CLASS INFORMATION

Grading:
Four take-home test/essays -- 40%
Six imitation poems -- 20%
In-class writing exercises/possible creative project -- l0%
Critical report on Plath -- 10%
Research/critical paper -- 20%

Policies: Papers and Poems: Late papers and poems will be docked five points per day late (including weekends) unless you have a valid, verifiable excuse. Work must be turned in typed at the beginning of the class to count as on-time. In-class writing: There is no make-up on this. Tardiness: Class starts at 5 p.m. Be there! Absences: At this stage, I don't expect students to miss without a real excuse. However, if absences should become a problem, I may talk with you, dock your final grade five points for each absence, or ask you to withdraw from the class.

Note: The last day to drop without a grade is August 30, and the last day to drop with a W is October 18. After this date, you will have to have extenuating circumstances, such as an accident or illness, to drop, and both the department head and the dean will have to concur.

Rank II and Rank I graduate students are required to incorporate pedagogy into the research paper on Plath. Please see me for suggestions.

Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Office for Student Disability Services, Room 445, Potter Hall, phone: 745-5004.

Women's Studies Minor--Women's Poetry 496/G is an approved elective for the Women's Studies minor. In short, we explore the impact of gender on women poets' lives and their poetry.

Rationale: To study literature, we have to set parameters: nationality--English, American, French; time period--Renaissance, Victorian; genre--poetry, drama, fiction; author--Shakespeare, Joyce. The core poets of this class fit into several boundaries: American, female, and, to a large extent, feminist. (I define feminist poetry as poetry that explores the psychological, social, artistic, spiritual, sexual, or emotional implications of being a female and/or a female poet in America from l650 to today.) Within these broad categories, attention is paid to diversity, with, for example, African-American, working class, and lesbian poets included. We also read an assortment of male poets, primarily from the nineteenth century, for contrast. In addition, I include female poets from other times and places, such as ancient Sumeria, medieval India, and medieval England and Germany, to explore universality of theme. Thus, we explore both how a culture affects a poet and how certain topics may cross all boundaries.

We will read poets just now being given some critical attention--for instance, Jane Colman Turell, Lydia Sigourney, and, of course, anonymous. We will also treat canonical poets such as Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley, Emily Dickinson, and Adrienne Rich in the context of the history of women's poetry. We will examine these writers' work both as aesthetic constructs and as historical documents, ascertain their common themes, and see how they relate to the traditional canon. We will also examine the very "hot" topic of canon formation. In addition, we will read some important prose works, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" and Adrienne Rich's essay, "When We Dead Awaken."

Some things we are not: a 60's-style consciousness raising session, a therapy group, a judge, jury and executioner of the patriarchy. We are an academic class, and we are here to experience, react to, analyze, even reject if we so choose, poems heretofore either neglected in traditional literature classes or not studied as a tradition.

To include these poems in the canon does not mean we throw out what is already there. Our attitude should be "both-and" rather than "either-or."

Format: We will spend quite a bit of time looking through these poems carefully, with an open mind. We will look at these poems from the inside out, sometimes line by line. These poets deserve no less. I will lecture some, but I plan to center our inquiries around our discussion. Even when I am lecturing, you are free to ask questions or to make points. You are responsible for your own learning. I will guide and coordinate, but I will also learn from you.

Philosophy: Feminist pedagogy is now an accepted method of teaching. I subscribe to many of its tenets, especially the following:

Education is a shared responsibility between teacher and students. The teacher does not pour information into students' heads as through students are empty glasses. Incidentally, I always consider myself a student too.

There is a de-emphasis on the power and status of the professor.

The class values women and women's experiences. The content of the course should include scholarship on women and scholarship by women. (Do we fit this one!!!)

Students are encouraged to take an active role in their own learning.

Personal and emotional experiences are important sources of knowledge. Some feminists believe that some things women have been taught for years seemed to be contradicted by their personal experience, but they have not been encouraged to speak up and say so.

The lecture mode is de-emphasized in favor of more discussion exercises.

Males as well as females have been hampered by education's emphasis on masculine models of learning.
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OUTLINE (subject to some change)

8/24
Introductions
Dickinson film

***August 26--the day women's right to vote went into effect in 1920***

8/31
Begin Dickinson

***Dr. Riffat Hassan, internationally renowned religious studies scholar, will present "Contemporary Muslim Women: Beyond the Images" Thursday, September 2, 7:00 pm in the FAC Recital Hall

9/7
Dickinson, continued
Read the packet on mystic poets before class
Dickinson imitation poem due

9/14
Begin Plath
Out-of-class essay on Dickinson due

***Margaret Sanger's birthday on September 14***
***Feast of Hildegarde of Bingen on September 17

9/21
Plath, continued
Plath imitation poem due

***The Eleusinian Mysteries were conducted on September 22-27 in ancient Greece***

9/28
No class--I am out of town.

10/5
Plath critical article reports
You will need to pick up the packet of Plath criticism at Staples.
Articles assigned will be announced.

10/12
Begin Rich
Out-of-class research paper on Plath due

10/19
Rich, continued
Rich imitation poem due

10/26
The history of women's poems about the muse and the moon from Enheduanna in 2300 B.C. (the first recorded poet in human history) to today.
By tonight you will need a packet that I will make available at Staples.
Out-of-class essay on Rich due

11/2
No Class--Election Day

11/9
Begin Bradstreet and other Puritan poets
Imitation poem from the history of women's poetry due

11/16
Begin Revolutionary War women poets
Bradstreet/Puritan imitation poem due

11/23
Begin 19th century/early 20 century poets
Revolutionary War imitation poem due

11/30
Begin poets of mid-20th to today
12/7
Creative projects

Due by final
Out-of-class essay on the the history of women's poetry and the history of American women's poetry (counts as two exams)
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You may forget but
let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us.

Sappho (6l0-580 B.C.E., Greece)