Spring 2012 Class Schedule

To enroll in any of these spring seminars please contact cce@sarahlawrence.edu or call (914) 395-2205. Enrollment is limited and available on a space available basis.

The Art of Reading Modern Poetry

Neil Arditi
Monday, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
January 23 to May 7
Five credits

Modern poetry has multiple origins and a vast array of modes and variations. One feature that tends to unify the fragmented legacy of modern poetry is a kind of difficulty—an art of omission or allusiveness—that requires the reader to complete the artist’s act of creation. To some degree, all poetry makes similar imaginative demands on its readers. But modern poets, with their penchant for compression, and their self-conscious commitment to "make it new," test the limits of their reader’s cunning. Even the most literal level of interpretation often requires a considerable degree of invention. Our strategy will be to focus on a handful of the most influential modern poets, beginning with Emily Dickinson, a nineteenth-century forerunner of the modern aesthetic, and turning next to W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, and Elizabeth Bishop, among others. Our goal will be to appreciate the peculiar strengths and idiosyncrasies of each of the poets—indeed, each of the poems—we encounter. Our generalizations about modern poetry will grow out of our close, imaginative reading of texts. Poets not read in class will be available for study in conference.

Neil Arditi received his BA from Yale University and his PhD from the University of Virginia. He is currently chair of the Literature Faculty Group at Sarah Lawrence College, where he has taught since 2001. His courses focus on the history of poetry written in English from the Romantic period to the present, with a particular interest in the art of reading and the genesis of modernism. His essays on Romantic and modern poetry have appeared in a variety of publications, including Raritan, Parnassus, Keats-Shelley Journal, Philosophy and Literature, and Jewish-American Dramatists and Poets.

Democracy and Diversity

David Peritz
Friday, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
January 27 to May 11
Five credits

Does democracy work only in homogeneous societies? Only in such societies, it has long been maintained, can a people be sufficiently similar to form shared political understandings and projects. Absent considerable commonality—religious, linguistic, ethnic, racial, and cultural—it is feared that democracy deteriorates into the tyranny of the majority or a war of all against all. But we are in the midst of a dramatic shift in which democratic societies are increasingly diverse and their citizens less willing to ‘forget’ their many differences to melt into a dominant national culture. These developments raise some basic questions. Can the character of political community or the nation be reconceived? If not, is democracy doomed? Or might it be possible to reform democracy to render it compatible with conditions of deep diversity? This course will explore these questions in a number of ways. We will study exemplary historical statements of the ideal of democracy drawing on traditional works in political philosophy. We will also draw on contemporary work in sociology, anthropology, cultural and legal studies, and political science to examine the nature of social and cultural diversity including religion, class, gender, sexuality and race. Finally, we will explore works that bring these themes together by examining current scholars efforts to (re-)articulate the relevance of specific identities to political engagement and the general ideal of democracy in light of increased diversity. By the end of the course, students will have acquired an introduction to a variety of different disciplines in the social sciences, with a special focus on contemporary political philosophy.

David Peritz earned his BA from Occidental College and his PhD from Oxford University. A professor at Sarah Lawrence College since 2000, he is a recipient of a Marshal Scholarship and has taught at Harvard, Deep Springs, Cornell, and Dartmouth. He is also the visiting scholar at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the London School of Economics, and regular visiting faculty member at Dartmouth. His special interests include democracy in conditions of cultural diversity, social complexity and political dispersal, critical social theory, social contract theory, the ethics of identity, and radical democratic thought.

"Sex is not a Natural Act:" Social Science Explorations of Human Sexuality

Linwood J. Lewis
Monday, 7 - 9 p.m.
January 23 to May 7
Five credits

When is sex NOT a natural act? Every time a human engages in sexual activity. In sex, what is done by whom, with whom, where, when, why, and with what often has less to do with biology than we think. Human sexuality poses a significant challenge in theory. The study of its disparate elements (biological, social, and individual/psychological) is inherently an interdisciplinary undertaking: from anthropologists to zoologists, all add something to our understanding of sexual behaviors and meanings. In this class, we will study sexualities in social contexts across the lifespan, from infancy to old age. Within each period, we will examine biological, social, and psychological factors that inform the experience of sexuality for individuals. We will also examine broader aspects of sexuality, including sexual health and sexual abuse. Conference projects may range from empirical research to a bibliographic research project.

Linwood J. Lewis received his BA from Manhattanville College, his MA and PhD from City University of New York, and his MS from Columbia University. His special interests include the effects of culture and social context on conceptualization of health and illness, multicultural aspects of genetic counseling, the negotiation of HIV within families, and the development of sexuality in ethnic minority adolescents and adults. Recipient of a MacArthur Postdoctoral Fellowship and an NIH-NRSA Research Fellowship, he has taught at Sarah Lawrence College since 1997.

Writing and Reading Stories

Carolyn Ferrell
Friday, 12:30 - 2:30 p.m.
January 27 to March 2
One credit

In this one credit course, we will examine the ways in which stories--both fiction and non-fiction--intrigue and inspire us. We will focus on the craft of the story: how is it constructed, how does a story differ from a scene, what is point of view, where does voice come from, what is a writer's style? More questions will certainly arise as we explore the writings of authors such as Edward P. Jones, Raymond Carver, Janet Frame and others. Each week we will discuss an area of writer's craft via reading assignments and writing exercises, which we will read aloud in the class. The objective is to observe how some writers put their stories meaningfully on the page and to learn how we can begin to get our stories out into the world as well. This workshop will also focus on the importance of constructive criticism—which, developed in a supportive atmosphere, will ultimately help us better understand the workings of our own creative writing.

Carolyn Ferrell earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA from the City College of New York. She is the author of the short story collection Don’t Erase Me, which received the Art Seidenbaum Award, John C. Zachiris Award, and Quality Paperback Book Prize for First Fiction. Her stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories of the Century; Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers; The Blue Light Corner: Black Women Writing on Passion, Sex, and Romantic Love; and Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present. She is also a recipient of grants from the Fulbright Association, German Academic Exchange (D.A.A.D.), the City University of New York MAGNET Program, and the National Endowment for the Arts (Literature Fellowship for 2004). She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College since 1996.