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English Adjunct

Rankine on Rich

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Claudia Rankine (author of Citizen) recently wrote about the work of Adrienne Rich in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/adrienne-richs-poetic-transformations

An excerpt:

In answer to the question “Does poetry play a role in social change?,” Adrienne Rich once answered:

Yes, where poetry is liberative language, connecting the fragments within us, connecting us to others like and unlike ourselves, replenishing our desire. . . . In poetry words can say more than they mean and mean more than they say. In a time of frontal assaults both on language and on human solidarity, poetry can remind us of all we are in danger of losing—disturb us, embolden us out of resignation.

Article for Monday

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Here’s the article you should print and read for Monday: http://www.publicbooks.org/fiction/for-world-literature (its also linked on Blackboard). Highlight and be prepared to talk about 3 specific points in the essay that you think are important (you might agree or disagree, or not be sure).

If you don’t have it with you Monday, you won’t be able to receive credit for participating in our debate.

Please also bring your anthologies, as we’ll conclude our discussion on Dickinson.

Dickinson Assignment, Archives, and Resources

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Emily Dickinson Archive: http://www.edickinson.org/

Includes manuscript versions of her poems, and a lexicon for definitions from her dictionary. After reading the assigned poems, choose two favorites, and look at the manuscript versions. In lieu of a quiz Wednesday, you should bring in a 1-2 paragraph response about looking the manuscript versions of the specific poems you chose (indicate which poems you looked at). Did it change your impression or experience of the poems at all? How so? If not, why?

This NYTimes article sums up some of the controversy surrounding her manuscripts and their digitization: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/books/enigmatic-dickinson-revealed-online.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&

And finally, Dickinson’s place setting from The Dinner Party (the Judy Chicago project–we looked at Wollstonecraft’s early in the semester):http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/emily_dickinson.php

More on Wollstonecraft & The Dinner Party

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If you’re interested in reading more of Wollstonecraft’s “Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” the full text is available (in a variety of formats) here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3420

Today in class we looked at Mary Wollstonecraft’s place setting from Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.”

Judy Chicago: The Dinner Party – Detail Mary Wollstonecraft Placesetting

I highly recommend checking out “The Dinner Party” in person if you get a chance–its pretty awesome to see in person, and its on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum (admission is suggested donation, so pay-what-you-can).

You can read more about the whole project here: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/home.php

Browse the various place settings (a few of the other writers we’ll read this semester have place settings too): http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/browse.php

“Crafting the Dinner Party”: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/blog/crafting-dinner-party

Dinner Party

Welcome to Great Works of Literature

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Hello and welcome to Great Works of Literature II, ENG 2850 HMWC.

We’ll be using this course blog to enrich our classroom experience by sharing responses to the readings, announcements, and links to outside material. In addition to your required blog posts, you should feel free to post anything that seems relevant to our class–a video you watched, something you took a picture of, an article you read, etc. I’m looking forward to getting started!

If you’re interested, here are a few more readings on the canon, the debate surrounding it, and how we define literature, to follow up on our discussion today:
“Revisiting the Canon Wars”
“The Use and Abuse of Literature” (excerpt)

What’s your take?

Comment here to let me know you’ve successfully joined the blog: re-introduce yourself to the group, add an idea about today’s discussion, or share a thought about your expectations for the class.