TEACHING
course sampler
courses taught at Bennington 2003-2009practicum: new literary magazine
This two-credit course engages two projects. One will focus on producing an online literary magazine featuring the work of Bennington students. The other will involve research and development towards the launch of a national on-line magazine featuring the best of American undergraduate literary magazine writing. This course will require research and editing skills and a passion for reading, along with a propensity for collaboration and a willingness to engage the unknown. Only the dedicated need apply.
NOTE: Students in this spring 2009 course produced, within the first five weeks of term, an online literary magazine, plain china—from website design, art commissioning and selection, soliciting and editing work, to first launch, followed by two subsequent issues. Visit plain china at plainchina.bennington.edu. The national anthology is slated for online publication in spring 2010, with more than 70 schools nationwide participating.
honors seminar: chaucer
We engage Chaucer's work directly, in Middle English, reading his two masterpieces, The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, honing our language skills and understanding of the 14th century as we go. As we focus on the works as literature, students will do plenty of reading aloud, discussing, and writing—at least two papers, in addition to presentations, OED exploration, journal-keeping, and regular brief responses. Featured on the Bennington College Website.
honors seminar: twain
According to Sam Clemens himself, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them." In this course, we'll read several "good books"—along with stories, essays, and letters—penned by one of the most prolific and complex of American writers. One of the funniest, too, so we can expect to have a good time, in the midst of a rigorous reading and writing load. Among the works we'll read are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Innocents Abroad, and Life on the Mississippi, as well as selected shorter works of fiction and nonfiction. Students will keep reading journals, give presentations, and write critically and creatively, including an extended critical paper.
readings in james and wharton
These two prolific writers, perfectly situated by circumstance of birth and inclination of intellect to do so, capture in their fiction the changing character of American society in what is known as the Gilded Age. Their novels and stories examine the social, moral, and political structures (and strictures) of the new American aristocracy in this age of not-so-innocence; through them, we do, too. We'll read several novels by each, including James's Portrait of a Lady and The Wings of the Dove and Wharton's House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, as well as selections from short fiction and essays. Students will explore the material through writing (briefs and critical papers), in-class presentation, and active participation in discussion.
welty, woolf, o'connor: inside the writing life
What compels writers to lives of invention? What do they agonize over, rejoice about? What influences them in their personal and reading experiences? How do bits of life translate themselves into fiction? To consider such questions, we read Virginia Woolf's A Writer's Diary, Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings, and Flannery O'Connor's A Habit of Being, along with novels and short fiction by these three prolific writers, including To the Lighthouse, The Optimist's Daughter, The Complete Stories of O'Connor, and others. In addition to critical papers, students keep their own writing journals and may make brief forays into fiction.
literature of place
Our aim here is to read, write, and talk about a sampling of (mostly) contemporary, (mostly) American literature grounded in place, with an eye to exploring how different writers incorporate landscape and setting into their work. How does place interact with character, for instance, or with plot, time, history, and language itself? We'll consider such questions and try our hands at place-grounded writing, too. Among the novels we'll read are works by Kent Haruf, Cormac McCarthy, and Toni Morrison, along with a wide selection of short fiction and essays by Dillard, Hoagland, and Didion, among others. Students will keep reading journals, give presentations, and write creatively and critically.
reading and writing short stories
We'll read a lot of stories in this class—mostly contemporary, though we may throw in a few glorious others—and look for what makes them, well, stories. That's part one. Part two is writing: first bits and pieces, scenes and dialogue and narrative explorations, and then a couple of polished stories to discuss in workshop and revise. Intensive involvement in reading, writing, and talking is an absolute requirement. Likely texts: The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, The Best American Short Stories of the Century, and The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories.
reading and writing the personal essay
"In a personal essay," writes Philip Lopate, "the writer seems to be speaking directly into your ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom." In this class, we'll read and talk and write about the best essays we can lay our hands on, from the earliest to the most contemporary. Inspired by glorious example, students begin "speaking directly" through their own personal essays. We'll start small, making forays into the form and reading the resulting "gossip and wisdom" aloud in class as we work towards producing finished essays. Intensive involvement in reading, writing, and talking is an absolute requirement. Among the likely texts: The Best American Essays of the Century, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, and The Art of the Personal Essay, edited by Philip Lopate.
literature: special projects
In this writing and reading workshop for upper-level students, participants will work throughout the term on a single large project: a novel, a linked collection of stories or essays, or extended nonfiction, e.g. Outside readings may be assigned as well, but the bulk of the class will consist of reading and discussion of student work.
finding a voice: actors reading writers (co-taught with dina janis)
When a writer first hears his words read aloud, he learns a host of things: that writing is collaborative and open to interpretation; that he must choose his words precisely, so that a reader will hear tone, nuance, and intent—the true voice. An actor, too, must learn to listen for the voice of the written word with her inner ear, to let meaning and rhythm find resonance. She, too, must make choices about characterization and intent that respect, illuminate and give life to the writing. This course explores what can be learned in the interchange of written and spoken word. Actors and writers work separately each week and then come together to read, write, and discuss works-in-progress. In addition to writing by students, readings will include fiction, nonfiction, and plays, and students will listen to NPR's weekly "Selected Shorts" series. Expect presentations at Drama Forum and an end-of-term performance.