Monday, September 22, 2008

Revised Syllabus - Again

New and Revised Syllabus (Again) and Blog posts

Here is the new schedule, accounting for Wednesday's absence. For Wednesday, please choose the essay you wish to discuss for your essay due next Monday, and also please write a paragraph outlining your thesis statement. I would also like to commence the stylistic section of the course, so please, if you have time, read Richard Selzer's "The Knife." I will bring a handout on stylistic devices to class, which I am also posting here. Don't worry about writing a blog entry on the Knife, as of yet, but rather would you please post your paragraphs on your upcoming essay as outlined below. Please write me with questions.

Best,
Laura



Week 1

Wednesday August 27 Introduction


Week 2

Monday September 1 No Class


Wednesday September 3 Introduction – pp. xxiii - liv



Week 3

Monday September 8 No Class due to emergency



Wednesday September 10 Charles Lamb – “A Chapter on Ears” – p. 165
Montaigne – “On Some Verses of Virgil” – p. 58
Blog


Week 4

Monday September 15 Annie Dillard – “Seeing” – pp. 693-706
Blog

Wednesday September 17 No Class




Stylistic Essay:

Week 5

Monday September 22 Junichiro Tanizaki – “In Praise of Shadows” – pp. 335- 361


Wednesday September 24 Stylistic Devices – (handout)
Richard Selzer – “The Knife” – pp. 707-714
Blog: paragraphs detailing analytic essay plan Wole Soyinka – “Why


Week 6

Monday September 29 No Class - First Draft of Analytic Essay Due

Wednesday October 1 No Class


Week 7

Tuesday October 6 Wole Soyinka – “Why Do I Fast” – pp. 422-430
Natalia Ginzburg – “He and I” – pp. 453-457
Blog“Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog

Wednesday October 8 No Class

Week 8

Tuesday October 14 “Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog


Wednesday October 15 First Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
Peer Review
Blog



Research Paper:

Week 9

Monday October 20 Second Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Library Visit


Wednesday October 22 The Lover – pp. 3-38
Blog





Week 10

Monday October 27 Second Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
The Lover – pp. 39- 83
Blog

Wednesday October 29 The Lover – pp. 84 – end
Blog


Week 11

Monday November 3 “The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras” – Julia Kristeva (handout)
Blog

Wednesday November 5 Film: The Lover
Research Proposals Due
Week 12

Monday November 10 Conferences


Wednesday November 12 First Draft of Research Paper Due
Peer Review

Personal Essay:

Week 13

Monday November 17 Peer Review
Blog

Wednesday November 19 Peer Review
Conferences

Week 14

Monday November 24 E. B. White – “Ring of Time” – pp. 538-539
Blog
Second Draft of Research Paper Due


Wednesday November 26 Louise Gluck - “On Impoverishment” (handout)
F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Crack-Up” (handout)
Blog
Here is the new schedule, taking into account Monday's absence. And I've changed the reading - or actually,

Week 15

Monday December 1 First Draft of Personal Essay Due
Peer Review
Blog

Wednesday December 10 Second Draft of Personal Essay Due included in Final Portfolio

Week 16

Monday December 15 Portfolio Conferences
Final Portfolio Due

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Zach Kalatsky
Analytical Essay
'Seeing'
Annie Dillard is gifted with the ability to see the universe and transcribe it into a lyrical, written wonderland. Establishing her name in the poetic world, Annie began writing essays with that same whimsical overtone. Her personal essay entitled ‘Seeing’ is just one of many examples of these works. The title of ‘Seeing’ connotes imagery, bringing the reader into her visual trance. As we follow her leap in time between the first two paragraphs, we are hit with Annie’s short but sweet thesis: “What you see if what you get.” The rest of the essay continues with this theme.

Satwant Singh (Soni) said...

“In Praise of Shadows” by Junichiro Tanizaki is a wonderfully written essay by a man struggling with the drastically changing world around him. Tanizaki is living in a time when Japan is going through a transitional phase, moving away from its traditional ideals and adapting more modern western ideas and concepts. Tanizaki is finding this change to be tough as he loves the beauty and serenity of a traditional Japan. Tanizaki beautifully uses light and darkness to contrast the western ideas with those of traditional Japanese. In his essay Tanizaki despises light and praises shadows and darkness because he feels that you find beauty in what you can’t see. He feels with shadows you can imagine what’s there and make it personal to you. He feels that when one shines or flashes light on something, it takes away this ability and the object loses its beauty. In my opinion, Tanizaki associates the Western world as that light shining on Japan and thus taking away from the beauty of its culture.

I'm gonna try and focus on the light and darkness theme throughout the rest of the essay.

Unknown said...

In Junichiro Tanizaki’s “In Praise of Shadows,” the essay starts with the speaker discussing how to build a Japanese house while staying true to traditional architecture rather than opting for modern inventions. Through this personal tirade, the speaker then goes into great detail comparing the West and its support for light with the East and its support for darkness. He eventually goes on to say that without darkness and shadows, there is no beauty. He then draws a distinction that shadows, imagination, and beauty are all linked and that without shadows these things are all in danger. The speaker concedes that Japan has chosen to follow the West, striving to dispel the shadows from every part of their houses and their minds, but he still hopes that the arts will be able to preserve every aspect of tradition. Although the physical aesthetics of tradition will eventually be lost to the West, the speaker’s only wish is that the rest be saved in literature.

Unknown said...

when is the second draft of the analytic essay due???