Connections A Hypertext Resource for Literature

Syllabus

Friday, August 29

First day: introductions and course overview

First (brief) assignments, due by tonight at 9:00 p.m. Iowa time

First, go to the self-introductions document in our class OneDrive folder and introduce yourself.

Then, put the following in your Commonplace Document:

  • A statement of interest: based on your previous academic work or other experiences, write down a topic that you'd like to follow through the term as a way to guide your reading. Examples of possible topics include literary experimentation, sexualities, religion, animal imagery, literary form, narrative technique, race and ethnicity, money and work, and so on. You are welcome to choose any of these or create your own. Just be sure that you select something you will be excited to look for throughout the term.

LABOR DAY: No class on Monday

Wednesday, September 3

An introductory video and three poems on the United States:

  • Professor Simpson's two-part video introduction to imagery, metaphor, and repetition (class YouTube channel through Canvas)

  • Walt Whitman, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (1855, class packet)

  • Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B" (1951, class packet)

  • Laura Da', "Passive Voice" (2015, class packet)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 1: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, September 5

  • Erik Simpson, Close Reading section of the Start Small, Start Strange packet

Packet of readings related to Imagism:

  • Amy Lowell, Preface to Some Imagist Poets (class packet)

  • H. D., "Oread" (1914, class packet)

  • William Carlos Williams, "The Red Wheelbarrow" (1923, class packet)

  • Amy Lowell, "A Lady" (1914, class packet)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 2: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Monday, September 8

  • Natalie Diaz on using poetic form to find freedom (short video)

  • Professor Simpson's introductory video on Shakespeare's sonnets (class YouTube channel through Canvas)

  • Professor Simpson's video introduction to prosody (class YouTube channel through Canvas)

  • Connections on the sonnet (class packet)

  • William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 [My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun] (1609)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 3: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, September 10

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 4: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, September 12

Friday writing: Submit the close reading exercise to your commonplace document by 9:00 p.m.

Monday, September 15

  • "Feminist Criticism," from Beginning Theory (course textbook)

  • Connections on couplets (class packet)

  • Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess" (1842; read the text and listen to the recording by hitting the play button next to the title)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 1: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, September 17

  • "Queer Theory," from Beginning Theory (course textbook)

  • Connections on blank verse (class packet)

  • Robert Frost, "Mending Wall" (1914, class packet)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 2: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, September 19

  • Erik Simpson, Thesis section of the Start Small, Start Strange packet

Read the thesis handout carefully so that you are prepared for an in-class writing exercise about thesis construction.

Monday, September 22

And poetry embodied in performance:

  • Legacy Russell, "Introduction" and "Glitch Is Anti-Body" from Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto (2020, class packet)

  • Tracie Morris, "Africa(n)" (2008, video #3 on the page)

  • Danez Smith, "Dinosaurs in the Hood" (2014): text and video

  • Ocean Vuong, two pieces from this video:

    • Introductory analogy between poetry and fashion (5:00)

    • "Threshold" (6:45, immediately following the introductory analogy)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 3: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, September 24

By 10:00 the night before class, enter your poetry close reading prototypes into your Commonplace Document. We will workshop your prototypes in class. This assignment is preparation for the upcoming poetry paper.

Friday, September 26

Note: here and throughout this syllabus, the first (less indented) reading or link is required, while the second (more indented) reading or link is supplemental and optional.

By 10:00 the night before class, enter into your commonplace document a) one or two sentences describing your current conception of your paper topic, and b) three transition sentences that you could imagine using in your paper. The three transition sentences should follow the ideas of the transitions handout, so they should each convey one of your ideas and connect the (imaginary) previous paragraph to the new one. I don't mean for this to be too stressful; I know you haven't written the paper yet. Just get some transition practice by trying out possibilities.

Monday, September 29

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 4: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, October 1

  • Joyce, "Clay," from Dubliners (1914, course textbook)

  • Derek Attridge, "Touching 'Clay': Reference and Reality in Dubliners" (class packet)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 1: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, October 3

Friday writing: POETRY PAPER DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT at 9:00 p.m.

Monday, October 6

  • Joyce, "The Dead," from Dubliners (1914, course textbook)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 2: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, October 8

  • Michael Levenson, "Living History in 'The Dead'" (class packet)

  • "New Historicism and Cultural Materialism," from Beginning Theory (course textbook)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 3: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, October 10

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 4: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Monday, October 13

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 1: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, October 15

  • Jones, "Marie" from Lost in the City (1992, course textbook)

    • From The Unfree World (Grinnell class project about Lost in the City): Howard University

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 2: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, October 17

If you choose to revise the poetry paper: POETRY PAPER REVISION DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT at 9:00 p.m.

Friday writing: Submit the creative response to your Commonplace Document by 9:00 p.m.

FALL BREAK

Monday, October 27

By 10:00 the night before class, enter your fiction paper prototypes into your Commonplace Document. We will workshop your prototypes in class. This assignment is preparation for the upcoming fiction paper.

We will also do a quick rehearsal of using the class microphone in anticipation of next week's creative reading.

Wednesday, October 29

Your assignment is to work on your papers. In class, we'll have a celebratory collective reading of your creative responses. Be prepared to read 200-300 words from your response. (To be sure to give everyone time to read, this may be a little shorter than your written submission.)

Friday, October 31

Friday writing: FICTION PAPER DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT at 9:00 p.m.

Monday, November 3

  • Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film, from chapters 2 and 3 (class packet)

  • Erik Simpson (drawing on Timothy Corrigan), Watching a Film in the Corrigan Mode (class packet)

  • CineFix's Best Shots of All Time, Part 1 (and if you like that, feel free to keep exploring similar videos on the CineFix channel!)

  • Every Frame a Painting, Joel & Ethan Coen - Shot | Reverse Shot

  • A fun illustration of the joys of close reading: Stephen Sondheim on the watering can (short video)

By 10:00 the night before class, make a brief note in your Commonplace Document about one thing that today's readings have helped you understand in a new way.

Wednesday, November 5

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 3: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, November 7

  • Stefan Ecks, "Native American Dis/possessions: Postcolonial Trauma in Hitchcock’s Vertigo" (class packet)

By 10:00 the night before class, type into your commonplace document the one sentence (with a page citation) that you most think of as the thesis of Ecks's article. (There is not a single right answer.) Then write at least 50 words about an aspect of the article that your thesis nomination does not include.

Monday, November 10

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 4: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, November 12

  • The video essay assignment. (To be clear, your task is to read the video essay assignment carefully, not to do the assignment. You'll be doing the assignment in stages during the coming weeks.)

Library day! We will meet in the second-floor classroom of Burling Library to talk about research skills in general and the video essay assignment in particular.

You are welcome to bring a laptop or other device that you might use for searching the library's online resources. You can also use the computers in the library for today's exercise.

Friday, November 14

Friday writing: Submit the source analysis to your Commonplace Document by 9:00 p.m.

Monday, November 17

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 1: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Wednesday, November 19

If you choose to revise the fiction paper: FICTION PAPER REVISION (WITH REVISION SUBMISSION SHEET) DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT at 9:00 p.m.

  • Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away (streaming, original title Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)

Assignment, from the reading routine, due by 10:00 the night before class in your Commonplace Document:

  • Group 2: prepare discussion prompts
  • Everyone else: enter commonplace notes

Friday, November 21

By 10:00 the night before class, enter your video essay prototypes into your Commonplace Document. We will workshop your prototypes in class.

Monday, November 24

Look through these video essay resources and the video essay assignment before writing your rough storyboard:

By 10:00 the night before class, upload a rough storyboard to the folder called "Rough Storyboards" within our OneDrive folder for the video essays. That folder includes a template Excel spreadsheet that you can use--just open it and save your own copy. You can make your storyboard in a different format or software if you choose to, but it should have all the components of the template version.

In class, we will have a special guest for an introduction to the mechanics of WeVideo.

Wednesday, November 26

We will declare the day before Thanksgiving an honorary Friday writing day. Rather than meeting as a class, each of you will do the following by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

Upload a Proof of Concept video to the folder called "Proof of Concept" within our OneDrive folder for the video essays. Your video should last at least one minute, include at least two clips or screenshots from the film you will analyze, have some of your voice talking about the clips or screenshots, and have a title slide at the beginning and a citation slide at the end.

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Monday, December 1

By 10:00 the night before class, upload a full storyboard to the folder called "Full Storyboards" within our OneDrive folder for the video essays. That folder includes a template Excel spreadsheet that you can use--just open it and save your own copy. You can make your storyboard in a different format or software if you choose to, but it should have all the components of the template version.

This storyboard should cover your whole video essay! The reader should be able to understand what you will be saying, showing, and playing throughout the essay.

Wednesday, December 3

Keep working on your video essays. We will use today's class session as a collective time for work and troubleshooting.

Friday, December 5

Friday writing: VIDEO ESSAY DUE BY UPLOAD at 9:00 p.m. Upload your essay to the folder called "Full Video Essays" within our OneDrive folder for the video essays.

Monday, December 8

EssayFest, day one! We will view half of the class's video essays in class. During the week and weekend, I will return comments about the video essays in preparation for the final assignment submissions.

Wednesday, December 10

EssayFest, day one! We will view half of the class's video essays in class. During the week and weekend, I will return comments about the video essays in preparation for the final assignment submissions.

Friday, December 12

Last class day! We will wrap up the term and address any remaining questions about the final assignments.

Thursday, December 18

End-of-term reflection (required by email or email attachment) and revision of video essay (if you choose to revise it) due by OneDrive folder upload by 5:00 p.m. Iowa time