Creative Expression in Writing (English 9CE)
Stanford University, Spring 2016
Monday and Wednesday 12:30 – 2:20
20-21B
Instructor: Austin Smith
Office: Margaret Jacks Hall, Room 213
Email: austin3@stanford.edu
Office Hours: Mondays from 10:00 to 12:00; Wednesdays from 11:00 to 12:00
Class Description
Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.
- Pablo Picasso
Why is it that, as we grow older, we tend to use our creative powers less and less? We all
remember how, as children, creativity seemed to come effortlessly: we drew and painted
both in and out of school, invented games with complex storylines, wrote stories and
poems, conjured imaginary friends, built Lego cities and sand castles, amongst countless
other expressions of creativity. In English 9CE, we are going to try to recapture this spirit
of childhood wonder and inventiveness. We will be writing poems, stories, essays, and,
as a class, a play.
To inspire our creative endeavors, we’re going to take advantage of the many resources
available on the beautiful campus of Stanford University. Many of the writing prompts
will be focused on nonliterary expressions of creativity: painting, photography, sculpture,
music, film. Expect to spend lots of time outside the classroom (if weather permits!). On
any given day, we may be writing about paintings in the Anderson Gallery, writing about
photographs in the Cantor Art Museum, writing character sketches of the figures we find
on the walls of Memorial Church, anything we can do to draw out our hibernating
creativity out into the open air.
Texts
There is no required text for purchase. Rather, throughout the quarter I will be bringing in
stories, novel excerpts, poems, essays, speeches, letters, journal entries, and other
readings for class discussion.
Notebooks
By the second day of class, you must have purchased a composition notebook from the
Stanford bookstore, and you must bring your notebook to every single class.
Course Requirements
Class Participation: 40%.
This grade will be determined by a number of factors. Of course, absences will greatly
affect your Class Participation grade. You have two excused absences for the quarter. An
excused absence is a family or medical emergency that must be documented in writing. If
you are sick or know you will be absent, you must email me before class for the absence
to count as excused. Any unexcused absence will result in a loss of one full letter grade.
This means that if you are getting an A in the class, one unexcused absence will drop you
to a B. If you have three absences, even if all are excused, your grade will be dropped by
half a letter grade for each absence. (Example: If you’re getting an A- in the class but
have three excused absences, your grade will drop to a B+). Lateness will be penalized
two points. Cell phones must be turned off upon entering the classroom. Use of a phone
during class time will cost you two points off your final grade. Laptops may not be used
in class unless I expressly permit them.
Another aspect of class participation will be the collaborative project we will be working
on together throughout the quarter: a play that we will write and act in together.
Finally, participation-wise, I would like to meet with all of you one-on-one at least once
this quarter. Think of it as an extra class that there are no excused absences for. Aside
from this required meeting, I am always happy to meet during office hours.
Writing Exercises: 40%
Throughout the quarter, you will be doing many writing exercises: poems, stories, essays,
flash fiction, sketches about paintings and photographs, music reviews, etc. At the end of
the quarter, you will be turning in, along with your notebooks, a final packet collecting
the work you have done over the course of the quarter, including revisions.
Notebooks: 10%
You will be doing lots of in-class and out-of-class writing this quarter and it should all be
done in your composition notebooks. All brainstorming and all rough drafting of your
stories, poems and essays will be done by hand. It’s ok if your handwriting is poor, as
long as you can read it. The only thing I’m going to be looking for notebook-wise at the
end of the quarter is that your notebook is completely full. You might be thinking it’s
impossible to fill a whole notebook in ten weeks, but don’t fear. In addition to filling your
notebook pages with words, you can also draw characters and maps, glue in photographs
or found objects, and include anything else that helps you visualize your writing projects.
Your notebook will become a treasure trove of characters, lines, images, names, ideas,
etc. I think you’ll find that if you approach the notebooks with a sense of openness and
excitement, they’ll fill up almost on their own. If you’re more concerned about how
you’re going to fill the notebook by the end of the quarter, you might want to count pages
and keep yourself on a schedule.
Readings and/or Adventures: 10%
You must attend at least three readings, art exhibits, concerts, or other manifestations of
art, on or off campus, during the quarter. You may substitute one of these three for a trip
taken outside the Palo Alto area (to the ocean, the redwoods, San Francisco). To get
credit for these three excursions, you must write a very brief synopsis of what the
experience was like and include it in your notebook (mark these pages with post-it notes).
Students with Documented Disabilities
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability
must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional
staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable
accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current
quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as
possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is
located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 7231066, URL:http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae).
Honor Code
The Honor Code is the University's statement on academic integrity written by students
in 1921. It articulates University expectations of students and faculty in establishing and
maintaining the highest standards in academic work:
The Honor Code is an undertaking of the students, individually and collectively:
1. That they will not give or receive aid in examinations; that they will not give or receive
unpermitted aid in class work, in the preparation of reports, or in any other work that is to
be used by the instructor as the basis of grading;
2. That they will do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as well as
themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the Honor Code.
3. The faculty on its part manifests its confidence in the honor of its students by
refraining from proctoring examinations and from taking unusual and unreasonable
precautions to prevent the forms of dishonesty mentioned above. The faculty will also
avoid, as far as practicable, academic procedures that create temptations to violate the
Honor Code.
4. While the faculty alone has the right and obligation to set academic requirements, the
students and faculty will work together to establish optimal conditions for honorable
academic work.
SCHEDULE
(Subject To Change)
WEEK ONE – REDISCOVERING THE CREATIVE SELF
Monday, March 28th – INTRODUCTIONS
Writing: Letter to Self
Wednesday, March 30th – CHILDHOOD
Readings: Nabokov / Rilke / Ruefle
Writing: Ex. 1 – I Remember
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK TWO – TRANSFORMING THE WORLD INTO WORDS
Monday, April 4th – NATURE
OUTSIDE CLASS (WEATHER PERMITTING)
Readings: Bishop / Hopkins / Wordsworth
Writing: Ex. 2 – A Thing of Nature
Wednesday, April 6th – METAPHOR
Readings: Stanford / Levis / Gilbert / Simic
Writing: Ex. 3 – Metaphor Quiz
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK THREE – SEEING
Monday, April 11th – TURNING BRUSHSTROKES INTO WORDS
ANDERSON GALLERY
Readings: Auden / Williams / Stevens / Rich
Writing: Ex. 4 – Museum Prompts
Wednesday, April 13th – FROM BRONZE INTO FLESH
RODIN SCULPTURE GARDEN
Readings: Hass / Rilke / Faces in Fiction
Writing: Ex. 5 – From Bronze Into Flesh
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK FOUR – THE SHAPES HUMANS TAKE
Monday, April 18th – INTERNAL FORMS
Readings: Gilbert / Hayden
Writing: Ex. 5 – Elegy
Wednesday, April 20th – EXTERNAL FORMS
Readings: McGahern / Cheever
Writing: Ex. 6 – First-Person Story
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK FIVE – MUSIC & FILM
Monday, April 25th – MUSIC
Readings: Baldwin
Writing: Ex. 7 – Music Exercises
Wednesday, April 27th – FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY
Readings: Agee / Levis / Tretheway
Writing: Ex. 8 – Photography Exercises
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK SIX – THE IMAGINATION & THE DREAM-WORLD
Monday, May 2nd – THE SURREAL IN FICTION
WINDHOVER LABYRINTH (WEATHER PERMITTING)
Readings: Borges / Bierce / Epstein / Merwin
Writing: Ex. 9 – Dream Into Story
Wednesday, May 4th – THE SURREAL IN POETRY
Readings: Stanford / Lorca / James
Writing: Ex. 10 – Surreal Poem
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK SEVEN – STORYTELLING & MYTH
Monday, May 9th – THE ANECDOTAL STORY
Readings: Salter
Writing: Ex. 11 – Twenty Minutes
Wednesday, May 11th – FAIRY TALES
Readings: Sexton
Writing: Ex. 12 – Fairy Tales
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK EIGHT – COLLABORATIVE WORK & CONFERENCES
Monday, May 16th
RODIN SCULPTURE GARDEN
Class Play
Wednesday, May 18th
Class Play
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK NINE – REVISION & CONFERENCES
Monday, May 23rd
Writing: Revision
Class Play
Wednesday, May 25th
Writing: Revision
Class Play
________________________________________________________________________
WEEK TEN – FINAL WEEK
Monday, May 30th – CLASS PLAY!!!
RODIN SCULPTURE GARDEN
Wednesday, June 1st – TURN IN FINAL PACKETS & EAT PIZZA