Return of the Teacher

Somehow, I missed this afternoon's earthquake. I was probably too engrossed in finishing the syllabus for my introduction to literature course. Class begins next week, marking my return to the classroom after more than a year doing doctoral student stuff.

Students should find the class enjoyable and useful. See what you think. Here's the reading plan for the term, subject to further change:

Unit 1: Drama

An Introduction to Drama
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1

William Shakespeare, Life and Works
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2

Hamlet: Sources and Influence
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3

Hamlet: Texts and Authorship
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 4

The Shakespearean Stage
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 5

Drama (Literature) as a Mirror, Part 1
Ibsen, A Doll’s House, Act 1

Drama (Literature) as a Mirror, Part 2
Ibsen, A Doll’s House, Act 2

Drama (Literature) as a Mirror, Part 3
Ibsen, A Doll’s House, Act 3

Drama (Literature) and Redemption, Part 1
Wilson, Fences, Act 1

Drama (Literature) and Redemption, Part 2
Wilson, Fences, Act 2

Unit 2: Poetry

Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry
Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
Kinnell, "The Bear"

Shakespearean Sonnet (and One Spenserian)
Shakespeare, Sonnets 73 and 130
Keats, “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be"
McKay, “America"
Spenser, “One Day I Wrote Her Name upon the Strand"

Petrarchan Sonnet
Donne, "Death, Be Not Proud"
Milton, "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent"
Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much With Us"
Browning, "How Do I Love Thee?"

Other Sonnets
Shelley, "Ozymandias"
Hopkins, "Pied Beauty"
Yeats, "Leda and the Swan"
cummings, "pity this busy monster,manunkind"

Blank Verse
Yeats, "The Second Coming"
Frost, "After Apple-Picking"
Frost, "Birches"
Stafford, "Traveling through the Dark"

Ode
Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind"
Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn"

Villanelle (and a Pantoum)
Bishop, "One Art"
Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Hacker, "Villanelle"
Jeffers, "Outlandish Blues (The Movie)"

Open Form
Whitman, “A Noiseless Patient Spider"
Moore, “Poetry"
Duncan, “The Torso"
Silko, “Prayer to the Pacific"

Elegy
Jonson, "On My First Son"
Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
Housman, "To An Athlete Dying Young"
Ransom, "Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter"
Hill, "In Memory of Jane Fraser"

Dramatic Monologue
Tennyson, “Ulysses"
Browning, “My Last Duchess"
Eliot, "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Faith and Doubt
Herbert, "Easter Wings"
Lowell, "Skunk Hour"
Kumin, "Credo"
Kenyon, "Let Evening Come"

Conformity and Rebellion
Dickinson, "Much Madness Is Divinest Sense"
Brooks, "We Real Cool"
Sanchez, "An Anthem"
McHugh, "What He Thought"

Fractured Fairy Tales
Sexton, "Cinderella"
Piercy, "Barbie Doll"
Fulton, "You Can’t Rhumboogie in a Ball and Chain"
Duhamel, "One Afternoon When Barbie Wanted to Join the Military"

Animals
Blake, "The Tyger"
Millay, "Wild Swans"
Bishop, "The Fish"
Hall, "Names of Horses"
Harjo, "She Had Some Horses"

Childhood
Roethke, "My Papa’s Waltz"
Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays"
Thomas, "Fern Hill"
Bukowski, "My Old Man"
Willard, "Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him"

Carpe Diem
Herrick, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"
Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress"
Housman, "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now"
O’Hara, "The Day Lady Died"

Unit 3: Short Fiction

Characters, Part 1
Bambara, "The Lesson"

Characters, Part 2
O’Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

Characters, Part 3
Carver, "Cathedral"

Characters, Part 4
Tan, "Two Kinds"

Plots, Part 1
Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado"

Plots, Part 2
Fitzgerald, "Winter Dreams"

Plots, Part 3
 Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants"

Plots, Part 4
Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Settings, Part 1
Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"

Settings, Part 2
Garcia Marquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

Settings, Part 3
Atwood, "Death by Landscape"

Students should find the writing requirements manageable: five short essays, freewriting exercises, an annotated bibliography, and a research paper.

Let's go!