Just for fun.

Ekphrasis Syllabus

H: Imaginary Artist preliminary exploration.  (We did an in-class writing) 

Here’s the prompt:

What time frame will your artist occupy—when did, does or will s/he live?  What is his/her birth order, number of siblings?  What does your artist cherish? Despise? Wish? Read? Eat? Own? Laugh at? Create?  What is your artist’s genre and why? What first drew him/her to this medium? What is your artist’s greatest shame? What makes him/her proud?  What was his/her best birthday and why? Worst?  Who are your artist’s influences professionally?  Who is his/her closest friend?

Write these things up and type them into a file for notes towards later assignments, including a Wikipedia page for your artist.  Homework: Type these notes in and come to class with a postcard of your own design, unrelated to your artist. (It is a different assignment.  B

Week Three: 

January 28-February 2

T:  Discussion of examples of ekphrasis as they relate to the Patrrick Hunt essay (Ekphrasis or Not?)

H: Postcard Assignment MAKE SURE YOU COME TO CLASS WITH THE POSTCARD. If you are unclear as to the assignment, clear that up with me BEFORE class. If you missed class, you are still expected to follow the blog.  You will be working with these postcards in class, so you must have them with you and available AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS.  Homework: A Wikipedia page of your imaginary artist. I would like for us to find a venue in which to post these.  We’ll discuss it in class.

Homework 2:  Read ALL pages 15-17 (the foreword) as well as  21-57 in your Art and Artists book. Where possible you are responsible for locating each piece of art to which they refer.  Be prepared to discuss these in class as well as  consider them preparation for an ode to be written about your imaginary artist and due a week from today. (Thursday February 7.) This ode can be written by an imaginary writer or modeled off the writings of someone famous. Treat  your imaginary artist as if s/he occupies a specific space and time and work out who is writing about him/her from that premise.

Week Four

February 4-8

T:  Discussion of the foreword and the ode. What does this mode of ekphrasis do or do differently from others? How heavily do they rely on the source art?  How effective are your favorites or least of these? 

Homework: Odes to your Imaginary Artist

H: Continued discussion of the odes from your books. Turn in your odes on Thursday of next week along with your artist's Wikipedia page. (I'll gather them from you as you arrive at the Valentine's event.) 

Homework: Read five poems of your choice from EACH of the next two sections in your Poets and Painters book (Example: select five poems from the section called The Paintings 61-102 and five poems from The Portrait Gallery 105-123). Come to class prepared to discuss the ways that these poems come at the ekphrastic impulse differently and which ones you found most effective.

Week Five

February 11-15

T Discussion of book pieces.

Homework:  Consider your imaginary artist’s body of work and write a 200 word review of a piece or a show. IF your artist is not famous or showing work, consider something less formal like a note from another artist or a self-critique in the fashion of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother.  We won’t deal with these until a week from today, so you have time.

H  BRING YOUR ODES & WIKIPEDIA PAGE. Valentines on Demand. We’ll work from the Crane Center.  The starving artist area. More details to follow.

Homework: Select  two poems from each of the sections up to Photography and be ready to discuss how they work and what you liked or disliked about them. You can choose something for how much you admire it or how flawed you find it. Either can be an interesting conversation.  ( 2 EACH from Sculpture Garden, Artistry, Architecture, Photography.)    For next week, look over the work of Joseph Cornell  http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cornell

http://www.josephcornellbox.com/menu.htm

and make sure you read this review of Charles Simic’s book of poems based on the boxes (Dimestore Alchemy)  http://idiommag.com/2011/09/nostalgia-box/

Consider how his boxes operate in terms of ekphrastic properties, as well as how they tell or hold story. Considering that work, begin gathering small objects that will be meaningful to your artist.  What would a Cornell box as a shrine to your imaginary artist look like? Start scouring the world for things that would hold significance to him/her.

Week Six

February 18-22

T   Simic Discussion. Imaginary Artist Shrine Assignment announced. Due

H: Discussion of your reviews in class (see last Tuesday for homework details for this assignment.)  Homework: Selected pieces from the final three sections of the book.

Week Seven

February 25-March 1

T  TBA

H

Week Eight

March 4-March 8

T  Homework:  Read:

The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen

H: Start film The Red Shoes

Week Nine: 

March 11-March 15

T Complete Red Shoes, Discuss fairytale and film.

H Poetry Pharmacy

Week Ten: 

March 18-March 22

T TBA

H  TBA

Ekphrasis Weekend Homework

1. Do read the essay on the blog regarding Ekphrasis (That line-up of poems and the essay are hot links.)

2. Bring your own essay about an example of ekphrasis in on Tuesday.
3. Make a postcard--just the visual aspect--and bring it in on Tuesday.

4. Type your imaginary artist notes in and save the file for your upcoming assignments.

EKPHRASIS

Texts of Additional Interest: (not required, but suggested for your own further studies into ekphrasis)

Dimestore Alchemy, Joseph Cornell
Inflorescence by Sara Hannah
 By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham. It deals with art, and some of the literary allusions will be familiar after some of our studies.
Also, the very pricey but intriguing: The Gazer's Spirit by John Hollander
Week One:

T: Introduction. What is ekphrasis in its broader use? What will it be in our class?

Summary: Ekphrasis as a vocabulary term must grapple with the notion of expression in speech of that which is silent (the work of art or effect of the work of art upon the viewer).  In our class, we are going to see speech or the spoken response as one that might be rendered in a variety of figurative methods or genres from paint to keyboards and strings, as well as the keyboard that yields poems, stories and plays in response.  

H: Discussion of Musee de Beaux Art by W.H. Auden,  Gretel in Darkness by Louise Gluck

Week Two:

Much of what we will be focusing on is how much we need to be able to "see" the piece rendered in language. 
Torso of Apollo
Archaic Torso of Apollo
Shield of Achilles
The Shield of Achilles
More about the original piece of art
Stealing the Scream
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Musee de Beaux Arts
Essay: Ekphrasis or Not?

Week Two:

T: Discussion of treatments of Icarus including the Ovid

All Classes (I posted this on Go Studio, as well)

Required Course Materials:

Required Text(s):

LA 496/05

EKPHRASIS:

Text Title	ISBN#	Publisher’s Price
Text # 1 Poets on Painters	0520069714	31.95
Text #2 Art and Artists: Poems	0307959384	13.50

-------------------------------

LA 424/01

ADV. CREATIVE WRITING

Text # 1 The Making of a Poem	0393321789	12.89
Text #2 Making Shapely Fiction	039332124X	15.95

--------

LA 496/02

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

Text # 1 The Heath Anthology of American Literature Contemporary Period

054720180X

18.50

Recommended Text(s): Various.

Schedule of Classes (including key events including assignments, projects due dates/exam dates): See below

Methods/weights of Evaluation (this is a list of items that will be used as the basis for calculating students’ grades in the course, i.e., projects 30%, tests & quizzes, 30%, class participation 10%):

Course Grading Policies (this is a list of policies regarding due dates, late submissions, standards and expectation regarding work, etc.):

CCAD Academic Policies:
DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES (see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)	ADA STATEMENT If you have a documented cognitive, physical, or psychological disability, which includes learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression, anxiety, or mobility, as described by Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it is recommended that you contact Disability Services at 614-222-3292. They will assist you in arranging appropriate accommodations with the instructor.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY	(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
ATTENDANCE POLICY	Students are required to attend all classes on their schedule. (see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
REQUESTING AN INCOMPLETE	(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT	The college expects students to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the high ideals and standards that CCAD has set for its community and its students. (see the Student Handbook for complete policy) PLEASE NOTE: YOUR UPDATED DAILY SCHEDULE AND ANY ADDITIONAL CHANGES WILL BE LOCATED HERE. ADDITIONALLY, ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS MADE IN CLASS AND THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN MISSED BY A STUDENT ARE THE STUDENT'S RESPONSIBILITY TO LOCATE. MANY THINGS ARE ANNOUNCED IN CLASS AND IT IS VERY HARD TO GET COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP WITH EVERYTHING MISSED AND IS NO REPLACEMENT FOR COMMITTING TO REGULAR ATTENDANCE.

Advanced Creative Writing

Group One: Remember your pieces with twenty-one copies. We'll go over workshop etiquette before class but for those being workshopped, there's no talking nor explaining during the workshop, so be sure that if you have special instructions for us, or things that you need for us to keep in mind while reading your piece, that those things are written in what you distribute to us. Also, if you are giving us additional pages (ex: I am giving you the whole forty pages of my project, but I would like for this workshop to focus on the first twenty,) make note of that, too.

For Tuesday, please have read this story:  http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/huntsnow.html

as well as this poem:  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/may-1968/  and have a letter*(200 words) for each author plus comments for class. We will "workshop" these imaginary folks as if they were with us, so be prepared.

*Your letter might begin something like:
Dear Mr. Hemingway: I really enjoyed your story. It was well-crafted and very clear overall. I found that there were moment where I was less certain of where I was as a reader, temporally, than others. Page seven, the scene with the rainbow trout, was an example. Did this happen before or after the ice cream social? And is there a significant distinction between Dot and Rosemary?  I sometimes struggled with conflating them. Perhaps, Rosemary might be a little older, or perhaps the characters are not both needed? I loved the sentence about the mountain lion and the sycamore. Great simile. Also, your spare but throughful use of metaphorical devise is noted. Although the sentence on page twenty-one that reads "The waiter poured on into the glass so that the brandy slopped over and ran down the stem into the top saucer of the pile seemed somehow less graceful, your story is, overall a well-made thing. --Sophia Kartsonis (sign your note so that people know where to go for clarification or with further questions.

Finally, I liked this week's prompt over at Poets and Writers magazine, so I present it to you. If it helps you to move a story along or to start something new, feel free to use it:

If I Hadn't  

Think about a choice you or your character made in life that led to specific consequences or outcomes. Explore the alternative reality that could have been if you'd made a different choice in an essay that begins If I hadn't...  (If only s/he hadn't, If only you hadn't, If only Throckmorton hadn't, etc.)  

MANDATORY ATTENDANCE, Sharon Olds Reading February 28

This is important for all of our classes. Please make arrangements to be there. More on Olds in your respective classes. There will be reading assignments from her work for each class.

http://www.ccad.edu/events-2013/va-olds

ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING A little late, but...

Your assignment for Thursday/tomorrow as stated in class was to produce one-two pages of a project description or what you hoped to gain from the course. Feel free to discuss influences, such as authors, books or methods that you might wish to employ. If you have an ongoing project, give a sense of how far you'd like to advance the piece in our class. If you've yet to begin something, talk about the kinds of things that you'd like to be working on or thinking about in preparation for that project.

Required Course Materials:

Required Text(s): 

 LA 496/05

EKPHRASIS:  

Text Title	ISBN#	Publisher’s Price
Text # 1  Poets on Painters	0520069714	31.95
Text #2  Art and Artists: Poems	0307959384	13.50

  

-------------------------------

LA 424/01

ADV. CREATIVE WRITING

Text # 1  The Making of a Poem	0393321789	12.89
Text #2  Making Shapely Fiction	039332124X	15.95

--------

LA 496/02 

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

Text # 1   The Heath Anthology of American Literature Contemporary Period

054720180X

18.50

Recommended Text(s): Various.

Schedule of Classes (including key events including assignments, projects due dates/exam dates): See below

Methods/weights of Evaluation (this is a list of items that will be used as the basis for calculating students’ grades in the course, i.e., projects 30%, tests & quizzes, 30%, class participation 10%):

Course Grading Policies (this is a list of policies regarding due dates, late submissions, standards and expectation regarding work, etc.):

CCAD Academic Policies:
DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES (see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)	ADA STATEMENT If you have a documented cognitive, physical, or psychological disability, which includes learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression, anxiety, or mobility, as described by Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it is recommended that you contact Disability Services at 614-222-3292. They will assist you in arranging appropriate accommodations with the instructor.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY	(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
ATTENDANCE POLICY	Students are required to attend all classes on their schedule. (see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
REQUESTING AN INCOMPLETE	(see the Student Handbook for complete policy information)
STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT	The college expects students to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the high ideals and standards that CCAD has set for its community and its students. (see the Student Handbook for complete policy)