://sja.ucdavis.edu.

Disclosures:
If you require any accommodation in the course due to a disability, please acquire formal documentation of the disability from the UC Davis Disability Resources Center. You may then notify me by providing the documentation so I can make arrangements to meet your needs.



Modifications:
Course schedule subject to change with notification from instructor. Course policies will be modified only if absolutely necessary.

ENL 3: Introduction to Literature: Fall 2010
Schedule of Reading and Writing Assignments
You are expected to complete assignments for the day on which they are listed. You will be notified of any changes to this schedule well in advance both in class and electronically.

Thu., Sep. 23 Course Introduction
First reading and writing. Establishing our blogs.
Key Concepts: Defining “Literature” and How & Why to Write About it

Tue., Sep. 28 “What is Poetry?”
Read Shakespeare “That time of year thou mayst in me behold”, Wordsworth “Nuns Fret Not”, Brooks "First Fight. Then Fiddle", “Sonnet” by Christina Rosetti
Key Concepts: Line, Stanza, Rhyme, Rhythm, Metre, The Sonnet form
Writing: Evidence and Claims 1

Thu., Sep. 30 “A dimpled spider, fat and white”
Read Keats “This Living Hand”, Frost “Design”, Hemans “Casabianca”, Rich “Diving into the Wreck” and Gardner pp. 1-15.
Key Concepts: Imagery and Symbolism
Writing: Evidence and Claims 2

Tue. Oct. 5 “Form and Content, Form versus Content, Form as Content”
Read Emily Dickinson “I dwell in Possibility”, Pound “In a Station on the Metro”, Blake “The Tyger”, Ted Hughes “Crow’s Theology”, Brautigan “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”
Key Concepts: Couplet, Ambiguity, the Dash—
Writing: Introductions—making a first impression

Thu., Oct. 7 “It Gathers to a Greatness”
Read Hopkins “God’s Grandeur” and select poems by Gary Snyder; Gardner pp. 16-42.
Key Concepts: Pace, Texture, Punctuation, Repetition, and Play
Writing: Formulating your thesis

Tue., Oct. 12 Poetic Form and Writing about Literature
Gardner 82-91
Draft Workshop: Poetry essay

Thu., Oct. 14 “Literature, Science, Geopolitics: Rita Wong in Context”
Read Rita Wong’s Forage, yes, all of it, so start early!
Key Concepts: Reading poems in the context of the author and his/her historical/social/cultural contexts. Conclude poetry segment.

Tue., Oct. 19 “What is Narrative?”
Read Cortazar “Axolotl” and Poe “The Cask of Amontillado”
Key Concepts: Basic Structures of Story & Plot—Fabula & Syuzhet
Poetry Essay Due in class

Thu., Oct. 21 “There are no longer problems of the spirit.”
Read Faulkner “A Rose for Emily” and Nobel Prize Banquet Speech; Gardner pp. 57-60
Key Concepts: Narrative persona, characterization, revelation-suggestion-suppression
Writing: Conclusions

Tue., Oct. 26 “Recognizing some of the Patterns”
Read Gibson’s Pattern Recognition pp. 1-112
Key Concepts: Science fiction literary history, novel structures

Thu., Oct. 28 “How blankness can yield an image…”
Read Pattern Recognition pp. 113-187
Key concepts: Focalization, POV
Writing: Organization—at the local and global levels of your writing

Tue., Nov. 2 “de-recontextualized”
Read Pattern Recognition pp. 188-291
Key Concepts: literary modernism/postmodernism, the Internet, economics, and theorizing the cool.
Writing: Development—extending your ideas into longer writings

Thu., Nov. 4 “Getting out of a novel”
Read Pattern Recognition p. 292 to end
Key Concepts: Analyzing and assessing the conclusion of a sustained text.
Writing: Technology and Academic Writing

Tue., Nov. 9 “Encounter with Literary Criticism”
Read Franco Moretti article; Gardner pp. 110-137 on research papers
Key Concepts: Reading Professional Literary Criticism; Incorporating Research into Your Academic Writing

Thu., Nov. 11 Veteran’s Day—No Class Meeting

Tue., Nov. 16 “What is Drama?”
Read Capek’s RUR, pp. vii-49
Key Concepts: A Literary History of Drama
Writing: Revisions: strategies and priorities

Thu., Nov. 18 “history is not made by great dreams, but by the petty wants…”
Read RUR, pp. 50-End, Gardner pp. 92-93
Key Concepts: Drama & Social Issues, Mise-en-scene
Writing: College Writing as Process and Product

Tue., Nov. 23 “Fiction Essay Progress”
In-class draft workshop

Thu., Nov. 25 Thanksgiving Holiday—No Class Meeting

Tue., Nov. 30 “Yes, I am. I am your Butterfly.”
Read all of M Butterfly.
Key concepts: Social drama: race and gender in literature, narrative structure and surprise

Thu., Dec. 2 “This is the End/There he goes…He’s feelin’ his Cheerios”
Read Alan Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance
Key Concepts: Fiction and Mixed Media
Revisiting core questions about what is literature and what does it do
Fiction Essay due in class




Tuesday, December 7th Final Exam: 3.30-5.30pm