Visionary Poetry East and West
English 199 – Spring, 2016
CRN 36850
Instructor: Ben Brinkley
brinkley@uoregon.edu
Class meets
101 VOL (Volcanology Building)
Tuesday and Thursday 12:00-1:20
Special Eligibility Requirements
Enrollment in 2015-2016 First Year Seminars is limited to first-year students who have graduated from high school between spring 2014 and spring 2015, who have not taken college credits in the time between graduation from high school and their first term at the University of Oregon. As a result, they are not open to exchange or transfer students who have previously studied at another institution. Ineligible students who have registered will be administratively dropped from the seminars.
About this course:
In this First Year Seminar, we will read poems relating to mystical experiences from a range of times and cultures, starting from today and working gradually backward through time, ending with ancient India. We will look at representative works of art from each religious/cultural tradition. We will also read secondary sources about mysticism in order to develop a shared understanding of it.
Documented Disabilities
If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please make an appointment with the instructor during the first week of the term. Please request that the Counselor for Students with Disabilities send a letter verifying your disability.
What is a seminar?
a. A small group of advanced students in a college or graduate school engaged in original research or intensive study under the guidance of a professor who meets regularly with them to discuss their reports and findings.
b. A course of study so pursued.
c. A scheduled meeting of such a group.
Attendance and participation
Because this is a seminar, not a lecture class, everyone’s full and undivided attention is required during class time.
Students are expected to be actively engaged in the class proceedings. Indeed, though there will be portions of each class in which I present information to you, more of the time will be spent in group- or class-wide discussion directed by you, the students. All students will facilitate and debrief class discussions, present to the class on group work, and so on. Therefore unlike many other University classes, attendance and participation will influence your grade.
Use of electronic devices
Unless I have authorized it for a special project, you may not open a computer or refer to a mobile device in the classroom.
Assignments
Students will read, discuss and critique in writing a variety of texts. Short writing assignments or critical responses of one to two pages will be required. Students will also write two longer essays of four to five pages.
Part of our work in this class is to make sure your academic writing gets up to University standards. Correct grammar, effective rhetoric and good style will be important to the grading of your writing assignments. We will go into detail about these expectations in class.
When is work due?
If an assignment is to be handed in on paper, it is due at the beginning of the class period. If an assignment is electronic, i.e. submitting online reading summaries or discussion questions, it is due by noon on the day of class.
More detailed information about this class
Class discussions
All students will learn how to facilitate such discussions, and in fact most discussions will be student-led.
We will initially learn facilitation techniques using visual art. It is easiest to learn the technique in this way, and the main qualities that we aim for in both types of discussion are the same: specificity of observation, evidentiary reasoning (“What do you see that makes you say that?”) and articulating connections amongst different types of observations or conjectures.
We will view and talk about art each day in class as the instructor introduces the cultural context of each poet or group of poets. For example, when reading medieval Christian mystics, we will look at medieval European religious art.
Through our discussions, we will work together to develop a list of poetic terminology and ‘strategies’ (including techniques, formal qualities, poetic subjects) for conveying mystical experience in verse.
Writing assignments:
There will be two short writing assignments and two longer essays. The short assignments will be close readings of single poems (or excerpts from poems). The longer essays will compare two or more poems on their formal qualities while defending a thesis about mysticism and poetry. In addition to these, brief written reading summaries will sometimes be required.
Short essays 1 and 2
(due Tuesday of Week 2 and Tuesday of Week 4, respectively.)
Each of these papers will be a 2-3 page close reading of a poem (or excerpt from a poem.) The poem must be one that we have studied for class, or students should receive approval from the instructor (via email) to use a different poem.
Just as we will have practiced in our in-person discussions, a written close reading must be carried out in terms of features and qualities that can actually be seen in the poem. That is, your ideas about the poem must be supported by things in the poem that can be pointed out to any reader; your interpretation can’t just be based on your personal experience, or on other information about the poet or his/her culture.
The close reading must also support a thesis statement about the meaning in or the formal qualities of the poem. Prior to the first short paper, we will read and review a sample student close reading essay together. We will also review a range of appropriate thesis statements that could be tackled for poems we have already talked about.
Students will receive grades and written feedback from the instructor on their two short essays by Tuesday of Week 3 and Tuesday of Week 5, respectively.
Students are welcome to revise their papers based on written feedback and resubmit them, if they wish to improve the paper’s grade.
Long essays 1 and 2
(due Tuesday of Week 7 and the last day of class, respectively.)
The long essays will have all the requirements of the shorter ones. These essays may also compare two poems (or poetic excerpts) and support a thesis about the nature of mystical experience as seen in the poems you are writing about. These essays should be 4-5 pages long.
The long essays can be based upon a student’s earlier work in one of the shorter essays, or they can tackle new poems.
After discussing the long essay assignment in class on Thursday of week 4, students will receive instructions for writing an essay proposal, and will have the weekend to prepare a written proposal, due Tuesday of week 5. Students will receive written feedback from the instructor on their proposals the next class session. The first long essay is due Tuesday of week 7.
The process for long essay 2 is similar, occurring between weeks 8 and 10. (See the schedule below).
Field trips:
We will take one field trip during the term, to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, to practice group discussion of art.
Grading Structure
• 10% Discussion participation.
• 10% Discussion facilitation
• 20% Short assignments such as reading summaries
• 40% The two longer essays
• 20% The two shorter essays