English 253--Great Books 3 "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" Section 07/08 TR 12:10-1:30 in 10-220 instructors James Cushing   Steven Marx 756 0117 phone 756 2411 47-22C office 47-25E MWF 12:10-1:00 and R 2:10-3:00 hours TR: 10:10-11:00 and 3:10-4:00 jcushing@calpoly.edu email smarx@calpoly.edu

Texts

• William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience, Oxford University Press
• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Dover Publications
• Johann Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, New American Library
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, Dover Publications
• Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home, Columbia CD
• Class anthology, including texts of German Lieder and Blues by Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, poetry by William Wordsworth, John Keats, Arthur Rimbaud and Elizabeth Bishop, and a short story by James Baldwin

Workload and Grading

• Student projects [loose paradigm, not specific construction plan]
  • Classes on 4/13, 5/11 and 6/3 are devoted to projects.
  • At these classes, five projects will be presented, each by a four-person group, each allotted no more than fifteen minutes(try for twelve).
  • Signup sheets for groups will be distributed on the second class day. Groups need to meet and work together outside of class.
  • Presentations may be by individuals within a framework established by the group or by a collective.
  • Projects need to combine critical insight into works read with creative personal response. They can take a wide range of format, including, but not limited to, musical presentations (vocal and/or instrumental), visual designs (posters, ad campaigns, illuminated texts, paintings, drawings, photography), dramatic performances (solo and group, live and/or on videotape), dance performances (with or without musical accompaniment), webpages, writing (poetry, fiction, drama, memoir).
  • You are encouraged to confer with one or both of the instructors after class, at office hours or by email, for further guidance on these projects.
• **Project essay--1000-1200 words, due one week after presentation--40% of grade
  • This essay provides a personal account, justification, and reflection on the genesis, composition, meaning and reception of your contribution to the project. Be sure to emphasize the relationship between reading class texts and your creation.
• *Responses to projects--250-300 words, due from those not presenting the class day following presentations--no grade but half grade penalty for not submitting on time.
  • Write a page about which of the student projects was most meaningful to you and why. Refer to specifics of the project, the class text it's based on and your own experience. Be clear and concise. Avoid vagueness and padding. These responses will be posted for everyone to read on the class website.
• Take home exam--1500-1700 words--60% of grade. Due date: Tuesday 6/8/99, 9:10am, in 10-220.
  • The exam involves an overview of readings, lectures and responses as well as detailed references to specific texts. It requires you to write a symposium or platonic dialogue featuring six speakers conversing about one of the images or topics listed below.
  • The conversation can mix brief quotations--within quotation marks--with paraphrases or extrapolations of what the authors might say. The paraphrases or extrapolations may adopt the speaker's style of expression. (Please include page references in parentheses.)
  • The relationship between Innocence and Experience provides the basic context of the dialogue just as it does for our cours, so the exam should deal with those terms in some way, possibly as a means for establishing perspectives, possibly as an opening or closing strategy
  • Choose one only:
    • Images
      1. the child
      2. the bird
      3. the tree
      4. the river
      5. the city
      6. the book
    • Themes
      1. the monstrous
      2. the sublime
      3. the pleasureable
      4. sexuality
      5. the need for love
      6. sin and guilt
      7. memory
      8. money
      9. music
      10. gender--in particular, the characterization of the opposite sex
      11. love and death
      12. the expansion of the senses
      13. generational identity and rebellion
      14. egotism
      15. the development of a viable identity
  • Please dont hesitate to contact the instructors if you have questions, difficulties or moments of demonic insight.