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?