Prose Works: Prose Poems, Short Stories, and the Personal Essay

Kathy Lou Schultz
English 10
MW 5:30-8:40 p.m.
Dates: 06/27/05 - 08/05/05
klou@english.upenn.edu

Prose Works: Prose Poems, Short Stories, and the Personal Essay
This course will introduce students to a variety of forms including the prose poem, the short short (also called micro fiction or sudden fiction), the short story, and the personal essay. We will also work with hybrid forms. This course is appropriate for students beginning their work as creative writers, as well as those with some experience with one or all of these prose forms. We will read and discuss exemplary published works and workshop students' writing. Bring your enthusiasm to experiment, read, write, and support your fellow writers.

Please bring a writing journal to class for in-class writing exercises. These will not be graded, but are an important part of helping you generate material and develop both your writing practice and your portfolio.

Grading:
Writing Assignments 70%
Participation in Classroom Discussions and Exercises (showing thoughtful preparation of  the reading assignments) 30%

Monday, June 27: Prose Poem Part 1
Group 1: Charles Baudelaire: "Get High" trans. Edward Kaplan. Compare with "Get Drunk!" trans. Michael Benedikt. Also read: "The Soup and The clouds" trans. Kaplan.
Group 2: Baudelaire: "Windows," "Anywhere Out of the World," "The Hemisphere in Your Hair" all trans. Benedikt
Group 3: Helga M. Novak: "The Freezing Pan," "The Rubber Gloves," "Packing Herring," "Ticket Please." All trans. Ann Maria Celona.
Group 4: Rosmarie Waldrop: Selections from Lawn of Excluded Middle. Amy Gerstler: "Seesaw,"  "The Unforseen."
Group 5: Richard Garcia: "Chickenhead." Gary Young:  untitled. Allen Ginsberg: "A Supermarket in California."
Group 6: Michael Ondaatje: "7 or 8 Things I Know About Her-A Stolen Biography." Nin Andrews:  "Night Fishing." Allen Ginsberg: "The Bricklayer's Lunch Hour."

Wednesday, June 29: Prose Poem Part 2
Definition from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
Ron Padget:  Selection on the prose poem
Harryette Mullen: Selection from Trimmings
Russell Edson:  "The Fall," "In the Forest," "A Journey Through the Moonlight," "The Wheelbarrow," "The Pilot," "An Old Man's Son," "The Wounded Breakfast," "The Automobile," "Counting Sheep," "The Death of an Angel," "The Amateur," "The Long Picnic," "A Cottage in the Wood," "Darwin Descending."
Writing Assignments: 1) Two copies of a prose poem; and 2) one paragraph comparing one aspect of Mullen's and Edson's individual approaches to the genre.

Monday, July 4: HOLIDAY, NO CLASS

Wednesday, July 6: The Short Story
Janet Burroway: Selection on characterization
Dorothy Allison: ìThe Meanest Woman Ever Left Tennesseeî
Raymond Carver: ìWhere I'm Calling Fromî
Lydia Davis:  "Mr. Burdoff's Visit to Germany"

Writing Assignments: 1) Character questionnaire; 2) two character sketches; and 3) one paragraph analysis of character development in Allison, Carver, or Davis's story.

Monday July 11: The Short Short
Lynne Tillman: "Hung Up," "Words Without Pictures"
Grace Paley: ìLivingî
Arturo Vivante ìCan-Canî
Bobbie Louis Hawkings: ìMae, not to change . . .î
Wang Ping: ìOf Flesh and Spiritî
Janet Burroway: Selection on story form and structure

Writing Assignments: 1) One page imitation of Tillman, Davis, Vivante, Paley, Hawkins, or Ping.

Wednesday, July 13: The Personal Essay
Carole Maso: ìThe Shelter of the Alphabetî
Joan Didion: ìHoly Water,î ìIn Bedî
Gloria Anzaldua: ìHow to Tame a Wild Tongueî
John Edwards: ìPrison Man Considers Turkeyî
Yusef Komunyakaa: ìThe Deckî

Writing Assignment: Develop name exercise or first house exercise from your journal into a personal essay.
Also bring 2 photos to use in class exercise (choose photos you don't mind sharing with classmates).

Monday, July 18: Hybrids and Extended Prose Forms
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Selections from Dictee
Lyn Hejinian: Selection from My Life

Writing Assignment: Bring in documents of your life and one page response exploring how these documents tell the story of who you are.
Also bring 18 copies of a piece you've been working on in this class for Workshop #1.

Wednesday, July 20: Workshop #1 Group A

Monday, July 25: Workshop #1 Group B
Writing Assignment: 18 copies of piece for Workshop #2

Wednesday, July 27: Workshop #2 Group A

Monday, August 1: Workshop #2 Group B

Wednesday, August 3: Reading and party
Guests welcome.