Trimester 2: Women, Women, Women.
In Trimester 2, Creative Writing will be focusing on reading creative works by female authors and discussing the social and cultural context of their work as we write our own stories. All genders welcome and encouraged to attend!!
2/26, 2/28
Tuesday:
Writing 20 min: (prompt: JOY, Music: Cibbo Matto, Strawberry Switchblade, Beck)
Share and peer review "feminist" love stories.
Homework: read Sylvia Plath's poems "The Applicant" and "Daddy."
Thursday:
Writing 20 minutes:(prompt: SNOW or CALIFORNIA DREAMING, music: Joni Mitchel)
Discuss and analyze Sylvia Plath's poems using a feminist, Cultural, and social lens.
Visit Theatre class and read Stephe's "Beany-Boo" scene.
Homework: Bring a poem written by a woman or female identifying poet to share with the class. Due Tuesday.
2/19, 2/21
Tuesday:
Writing 20 min. (Beach Boys)
Share and peer review love stories.
Lesson/Discussion: Read blog post "Feminist Love Story." disruptingdinnerparties.com/2014/04/15/a-feminist-love-story/
What is love? Hetero-normative, socially engineered love stories vs. real life experience. patriarchal orientation to love stories.
Homework: Write a feminist love story. Due Tuesday.
Thursday:
Writing
Theatre class - read scenes.
2/12, 2/14
Tuesday:
Writing 20 min.
Review scenes from previous homework.
Listen to and discuss excerpt from "How To Be Famous" by Caitlin Moran
Thursday:
Writing 20 min. (Lucius, Kurt Vile, Prince, Angel Olsen)
Lesson: love story tropes: The bones of a love story: Boy/girl meets, gets, loses, gets boy/girl. The Meet Cute: results in quick romance - either love at first sight or "when i first met you i didnt like you." Conflict: obstacles to love -- family, society, war/world event, illness, misunderstanding. Tragic love story ending - they die, they break up, they don't stay together. Happy ending/rom com ending -- they are together! Character arc: your protagonist must change...
Homework: write a love story using some of the tropes discussed
2/5, 2/7
Tuesday:
Writing 20 min. (Aimee Mann)
Review personal essays/ short memoirs.
Thursday:
Writing 20 min. (PJ Harvey + verbal prompt: "I was so angry")
continue review personal essays
Discussion/ lesson on the anatomy of a scene. Break scenes in to Scene (Action) and Sequel (Reaction). Discuss relationship to "show don't tell." Write practice scene.
Break into groups. Share/reflect on each others' personal essay. Begin to create characters based on the "selves" in the essays. Agree on basic character development traits, settings, etc.
Homework: Write three scenes between the "characters" you and your partner/group created. Due Tuesday/Thursday 2/14.
1/29, 1/31:
Tuesday:
Writing 20 min. (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)
Review reading: Joan Didion's personal essay "Goodbye to all that."
Discussion/lesson: personal essay/short memoir
Review homework from two weeks ago: "HW Use one of the following quotes as a prompt for a two page narrative"
Homework: bring in personal photo
Thursday:
Writing 20 min. (Led Zeppelin)
continue Review homework from two weeks ago: "HW Use one of the following quotes as a prompt for a two page narrative"
Show and tell: pictures
review lesson on personal essay and mini memoir
Write a personal essay using your picture as a prompt.
1/22, 1/24:
Tuesday:
Writing: 15 min. (Pixies)
*Special class* Join theatre class for reading of your letters and stories.
Thursday:
Continuation of special class - join theatre class.
HW Bring previous week's homework - 2 page story from prompts
READ Joan Didion's essay by Tuesday
1/15, 1/17:
Tuesday:
Writing:15-20 min. (Aphex twin)
Discussion: Yellow Wallpaper
HW Read Adrienne Rich's 1972 New York Times article "Women and Madness" reviewing Phylis Chesler's book of the same name. https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/31/archives/women-and-madness-by-phyllis-chesler-illustrated-359-pp-new-york.html
Read Adrienne Rich's bio.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/adrienne-rich
Thursday:
Writing:15-20 min. (Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Laurie Anderson)
Discussion: Talk about the articles in relation to The Yellow Wallpaper.
HW Use one of the following quotes as a prompt for a two page narrative, due Tuesday.
“Once Lola Pierotti earned $24,000 a year and worked long hours as an administrative assistant on Capitol Hill. Now she works longer hours and has even more responsibility- but no pay. What happened? Was she demoted? No, she just married the boss. Her bridegroom, of four years this month, was the senior Republican Senator from Vermont- George D. Aiken. "All he expects of me is that I drive his car, cook his meals, do his laundry and run his office," she enumerated, with a grin.”
“Ideal mental health, like freedom, exists for one person only if it exists for all people.”
“Mary, mother of Jesus, pays for her maternity by giving up her body, almost entirely: she foregoes both (hetero) sexual pleasure (Christ's birth is a virgin and "spiritual" birth) and physical prowess. She has no direct worldly power but, like her crucified son, is easily identified with by many people, especially women, as a powerless figure. Mary symbolizes power achieved through receptivity, compassion, and a uterus. (There's nothing intrinsically wrong with a consciously willed "receptivity" to the universe; on the contrary, it is highly desirable, and should certainly include "receptivity" to many things other than holy sperm and suffering.)”
“Women must convert their love for and reliance on strength and skill in others to a love for all manner of strength and skill in themselves”
“For women not to fear rape because we can successfully defend ourselves against it is not anachronistic but revolutionary. For women to be considered as potential warriors (in every sense of the word, including its physical representation) is not anachronistic but revolutionary. If realized, it might imply a radical change in modern life.”
1/8, 1/10:
Tuesday:
Discussion: "How should women and girls be?" What kinds of social expectations/limitations/freedoms do we afford women and girls? What about boys and men?
HW Read the first half of The Yellow Wallpaper. Write a "letter to a woman."
Here is my "Letter to a woman.":
Jolene,
I love you. I'm gone. I'm sorry, but I'm gone.
I thought I could do it. Girl, you and the boy were the only things that ever made me want to try but, the thing is, I have been on this mission to kill myself with drink and work since I was 17 years-old. I can't stop now, I have just come too far down this road. And I can't have you and him seeing me go down. If you knew how hollow I was, you'd understand. You filled me up so much. More than anything in my life but I have holes all in me, like swiss cheese and every bit of star shine and love you poured in is seeping out. I am structurally unsound, my love. Please take your beauty and our boy and make a home someplace stable, in someone stable, someone whole. Be whole yourself. Do it for the boy. Hold onto someone. I needed someone to hold onto and you were the gravest thing I ever found. You and the hammer, the ax. I am just holding on now until the real grave and I can't take you with me. The only thing left to say is I'm sorry.
Love,
Ray
Thursday:
Share written homework. Give feedback.
HW Read the rest of The Yellow Wallpaper.
12/17, 12/19:
Collaborate with your group and outline and write two versions - one male and one female -- of the story based on scene assigned in class.
12/10, 12/12
Write two scenes: one in which two men are talking about you and one in which two women are talking about you. Obviously, inlcude dialogue.
12/3, 12/5
Write your own version of the lottery focusing on characters subject to a system that is misaligned with the supposed values of the culture. Use the same characters in different ways. Also write a one page response to the article about Shirley Jackson
11/28, 12/1
Read The Lottery. Consider gender bias.