Week 1

Jun. 3

1  Introduction: Challenging the Imagination

Reading

• Sylvia Plath, The Bed Book (1959)

• E. E. Cummings, "l(a"

  • J. E. Terblanche, "Cummings' 'l(a': Solitude, Solidarity, Wholeness" (2002)

  • Billy Collins, "Is That a Poem?" (2005)

• Shel Silverstein, Runny Babbit (2002; excerpts)

• William Carlos Williams, "This Is Just to Say" (1962) (study guide [Kwanratana, Chayada])

• Virginia Woolf, "How Should One Read a Book?" (1926)

Quiet Time: Writing

Think about what reading is when you read a poem in this unit.  In a paragraph or two, show how that poem has urged you to read in a certain way.

• Sample student response on Plath

• Sample student response on Williams

2  Challenging the Stereotype: What Are Little Boys Made Of?

Reading

• What Folks Are Made Of

• Sherman Alexie, "A Good Story" (1993) (study guide)

  • Sherman Alexie, "Introduction," The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (2005)

  • Howard Zinn, "Surprises" (1984; excerpt)

  • Plot

• Richard Wilbur, "Boy at the Window" (with audio of Wilbur reading) (study guide [Kanyanat, Chanamas])

• Ben Jonson, "On My First Son" (1603; see also Study Guide [Jitpisuth, Chayapim])

  • On My First Sonne (glossary, commentary)

Quiet Time: Writing

Plot, unlike story which is events organized chronologically, is order of events arranged by the author.  Choose one of the three works and consider the significance of the author's sequence in presenting events.  How does it affect of the story being told?  Is the effect comic? tragic? surprising? Does the result reinforce stereotypes of boys or break them?

3  Challenging the Stereotype: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Reading

• Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl" (study guide [])

  • Stephanie Vaughn, "Introduction to Kincaid's 'Girl'" (1994)

• Jane Martin, Beauty (2000) (study guide [Kemika, Kamolsan])

• Erica-Lynn Gambino, "This Is Just to Say" (1997) (study guide)

• Dorothy Parker, "Penelope" (1928) (study guide [Kulthida, Ngamjit])

  • Penelope (in the Greek myth)

• Howard Zinn, "Surprises" (1984; excerpt)

Quiet Time: Writing

The children's rhyme in unit 2 lists little girls as made of "sugar and spice and everything nice."  Discuss what the lists you find in the literary selections in this unit say about girls and whether they challenge stereotypes of girls in any way.  You can write about one work or more.

4  Challenging Boundaries: Intertextuality

Reading

• Rattawut Lapcharoensap, "Priscilla the Cambodian" (study guide)

  • Guardian: Rattawut Lapcharoensap, in conversation (mp3; 13 min.)

  • Interview with Rattawut Lapcharoensap

  • Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (review by Elizabeth Wadell)

  • The Thais that bind

  • "Give Refugees a Hand" (0:31 min.; see also Angelina Jolie's video response 0:33 min.)

  • UNHCR 2006 Leaflet (pdf file)

  • CNN: World Refugee Day

• Carol Ann Duffy, "Anne Hathaway" (study guide [Kanyanat, Chanamas])

  • Shakespeare's Will

  • Shakespeare's Last Will & Testament (transcription)

  • Sonnet

  • Rhyme

• James Thurber, "The Girl and the Wolf" (study guide)

• Gabriel Okara, "Once Upon a Time" (study guide [Ngamjit, Kulthida])

  • William Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up" (study guide [Jitpisuth])

• U. A. Fanthorpe, "Not My Best Side" (study guide [Chanikarn, Chanokphat])

  • Paolo Uccello, "St. George and the Dragon"

  • An Interview with U. A. Fanthorpe

  • U. A. Fanthorpe, "Foreword," Collected Poems 1978–2003 (scroll down toward the bottom of the page)

Quiet Time: Writing

Texts speak to and are often shaped by other texts.  Each of these works presents characters that are informed by extratextual sources.  Examine how the character of something or someone is shaped in one of the literary selections.

• Sample student response on Duffy

5  Challenging Boundaries: Glocality

Reading

• Robert Burns, "Auld Lang Syne" (study guide [Kantawat, Korapim])

  • So What's Auld Lang Syne?

  • "'Auld Lang Syne'--Its Origin, Poetry, and Music" by James Dick

• William Shakespeare, "Sonnet CXVI" (1609) (study guide [Kayanun, Korakot])

  • William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116: Introduction by Linda Gregerson (with audio of 4 readings of the sonnet)

  • Poetry Instruction with Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

  • Commentary on Sonnet CXVI

  • 400 Years Young: The Magic and Mystery of Shakespeare's Sonnets

  • A Note on Shakespeare's Sonnets by Ian Johnston

Quiet Time: Writing

6  Translating the World

Reading

• Jomo Kenyatta, "The Gentlemen of the Jungle" (Study Guide)

  • Jomo Kenyatta (biography)

  • Allegory (see also Virtual Salt)

  • "Kenya: Ethnicity, Tribe, and State" by John Lonsdale (2008)

• Alexander McCall Smith, "The Girl with Three Lives" (excerpt) (study guide)

  • Q&A: Alexander McCall Smith (interview)

  • Alexander McCall Smith (official site)

  • About the Author

• Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies (excerpt) (study guide)

  • "Modern India Was Built On a Drug"

  • Amitav Ghosh (official site)

• Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner, "Need" (study guide [Chayapim, Jitpisuth])

  • Flying Words Project (official site)

  • ASL Poetry Support Page

7  Translating Experience: Pain, Sorrow

Reading

• Langston Hughes, "Harlem" (study guide [Chanikarn, Chanokphat])

  • Langston Hughes (1902–1967)

    • Langston Hughes, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (1926)

    • On "Harlem"

  • Langston Hughes Set Poetry to a Jazz Beat

• "Edward" (study guide)

  • Lionel Trilling, "Commentary"

• Philip Larkin, "The Trees" (listen to Larkin reading the poem) (study guide)

  • Philip Larkin

  • Philip Larkin

8  Translating Experience: Love

Reading

• William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II scene ii (balcony scene; c. 1591) (study guide)

  • Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, "The Texts of Shakespeare," The Complete Works (p. l)

  • Study Guide for Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (1591?)

  • Romeo (Merriam-Webster)

  • Act I scene v (first exchange between Romeo and Juliet)

  • Study Guide for Ovid: The Art of Love

  • Romeo and Juliet (1968; 137 min.; video at Arts library: Arts AV VC 1060 Eng)

  • Romeo and Juliet (1996; 120 min.; DVD at Arts library: Arts AV DVD 097 Eng)

• Carol Ann Duffy, "Valentine" (study guide [Kantawat, Korapim]) 

  • Carol Ann Duffy

  • Carol Ann Duffy (with audio clip of Duffy reading several poems)

  • Valentine (background, summary, themes, tones, imagery, sound effects)

• Gertrude Stein, "Sacred Emily" (excerpt) 

• Sharon Olds, "The Promise" (study guide [Kemika, Kamolsan])

• William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" 

  • William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

Romeo and Juliet Discussion and Performance (group list and lines assignment)

Quiet Time: Writing

What is love and how do we show/know it? Notice how each of these texts express dissatisfaction with the rose as a symbol of love. Choose a phrase or line from one of the texts and discuss what the poet enables or disables in the "rose." What does this enabling or disabling allow the poet to say about love?

9  Translating Experience: Hope

Reading

• Claude McKay, "If We Must Die" (1919; see Study Guide [Jidapa])

  • McKay on "If We Must Die"

• Angel Island Poetry (study guide [Chanikarn, Chanokphat])

  • Angel Island: Breaking the Silence

  • The Poetry of Angel Island (with audio clip of poems)

  • Angel Island Poetry

    • About Angel Island

    • "Angel Island: 'Guardian of the Western Gate'" by Valerie Natale

  • Newly-Restored Angel Island Immigration Station Re-Opening Today

  • How Poetry Saved a Building: The Re-Opening of Angel Island Immigration Station

  • A visit to Angel Island April 4, 2009 (links to photo report)

• Stevie Smith, "Not Waving but Drowning" (with audio of Smith reading) (study guide [Kanyanun, Korakot])

Quiet Time: Writing

Read Stevie Smith's "Not Waving but Drowning" carefully and then write an essay in which you discuss how the poet's choice of point of view conveys the irony of the action(s) of "I."

No class (official holiday)

No Class (Buddhist Lent)

10  Translating Experience: Memory

Reading

• Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken" (with audio of Frost reading) (study guide [Kanyanun, Korakot])

  • On "The Road Not Taken" (critical excerpts on the poem)

• William Wordsworth, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (study guide [Jidapa])

  • Dorothy Wordsworth, "April 15, 1802," Journals

  • "Wordsworth's Daffodils Under a Cloud" by Nigel Bunyan

• Ezra Pound, "In a Station of the Metro" (study guide)

  • Ezra Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska: A Memoir (excerpt)

• Aimee Bender, "The Rememberer" (study guide [Kemika, Kamolsan])

  • Aimee Bender (listen to Bender read "The Rememberer"; 7:52 min.)

  • Aimee Bender's Website (reading, interviews, biography, and more)

Quiet Time: Writing

After carefully reading Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken," write a well-organized essay in which you show how memory is treated differently in this and in another work we have read.

Translating Place: Perceptual Environments

Reading

• W. B. Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (with audio of Yeats reading) (study guide)

• Valerie Bloom, "Two Seasons" (with audio of Bloom reading) (study guide [Kamolsan, Kemika])

• Harold Pinter, Apart from That (1:10 min.) (study guide)

Midterm (10–noon in class) There are two parts to the exam: Part I (20 points) consists of two essay-type questions on the short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin which you have in the anthology section of your coursebook; Part II (20 points) consists of two essay-type questions on the material we have covered in the first part of the semester. See below for more exam help.

• Reading Strategies

  • Reading Strategies and LIE

  • S.O.A.P.S. Document Analysis

  • PDIDLS

  • Tone and Detailed Explanation of DIDLS

• Essay Exam Tips

  • Writing Exam Essays

  • Pointers for Taking Essay Tests

  • Writing Essay Exams (pdf file)

  • Essay Exam Preparation (pdf file)

• Review literary terms

• Study guide

No Class (Midterm Week July 20–24, 2009)

Translating Place: Physical Locales

Reading

• Chris Offut, "Sawdust" (study guide [Kanyanun, Korakot])

• William Blake, "London" (1792) (study guide [Chanamas, Kanyanat])

  • William Blake, "London" (introduction by Alicia Ostriker; audio clips of three readings of the poem)

  • Simon Korner, "William Blake's London" (2008)

  • Booth Poverty Map 1898–1899

  • William Blake Online

• Native American Songs (study guide)

  • Native American Oral Tales and Song

    • Introduction to Native American Oral Poetry by K. L. Nichols

  • Cherokee Morning Song (lyrics, audio)

  • Native American Songs and Chants

• Maxine Hong Kingston, "A Sea Worry,"  Hawai'i (study guide)

Case Study (Poetry): "To Autumn"

Reading

• John Keats, "To Autumn" (1819) (study guide [Kulthida, Ngamjit])

  • "To Autumn"

  • John Keats, "To Autumn" (poem text with reading and re-reading questions, explorations, links)

Case Study (Poetry): "To Autumn"

Reading

• John Keats, "To Autumn" (1819)

  •  "To Autumn" (composition, general comments, stanza by stanza analysis)

  • Introduction to the poem by Sven Birkerts with audio clips of 4 readers' take on the poem

  • "Ode to Autumn" (1819) (poem and analysis)

  • A Brief Guide to Romanticism

  • Lyric poetry

    • On Reading Lyric Poetry

    • Ode (explanation of different types of odes)

Case Study (Drama): Cocktail

Reading

• Vince LiCata and Ping Chong, Cocktail (2007) pp. 2–23 (beginning to end of Scene 6) (study guide [ Kantawat, Korapim])

  • Vince LiCata and Ping Chong, "Artists' Statement" (pp. xxviii–xxx)

  • Theatre Through a Microscope (2005)

Case Study (Drama): Cocktail

Reading

• Vince LiCata and Ping Chong, Cocktail (2007) pp. 24–53 (Scene 7–12) (study guide [Benjamaporn])

  • Tamara Loos, "Introduction" (pp. ix–xxvii)

• Krisana Kraisintu

  • Krisana Kraisintu (official homepage)

  • Citation for Krisana Kraisintu (Ramon Magsaysay Award)

  • Sarah Young, "Warrior Woman" (2007)

  • Julie Clayton, "Out of Thailand, into Africa," Nature (2004; pdf version)

  • Richard Knox, "A Thai Woman's Fight for AIDS Drugs for All" (2004; audio)

No Class (Mother's Day)

Case Study (Drama): Cocktail

Reading

• Vince LiCata and Ping Chong, Cocktail (2007) pp. 54–82 (Scene 13–end) (study guide)

  • Artworx, "Cocktail" (6:16 min.)

  • Tina Rosenberg, "Look at Brazil," The New York Times (2001)

  • Robert Steinbrook, "Antiretroviral Medications — From Thailand to Africa," New England Journal of Medicine (2004; pdf version)

  • Thailand's Drug Problem: The US State Department (2007)

  • Action Alert: Thailand (AIDS patients demonstration in Bangkok, 2001)

  • Nangfahnirnam (official page for the Thai production; includes interview with the director)

  • "Cocktail: The Life and Work of Dr. Krisana Kraisintu" by Pawit Mahasarinand

  • 2009 Magsaysay Remarks (Thai, English)

Case Study (Novel): Of Mice and Men

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937) pp. 1–16 (study guide [Chanokphat, Chanikarn])

  • Of Mice and Men: The Student Survival Guide (vocabulary, allusions, idioms)

  • American Cultural History 1930–1939

  • The Great Depression

    • The Great Depression

    • The Depression in the United States--An Overview

Case Study (Novel): Of Mice and Men

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937) pp. 17–37 (study guide [Kanyanat, Chanamas])

  • Robert Burns, "To a Mouse" (1785)

    • "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns (with video of Richard Wilson reading the poem)

    • George Wilkie, "To a Mouse," Understanding Robert Burns

    • Geo. W. T. McGown, "To a Mouse," A Primer of Burns (1907)

  • Susan Shillinglaw, "Introduction" (pp. vii–xxv)

  • America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935–1945

Case Study (Novel): Of Mice and Men

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937) pp. 38–65 (study guide [Ngamjit, Kulthida])

  • America in the 1930s (in print, timeline)

Case Study (Novel): Of Mice and Men

BRK 302

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937) pp. 66–98 (study guide [Benjamaporn])

  • Anne Loftis, "A Historical Introduction to Of Mice and Men" (pp. 39–47)

Case Study (Novel): Of Mice and Men

BRK 304

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937) pp. 99–107 (study guide)

Case Study (Novel): Of Mice and Men

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

  • Richard Astro, "John Steinbeck: A Biographical Portrait" (1976) (on reserve at Arts Library)

  • Luchen Li, "Of Mice and Men (Book)" (pp. 254–57)

  • "Of Mice and Men (Film and Television Versions)" (257–58)

Case Study (Novel): Of Mice and Men

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

  • Mickey Moran, "1930s, America—Feminist Void?" (winner, 1989 Loyola University History Writing Award)

Case Study (Novel)/Review

Reading

• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937)

  • John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (play; pp. 643–80)

    • Brian Leahy Doyle, "Tragedy and the Non-teleological in Of Mice and Men" (2006)

Poetry Recital/Literary Readings

BRK 303

Final paper due

• 4–6 pages

• MLA format

• Some writing guidelines:

  • "Some Matters of Form" by Yale University (writing guidelines; pdf file)

  • Writing Prose (handbook on college writing, Yale University; pdf file)

  • Sources and Citation at Dartmouth College (pdf file)

  • Writing about Literature

  • Writing Papers for English and Literature: A Word of Advice (also A Few Things to Remember)

  • The Craft of a Literature Paper

  • Writing a Literature Paper: Guidelines, Suggestions, Strategies

  • What Makes a Good Literature Paper?

  • Guide to Essay Writing (helpful reference, where to start, evidence, argument, what is a good essay)

  • Writing about Literature (elements of the essay, the writing process, the research essay, documentation)

  • Developing an Outline (pdf file)

  • How to Write an Outline

• Some sample papers:

  • "To Know Well" by Jane Smith (on Shakespeare's sonnet 129: "Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame"; Word file)

  • "The Value of Restraint" by Amy Skerry (on Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral"; Word file)

Final Exam (8:30–11:30 a.m.) You can order copies of David Ives's short play Time Flies that will be on the final at the Copy Center in the basement of BRK building. There will be two parts to the exam: Part I (20 points) consists of two short essay type questions on Ives's Time Flies and Yeats's poem "Down by the Salley Gardens"; Part II (40 points) consists of four short essay type questions that asks you to pair up different works that we have read this semester and analyze them in a thematic discussion. Dictionaries (electronic or paper) are not allowed in the exam room.

BRK 401, 404

• Preparation

  • Writing Exam Essays

  • Pointers for Taking Essay Tests

  • Writing Essay Exams (pdf file)

  • Essay Exam Preparation (pdf file)

• Sample Responses

  • Sample Poetry Question on Kvlividze's poem "In the Metro" (with sample responses)

  • Example of an 'A' Response to an Exam on Wordsworth's "The world is too much with us"

  • Sample Exam Answer

• Reading Strategies

  • TP-CASTT (brief), Poetry Analysis: TP-CASTT (more detailed)

  • Tone and Detailed Explanation of DIDLS

  • S.O.A.P.S. Document Analysis

  • Reading Strategies and LIE

  • PDIDLS

• Review literary terms

• Review literary texts