Collage, Collaboration & Bookish BeastsSPECIAL TOPICS IN WRITING / ENGL 619:003 / ENGL 497:001 / SPRING 2008 / THURSDAYS 4:30-7:10 / THOMPSON HALL 117 / GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY |
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| This workshop will give
you practice in the techniques of textual collage & cut-up;
collaborative writing; visual and concrete
poetry; altered books & cancelled text; abecedarian and
"constrained" forms; and the production of simple hand-made
books. You will write poems
and
very short prose, and create small books and
three-dimensional
poem objects. Some projects can only be
completed as poems; others can
be
completed as poems or as short fiction or nonfiction. Some will
require
collaboration with classmates. Class time will include workshop
critique, collaboration, writing exercises, and talking about the
history and theory of
what we
are practicing. Two projects (only one for undergrads) will respond
analytically and creatively to books from the reading list. Your portfolios will also
include short reflections on the relationship between your work and
what you have read. Please note that though you may use your computers & printers to create or print your poems, or components of your poems, this is not a course in computer graphics, hypertext, or other electronic formats for textual art. Some of your projects will be conventional in the sense that they will consist of words printed on paper; others will be handmade and non-reproducible. Those with skills in bookmaking, printing, or visual arts will find good use for them, but such skills are not required. You will also have the option of attending (at very low cost) a Saturday workshop in book arts and papermaking at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, in Silver Spring, Maryland. A few things
you may need You can start ahead of time assembling a collection of interesting pages from books, magazines, newspapers, comics, or anyplace else paper occurs. Used book stores & library sales are good cheap sources of the unexpected. Choose texts and images from different time periods, fiction & nonfiction, pop and high culture, history, biography, science, travel writing, etc., plus anything you find visually interesting, especially if it has to do with words or diagrams. Look for different typefaces, illustrations, diagrams, prose styles, puns and mistakes, headlines, advertising, concert programs, ticket stubs, match books, museum brochures, musical scores. You
will also need one or more books to “alter” (by adding
and
subtracting text and images, cutting, gluing, painting, stamping,
rebuilding) so start
looking for
books you might want to work on and interact with. Books & reading All these are required, unless otherwise noted. Alisa Golden: Creating Handmade Books Sterling Publishing, 2000 0-8069-8825-8 $17.95 List / $12.21 Amazon / Used from $9 You'll need this throughout, so buy it or get a copy you can keep all semester. It's widely available, but I will also order it at the campus book store. Ken Cockburn & Alec Finlay: The Order of Things Morning Star Publications/Polygon, 2001 0-7486-6290-1 $11.95 List & Amazon / Used from $7;25 Jerome Rothenberg & Stephen Clay: A Book of the Book Granary Books, 1999. 1887123288 $35 List / $23 Amazon / Used from $18 Practice Issue No. 1 & readings from Issue No. 2 Distribued free in class Jill Magi: Threads Futurepoem, 2007. 0971680078 $15 List Recommended texts, in the campus bookstore: Keith A. Smith: Text in the Book Format Third Edition Sigma Foundation, 2004 0974076414 $25.00 List & Amazon / Used from $20 Kristen Prevalet: I, Afterlife: An Essay in Mourning Time from?Essay Press, 2007. 0979118913 $13 List, $10 at Amazon Betsy Andrews: New Jersey University of Wisconsin Press, 2007 0-299-22144-x $15 List Other recommended texts were not ordered, but will be available for you to look at (and choose from) in class. Requirements & Grading This will be a small workshop, so each person's participation will be crucial. You will read and write at home, discuss and write in class: all these elements of the course will contribute to what you learn and to your grade. Our class time will be divided among discussion of the reading, workshop discussion of your projects, in-class examination of texts, and in-class writing. In the first half of the semester, you will have one or two writing projects or experiments each week, as well as assigned reading. We will move rapidly through a number of ideas and exercises, gaining familiarity with a range of compositional strategies. Around mid-term, we'll pause for you to pull together your first portfolio. This will give you a chance to assess what you've done, to revise or re-make a few projects, and get ready for the second half, in which you will work on fewer but larger projects, giving more time and care to each one. Reading will diminish until, by the last few weeks, all your time will be devoted to writing and creating projects for your final portfolio and the class reading/show on our exam date in May. Grading: First portfolio: 25% Second portfolio: 40% Two projects responding to two books of your choice: 10% Participation in discussion of reading, including coming to class prepared: 10% Participation in workshop, including timely completion of weekly writing exercises and discussion of your peers' work. 10% Contribution to group collaborations: 5% Late Policy: Portfolios will not be accepted late unless you also give me written evidence of serious illness or emergency. Weekly writing projects must be done on time to enable you to participate as a fully-prepared class member, so they will not be accepted late. Presence: Present means present for the full duration of the class. Absence: If you miss a class you've missed a week of class; absence for reasons other than illness or emergency will have a significant impact on your grades for participation in discussions and collaborations. In-class work missed due to absence cannot be made up. |
Robinson-A
455A 703-993-1191 stichy@gmu.edu A few things you'll need Book list Requirements & Grading Schedule page Writing Operations Writing Exercises Susan Tichy's Main Page |