8:29 Women Poets From Sappho to the Present: Course Information and Assignments

T 4-4:50 Library 2058

Instructor: Florence Boos florence-boos@uiowa.edu

http://english.uiowa.edu/courses/boos/wpoe08

Office: 319 EPB, office phone 335-0434 (answering machine)

Office hours: most afternoons after class; Tuesday 5-6 p. m.; Friday 3-4 p. m.

Textbook:

Barnstone, Aliki and Barnstone, Willis. Women's Poetry from Antiquity to the Present. Schocken, 1980. 40+ copies available from Amazon, many under $10.

Handouts will be provided on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti and Rosamund Marriott Watson.

Course Requirements:

1. contributions to class discussion: please read the assignment before class and come prepared to ask questions and comments on unusual features of the text.

From time to time, I will ask students to give a brief class presentation on an author's life, and/or to prepare responses and questions for our readings.

2. journal/reading responses: please prepare 7 reading responses, the equivalent of two double-spaced typed pages each, to be posted on Icon so that your fellow students may read them. Four of your responses should be on course readings, and three on literary criticism about Victorian women poets. For this latter, I will give you a short bibliography of suggested readings.

3. In addition to posting these responses to the class web site, you will be asked to write a four page final take-home examination.

The final essay/take-home exam will be a comparative critical discussion of the works of two or more poets you have read during the course.

The final session for presenting your papers will be held during examination week, most likely on Tuesday May 13th, 2008 unless students vote for another day later that week.

You will be asked to provide for the class a brief biography of a poet of your choice, and to lead an approx. 20 minute class discussion of one of her poems.