Jay Parini
D. E. Axinn Professor of English & Creative Writing
Email: parini@middlebury.edu
Phone: work802.443.5042
Office Hours: Spring Term: Tuesday 4:30 -- 5:30; Wednesday 2:00 -- 3:30 or by appointment
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Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
CRWR 0175 - Structure of Poetry
The Structure of Poetry
This course is an introduction to the reading and writing of poetry with a focus on its structural aspects. We will look closely at a range of exemplary poems in English to explore how a poem is built through form, image, figurative language, and other poetic tools. Among the poets we shall read are Seamus Heaney and Elizabeth Bishop. Students will write their own poems and give oral presentations on contemporary poets. (Formerly ENAM 0175)
Spring 2013
CRWR 0375 - Advanced Poetry Workshop ▲
Workshop: Poetry
This course will involve the reading and writing of contemporary poetry. It is designed for students who already possess some familiarity with poetry and its traditions and who want to concentrate especially on contemporary work as an adjunct to their own development as poets. Students will read a good deal of poetry, including such writers as Elizabeth Bishop, Seamus Heaney, and Charles Simic. Assignments will include the keeping of a daily notebook, writing poems on a regular basis, and giving oral reports. Close attention will be paid to poetic form and the conventions of poetry. A final portfolio will include revisions of poems and critical writing. (ENAM/CRWR 0170, ENAM/CRWR 0175, or ENAM/CRWR 0185) (Approval required; please apply online at http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/enam/resources/forms or at the Department office.) (Formerly ENAM 0375) (This course is not a college writing course.) 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2012, Fall 2013
CRWR 0560 - Special Project: Writing ▲ ▹
Special Project: Creative Writing
Approval Required.
Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014
CRWR 0711 - Senior Thesis: Creative Writ. ▲ ▹
Senior Thesis: Creative Writing
Discussions, workshops, tutorials for those undertaking two-term projects in the writing of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. (Formerly ENAM 0711)
Winter 2013, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014
ENAM 0175 - Structure of Poetry
The Structure of Poetry
This course is a workshop for beginning students in the field of creative writing. Students will read a selection of poems each week and write their own poems, producing a portfolio of their work at the end of the term. There will be an emphasis on revision. Students will be introduced to a range of forms as well, including prose poems, epistles, the tanka, the long poem, and the sonnet.
Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2012
ENAM 0312 - Modern Poetry ▲
Modern Poetry
This course will examine the nature and achievement of the major modern poets of Britain and America during the modern period, beginning with the origins of poetic modernism in the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. The central figures to be studied are William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and W.H. Auden. The course will conclude with a look at some after-echoes of modernism in the work of Elizabeth Bishop and others. Two papers, one exam, with occasional oral presentations in class 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
ENAM 0316 - Poetry and Spiritual Tradition
Poetry and the Spiritual Tradition
In this course we will examine the long and intimate connection between poetry and spirituality, looking especially at the influence of Christian thinking on such English and American poets as John Donne, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and T.S. Eliot. The course will begin with a study of the King James Version of the Book of Psalms, which deeply affected later British and American poetry. We will also read early Taoist and Islamic poets, including Lao Tse and Rumi. The course will conclude with a look at the work of several contemporary poets: Charles Wright, Louis Glück, and Mary Oliver. CMP, LIT, PHL
Spring 2013
ENAM 0375 - Advanced Poetry Workshop
Workshop: Poetry
This course will involve the reading and writing of contemporary poetry. It is designed for students who already possess some familiarity with poetry and its traditions and who want to concentrate especially on contemporary work as an adjunct to their own development as poets. Students will read a good deal of poetry, including such writers as Elizabeth Bishop, Seamus Heaney, and Charles Simic. Assignments will include the keeping of a daily notebook, writing poems on a regular basis, and giving oral reports. Close attention will be paid to poetic form and the conventions of poetry. A final portfolio will include revisions of poems and critical writing. (ENAM 0170, 0175, or 0185) (Approval required; please apply at department office.) 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2010
ENAM 0402 - The Modernist Moment
The Modernist Moment
High Modernism can be defined as the unlikely attempt to faithfully depict the fragmentation and randomness of modernity while remaining committed to the notion that art can construct a vision of coherence and beauty that might explain, reconcile, and even heal. Does this enterprise result in a dramatic break with traditional realism, or merely refine and interiorize it? Does its fine-grained psychology mark a retreat from engagement with political issues, or mount a daring challenge to the powers that be? We will press Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, T. S, Eliot, and others for answers to these defining questions.
Spring 2009, Spring 2011
ENAM 0442 - Religious Poetry
Batter My Heart: Religious Poetry from Donne to Mary Oliver
In this seminar we will look closely at some of the major religious poets (broadly defined to include a variety of traditions) in the course of English and American poetry from the 17th century writers John Donne and George Herbert to the contemporary American poet Mary Oliver. Major figures will look at include Donne, Herbert, Wordsworth, Hopkins, Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Charles Wright, and Mary Oliver. There will be prose selections from various poets and spiritual writers, including Emerson.
Spring 2012
ENAM 0500 - Special Project: Lit ▲ ▹
Special Project: Literature
Approval Required.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014
ENAM 0560 - Special Project: Writing
Special Project: Creative Writing
(Approval Required)
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012
ENAM 0700 - Senior Essay: Critical Writing ▲ ▹
Senior Essay: Critical Writing
Individual guidance and seminar (discussions, workshops, tutorials) for those undertaking one-term projects in literary criticism or analysis. All critical essay writers also take the essay workshop (ENAM 700Z) in either Fall or Spring Term.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014
ENAM 0701 - Senior Essay: Creative Writing
Senior Essay: Creative Writing
Discussions, workshops, tutorials for those undertaking one-term projects in the writing of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012
ENAM 0710 - Senior Thesis: Critical Writ. ▲ ▹
Senior Thesis: Critical Writing
Individual guidance and seminar (discussions, workshops, tutorials) for those undertaking two-term projects in literary criticism or analysis. All critical thesis writers also take the thesis workshop (ENAM 710z) in both Fall and Spring terms.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014
ENAM 0711 - Senior Thesis: Creative Writ.
Senior Thesis: Creative Writing
Discussions, workshops, tutorials for those undertaking two-term projects in the writing of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012
