LITR 4232 American
Renaissance
Lecture Notes
Dickinson, fourth meeting
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Dickinson & Whitman style sheets Dickinson's style > life and legend presentations: Elyze course review final grade reports final exam evaluations |
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review last class
Dickinson poems
style sheet
What's the experience of a Dickinson poem?
evaluations
Tuesday, 2 December: Emily Dickinson second meeting
Poems: "I never lost
as much but twice" (2558); "These are the days when Birds come back--" (2559);
"Come
Slowly--Eden!"; "I'm Nobody! Who are you?"
Text-Objective Discussion: Elyse Christine Martinez
Thursday, 4 December: Emily Dickinson fourth meeting
Poems: "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--" (2579); "This World is not Conclusion" (2572); "I started Early--Took my Dog--" (2582); "I cannot live with You--"; "Because I could not stop for Death--" (2578); "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" [riddle poem] (2588); "A Route of Evanescence" [riddle poem] (2591)
Text-Objective Discussion: Gena Martinez
Tuesday, 9 December, 10:00am-12:50pm: final exam (in-class or email)
Dickinson & Whitman style sheets
Dickinson's style > life and legend
What kinds of legends or images surround Emily Dickinson?
What are the meanings or motivations behind these stories or images?
Why the fascination with writers rather than writing or texts?
author's biography is always secondary to the work itself
standard critical practice: concentrate on the text, not the life
but can't just stamp out interest in author and relation to works
natural and potentially creative response by readers
However naive, readers imaginatively build a picture or image of authors
compare Poe, Hawthorne, Thoreau--frustration of Shakespeare
it's a literary exercise!
Dickinson's life as gothic
subject matter of death, figures of dark and light, spiritual overtones, isolation within house, sense of mystery, hidden meanings,
objective 3. To use literature as a basis for discussing representative problems and subjects of American culture (New Historicism), such as equality; race, gender, class; modernization and tradition; the family; the individual and the community; nature; the writer's conflicted presence in an anti-intellectual society.
American equality, individualism, and independence have premises.
Premises: each person must be productive economically or reproductive biologically. (In plain English, for most Americans to think a grownup is not wasting his or her time on earth, s/he needs to be either making money or having / raising children.)
Emily Dickinson did neither . . . .
Neither did Walt Whitman . . . .
Leads us to problem of "bourgeois, middle-class, heterosexual society" and relations to art . . . . Uuhhh.
Art and literature as domain of the young, the celibate, the unmarried, the gay or suspected gay, the drama club, misfits
But up with misfits! If not for the strange, crazed, wayward, and passionate, human life and civilization might be stuck in a repetitious cycle without progress or variety.
Artists can drive you crazy, but they break the mold. They have to!
course review
Complicated semester, as reviewed a few weeks ago:
1. Students cooperated with twice-a-week meetings, but frustrating for a number of reasons
2. Hurricane Ike--various degrees of suffering by class members, reserved judgment, appreciated any efforts
But semester not wasted
Profs push for perfection, design semester to be a complete whole
but students don't expect perfection, ignore grand schemes to pick and choose from whole
semester ate at my conscience, but most of you adapted
My reaction:
Don't over-react, don't anguish or make a big deal unless problems erupt in class
In times of stress, less is more--don't add stress
Could say a lot more about decisions, but violate technique
Problem with spotty student attendance
Backed off of attendance requirements b/c of Ike and some students in crisis, wanted to leave door open for second chances
Attendance penalties aren't automatic, but justice usually served
Students who attend regularly meet exam expectations more easily
Students who miss a lot may be smart but will have less connection to objectives, common ground
If students with poor attendance finish the course, I'll give them whatever benefit of the doubt I can, given that the class had a couple of problems from its end
But students who attended regularly and kept up with work don't usually need to fear competition--more like two different pools of grades
Only talking about past experiences--grade incoming exams on their own terms and hope for the best.
Positive outcomes from semester:
presentations and discussions
Interesting to Excellent to Quirky
small class builds trust, students take chances, extend patience
Thanks for taking seriously, supporting each other
Class full of good writers
Changes for next offering of American Renaissance:
Reorganization on a couple fronts
Course has worked well in past, but I'm doing it in my sleep
First change: Once-a-week meetings
problem: so many good writers, who to cut?
2nd big change: all texts online
(all our texts are available online--no time to arrange for this semester)
possible change: more research components
students report on web sites, scholarly articles
The Web of American Transcendentalism (Virginia Commonwealth University)
Project in American Literature on Transcendentalism
Final Grade Report
LITR 4232: American Renaissance, spring 2008
Student's name & contact info
Midterm grade: B+
Presentation / participation grade: B+
Final exam grade: A
Course grade: A-
Humans are social creatures! Intellectuals have some loner tendencies, but ultimately nearly all our ambitions, dreams, and judgments are developed in relation to other people.
And yet there is this other, isolated quality, especially in artists and intellectuals . . . . The problem of individual consciousness, of limitation or imprisonment in our own single, separate minds!
The world may be billions of years old; there's loads of evidence that there were generations here before me, and generations to follow; but as far as I'm concerned, none of it ever came into existence until I was born, and it all ends when I die . . . as far as I'll ever know.
> Selfish but sometimes heroic projection of ego beyond limits of death, cycle of nature
All our writers are dead
Thanks to all presenters
Everyone came through, and class supported
Teaching tip:
As a teacher, you're in a hierarchical relation to your students, superior-inferior, master-apprentice
Teacher wants respect, admiration, emulation; sometimes recall outstanding teacher models where teacher-as-student identified strongly with teacher at front of room > desire for students to identify with you
Works for a while, especially when you're not much older than your students, but as age gap grows, students honestly can't imagine identifying with you . . .
Also, from teacher's perspective, the more you rehearse materials, the harder it is to imagine a new student's ignorance . . .
take advantage of peer relations among students, develop existing "team spirit" or at least preference of young people to share other young people's company and appearance
challenge: avoid wasting time, cultivate learning instead of goofing
This class successfully met challenge. No one presented without preparation. And class rose to occasion of helping out . . .
Benefits of class presentations:
Breath of fresh air, expression of young and attractive personalities, brightens and varies classroom experience, unpredictability > instructors themselves are challenged to respond and learn
Student presenters see the literature from the point of view of other students, ask the appropriate level of questions, are receptive to comments that instructors might brush off
Student leadership can often keep marginal or struggling students in the game for longer than instructor leadership
After students present, they sometimes begin to participate more in class discussions (didn't see as much this year)
But don't give up . . .
Our class had a core of helpful discussers
But notice that most of them are graduating!
Compare to last class:
Just the exercise of writing makes you smarter, whether you get the grades or not
Even if you didn't talk much, your experience in this class may prepare you to talk more next semester
Constant surprise at how far our Literature students can progress in just two years of work
Any questions or comments about presentations?