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The Kidd Tutorial
A one year course in creative
writing and the humanities

SAMPLE FALL SYLLABI
Sample I
Sample II
Sample III

SAMPLE FALL SYLLABUS I

Kidd Tutorial, Fall 2001
CRWR 411, CRN 11325
Monday, 2:00-4:50 p.m.
Education Building Rm. 138

Instructor:  Tamara Embrey
e-mail: tembrey@darkwing.uoregon.edu
office: 47B Columbia Hall
office hours: M,H 11:00-12:30 phone:  346-0548

The American Dream: Myth, or Manifest Destiny?

            In this course we will examine The American Dream: promised, broken, and subversions in-between. As Americans, we inherit a specific legacy of myths and ideals that are both inspiring, and hard to live up to.  For some, the Dream is a given, while others spend their lives feeling frustrated and angry, wondering why they never achieved it.  As recent events have made all too clear, the whole world looks to America--to our ideals and our culture--some with awe and inspiration, others with hatred and fear.  And so, whether consciously or not, whether we like it or not, we all live in relation to this Dream.

            So, just what is the American Dream?  At this moment, America is wrestling with this question herself.  Just who are WE THE PEOPLE?  And how do WE want to go forward?  Our first task will be to establish what we think of as the archetypal American Dream.  From here we’ll begin to tease out some of the issues that challenge that Dream, and the very idea of having one common American Dream.

            Of course, it would be impossible to talk about the American Dream without addressing the romanticized aspects of it.  F. Scott Fitzgerald (certainly an American Dreamer) said, “The test of a first rate mind is one with the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.  One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless, and yet be determined to make them otherwise.”  With this in mind we’ll consider how this inculcated romanticism can lead to destruction (cultural, personal, spiritual).  But also, to recognize that this romanticism sits at the very core of human nature: that it is that which inspires us to “reach for the stars”.

            Through a broad reading of both classical and contemporary essays, poems and stories, we’ll explore how this plays out--specifically--in our lives as writers, and in the lives of the characters we read about and create. How does the American Dream differ from, and influence the dreams of other cultures?  And what responsibilities do we—as artists—have in perpetuating or challenging this Dream?  How does the Dream play out in relations between the sexes?  In the creative struggle?  In gender issues?  In class struggles?  In race relations?  And in our modern state of spirituality, or lack thereof?

            Art is not made in a vacuum.  Throughout the term we will confront these and other difficult and sometimes uncomfortable questions about the culture that has shaped us, not with an eye toward finding the correct answers, but with the hope that by doing so we can begin to understand the importance of art and our place as artists.  We’ll expand our inquiry and in-class discussions to include film, music, visual arts, architecture, and the media, in order to see how these disciplines connect, influence and inspire one another.  And we’ll explore creative ways that we can apply this broader inquiry more specifically to our own writing.  Ultimately, each of you will hone in on your own themes and interests, which will lead to your line of inquiry.
 

Course Requirements and Expectations:

· Due to the small size, and the rigorous and participatory nature of this course, attendance and preparation are vital. You’ll be expected to come to each class having read and thought about the assigned texts.  Please bring at least two questions or issues you would like to discuss, based on that week’s readings.  Since class discussion will be central to this course, it would be impossible to make up any missed classes.  Therefore, unexcused absences will not be permitted.

· We’ll be working on writing—both creative, and as a response to our discussions—throughout the term.  There will be regular in-class writing assignments, as well as occasional writing assigned as homework.  These homework assignments should be typed and will be due at the beginning of the next class.

· You’ll be expected to keep a daily journal and/or an observations notebook.  I want this to be a safe place for you to explore anything and everything you’re interested in, without that intruding part of your brain that says:  “this isn’t what I should be writing about.”  Write about the weather if you like.  Whatever inspires you on that day.  Write simply what’s right in front of you.  No one need ever read what you’ve written (including yourself, if you so choose).  Through this practice we will begin to develop the daily routine of writing—even on days when we might not feel like it—and to see what this practice feels like.  It will also provide us with a place from which to observe ourselves (if we so choose).  And we’ll start to see how this journal-ing and observing can become a good source of inspiration for our more formal creative work.  As far as your grade for this portion of the course, I will ask only to see the physical journal, and to see that you are—in fact—writing in it.

· As the term progresses, your own interests and themes will begin to emerge from your creative work, which you’ll develop into a line of inquiry.  You’ll meet with me on an individual basis at least twice over the course of the term to discuss your proposal and related readings.  Project proposals will be due at the end of the quarter.

· This is a four credit-hour course.  Three hours each week will be spent together in our sections, but an additional hour should be spent doing independent studies.  This can be anything from seeing an exhibit or a show or some other “cultural” (hopefully provocative and relevant) event, or in the Wednesday Writing Studio.  Over the course of the term you’ll be expected to attend at least four Writing Studios.  This will be a place for you to work with members of the Kidd program in other sections, to work on your own creative projects, and to flesh out your line of inquiry.

Grading Policy:
· Attendance and Participation: 30%
· Writing Assignments:  25%
· Journal:  20%
· Line of Inquiry Proposal: 25%

Note on PLAGIARISM.  How should I put this?  Plagiarism will not be tolerated.  This course is a forum for original, creative thinking and work, and that’s what I’ll expect from you.  If you’re even tempted to plagiarize, you shouldn’t be in this course.  Any form of academic dishonesty will result in failure of this course (and shame, mighty shame on you).

Required Texts:
· Core Texts course packet.  Available at the U of O bookstore.
· Various texts on RESERVE at the Knight Library
 
 

Course Outline (subject to change)

WEEK 1 (9/24)

Why write? (Shouldn’t I be doing something more important--like volunteering for the Red Cross?)
Flannery O'Connor. "The Nature and Aim of Fiction." Mystery and Manners. & "Good Country People." A Good Man is Hard to Find. (core texts)

 

The American Hero: just who is s/he? WEEK 2 (10/1)

Leslie Marmon Silko. "Storyteller." Storyteller. (RESERVE)
John Keats. Letters, selections from The Complete Poems. & poems: "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode on Melancholy," "Ode on Indolence," "To Autumn." (core texts)
Anton Checkhov. Selected letters from Letters on the Short Story, the Drama, and Other Literary Topics by Anton Checkhov. & "The Lady With the Toy Dog" from Five Great Short Stories. (core texts)
F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The Great Gatsby. (buy it)
Tom Wolfe. "In the Land of the Rococo Marxists: Why no one is celebrating the Second American Century” from Harper's Magazine. June (2000). (RESERVE or microfilm)

Other suggestions: Earnest Hemingway.  “The Big Two-Hearted River: PartI & II” & The Short Happy Life of Francis Macombre” & “Soldier’s Home” from The Short Stories of Earnest Hemingway; Franz Fanon. "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness" from The Wretched of the Earth (core texts); Pam Houston. Cowboys are My Weakness.

 

Cowboys and Indians: are we ONE nation? WEEK 3 (10/8)

C. K. Williams. "Contexts." Poetry and Consciousness. (core texts)
Garrett Hongo. The Poet's Notebook. (core texts)
Christopher Buckley. "Keeping My Own Company," "Photograph of Myself," "Metaphysical Trees," Star Apicrypha. (core texts) (plans for visit and Kidd lecture Oct 8.)
Baldwin, James. “Notes of a Native Son.“ (RESERVE)
Louis Farrakhan.  “A Torchlight for America” from Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America—An Anthology. (RESERVE)
Langston Hughes.  “Let America Be America Again” & “Come to the Waldorf-Astoria!” & “Harlem.” (RESERVE)

Other suggestions: Cornell West. “Race Matters”; Cormac McCarthy. Blood Meridian; James Baldwin Go Tell it on the Mountain; Richard Wright.  Native Son; Banks, Russell. "Who Will Tell the People? On Waiting, Still, for the Great American Novel." Harper's Magazine. June (2000). (core texts).

WEEK 4 (10/15)

Salmon Rushdie. "Imaginary Homelands." Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-1991. (core texts)
Susan Wood. TBA. (plans to visit October 17-19)
Junot Diaz. “Drown” from Drown. (RESERVE)
Christina Chiu.  “Beauty” from Troublemaker and other Saints.  (RESERVE)

Other suggestions: Robert Olen Butler.  “Fairy Tale” from A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain; Chow, Rey. "Where Have All the Natives Gone?" Writing Diaspora: Tactics of Intervention in Contemporary Cultural Studies. (core texts)
 
 

Beer, Steers, & Queers (Pop Culture, Junk Culture, Sub-culture):
does America have a culture? (and is it worth writing about?)

WEEK 5 (10/22)

John Berger. "Chapter 1." Ways of Seeing. (core texts)
Richard Meyer. "Robert Mapplethorpe and the Discipline of Photography." Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader.  (core texts)
Clemet Greenberg. "Avant-garde and Kitsch." Art and Culture: Critical Essays. (core texts)
Mary Gaitskill. “The Wrong Thing” from Because they Wanted To. (RESERVE)

Other suggestions: Judith Butler. "Passing, Queering: Nella Larsen's Psychoanalytic Challenge." Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex". (core texts)

WEEK 6 (10/29)

Trinh T. Minh-ha. "Grandma's Story." Woman Native Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. (RESERVE)
Maxine Hong Kingston. "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe." The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. (core texts)
David Foster Wallace.  “The Depressed Person” from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. (RESERVE)
Ice T.  “The Ice Opinion” from Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America—An Anthology. (RESERVE)

 Other suggestions: John Gardner. The Art of Fiction; Gita Mehta. Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East; Gayatri Spivak. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Post-colonial Studies Reader. (core texts)
 
 

Country Mouse, City Mouse: where is the real America? WEEK 7 (11/5)
 

Patricia Hampl. "Memory and Imagination," (plans to visit November 7-9)
Gloria Anzaldúa. "El Retorno." Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. (core texts)
Lorrie Moore.  “Agnes of Iowa” from Birds of America. (RESERVE)
Richard Ford.  “Jealous.”  Women with Men. (RESERVE)

Other Suggestions: Stacey Richter. “My Date with Satan” from My Date with Satan; Franz Fanon. "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness." The Wretched of the Earth. (core texts).

 

Bible Thumpers: Christianity and Racism—strange bedfellows? WEEK 8 (11/12)
 

Essay TBA [from Ken Calhoon (the uncanny or the sublime), David Li (transnational film), or Leon Johnson (performance art) for Kidd lecture Nov 12 or 19]
Paula Gunn Allen. "The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective." The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. (core texts)
Flannery O’Connor. “Everything That Rises Must Converge” from A Good Man is Hard to Find. (RESERVE)
Campbell McGrath.  “The Bob Hope Poem” from Spring Comes to Chicago. (RESERVE)

Other suggestions: Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn. (I know this seems old and square, but it’s an American classic.  Some say the best American novel ever written); William Faulkner; Harper Lee. To Kill A Mocking Bird.

 

Poor, White, Trash: does class matter? WEEK 9 (11/19)
 

Helene Cixous. "Sorties." Modern Criticism and Theory. (RESERVE)
Virginia Woolf. "Chapter 3"; "Chapter 6." A Room of One's Own. (core texts)
Carver, Raymond. “Are These Actual Miles?” & “Why Don’t You Dance?”  from Where I’m Calling From. (RESERVE)
Dorothy Allison. “???” from Trash (RESERVE)
Alice Elliot Dark. “Watch the Animals” from In the Gloaming.

Other suggestions: Tillie Olsen.  “I Stand Here Ironing”.  Edith Wharton. “Roman Fever”; Alice Elliot Dark “The Secret Spot” from In the Gloaming (read these two stories together).

 

And beyond. . .

WEEK 10 (11/26)

 
Walter Benjamin. "Storyteller." Illuminations. (core texts)
Federicao Garcia Lorca. "Theory and Function of the Duende." Poetics of the New American Poetry. (RESERVE)
Mylene Fernandez Pintado.  “Anhedonia (A Story in Two Women)” from Cubana: Contemporary Fiction by Cuban Women. (RESERVE)
Adrienne Rich. from An Atlas of the Difficult World (RESERVE)
Elizabeth Tippins.  “Make a Wish” from Harper’s Magazine, November 2000. (RESERVE)

Recommended Readings:

Derek Walcott. "The Schooner Flight." _Collected Poems 1948-1984_.
Tomas Almaguer. "Chicano Men: A Cartography of Homosexual Identity and Behavior." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 255-73.
Eliot, T. S. "Tradition and Individual Talent." Selected Essays, 1917-1932. New York: HBJ, 1932. 3-11.
Kenner, Hugh. "The Cantos-I." The Pound Era. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. 349-81.
Gallop, Jane. "Introduction," "The Bodily Enigma." Thinking Through the Body. New York, Columbia University Press, 1988. 1-10, 11-20.
Kristeva, Julia. "Approaching Abjection." The Powers of Horror: an Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. 1-31.
Walcott, Derek. "The Muse of History." What the Twilight Says: Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998. 36-64.
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Sources Criticism. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988. 251-61.
M. H. Abrams. "Greater Romantic Lyric." Pattern and Structure of Memory.
Love, Glen. "Revaluing Nature: Toward and Ecological Criticism." The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Eds. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1996. 225-40.
Edward W. Said. "Orientalism Now." Orientalism. (core texts)

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SAMPLE FALL SYLLABUS II

CRWR 411-CRN 11324
Kidd Tutorial: Fall 2001
Gilbert Hall 101 Mondays 2:00-4:50

Authenticating Deceit: The Writer's Task
Instructor: Jenn Alexander
E-mail: jalexand@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Office: 47B Columbia Hall
Office Hours: 8-12 Tuesdays and Thursdays, also by appointment
Phone: 346-0548 (office); 346-7601 (home)

As writers, we are creators. When we apply words to the page, we craft characters and their environments; we construct an alternate reality. Essentially, we are liars, and as we seek excellence in our art, we become skilled liars. Yet, reality influences-or perhaps even dictates-the boundaries of our literary lies. Often, what we seek to communicate through our writing-our "lies"-is the truth. In this sense, writing exists in the liminal space between the reality of a writer's life and the fallacy of her pen.

In this course, we will examine this liminal space in relation to two sorts of writing. The first is writing of the unreal, including magical realism. The second is writing of the real, including autobiography and literature of witness. We will explore truth and falsehood on the page, in the lives of authors, and in our own lived experiences.

This exploration will lead us to intellectual junctions that are difficult, and perhaps even uncomfortable, but ultimately exciting and productive. We will find ourselves asking questions such as: Can anything written by a real person be entirely fictitious? Where are the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction? Is "creative non-fiction" an oxymoron? While there are no definitive answers to these and other questions we will encounter, grappling with them will grant us a better understanding of both writing and writers, including ourselves.

Course Requirements and Expectations:

Attendance, to every class as well as the Kidd lectures, is mandatory. Because our studies are rooted in class discussion and participation, it is essential not only that you show up, but also that you show up prepared, ready to engage in conversation. Absences will only be excused in the event of a verifiable emergency.

As you have most likely noticed, this is a four hour course. We will meet for three hours a week. The fourth hour will be spent in one of two ways. There will be a writing studio, directed by Lauren McArdle, on Wednesdays from 3:00 to 4:00 in Villard 312. You will be required to attend four of these studios over the course of the quarter. This will account for the fourth hour during those four weeks. In the remaining six weeks, you will be required to attend some sort of literary or cultural event, such as a play, a poetry slam, or an art exhibit. While no formal report of these activities is necessary, you should note them in your journal, reflecting on how they may or may not have influenced you.

We will participate in a listserv, an online message board that will serve as a sort of textual discussion. Many of us are more composed and articulate in our writing than we are in our speaking. In addition, many of us feel more comfortable speaking our minds in a written forum. Thus, the listserv will both complement and supplement class discussion. The listserv will allow us to express any lingering opinions or questions that were not covered in the previous class, as well as to prepare for the upcoming class. Each person is responsible for producing a minimum of two posts per week, in the form of either a question or a response. Technical information on the listserv is forthcoming.

You will be required to keep a journal as the quarter progresses. Unlike the listserv, your journal will serve as a private place to record your thoughts, opinions, and observations. A journal prompt will be distributed at the end of each class; however, you need not feel obliged to address only the prompt. Your journal is a sort of a haven where you can feel free to record anything that may be of importance to either the course or your own writing. If you so choose, your journal may be hand written. (All other assignments should be typed.)

The final product of the fall quarter will be a line of inquiry, an essay and reading list that will provide a thorough description of an intellectual problem or question you wish to pursue. Your line of inquiry will guide your studies over the winter quarter. You will meet with me on an individual basis several times over the course of the quarter to discuss the progress you are making on this task. More information on the structure and details of the line of inquiry is forthcoming.

Grading Policy:

Participation, Preparation, and Attendance: 30%
Listserv: 25%
Journal: 20%
Line of Inquiry: 25%

Note: Plagiarism is intellectually demeaning and ethically unacceptable. Any student accused of plagiarism will be referred to the proper members of the administration. Any student convicted of plagiarism will fail this course.

Required Texts:

Core Texts Packet (available at U of O bookstore)
Gloria Naylor, Mama Day
Lauren Slater, Lying
Other texts on reserve in Knight Library

Course Outline:

Note: This syllabus is subject to revision at any time.

24 September--Beginnings: Narration of Fiction

Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People" (CT), "The Nature and Aim of Fiction" (CT)
1 October--Is Truth Beautiful?: A Debate on Faithfulness of Reproduction

Leslie Marmon Silko, "Storyteller" (CT)
John Keats, letters and poems (CT)
Kate Daniels, poems from Four Testimonies
Life is Beautiful, Erin Brockovich, and/or Pocohontas

Craft: Dorianne Laux, "Writing and Knowing"
8 October--Navel Gazing: When True Stories Lack Universal Truth

Garrett Hongo, The Poet's Notebook (CT) Tony Earley, Home: American Writers Remember Rooms of Their Own Christopher Buckley, "Keeping My Own Company" (CT), "Photograph of Myself" (CT), "Metaphysical Trees" (CT)

Craft: C.K. Williams, "Contexts" (CT)
15 October--Telling from Afar: Witnessing in a Place of Exile

Carolyn Forche, The Country Between Us
Susan Wood, TBA
Gloria Naylor, Mama Day (Part I)

Craft: Salman Rushdie, "Imaginary Homelands" (CT)
22 October--Transgressions: Writing the Underbelly

Gloria Naylor, Mama Day (Part II)
Richard Meyer, "Robert Mapplethorpe and the Discipline of Photography" (CT)
Clips from MTV's "Real World" (in class)

Craft: John Berger, "Chapter One"
29 October--Ancient Lies: Legend and Myth in Contemporary Contexts

Gloria Naylor, Mama Day (Part III)
T. Minh-ha Trinh, "Grandma's Story" (CT)
Maxine Hong Kingston, "A Song for a Barbarain Reed Pipe" (CT)
Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus"

Craft: Roland Barthes, "Myth Today" (CT)
5 November--A Strange Tongue: The Voice of the Witness

Patricia Hampl, "Memory and Imagination"
Gloria Anzaldua, "El Retorno" (CT)
Charles Reznikoff, Holocaust

Craft: Dorianne Laux, "Witnessing"
12 November--Surpassing Reality: Writing What's Holy

Essay in preparation for Kidd Lecture, TBA
Paula Gunn Allen, "The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective" (CT)
Mark Jarman, Questions for Ecclesiastes
Pablo Neruda, Odes to Common Things

Craft: Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town
19 November--Talking Out of Your Ass: Speaking for the Body

Helene Cixous, "Sorties"
Lucy Grealy, Autobiography of a Face
Lauren Slater, Lying (Part I)

Craft: Virginia Woolf, "Chapter Three," "Chapter Six" (CT)
26 November--Limitations on Artistic Liberty: Responsibilities of the Writer

Walter Benjamin, "Storyteller" (CT)
Federico Garcia Lorca, "Theory and Function of the Duende"
Lauren Slater, Lying (Part II)

Craft: Adrienne Rich, "Poetry and the Public Sphere"

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SAMPLE FALL SYLLABUS III

Fall 1999 Syllabus: Becca
CRWR411 Kidd Tutorial Fall 1999 CRN 12256

Becca Barniskis 241 Columbia 346-0542 * * Office hours: Wed. 1-4 pm & by appointment

rbarnisk@gladstone.uoregon.edu

Voicing New Selves: Exploring the Unknown, the Unpopular, and the Forbidden

Expanding the boundaries of the written self through exploring unfamiliar voices and "forbidden" territory is the goal of this tutorial. We all have a written self that speaks more or less differently than our "real" self. But what happens when you discover or force that written voice to be at odds with the rest of your life or society, or when that voice keeps speaking the unspeakable or unpopular? Unsettling the self, freeing it from the moorings of everyday assumptions and behavior can be an effective way of arriving at greater possibilities in one's creative work.

Accepting paradox, writing the forbidden, and subverting the expected are all strategies that many writers have adopted in order to get at larger truths. In this course we will approach writers who embrace the absurd, the taboo, the surreal, the violent, the humorous, etc. We will examine intellectual and literary challenges to the status quo to discover what is useful, what is rant, what is cant, and what interests us most as writers and readers. In examining how other writers have crossed over into so-called forbidden territory we will have to discover for ourselves what "forbidden" means. Everything from areas of sexual taboo to innovative literary approaches that disturb an established stylistic decorum can be defined as "forbidden." Each of you will likely define this territory differently and in relation and reaction to certain cultural and literary assumptions. We will also examine how writers have dramatized the self and utilized voices foreign to their personalities. The hope is that through these inquiries each of us will begin to discover our own obsessions and a voice to speak them that is vital and interesting.

Our approach to this class will be threefold: 1) We will examine writing from the abstract and philosophical point of view by first becoming acquainted with several classic texts that have helped form the predominant artistic aesthetic of Western culture, and then exploring texts that expand or go beyond these ideas. 2) We will spend some time practicing our craft and studying the technical aspects of writing, and finally, 3) we will relentlessly pursue the quality of the unique and start to define what it means to you and how it functions in relation to your own writing voice. By the end of the quarter you should have a clearer idea about your own artistic identity based on all these approaches. Through an examination of your writing in light of the themes discussed in class you will be asked to locate recurrent and/or significant themes in your own work and to develop a line of inquiry around these themes.

Course requirements and expectations:

• As this is a small, upper-division course, participation is vital. Come to class prepared, having read all required texts so that you will be able to thoughtfully contribute to class discussions. You are required to attend each class. No unexcused absences are permitted. It is impossible to make up a missed class, however, if you must miss a class due to a medical or personal emergency, please inform me ahead of time.

• You will also be graded on your contribution to our class listserv. My expectation is that you will use the listserv as an interactive journal. This writing should be thoughtful and complex, reflecting not just your own reactions and questions raised by the weekly readings but also responding to questions raised by your classmates. You will be responsible for posting two questions a week: one will be a continuation of the week's class discussion, the other a question in anticipation of the upcoming week's class discussion. You will also be responsible for responding to all questions posed by your classmates.

• While this will not be a traditional workshop class, we will work on our writing over the quarter. Each week there will either be a short in-class writing assignment or creative writing assigned as homework.

• Project proposals for your own line of inquiry will be due at the end of the quarter. You will meet with me on an individual basis at least twice over the course of the quarter to discuss your proposal.

 

Grading policy: Your grade will be based on four elements weighted as follows:

1) Participation - 25%

2) Listserv - 25%

3) Assignments - 25%

4) Project proposal - 25%

 

Tutorial Overview: In the fall term, your reading and writing exercises and our in-class class discussions will provide you with the forum in which to develop an idea of the theme you would like to pursue in your writing and reading for the remainder of the year. By the end of the term, you will produce a description of your particular focus and an accompanying reading list. In winter quarter, you will share your readings with the class and chair in-class discussions, and also be thinking about your spring quarter project: a portfolio of your own writing based on your line of inquiry. You will work on this portfolio through the second half of winter quarter, and you will continue this work spring quarter. In the spring, workshops of your writing will help you to build and refine your portfolio.

 

Required texts: Kidd Core Texts course packet available at U of O bookstore

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka available at Black Sun Books

course packet and various texts on reserve at Knight Library

 

Note: This syllabus is subject to change and revision

 

Course outline:

 

9/27 Introduction Kidd orientation 4-5 pm 330 Gilbert Hall

 

10/4 Beginnings & Definitions: Exploring the Writing Self & Setting Standards

readings: Marguerite Duras "Writing" from Writing (on reserve)

Joan Didion "Why I Write" from Joan Didion : Essays & Conversations (on reserve)

Toni Morrison "The Site of Memory" (reserve packet)

M.H. Abrams "Introduction: Orientation of Critical Theories" (core texts)

Lee Siegel "Eyes Wide Shut:What the critics failed to see in Kubrick's last film" (reserve packet)

 

10/11 Models of Artistic Inspiration: Freedom and Possession

readings: Plato selections from Ion and Phaedrus (core texts)

Longinus selection from On the Sublime (core texts)

John Keats letters (core texts)

Richard Hugo chapters 1&2 from The Triggering Town (on reserve)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" (reserve packet)

 

10/18 What We Talk About When We Talk About Art Kidd Lecture 4-5 pm 330 Gilbert Hall

readings: Plato selection from The Republic (core texts)

Aristotle selections from Aristotle's Politics and Poetics (core texts)

Julia Kristeva "The Ethics of Linguistics" (core texts)

Albert Camus "The Myth of Sisyphus" pp. 88-91 from The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essays (on reserve)

 

10/25 Losing the Self, Gaining a Voice

readings: R.W. Emerson selection from "The American Scholar" (core texts)

T.S. Eliot "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (core texts)

Virginia Woolf selections from A Room of One's Own (core text)

Robert Browning poems: "My Last Duchess", "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", "Caliban Upon Setebos" from Robert Browning's Poetry (on reserve)

W. Davis Shaw "Browning's Duke as Theatrical Producer" pp. 536-544 from Robert Browning's Poetry (on reserve)

Elizabeth Bishop poems (reserve packet)

Lucy Brock-Broido "Domestic Mysticism" (reserve packet)

Lu Xun "Diary of a Madman" (reserve packet)

suggested additional reading: J. Hillis Miller "Browning's Language" pp. 509-514 from Robert Browning's Poetry (on reserve)

 

11/1 Losing the Self Through Erasure and Metamorphosis

readings: Roland Barthes "The Death of the Author" (core texts)

Russell Edson "Portrait of the Writer as a Fat Man" pp. 95-103 from Claims for Poetry (on reserve)

Russell Edson poems (reserve packet)

Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis

 

11/8 (New) Means of Expression Kidd Lecture 4-5 pm 330 Gilbert Hall

readings: Anton Chekhov selected letters (core texts)

Umberto Eco "Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage" (core texts)

John Berryman poems from The Dream Songs (on reserve)

Lorrie Moore "How To Be An Other Woman" (reserve packet)

Fernando Sorrentino "There's a Man in the Habit of Hitting Me on the Head With an Umbrella" (reserve packet)

William Gass "Emma Enters a Sentence of Elizabeth Bishop's" (reserve packet)

 

11/15 Writing the Forbidden and Fantastic

readings: Sigmund Freud selections from The Interpretation of Dreams (core texts)

Helene Cixous "Sorties" (core texts)

Charles Baudelaire poems (reserve packet)

Joyce Carol Oates "The Boy" (reserve packet)

Grace Paley "The Little Girl" (reserve packet)

Flannery O'Connor "Good Country People" (reserve packet)

Guy de Maupassant "The Horla" (reserve packet)

Jorge Luis Borges "August 25, 1983" (reserve packet)

 

11/22 Subversion of the Status Quo

readings: Karl Marx "The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof" (core texts)

Terry Eagleton "Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism" (core text)

Herbert Marcuse Preface, ch. IV, and Conclusion from The Aesthetic Dimension (on reserve)

Nikolai Gogol "The Nose" (reserve packet)

Donald Barthelme "The School" (reserve packet)

 

11/29 Finding Our Place At The Margins & Beyond

readings: Edward Said "Orientalism Now" (core texts)

Salman Rushdie "Imaginary Homelands" (core texts)

bell hooks "Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness" pp. 145-53 from Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics (on reserve)

Lynn Emanuel poems from The Dig & Hotel Fiesta (on reserve)

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Creative Writing Program
5243 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-5243
Phone: (541) 346-3944
Fax: (541) 346-0537
crwrweb@uoregon.edu