Writing the Early Modern Body, syllabus (08-09)
Monday, May 4, 2009 at 11:01AM SYLLABUS and SCHEDULE: ENGLISH 326: Writing the Body
Hollins University, Spring 2009
M W 11.30-1.00
Plea 203
office phone: 6433
office: Swan 203
office hours: W: 2.50-3.50; F 10.30-11.30 (or by email: jboyle@hollins.edu)
Metaphysical Poetry, Penguin Classics edition, 2006 ISBN: 014042444X
This edition only !! Behn, Aphra. Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (Norton Critical Edition only). Norton, 1997 ISBN: 0393970140
This edition only !! William Shakespeare, Othello (Norton Critical Edition only), Norton, 2003 ISBN: 0393976157
Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year, Penguin rev. edition. 2003 ISBN: 0140437851
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein (Enriched Classics) (Mass Market Paperback). Pocket, 2004. ISBN: 0743487583.
Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays: Sophonsiba, The Witch, The Witch of Edmonton (The Revels Plays Companion Library) (Paperback) Ed. Corbin. Manchester University Press; New Ed edition, 1989. ISBN: 0719019532.
Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland: or, The Transformation: An American Tale, Oxford University Press, 1999 ISBN: 0192836803
Other supplementary materials will be available on-line, on reserve, and as handouts
REQUIREMENTS:
Weekly reading logs/responses and one leading discussion/presentation = 20%
Writing revisions, reading quizzes, presentations of secondary/research materials = 20%
Two critical analyses (one of these will be an expanded/revised log or response) = 30%
Final summative project w/ written component and presentation = 30%
You will be marked down for half an attendance credit if you come to class without your book (2 times = 1 absence)
ADDITIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND CONTRACTS:
- All viewpoints or positions on the material are welcome (all!), but they must be offered with respect and in the spirit of healthy argumentation. All positions and viewpoints expressed should relate to the course material and concepts.
- You must participate in all writing revisions and workshops to receive full credit. I strongly emphasize revision. Thus, the writing exercises for this class are as much about the challenges of this process as much they are about what you end up with as a final draft.
- Since revision is a process I value, I will offer opportunities for us to revise, discuss, and workshop writing assignments together (in individual conferences with me and as a class).
- The main objective of this class is to take risks and to investigate with expansive energy the concepts and texts encountered. Two things I would prefer were not high on your list of learning objectives, 1) a desire to figure out what I think and mirror that in your writing and discussion; 2) an approach to each assignment that begins with “what is required of me?”
- Several of the assignments and projects for this course will allow you to move across disciplines and genres and to experiment with various lines of critical, experimental, and creative expression.
Some tips for a good experience:
Come to class
Follow all steps to a given assignment, and make use of all resources – resources in class and outside of class
Don’t come in late too often
Don’t miss a class and then ask me to reanimate it in detail or spirit on email
Don’t resist taking risks that allow you to experiment with a new way of writing, thinking, or creating
Feel free to call me “Jen” or “Professor Boyle”
Come to office hours to talk about assignments, course material, or projects
Respectfully challenge readings and arguments that emerge in the class (mine included)
Writing the Body
Unit One:
W: Feb 4th: Introduction to Class;
Images: Michaelangelo: St Bartholomew and the Flayed Skin;
Hermaphroditus (lilithgallery); additional images of Salmacis and HermaphroditusChakras, Johann Georg Gichtel (1638-1710), from "Theosophica Practica"
Optike Glasse of Humours and description of humours system, Folger Library
M: Feb 9th: Assign discussion leaders
Readings: Excerpt, Mark Johnson and George Lakoff, Metaphors We Live By
Metaphysical Poetry: Introduction; Donne: The Flea; Batter My Heart; The Relic; Nocturnal Upon St Lucy’s; Bradstreet: Letter to My Husband
Writing: preparation for reading log #1
W: Feb 11th: Powerpoint presentation (Early Modern Bodies: Cartesians, Epicurians, and Hermaphrodites)
Readings: Metaphysical Poetry: Donne: Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward; Hymn to God My God, In My Sickness; Marvel: On a Drop of Dew; Damon The Mower; The Garden
Writing: reading log #1 DUE: Using one of the critical concepts we have encountered to write about bodies/embodiment
M: Feb 16th: intro to research resources
Readings: Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain;
Metaphysical Poetry: Herbert: Easter Wings; The Collar; The Alter; Coloss 3.3 (HANDOUT) Cowley: My Picture; Philips: To my Excellent Lucasia; Traherne: Shadows on the Water Crashaw: Upon the Body of Our Blessed Lord, Naked and Bloody
Writing: preparation for reading log #2
Resources: Early modern web resources (U of Michigan): http://www.umich.edu/~earlymod/res.htm
Early Modern Resources (UK site): http://www.earlymodernweb.org.uk/emr/
W: Feb 18th: Student Presentation/Discussion ______________
Readings: Behn, Oroonoko (Intro and first part)
Writing: reading log #2 DUE: Employing a concept to argue about embodiment in Metaphysical Poetry
M: Feb 23rd:
Readings: Behn Oroonoko (Finish); Norton edition readings TBA
Writing: Introduction to essay one: expanding a reading log into an essay
Resources:
W: Feb 25th: Student Presentation/Discussion ____________________
Readings: Foucault, “Docile Bodies” (R); Norton essay
Writing: group work on mapping an essay
M: March 2nd: Powerpoint, Modern and Postmodern Bodies
Readings: Shakespeare, Othello: Reynolds Othello essay
Writing and Assignments Due: Working Draft of Essay #1
Resources:
W: March 4th: Student Presentation/Discussion _____________________
Readings: Shakespeare, Othello ;
M: March 9th:
Readings: Othello; Norton readings TBA
W: March 11h: Student Presentation/Discussion______________
Readings: Journal of the Plague Year; BodyWorlds
Writing: FINAL DRAFT OF ESSAY #1
March 16-20: SPRING BREAK
M: March 23rd:
Readings: Journal of the Plague Year; Sontag, Illness as Metaphor; Intro. To Jonathan Sawday’s The Body Emblazoned (R)
Writing and Assignments: Introduction to essay # 2
Resources
W: March 25th: Student Presentation/Discussion______________
Readings: Journal of the Plague Year; Eugene Thacker “Performing the Technoscientific Body: RealVideo Surgery and the Anatomy Theatre”; excerpt from Haraway, Cyborg Manifesto
M: March 30th:
Readings:; Frankenstein
W: April 1st: Student Presentation/Discussion______________
Writing and Assignments: Working draft of essay #2
Reading: Frankenstein
Resources:
Anatomical theatre images:
NIH, Historical Anatomies on the Web
M: April 6th: introduction to final project
Reading: Frankenstein
Writing and Assignments: Final of essay #2
Resources:
W: April 8th: Student Presentation/Discussion________________
Reading: Three Jacobean Plays
Resources: Early modernity on film, witchcraft
Painting of the examination of Bridget Bishop, Salem witchcraft tirals
A history of earlier witchcraft episodes and persecutions
Salem witchcraft documentary archives and transcription
Unit Three:
M April 13th
Readings: Three Jacobean Plays; excerpts from Malleus Maleficarum
Writing and assignments: Artifacts due
W: April 15th: Student Presentation/Discussion______________
Readings: Wieland
Resources: Charles Brockden Brown Society: http://www.brockdenbrownsociety.ucf.edu/
M: April 20th:
Readings: Wieland
Writing and Assignments: Abstracts/artist’s statements
W: April 22nd: Student Presentation/Discussion_____________
Readings: Wieland
Resources:
M: April 27th:
Readings: Wieland
Writing and Assignments: Draft of final project
W April 29th: PRESENTATIONS
M: May 4th: PRESENTATIONS
