Upper-division Writing Requirement Review Form (2/11)
I. General Education Review – Upper-division Writing Requirement
Dept/Program
Course # (i.e. ANTH
English
Subject
455) or sequence
Course(s) Title
Literature and Other Disciplines
Description of the requirement if it is not a single course.
LIT 376
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office.
Please type / print name Signature
Instructor
Eric Reimer
Phone / Email
243-4966;
eric.reimer@umontana.
edu
Program Chair
Jill Bergman
Dean
Chris Comer
III. Type of request
New
X
One-time Only
Reason for new course, change or deletion
Change
Date
Remove
(actually, it’s for a renewal of W status rather
than a new course)
IV Overview of the Course Purpose/ Description
This course can take many forms, but the general intent is to enable interdisciplinary inquiry
and research, and thus to augment and diversity the endeavor of literary studies. In the
attached example/syllabus, for example, the course seeks to understand the often
comparable/shared forms, techniques, metaphors and desires of literary and musical artists.
Other versions of the course might pair literature with the visual arts, with film, with history,
with anthropology, etc.
V Learning Outcomes: Explain how each of the following learning outcomes will be achieved.
Because of the unique interdisciplinary
Student learning outcomes :
Identify and pursue sophisticated questions for sensibility of this class – which asks students
from the outset to intuit and articulate how
academic inquiry
the arts of music and literature intersect, at
both thematic, metaphorical, and structural
levels – sophisticated questions are at issue
from the very beginning. These questions
proliferate as students read a challenging
and eclectic range of primary and secondary
(and often very theoretical) texts.
Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize
information effectively and ethically from
diverse sources (see
http://www.lib.umt.edu/informationliteracy/)
Manage multiple perspectives as appropriate
Recognize the purposes and needs of
discipline-specific audiences and adopt the
academic voice necessary for the chosen
discipline
Use multiple drafts, revision, and editing in
conducting inquiry and preparing written work
Follow the conventions of citation,
documentation, and formal presentation
appropriate to that discipline
Because there is often a robust online
component to this course (including blog
writing) and because it is an inquiry- and
research-based class, information literacy
and a magpie sensibility relative to
interdisciplinary scholarly inquiry are integral
components of the business of the class (to
be reflected both in class discussions and in
student writing assignments).
In their final essay for the course, in
particular, a multigenre essay of
approximately 3,000 words, students are
asked to assume multiple voices, to write in
multiple genres and on multiple layers, and
generally to consider the texts and contexts
of the course from a variety of vantage
points. In other words, “managing multiple
perspectives” is both the spirit of our classto-class inquiry and something that is
actualized in their formal writing.
Writing occurs throughout the semester in
this course, and in different “venues”: for
example, students may write substantial
reading responses on the course weblog as
well as more formal productions for printbased essays. Writing for an online situation
vs. writing for a formal essay requires explicit
discussion about audience, purpose, and
context.
This course consistently uses a stepladder
approach to the writing endeavors. Students
use blog postings, in-class writings, and
short essays to rehearse and hone material
(some of which is reconsidered and
enhanced via instructor feedback/comments)
that later appears in their final multigenre
essay for the class.
This course, regardless of who teaches it,
has a serious research component, which
inevitably ensures that students both read
secondary scholarly resources and use them
as models for questions of style, rhetoric,
and citation in their own academic writing. All
formal papers for the class require students
to provide exacting bibliographic components
using the appropriate citation conventions.
Develop competence in information
technology and digital literacy (link)
Students in this class participate in/write for a
class weblog that both furthers the
intellectual inquiry of the class and gives
them experience composing for
electronic/digital venues (which makes the
class consonant with the ideas related to
“multiliteracies”). Students also learn to
search for and evaluate the worth of
scholarly materials via online databases.
VI. Writing Course Requirements
Enrollment is capped at 25 students.
If not, list maximum course enrollment.
Explain how outcomes will be adequately met
for this number of students. Justify the request
for variance.
Yes, enrollment capped at 25.
Students participate in (1) in-class writing
workshops; (2) mini-lectures and examplebased presentations related to
argumentation, as well as other rhetorical
and stylistic issues; (3) occasional peer
reviews; (4) class discussions (early in the
semester) dealing with the conventions and
expectations of writing for a blog; (5)
discussions about the strategies for writing a
multigenre essay (which requires a
combination of personal/expressive writing
and academic/scholarly writing). They also
read scholarly essays and, at times, discuss
the rhetorical strategies used by these
writers/scholars to conduct their inquiry.
Which written assignment(s) includes revision in
At least one formal response paper (of
response to instructor’s feedback?
roughly 3 pages in length) and portions of the
final analytical or multigenre essay (10-15
pages) will be treated in a step-ladder
fashion during the semester, and will be
revised following rigorous and detailed
comments from the instructor.
VII. Writing Assignments: Please describe course assignments. Students should be required to
individually compose at least 20 pages of writing for assessment. At least 50% of the course grade
should be based on students’ performance on writing assignments. Quality of content and writing
are integral parts of the grade on any writing assignment.
Students write at least 18 pages of formal
Formal Graded Assignments
writing (across 3 essay), with two response
papers (3-4 pages each) constituting 30% of
their final grade and one final multigenre
essay (12-15 pages) constituting 40% of their
final grade.
Students do a significant amount of informal
Informal Ungraded Assignments
writing on the class weblog which is noted (in
a holistic way) but not assessed/graded by
Briefly explain how students are provided with
tools and strategies for effective writing and editing
in the major.
the instructor. They also complete short (1015 minutes) in-class writings in response to
the literature they read and/or the music they
listen to.
VIII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form.  For assistance
on syllabus preparation see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
The syllabus must include the following:
1. Writing outcomes
2. Information literacy expectations
3. Detailed requirements for all writing assignments or append writing assignment instructions
Syllabus
LIT 376 : MUSIC AND LITERATURE
About the Course
Although “literature and music” has yet to find its footing as an exact mode of inquiry,
this course will explore the intuition and the evidence that the two arts meet in significant
ways. Part of the struggle of this course will be in determining how we can talk about the
intersections without falling into “impressionist twaddle,” and we’re certain to meet with
both rewards and frustrations as we do so. Mindful that music was of special importance
to the Romantic poets, we will begin the course by examining some of the great odes in
the context of Walter Pater’s famous claim that “all art constantly aspires to the condition
of music.” The balance of the course will find us traversing an eclectic but exciting
reading list with the goal of assessing how music operates as a structuring device, as a
metaphor, and as a guiding aesthetic principle in works of poetry and fiction. The musical
contexts of the course will find us visiting the classical, blues, jazz, folk, and popular
music traditions.
Outcomes
•
Students will be able to engage thoughtfully with a range of perspectives on
controversial issues, including an ability to state clearly the assumptions and
premises of their own position.
•
Students will be able to perform a literary close reading, demonstrating an ability to
insightfully interpret primary literary texts by thoughtfully integrating quoted
passages into the larger argumentative claims of an essay.
•
Students will be able to write clear, grammatically consistent, and rhetorically
effective papers, driven by a thesis and sustained by an ordered, coherent argument
or sequence of ideas.
•
Students will consider the forms and genres used to produce knowledge and texts in
other disciplines, and will pursue that inquiry – thematically and in terms of
essayistic form – in their writing for the course.
•
Students will write for the course’s online venues, and will understand the
conventions, ethos, and ideas of audience specific to such inquiry and research.
•
Students will support their literary research with access to academic information
resources provided by the library and will include both in-text citations and a
bibliography of sources that adheres to the MLA style of documentation.
Texts
Chamoiseau, Patrick Solibo Magnificent (1988)
Kay, Jackie Trumpet (1998)
Kundera, Milan The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978)
Morrison, Toni Jazz (1992)
Patchett, Ann Bel Canto (2001)
Woolf, Virginia The Waves (1931)
Additional required readings will be available via the class Moodle site.
Requirements and Grading
Class participation….……..…..... 30%
Formal response papers (2)…….. 30%
12-15 page multigenre essay …... 40%
The response papers (3-4 pages each) will be based on prompts/directives that I supply.
These papers must be turned in at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Unless
otherwise noted, papers must be typed and double-spaced, with 1” margins; to avoid
grade reductions, you must meet the minimum page requirement (e.g., 3-4 pages means
at least three full pages, not counting the space used for headings, etc.). Additional
formatting instructions will be provided when the papers are assigned. Late papers will be
marked down one-half letter grade per day (weekends count as one day). I will encourage
revisions of formal papers, but to take advantage of this offer the paper must have been
turned in on time and I ask that you meet with me during office hours to discuss your
revision.
Your class participation grade will be calculated based on your attendance, on various
short writing assignments, on stray quizzes, on your contributions to our discussions, and
generally on your willingness and ability to engage the reading attentively and critically
on a class-to-class basis. Regarding attendance, since this class meets only once a week, I
will begin to take notice when you miss your second class; if you miss more than two
class meetings, you can expect that your participation grade cannot be higher than a “C.”
I’ll expect you to bring the relevant texts to class at all times, and to have comments,
observations, and questions at the ready.
I have called the major written work of the course a “multigenre” essay because I’m
seeking a project that both engages the texts of our course critically and accounts for the
diverse and individualized functions of music in our lives. To that end, and in the spirit of
jazz improvisation, you will write a paper that melds the cognitive with the emotional, the
analytical with the creative. Rather than a linear, single-track argumentative paper, you
will assemble a collage of literary analysis, anecdotes, song lyrics, reflections, responses
to the music you experience in and out of the class this semester, research-informed
commentary, journalism, autobiography, poetry, creative writing, etc. Although probably
not suggesting any mandated sense of navigation, the best essays will nevertheless
possess a cross-referencing, webbed kind of logic. You will likely need to invest yourself
more in this paper than you would in a conventional paper, but the rewards may be
greater. It is my hope that you will work on the paper throughout the semester; I will ask
you to submit the prelude/opening segment in advance of the completed essay, and we
will also workshop and revise portions of the essay. You should format the essay with
numerically identified, single-spaced paragraphs, and with double-spaces between
sections.
SCHEDULE
1
August 30
m
Introduction. The Music of the Spheres. Music and myth.
Selected poems. Woolf “The String Quartet.”
2
September 6
m
NO CLASS: Labor Day
3
September 13
m
Romantic poets and musical aspirations. Music and language. Sonata-allegro form
Read: Wordsworth “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”; Shelley
“To a Skylark”; Coleridge “Kubla Khan”; Woolf ‘The String Quartet”; Pater “The
School of Giorgione”; Poe “The Poetic Principle”; Adorno “Music, Language,
and Composition.”
Music: Mozart, Symphony no.40
Due: four-part music dna assignment
4
September 20
m
Music and poetry. Music and structure. Music and culture
Read: Keats “Ode to a Nightingale” (w/ Dylan “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “To
Autumn” (w/ R.E.M. “Find the River”); Joyce “The Dead”; Adorno “The Radio
Symphony.”
5
September 27
m
Music and novelistic form. Theme and variations. Music and identity.
Read: Woolf The Waves (7-207)
6
October 4
M
Read: The Waves (207-297)
Due: Response paper #1
Music: Beethoven, String Quartet in C sharp minor, Op. 131
7
October 11
m
Theme and variations. Music and politics. Music as metaphor in literature.
Case Study in Music as Literature: assorted artists and song lyrics.
Read: Kundera The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (3-215)
8
October 18
m
The twentieth century. Atonality and fragmentation.
Read: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (215-312); Eliot “The Waste Land.”
Music: Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
9
October 25
m
The Blues. Jazz. Music and poetry.
Read: Hughes and Larkin poems (handout); Gilroy “Black Music and the Politics
of Authenticity.”
Music: Coltrane A Love Supreme
10
November 1
m
Music and racial identity. Music and history. Jazz and the novel.
Read; Morrison Jazz
11
November 8
m
Music and film. Music and class. Music and national identity.
Film: TBA
Due: Response paper #2
12
November 15
m
Music and gender. Music and national identity.
Read: Kay Trumpet
13
November 22
m
Writing about music. Music and the Northern Ireland Troubles. Music and elegy.
Read: Hornby from Songbook; Sheffield from Love is a Mix Tape; Lethem “The
Beards”; Heaney “Casualty.”
Due: Prelude for multigenre essay
14
November 29
m
Music and resistance. Music and orality. Music and postcolonial identity.
Read: Chamoiseau Solibo Magnificent; Bakhtin “Rabelais and His World.”
15
December 6
m
Music and globalization. Music and ethics. Recapitulation and coda. Course
evaluations
Read: Patchett Bel Canto
16
December 13
m
Due: Multigenre essay, by 12:00 noon.