INTRODUCTION TO FICTION AND POETRY 1: Summer 2012
The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University
Instructor
Email
Class section
Class time
Location
Gwen E. Kirby
gkirby1@jhu.edu
AS.220.105.01
3:30–6:00pm; M, T, & Th
TBD
Office Hours and Location
By appointment
Texts
All texts are available at the campus bookstore, as well as at most online booksellers. Please
purchase the correct edition, and have it in class the first day of class. Students coming to class
without the correct textbook (see the course calendar for when we will be discussing fiction, and
when poetry) will be given the opportunity to leave class and return with their text, and marked
with an unexcused tardy or absence as appropriate.
• The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Ed., edited by Ferguson, Salter, Stallworthy
• The Norton Anthology of Short Stories, 7th ed., edited by Bausch, Cassill
Purpose
IFP 1 and IFP2 are required for admission to a major in The Writing Seminars. This course
introduces the student to basic strategies in the writing of poetry and fiction, and in the critical
analysis of literature.
Procedure
1) Students read and discuss assigned texts in light of the instructor’s guidance.
2) Students write assigned work and bring copies to class on a prescribed date.
3) Instructor and class “workshop” selections of student work.
4) As appropriate and desirable, students have one-to-one conferences with the instructor.
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Respect
A workshop class is founded on an atmosphere of respect. All students are expected to listen and
comment in an adult and supportive manner. In addition to a common-sense understanding of this
core requirement, please attend to the following rules:
• Come prepared for workshop classes, having read and written comments on all peer work to
be discussed.
• No computers, cellphones or other electronic devices are allowed in class. All cell phones
should be turned off. Use, ringing, or vibrating of proscribed devices will result in the
student being marked tardy for the class. See “Attendance” below for the cumulative
effect of tardies on final grade.
• No eating or gum in class.
Grades
Grades will be based on careful reading of the assigned literature, class participation, the quality
of the writing in daily or weekly assignments, and revisions of same. Ultimately, students will
hand in a final portfolio containing the best of the written work, revised to the best of the
student’s ability. Unexcused absences will result in reduced grades; each instructor will document
attendance.
Participation 20%
Assignments 50%
Fiction 25%
Poetry 25%
Portfolio 25%
Completeness 5%
Improvement 20%
Miscellaneous 5%
Sonnet Recitations
Readings Quizzes
Poetry Presentations
I reserve the right to adjust your grade upward up to 10% for improvement and
enthusiasm over the course of the term.
Attendance
Due to the short duration of this class, every day is even more crucial than in the regular semester.
Therefore, only one unexcused absence will be accepted before your grade begins to be lowered.
These are the unexcused absence guidelines:
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2
3
4
5
No penalty
–10% to final calculated grade
–20%
–30%
–40% (Failing)
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There are excused absences for things like family crises, sickness, and religious holidays.
However, I will not accept notice five minutes before class via email. If you know you are going
to have to miss a day of class, please let me know at least a week in advance (barring an
unforeseen emergency like illness). If you miss class, I will assign you a make-up assignment
covering that day’s lesson and reading.
Late Work Policy
For every day an assignment is late, a full letter grade will be deducted. I would much rather have
your assignments in on time than have a masterpiece (because it won’t be a masterpiece three
days later, either). After three days, I will no longer accept late work and you will receive a 0 on
that assignment.
Plagiarism Policy
You are completely responsible for your academic integrity.
According to your Undergraduate Student Handbook, academic misconduct can include:
• Plagiarism, which consists of the use of any work not your own, whether published or
student, whether intentional or unintentional. Plagiarism can occur both:
• at the level of ideas, e.g., the paraphrase of a distinct conclusion without
attribution, or
• at the level of text, e.g., the duplication of anything from a block of text to a
catchy phrase, without quotes and attribution.
• Reuse of assignments without permission.
• Improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, and particularly, use of ideas or text
from the internet without attribution.
• Unauthorized collaboration.
• Alteration of graded assignments.
• Forgery and falsification.
• Facilitating academic dishonesty.
Ignorance of these rules is not an excuse.
A word of advice: it would be difficult to fail an assignment in this course unless you decided not
to turn it in; however, if you plagiarize one of your assignments, you will not only fail it but also
fail this class. It is simply foolish to engage in any academic misconduct. In any course,
particularly a creative course, you have little to gain. When concerns arise, talk with your
instructor.
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Coursework and Schedule
FICTION
WEEK 1.
5/21: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends
Introduction to the class and in class readings from handouts
5/22: Plot and Story
“Babylon Revisited”; “Paul’s Case”; “The Lottery”
5/24: Character
“Lady with a Dog”; “Royal Beatings”; “A&P”
WEEK 2.
5/28: Place
“Kew Gardens”; “Gusev”; “A Little Cloud”
5/29: Voice
“Cathedral”; “Why I Live at the P.O”; “The White Horse”; “Girl”
5/31: Fantasy and Madness
“Signs and Symbols”; “The Birthmark”; “Me and Miss Mandible”; “The Enormous
Radio”
WEEK 3.
6/4: Workshop of final fiction projects: 5–7 page short story
POETRY
For all weeks of the poetry unit, refer to the “Versification” essay at the back of the Norton
Anthology of Poetry (pp. 2027-2052). Many essential poetic terms are discussed there. All
the pages of “Versification” are helpful, but the most relevant to the week’s assignments are
listed below.
6/5: Introduction to Poetry
6/7: Narrative and Lyric
Bishop, “In the Waiting Room”; Heaney, “Digging”; William Blake, “The Sick Rose”;
“A Poison Tree”
“Versification”: 2027-2031; 2048-2050
WEEK 4.
6/11: Voice and Tone
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Larkin, “Church Going”; Hughes, “Theme for English B”; Eliot, “The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock”; Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”; Kenneth Koch, “You Were
Wearing”
“Versification”: 2039-2042
6/12: Figurative Language
W. B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”; Gjertrud Schnackenberg, “Supernatural Love”;
Wilbur, “Piazza di Spagna, Early Morning”; Li-Young Lee, “Persimmons”; Fenton,
“God, A Poem”
“Versification”: 2036-2039
6/14: Rhythm and Meter in Narrative: The Ballad
Dickinson: All of her poems in the Norton; W. H. Auden, “As I Walked Out One
Evening”; Bob Dylan, “Boots of Spanish Leather”
“Versification”: 2029-2039; and “the quatrain” on p. 2041.
WEEK 5.
6/18: Rhythm and Meter in Lyric: The Sonnet
Shakespeare: “130”; Donne, “14”; Frost, “Design”; Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays”;
Muldoon, “Why Brownlee Left”; Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”;
Shelley, “Ozymandias”
“Versification”: 2043-2045
6/19: Sonnet recitations and poetry presentations
6/21: Workshop of final project for poetry: Sonnets
Final Portfolio due 6/22
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