1st-year tutorial, Fall, 1999
SCHEDULE August September October Week Dates Days 2 2 Thu 7 5-7 Tue Thu 3 7-9 Tue Thu 8 12-14 Tue Thu 0 26-28 Thu Sat 4 14-16 Tue Thu Fall Break, Oct 16-24 1 31 Tue 5 21-23 Tue Thu 9 26-28 Tue Thu 6 28-30 Tue Thu November December 1999 10 2-4 Tue Thu 13 2 Th 11 9-11 Tue Thu 14 7-9 Tu Thu 12 16-18 Tue Thu 23 Tue 13 30 Tue
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- Assignment: Read "The American Prairies and the Literary Aesthetic" by Wayne Fields, published as the forward (pp. vii to xvi) to Plain Pictures:Images of the American Prairie by Joni Kinsey. Also read Bill Holm's "Horizontal Grandeur" from Vinz and Tammaro's Inheriting the Land, pp. 41-45.
- Trip to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art to see "An Iowa View: Paintings by Fred Easker" and paintings by Grant Wood and Marvin Cone. We wil also visit Williams Prairie in Johnson County, so wear long trousers or bring something to slip over your shorts for walking in the prairie. Depart from the Forum parking lot at 1 p.m. Return by 9:00 p.m. In preparation, read the essay on Easker in "An Iowa View: Paintings by Fred Easker." Also read "Using Visual Information," pp. 27-57 from Writing About Art, 3rd edition, by Henry M. Sayre (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1999.)
- Assignment: Type and submit a list of twenty questions that you might ask of Fred Easker in order to understand the image of the Iowa landscape he presents in his paintings. In class we will read and discuss "Nebraska, 1883," pp. 76-77 from Earthly Measures by Edward Hirsch, and excerpts from the first two chapters of "The Shimerdas" from My Antonia by Willa Cather.
- Writing assignment 1 due: description.
Write a single paragraph of at least eight sentences describing
the Iowa countryside northeast of Grinnell so that people who
have never been to Grinnell would be able to imagine the scene.
Refer to the suggestions and sample in section 5d on p. 29 of
The College Writer's Reference by Fulwiler and Hayakawa,
and reread paragraphs 10, 23, 35, and 37 of the e-text
excerpt from Cather's My Antonia for outstanding examples
of descriptive writing about the prairies.
- As the vantage point for your description, choose a location slightly west, north, or east of the corner of 16th and Penrose where your view is relatively open. Note the time of day, place, date, and direction of your view, and list that information prior to the beginning of the paragraph you submit unless you include it in the body of the paragraph.
- In class we will visit a prairie near Grinnell. Dress appropriately.
- Assignment: Read Kinsey, pp. 1-77. Guest lecture by Tony Crowley on formal analysis of art.
- Assignment: Read The College
Writer's Reference, chapters 1, 2, 3, and 6.
- 4:15 p.m. lecture by Wes Jackson on "An Agriculture Where Prairie is the Measure," Harris Center.
- 7:30 p.m. informal discusion with Wes Jackson, S. Lounge.
- 4:15 p.m. lecture by Wes Jackson on "An Agriculture Where Prairie is the Measure," Harris Center.
- Writing assignment 2 due: explanation.
Write a two- to three-page essay in which you explain how the
formal elements of one of the artworks from the first two chapters
of Kinsey help to establish the character and meaning she attributes
to it. Your essay should focus on a single work, although you
may refer to other works by way of contrast or comparison. Refer
back to the "Using Visual Information" chapter for
a review of the formal elements and their application.
- In class we will meet jointly with the tutorial on "Prairie Encounters" in order to present results of our studies so far and to exchange ideas.
- Assignment: Read Kinsey, pp. 79-119. Guest lecture by artist Fred Easker.
Saturday, September 18
- Field trip to Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.
- Assignment: Read Edward Hirsch's
essay "How
to Read a Poem." Read and prepare discussion questions
for the following poems:
- William Cullen Bryant's "The Prairies," Walt Whitman's "Pioneers! O Pioneers!," Willa Cather's "Macon Prairie," Hamlin Garland's "The Passing of the Buffalo," and Mary Oliver's "Ghosts."
- Assignment: Listen to movements 2 and 4 of Broken Ground by Jonathan Chenette and study the poems which serve as their basis: Michael Carey's "Once When the Ground Was Holy" and Edward Hirsch's "Ocean of Grass." Read The College Writer's Reference, chapter 7.
- Writing assignment 3 due: interpretation.
Write a two- to three-page essay giving your objective interpretation
of the image of the landscape presented by Ray Young Bear in
his poem "The
Ice-Glazed Landscape of Our Grandfathers." You may refer
to the musical setting of the poem in movement 1 of Broken
Ground if it helps to support your interpretation.
- In class we will meet jointly with the tutorial on "Prairie Encounters" in order to present results of our studies so far and to exchange ideas.
- Assignment: Read Willa Cather's poem "Prairie Spring" (frontispiece to O Pioneers!") and Walter J. Muilenburg's story "The Prairie" (The Midland, August 1915.) Student-led discussions.
- Assignment: Read Willa Cather's O Pioneers! Part I and II: "The Wild Land" and "Neighboring Fields." Student-led discussions.
- Assignment: O Pioneers! Parts III and IV: "Winter Memories" and "The White Mulberry Tree." Student-led discussions.
- Assignment: O Pioneers! Part V: "Alexandra" and view the Hallmark Hall of Fame video adaptation of O Pioneers! Student-led discussions.
- Assignment: Read Hamlin Garland's
"Boy Life on the Prairie" from A Son of the Middle
Border and view the film The
Plow That Broke the Plains, with music by Virgil Thomson
and script
by its director Pare
Lorentz.
- In class we will meet jointly with the tutorial on "Prairie Encounters" to discuss these works.
- Assignment: Read Willa Cather's
"Neighbour Rosicky" from Obscure Destinies.
- In class we will meet jointly with the tutorials on "Prairie Encounters" and "The Nature of Nature" to discuss this work.
- Assignment: Read Dan Totheroh's play Wild Birds.
- Writing assignment 4 due: synthesis.
Write a three- to four-page essay identifying one major issue
or theme that appears frequently in works of art dealing with
the pioneer experience on the prairie. Trace that issue through
several of the works we have studied this semester, illuminating
the contrasts and similarities among the perspectives of different
artists towards that issue or theme.
Library research session and assessment of Web sources.
- Assignment: Read Kinsey, pp. 121-157 and Edward Hirsch's poem "Homage to Grant Wood."
- Assignment: Read The College Writer's Reference, chapters 44-47, and work on your research paper.
- Assignment: View the film Country, and work on your
research paper.
- In class we will meet jointly with the tutorial on "Prairie Encounters" to discuss this movie.
- Writing assignment 5 due: research paper . Write a three- to five-page essay on your own topic relating to Grant Wood's depictions of the Iowa landscape (Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Grant Wood and Stone City, When Tillage Begins murals at Iowa State University.) Consult at least three print sources in addition to those covered in class. To facilitate sharing of print resources among members of the class, please enter items you have checked out from Burling in the resource database. In addition to the print resources, you may use Web resources provided you can identify the author and confirm her or his authority.
- Assignment: Listen to Jonathan
Chenette's compositions Broken Ground and Posthumous
Orpheus and read their texts
by Ray Young Bear, Michael Carey, Paula Smith, Edward Hirsch,
Dan Hunter, and Mary Swander. View art by Tony Crowley based
on Broken Ground.
- In class we will meet jointly with the tutorial on "Prairie Encounters" to discuss these works.
- Assignment: Read Amy Clampitt's poem "The Prairie" and The College Writer's Reference, chapter 8.
- Assignment: Read Kinsey, pp. 159-210. View art by Bobbie McKibbin.
- Assignment: Work on writing assignment 6. In class we will read Carl Sandburg's poem "Prairie," listen to Leo Sowerby's symphonic poem Prairie, and listen to Peter Ostrushko's folk-style composition "Prairie Sunrise." We will discuss the ways in which purely instrumental music might evoke the prairies.
- Writing assignment 6 due: arguing a position. Write a three- to four-page essay on the aesthetic qualities of the landscape created by contemporary agricultural practices. Has the movement towards larger and more uniform farms and fields created a landscape that is repellent both in appearance and expressive meaning (the disappearance of family farms, the fading of picturesque structures like windmills, the death of small towns, the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides, erosion, and the loss of biodiversity); or has it resulted in a landscape to be admired for its abstract beauty, efficiency, and fitness to the laudable purpose of feeding the world? In arriving at your position on this issue, consider the aesthetic value of alternative landscapes such as restored or virgin prairie or diversified family farms. In developing your argument, cite evidence from works of art we have considered this semester; and take into account the opposing point of view.
- Assignment: Prepare a single paragraph summary of your argument from writing assignment 6 to share with the class. In class we will meet jointly with the tutorial on "Prairie Encounters" to discuss contemporary prairie and agricultural landscapes.
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