Readings/Assignments for Thursday, February 3, 2005

Please read the following materials:

Privacy Lessons, by Molly Peacock, from Creative Nonfiction, No. 17 (2001), pp. 67-83.

The Barfly Ought To Sing, by Anne Sexton (on Sylvia Plath's suicide). (From No Evil Star: Selected Essays, Inteviews, and Prose -- Anne Sexton, edited by Steven E. Colburn, University of Michigan Press, 1985).

Interview with Anne Sexton, by Barbara Kevles. (From No Evil Star).

Interview with Anne Sexton, by Patricia Marx. (From No Evil Star).

The following materials are full-text articles which can be located via Project Muse, in the USD Library Research Databases. To access the articles, Click Here to go to USD's library page, click to the Research Databases link in the right column, and then type in Project Muse in the Search by Database prompt. (If you are working off-campus, note that you will be prompted for your Network ID and Password prior to being given access to the Research Databases). Once in Project Muse, you can search for the articles using title or author's last name, etc. The articles are available in both HTML and PDF format:

"'My Sweeney, Mr. Eliot': Anne Sexton and the 'Impersonal Theory of Poetry'," by Joanna Gill, in Journal of Modern Literature, 27.1/2 (Fall 2003), pp. 36-56.

"Public Dreams: Berryman, Celebrity, and the Culture of Confession," by David Haven Blake, in American Literary History, 13.4 (2001) pp. 716-736.

Please also read the following poems from The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton:

Introductory Essay by Maxine Kumin, "How It Was," p. xix
"You, Doctor Martin," p. 3
"Music Swims Back to Me," p. 6
"Said the Poet to the Analyst," p. 12
"Her Kind," p. 15
"Elegy in the Classroom," p. 32
"For John, who Begs Me Not to Enquire Further," p. 34
"The Double Image," p. 35
"The Division of Parts," p. 42
"The Truth the Dead Know," p. 49
"All My Pretty Ones," p. 49
"To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph," p. 53
"The Starry Night," p. 53
"The Operation," p. 56
"The Abortion," p. 61
"With Mercy for the Greedy," p. 62
"The Fortress," p. 66
"Flee on Your Donkey," p. 97
"Sylvia's Death," p. 126
"Menstruation at Forty," p. 137
"Wanting to Die," p. 142
"Little Girl, My String Bean," p. 145
"Live," p. 167
"For My Lover, Returning to His Wife," p. 189
"The Break," p. 190
"Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator," p. 198
"Eighteen Days Without You," p. 265
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," p. 224
"Rumpelstiltskin," p. 233
"Cinderella," p. 255
"Briar Rose," p. 290
"Rats Live on No Evil Star," p. 359
"The Furies," p. 363

Don't forget to post your blog posts for the week of 2/3/2005-2/9/2005 no later than midnight on Wednesday, 2/9/2005. And speaking of which, here is this week's memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box:

What was your first day at middle school like? Some say "The Awkward Age" starts at 12 and ends with death. Did you feel lonely or unhapppy making that important transition from childhood to teenage years? Was there anything or anybody who made it easier?

Readings/Assignments for Thursday, January 27, 2005

Please click on the links below (unless otherwise noted) to download, print off, and read the following materials:

Subject Sylvia, by Meghan O'Rourke, from Poetry, via the Poetry Daily website.

Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry: A Reconsideration, by M. D. Uroff, from Iowa Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1977, pp. 104-15.

The Self in the World: The Social Context of Sylvia Plath's Late Poems, by Pamela J. Annas, from Women's Studies, Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2, 1980, pp. 171-83.

"Viciousness in the Kitchen":Sylvia Plath's Domestic Poetry, by Jeannine Dobbs, from Modern Language Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1977, pp. 11-25.

The Big Strip Tease: Female Bodies and Male Power in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath, by Kathleen Margaret Lant, from Contemporary Literature.

Chapter 13 from The Bell Jar. (Sorry about the upside-down pages. If you print them out, it obviously won't matter, but if you're reading on-screen, you can use the Rotate Page button to turn them around into the correct position.)

Journal Fragments from Sylvia Plath's Unabridged Journals.

Please also read the following poems from Sylvia Plath's The Collected Poems:

"Pursuit," p. 22
"Ode for Ted," p. 29
"The Disquieting Muses," p. 73
"Full Fathom Five," p. 92
"Electra on Azalea Path," p. 117
"The Beekeeper's Daughter," p. 118
"The Colossus," p. 129
"Stillborn," p. 142
"Face Lift," p. 155
"In Plaster," p. 158
"Tulips," p. 160
"Insomniac," p. 163
"The Moon and the Yew Tree," p. 172
"Mirror," p. 173
"Berck-Plage," p. 195
"Poppies in July," p. 203
Bee Poems, 211-219
"Daddy," p. 222
"Fever 103," p. 231
"Cut," p. 235
"Ariel," p. 239
"Poppies in October," p. 240
"Purdah," p. 242
"Lady Lazarus," p. 244
"Edge," p. 272

Please don't forget to post your weekly blog entries no later than Wednesday, January 26, 2005, by midnight. And speaking of which, here is this week's memoir prompt, from The Autobiography Box:

Write down a story that you tell people that didn't really happen the way you usually tell it. So many times we have a good story we embellish with exaggerations, switch events for the sake of timing or humor, all kinds of things. Come on, it's fun! But after you write down the story you tell everybody, tell the same story in its bare-bones, no-frills, true version. Think about the reasons why you twisted the facts around.

Readings/Assignments for Thursday, January 20, 2005

Please click on the links below (unless otherwise noted) to download, print off, and read the following materials:

Life Studies: American Poetry from T.S. Eliot to Allen Ginsberg, an online poetry exhibit from the Academy of American Poets.

Confessional Poetry, by Donna M. Ford.

Confessional Poetry and the Artifice of Honesty, by David Yezzi (from The New Criterion, Vol. 16, No. 10, June 1998, pp. 14-21).

No Room in the Booth?: An Appreciation of Confessional Poetry, by Kathleen Osip (from The Writer's Chronicle, February 2001, pp. 45-53). (Will download as a Word document).

Postmodernism, by Professor Mary Klages, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Chapter One - The Poet's Voice as Persona, from Creating Another Self: Voice in Modern American Personal Poetry, by Samuel Maio (Kirksville, MO: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1995). (Will download as a PDF document).

91 Revere Street, by Robert Lowell, from Life Studies, 1959. (Will download as a PDF document).

Please also read the following poems by Robert Lowell from your Selected Poems book:

"The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket," p. 6.
"Beyond the Alps," p. 55.
"To Delmore Schwartz," p. 66.
"Memories of West Street and Lepke," p. 91.
"Skunk Hour," p. 95.

Blogging Instructions

Welcome to the Main Course Blog for English 469!! General course announcements, reading assignments, and information will be posted here, as well as links to all of your individual blogs. This blog will function as the central "hub" blog for the course, so make sure to check in regularly. I have posted the syllabus and course assignment schedule as the first post on this blog, so you can always reference it easily in case you happen to lose your hard copy, and at the very end of the syllabus, there's a link to download a hard copy of the syllabus as a Word document if you wish.

Before our next class meeting on Thursday, January 20, please make sure to visit http://www.blogger.com to sign up for a Blogger account and then set up your own new blog where you will be doing all of your on-line journaling for the course. Please also make sure to bring in the URL to the new blog you have set up on Thursday. Your new URL will look something like: http://INSERT-YOUR-OWN-TITLE-HERE.blogspot.com. The process of setting up a Blogger account and on-line journal is fairly straightforward, and Blogger will walk you through it step by step.

A Few Tips On What To Expect When Setting Up Your Blog:

If this is your first time visiting Blogger, click Create on Create Your Own Blog now. You will be prompted to set up a user name and password. Make sure to write down your user name and password so that you can access, edit, and post to your blog.

Once your account is set up, click next/continue, and you will be prompted to give your blog a name/title, and create a URL for your blog (In other words, choose your own address for the "INSERT-YOUR-OWN-ADDRESS-HERE" portion of your URL http://insertyourowntitlehere.blogspot.com. Make it something easy to remember).

Hit next/continue, and you will be prompted to select a template (i.e., alayout for how your blog will look on the internet . . . you can change it later, if you wish.)

Blogger will create your blog for you, and then give you a Start Posting prompt. I definitely recommend writing and publishing a test post at this point (even something as quotidian as TESTING, TESTING, ONE TWO THREE . . . you can delete it later if you like) to establish the blog on the internet and familiarize yourself with the posting process.

When you're on the posting and editing screen, you can just type in your entries (or cut and paste from a word processing program--for longer, assigned entries I definitely recommend cutting and pasting from a word processing program so you don't accidentally lose an entire post should there be a technical glitch). When you're finished with your entry, simply click on the button labeled Publish. Blogger will publish your post the the web, giving you a message that your post was published successfully once it has done so, and then you can click on the link to view your blog post on the internet.

Once you've posted an entry you can always go back and edit it by clicking on the edit posts link. This will pull the entry back as a text window where you can edit it as much as you like, or even delete it altogether. You might want to play around with posting, editing, and deleting test posts a bit to get a feel for how all this works.

On subsequent visits to Blogger, you can simply sign in with your account name and password, and you'll see the title of your blog listed on your Blogger Dashboard once you sign on. You can simply click on that link and your editing menus will come right up for you.

This should hopefully be enough information to get you started. Please don't hesitate to e-mail me with any questions at lroripau@usd.edu, or feel free to come visit me during my office hours or set up an appointment if you need further assistance. Good luck, and have fun blogging!!

Course Syllabus

ENGLISH 469: CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY

Professor Lee Roripaugh
Spring Semester, 2005
Section #015, Thursdays, 4:00-6:45 p.m., Old Main 106
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 1:00-1:45 p.m. and 3:30-6:00 p.m.; Thursdays, 1:00-1:45 p.m.
(Office Hours Also Anytime by Appointment)
Office: Dakota Hall #207
Office Phone: 677-5979
E-mail: lroripau@usd.edu
Mailbox: Dakota Hall #226

ENGL 469 is a literature course in post-1950 contemporary American poetry. The course will focus on an examination of the transformative process by which "raw autobiographical materials" contained in the journals, letters, and memoirs of contemporary American poets are distilled and transformed into poetry. Beginning with the hugely influential poetic developments of the “Middle Generation” poets in the 1950’s, the course will attempt to trace the contemporary development of several strands of autobiographical poetry emerging from the work of Middle Generation poets – in particular, the confessionalism of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton; the “journal poem” genre of Robert Lowell; and autobiographical discourses of otherness and displacement found in the poems of Elizabeth Bishop. The course will seek to analyze and problematize notions of persona, masking, exhibitionism and "confessionalism" in contemporary American poetry; examine aspects of Modernism and Post-Modernism within the poets under discussion; apply critical/theoretical concepts and analyses to the works under study; and engage in close stylistic analyses and readings of poems.

Prerequisites: Junior standing and six hours of survey.

REQUIREMENTS:

Blogging (Maintenance of On-line Journal):

2 entries per week – 1 entry will be either a response to the assigned readings and/or issues raised in class discussions (250-word minimum); 1 entry will be written in response to memoir-generating prompts from The Autobiography Box (250-word minimum).

Blogging requirements will commence after the second class meeting, and will continue for ten weeks throughout the last week of classes. (Please note that blogging will not be required the week the rough draft of the paper is due, or on weeks when class is canceled). Each entry is worth 10 points apiece (at 2 entries per week this adds up to 20 entries total during the semester). You can make up to 6 missed entries by writing extra credit blog entries during non-blogging weeks (i.e., spring break, canceled class, etc.). Each week’s 2 blog entries must be posted no later than midnight on Wednesday night of each week to receive credit.

Three Modeled Poems:

Using the “raw autobiographical material” from your blog generated in response to the memoir-generating prompts, you will write three poems modeled after autobiographical poets we have discussed in class. Your model should attempt to mimic the techniques by which a given poet transforms his/her raw autobiographical material into poetry, as well as mimic certain aspects of the poet’s style as discussed in class. Your model should also include a short paragraph that identifies the poet whose work you’re modeling, and the specific stylistic traits of this poet that you’ve incorporated into your model. Please post your modeled poems on your blog on the assigned due dates. Each poem is worth up to 100 points, and you will be given credit for your poems on the Check Plus (100 points), Check (85 points), and Check Minus (70 points) system based on the effort you’ve made to understand and represent each modeled poet’s style (and not necessarily the aesthetic quality of your model).

Two In-Class Presentations:

Selecting a contemporary American (post-1950) poet of your choice not covered in the course’s assigned reading, you will be asked to give two presentations (one during the first half of the semester, and the other during the second half of the semester) of approximately 15 minutes in length. Your presentation should provide a discussion of the poet’s style and attempt to contextualize the poet in terms of issues pertaining to our various investigations of autobiographical poetry. You should begin browsing these books early on in the semester so that you can identify the poets on whom you wish to present. Sign-up sheets will be made available, and I will ask that we avoid duplicate presentations. Each presentation will be worth 50 points.

Final Course Paper:

There will be a 10-12 page final course paper due at the end of the semester. You will be given a choice of paper topics covering various poets, themes, issues, and critical approaches discussed over the course of the semester from which to select your paper topic. A rough draft of your paper (worth 100 points) will be due sometime in early April, and then a final, revised version of your paper (worth 300 points) will be due during finals week.

GRADING:

40% Final 10-12 Page Paper (400 points total – 100 points rough draft; 300 points final draft)
20% Blogging/On-Line Writing Journal Entries (200 points total – 10 points per entry)
30% Three Modeled Poems (300 points total - 100 points apiece)
10% Two In-Class Presentations (100 points total - 50 points apiece)

Your final grade will be based on a scale of 1,000 points possible.

TEXTS:

Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985), ISBN: 0374518173

Robert Lowell, Selected Poems: Revised Edition (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1977), ISBN: 0374515003

Sylvia Plath, Collected Poems (Reissue) (Perennial, 1981), ISBN 0060909005

Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems (Mariner Books, 1999), ISBN 0395957761

Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems (Pocket Poets Series: No. 19) (City Lights Books, 1964), ISBN: 0872860353

Li-Young Lee, Book of My Nights (BOA Editions, 2001), ISBN: 1929918089

David Lehman, The Evening Sun: A Journal in Poetry (Scribner, 2002), ISBN: 074322552X

Sharon Olds, Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980-2002 (Knopf, 2004), ISBN: 0375710760

Kim Addonizio, Tell Me (BOA Editions, 2000), ISBN: 1880238918

Mark Doty, My Alexandria (University of Illinois Press, 1993), ISBN: 0252063171

Additional materials will be made available either on-line or via Xerox handouts as needed.

ABSENCES:

You will be allowed two absences during the course of the semester. For each absence beyond these two there will be a 50-point deduction in your final grade. If you happen to go beyond the two allowed absences, you will be allowed to make up one (and no more than one absence) by attending an outside poetry reading and writing a 500-word review of the event, or writing a 500-word review of a contemporary volume(s) of poetry not discussed in class.

Please note that I DO NOT make distinctions between excused and unexcused absences, and an absence always counts as an absence. Instead, you’ve been given a reasonable number of absences and a reasonable number of makeup opportunities to work with, and I will expect you each to manage your own attendance accordingly. Please let me know ASAP if you have specific concerns or questions.

CONFERENCES:

Please feel free to come and talk with me at any time during the semester about your course assignments, your papers, or the course in general. If my office hours aren’t convenient for you, I’d be happy to set up an outside appointment to meet with you. Also, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at any time if you should have any questions about the class.

PLAGIARISM:

Because the entire educational process rests upon an atmosphere of academic honesty and trust, the College community must promote and protect the sanctity of such an environment at the University. To that end, the College of Arts and Sciences considers the following infractions as being inimical to the objectives of higher education:

Cheating is defined as intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise. (Student Conduct Code)

Plagiarism is defined as intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise. (Student Conduct Code)

At the discretion of the instructor, a student caught cheating or plagiarizing may be:

(a) Given a zero for that assignment.
(b) Allowed to rewrite and resubmit the assignment for credit.
(c) Assigned a reduced grade for the course.
(d) Dropped from the course.
(e) Failed in the course.

NOTICE REGARDING DISABILITIES:

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Dr. Elaine Pearson, Director of the Office of Disability Services (Service Center 119, 677-6389) as early as possible in the semester.


TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE

Important!! Don’t Forget to Blog!! Weekly Deadline for Posting of Three Required Entries is Wednesday at Midnight!! Blogging Will Officially Commence After the Second Class Meeting (January 13, 2005).

Thursday, January 13, 2005 - Introduction to Course

Syllabus; Film

Thursday, January 20, 2005 – Introduction to Course (cont.)

Modernism and Post-Modernism, Confessionalism, and the Middle Generation of Poets

Thursday, January 27, 2005 – Confessionalism Past and Present

Sylvia Plath

Thursday, February 3, 2005 – Confessionalism Past and Present (cont.)

Anne Sexton

Thursday, February 10, 2005 – Confessionalism Past and Present (cont.)

Sharon Olds and Kim Addonizio

Modeling Poem #1 Due!!

Thursday, February 17, 2005 - Presentations

Presentation #1 Due (15 minutes apiece)

Thursday, March 3, 2005 – Journal Poetry

Robert Lowell

Thursday, March 10, 2005 – Spring Break!!

Thursday, March 17, 2005 – Journal Poetry (cont.)

Frank O’Hara

Thursday, March 24, 2005 – Journal Poetry (cont.)

David Lehman

Modeling Poem #2 Due!!

Thursday, March 31, 2005 – Class Canceled, Instructor at Conference

Thursday, April 7, 2005 –Autobiographical Discourses of Otherness and Displacement

Elizabeth Bishop

Rough Draft of 10-12 Page Final Course Paper is Due!!

Thursday, April 14, 2005 – Class Canceled, Instructor Giving Out-of-Town Poetry Reading

Thursday, April 21, 2005 – Autobiographical Discourses of Otherness and Displacement

Mark Doty and Li-Young Lee

Modeling Poem #3 Due!!

Thursday, April 28, 2005 – Presentations

Presentation #2 (15 minutes apiece)


Final Paper Due Thursday, May 5, 2005, by 5:00 p.m.!!!!!

Click HERE to download a hard copy of the syllabus as a Word document.