Final Course Meeting on Monday 6/10 from 5.30 pm

Mary and I thought we might make the last meeting for our intrepid Argonauts of contemporary NZ / International Poetics on Monday at the little bistro Zavitos in Mairangi Bay. It doesn't open till 5.30 pm, but I won't be back from my other course in Auckland before then anyway, so it seemed like a good time to gather.

Zavitos is on the left as you head north through the Mairangi Bay shopping centre, at the head of a little shopping arcade, past Hastings Rd but just before you get to Penzance Street. There are full map details here.

There's a bar and a restaurant, so we can maybe start off with a drink and some pizza bread and then see what we want to do after that.

It's intended as a postmortem on the course, naturally - but also as a discussion of new directions both for your studies and for the subjects we've been discussing all year.

Hope to see you there!

Administration Guide: Further Reading

Prescribed Texts:

Fiction:

Cox, Nigel. Dirty Work. 1987. Wellington: VUP, 2006.

Jones, Lloyd. Mr Pip. Auckland: Penguin, 2006.

Neale, Emma. Relative Strangers. Auckland: Vintage, 2006.

Randall, Charlotte. Within the Kiss. Auckland: Penguin, 2002.

Poetry:

Book of Readings [available from student notes in Quad Block B basement]

Suggested Further Reading:

[More specific lists of relevant secondary reading will be posted here during the course of the year]

Poetry:

Broom, Sarah. Contemporary British and Irish Poetry: An Introduction. Houndmills, Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance. Ed. Jack Ross & Jan Kemp. Auckland: Auckland UP, 2006.

Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance. Ed. Jack Ross & Jan Kemp. Auckland: Auckland UP, 2007.

New New Zealand Poets in Performance. Ed. Jack Ross & Jan Kemp. Auckland: Auckland UP, 2008.

Martin, Isabel. Reading Peter Reading. Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 2000.

Administration Guide: Assignments

NB: This is a 30-point paper, 100 percent internally assessed.

Submit assignments either in the Assignment slot on level 2 of the Atrium building, or directly to either Mary or myself during the workshop.

The work you hand in should adhere to the following guidelines:

• Typed.
• Double-spaced.
• Written on one side only of A4 sheets.
• Margins at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) all around (including top and bottom).

The marks will be divided up as follows:

Creative Response

Worth: 20 %
Due in: Session 4
Length: up to 3 pages

This is the first piece you will be handing in. We invite you to take off on a creative tangent from one of the authors or pieces presented in the course. Your own piece might take the form of a poem or poetic sequence, a piece of fiction, a script, or even a picture or pagework. Let us know what you have in mind, and we can discuss it further.

Journal

Worth: 20 %
Due in: Sessions 4 & 12
Length: up to 4,000 words in final form

This should be a series of thoughts and reactions to the materials and ideas covered in the course kept throughout the year. We expect at least some reaction to each of the authors, presented either as straight journal entries or in the form of an online blog. you’re welcome to contribute to this blog.

You may wish to set up your own linked companion blog instead, however.

You will be asked to submit your journal twice in the year. The first time for general reactions and comment, the second time for assessment.

Seminars

Worth: 20 %
Due in: by Session 10
Length: c.4-5 pages

You will be asked to give two seminars in the course of the year – one on themes, ideas, or texts primarily associated with the poetry section of the course and the other predominantly on issues associated with fiction. You should aim at giving one in each semester, but we’ll try to be flexible when it comes to scheduling the presentations.

The seminar should be roughly fifteen minutes long, with an additional fifteen minutes set aside for questions, making up a full half-hour.

The seminars will be assessed in terms of content and presentation but you will not be required to present them in written form. It is envisaged that you will develop one of your seminars into your Research Essay. In the seminar you should: aim to interest other students in the text and topic, outline the issues raised by your topic, indicate some interesting ways of looking at the question, and find ways to engage your audience in active exchanges concerning the topic.

Preparation of the seminar should act both as brainstorming and a plan for your eventual Research essay.

Research Essay

Worth: 40 %
Due in: 17th October
Length: up to 5,000 words

This is your major piece of work for the year:

It can be an extended literary-critical examination of one (or more) of the authors, works or themes discussed during the year.

If you wish, you can present your research essay online – on the model of one of the essays linked to author pages on the nzepc – and link or attach it to the course website.

Alternatively, you might like to take a more creative approach and do a piece of writing (perhaps in the manner of Susan Howe or Anne Carson) which incorporates research and innovative form.

The seminar (whether it be the first or second that you give) in which you discuss the scope and ramifications of the project you have in mind, must have been presented to the class by session 10.

Administration Guide: Timetable

Meetings: 3 hours Fortnightly (Monday 4-7 pm / AT 3.49).

WEEK:

1 - (3/3): Introduction [MP / JR]

2 - (17/3): Poetry: Howe / Leggott [JR]

(21/3-4/4): [EASTER]

3 - (7/4): Fiction: Dirty Work [MP]

4 - (21/4): Poetry: Harlow / Carson [JR]

Creative Response (20%)
& first presentation of Journal

5 - (5/5): Fiction: Within the Kiss [MP]

6 - (19/5): Poetry: Graham Lindsay [JR]

(30/5-11/7): [MID-YEAR BREAK]

7 - (14/7): Poetry: Reading / Muldoon [JR]

8 - (28/7): Fiction: Relative Strangers [MP]

9 - (11/8): Fiction: Mr Pip [MP]

(25/8-5/9): [MID-SEMESTER BREAK]

10 - (8/9): Poetry: Fiona Farrell [JR]

11 - (22/9): Fiction [MP]

12 - (6/10): Conclusion [MP / JR]

Journal (20%)

(17/10):

Research Essay (40%)

Suitable dates for each of your two Seminar presentations (each worth 10% of the final grade) should be chosen in consultation with Mary Paul or Jack Ross, depending on whether the major focus is on fiction or poetry.

Welcome

Welcome to:

139.795: Special Topic in English

The Massey University Calendar prescription runs as follows:

Recent Poets and Fiction in NZ

Campus: Albany (Auckland)

Mode: Internal

The purpose of the course is to set some selected contemporary New Zealand poetry and fiction writers in an international context. Too often, "New Zealand" and "World" literature are seen as mutually exclusive categories. Actually, we would argue, it's difficult to understand the innovations and technical demands of our most challenging local writers without some knowledge of where they're coming from - who their influences / pet hates are; and also without the added rich theoretical explanations of globalization and the postcolonial.

This blog is meant to supplement the Course Anthology and Administration Guide by giving you a forum to share your discoveries and insights throughout the year.

Assignments:

Journal (20%)

Seminar (20%)

Creative Response (20%)

Research Essay (40%)

Poets:

Michael Harlow (b. 1937)

Susan Howe (b. 1937)

Peter Reading (b. 1946)

Fiona Farrell (b. 1947)

Anne Carson (b. 1950)

Paul Muldoon (b. 1951)

Graham Lindsay (b. 1952)

Michele Leggott (b. 1956)

Novelists:

Nigel Cox (1951-2006): Dirty Work (1987)

Lloyd Jones (b. 1955): Mr Pip (2006)

Emma Neale (b. 1969): Relative Strangers (2006)

Charlotte Randall (b.?): Within the Kiss (2002)