Novels and Tales News, Fall 2004

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the course. (Our first order of business is to come up with a cool name for me to call you all. Any suggestions?) I'll be putting announcements on this page having to do with course requirements, changes in these web pages, and other matters. Between this page and the main page, you should get a good sense of what's new and upcoming in the course. So I recommend checking out both, at least once a week!

12/10/04
Hey all, I have to change my office hours today from 11-3 to 12-3--my morning meeting got changed!

12/8/04
Hey all, here are my office hours for exam week: M 12-6; T 10-3; W 11-4; Th 11-2; and by appointment.

12/6/04
Please note the change to the reading assignments this week which I mentioned last week but forgot to put on the web site.

I have a few changes to my office hours this week, due to unexpected meetings being called. The new office hours for this week will be as follows: M 12-2; T 4:30-6; W 11-3; Th 3:30-5; F 11-3. I will announce my office hours for the exam week later this week.

11/29/04
I have a few changes to my office hours this week, due to unexpected meetings being called. The new office hours for this week will be as follows: M 12-2; T 4:30-6; W 12-3; Th 3:30-6; F 11-1.

11/15/04
Please note that I've made some small but significant changes to the assignment sheet for the second critical essay to clarify the requirements and expectations of the various options.

11/12/04
Hey all, sorry I had to cancel class and office hours yesterday--my wife was in the emergency room in the wee hours of the morning for what may be a kidney stone. Although I came to campus a bit late today, I was in the office from roughly noon to 2 pm. Section 11ers can consult the newly changed main page for the readings for next week. Hopefully we'll be back to normal then.

11/10/04
Hey all, sorry I had to cancel class and office hours yesterday--my wife had a migraine so I was on baby duty (i.e., play time!). To make up for the missed office hours a bit, I'll be in the office on Friday from noon to 2 pm. Plus, if you are in Section 11 (TTh 12:30), please be sure to check out the main page for the revised syllabus, which gives the readings for the last few weeks of classes.

11/1/04
The assignment sheet for the final project is now up and running. Please come to class with any questions you may have about it or the assignment for the second critical essay.

A note about office hours this week: since it's course selection week, I have to give preference to my advisees who need to meet with me this week. So if you are not one of my advisees, but you do want to see me this week, please sign up for a time on the sign-up sheet on my office door (Fenton 240). However, you may only sign up for a time that's open on the day you're there to sign up or the next day--not any further ahead than that. (For example, if you come by this afternoon, you can only sign up for a slot on Monday or Tuesday). This will allow my advisees every opportunity to sign up with me for advising on course selection. As always, I am available outside my regular office hours by appointment, so if the sign-up sheet isn't working for you and you really want to see me this week, let me know and we'll make a time for you.

10/26/04
Apologies for cancelling my Monday office hours--Chika had a flu shot over the weekend and had a mild reaction to it on Monday morning. She's fine now.

The assignment sheet for the second critical essay is now up and running.

10/19/04
Due to a meeting change I just discovered, my T office hours will be 4:30-6:30 pm; I'll add F hours from 2-3 to make up for missing that hour.

10/13/04
Due to a meeting, my Thursday office hours will be curtailed: 3:30-5. However, I'll be adding Friday office hours: 2-3.

10/11/04
Due to a meeting change, my T office hours will be 4:30-6:30 pm.

10/6/04
Due to a meeting change, my F office hours will be 1-2 pm.

10/4/04
I have to fiddle with my office hours this week: they'll be M 12:30-3, T 4:30-6:30, W 12:30-3, Th 4:30-7, and F 2-3.

9/28/04
Hey all, great news! Shannon McRae (English) has agreed to do a guest spot on W, October 13, so once again, students from Section 11 are invited to sit in on Section 10's class and participate/report on their listserv for extra credit their reactions to Professor McRae's teaching.

9/27/04
Sorry I had to cancel office hours today--basically we thought Chika was going to get her shots at this check-up, so I cancelled pre-emptively thinking that she would need both mom and dad to help her deal with the pain and all. As it turned out, the doctor decided we could wait till her one-year check-up for the shots, but by the time we left the office, my office hours were almost over, so I kept them cancelled.

Please note, too, that the assignment sheet and due date for the first critical essay have been changed.

9/22/04
Hey all, I've added Susan Lord's 3 poems to the syllabus for next T/W for each section. See the main page for details....

9/20/04
Hey all, I have to cancel my afternoon office hours tomorrow (T, 9/21) because I'm going to be speaking at the Peace Pole rededication ceremony at 4 pm outside Mason Hall.

9/15/04
Hey all, sorry but I had to cancel my office hours unexpectedly today, due to jet lag (Chika thought it was Japan time last night, which meant that Kuniko was up all night--I fell asleep, nice dad--so that come morning, I was on baby duty and mom was on sleeping detail into the afternoon).

9/14/04
The assignment sheet for the first critical essay is now up and running on the course web site. Please come to class with questions about any aspect of this assignment.

Students in Section 11 (TTh 12:30) are invited to sit in on tomorrow's Section 10 class meeting (W @ 5 pm in Fenton 180) to hear Ruth Antosh (Modern Languages) discuss her approach to analyzing versions of "Cinderella" in recent Quebec drama, just as my Section 10 students are invited to sit in on next Tuesday's Section 11 class meeting (T @ 12:30 in Fenton 180) to hear Susan Lord (English) read and discuss some of her poetry that reenvisions classic fairy tales.

9/13/04
Just wanted to point out a small but important correction to the readings for my T 9/14 and M 9/20 209 sections: while the page numbers haven't changed, I didn't note on the original syllabus that there is a Brothers Grimm version of "Little Red Riding Hood" in that CFT 11-16 page range. See the main page for the corrected syllabus.

Congratulations to my ENGL 334 class, who won the Great Listserv Race of 2004 today by having everybody subscribed to their course listserv first. My other classes must get everyone subscribed to their course listserv before my ENGL 334 completes their second mission (which no other class has), which is to get everyone signed up for the group pedagogical project they all (and not the rest of you) have to do. Penalty for losing this race is a reduction to the preparation/participation grades of the stragglers.

9/9/04
Picking up my wife and baby at the airport this evening, so I'm cutting my office hours today short--leaving a little before 5.... This means the ce assignment sheet will be delayed until the weekend--sorry!

9/1/04
I have to cut my office hours short today: 12:30-2 pm. My apologies.

I've decided to move Gaiman's "Locks" to the end of September, at the end of the "Little Read Riding Hood" mini-unit, and pair it with Anne Sexton's "Cinderella" and "Red Riding Hood," so we can compare these poems and the essays on "Little Red Riding Hood" for how they analyze and respond to fairy tales. So I'll distribute these xeroxed readings soon, but we'll read them a little later than originally planned.

Please note, also, that the Hopkinson and Carter readings have been moved from the Th 9/16-W 9/22 to the T 9/21-M 9/27 slot.

8/31/04
I've added Neil Gaiman's poem "Locks" to the readings for the end of the Cinderella mini-unit (Th 9/9 for Section 11 and W 9/15 for Section 10); it's a xerox, so I'll distribute it ASAP. The Sam and Cisneros xeroxes I refer to below are not yet copied; I'll distribute them once they are.

I've also added a few more great Cinderella/Donkeyskin links to the Links page (this link will take you right to them). I can't recommend highly enough that you take the time to look at some of these sites--they are amazing resources and allow you to see the variety within the "same" story by comparing, for instance, Lang and Grimm and Perrault versions, among many other things.

Update on the Great Listserv Subscription Race of 2004: it's shaping up to be even more exciting than the Olympics, with much greater acclaim for the winners locally and internationally, so without further ado, here are the standings as of tonight: ENGL 334-01 leads with 17 of 23 students in the course subscribed to their listserv, ENGL 209-11 is right behind, with 13 of 20 students subscribed, followed closely by ENGL 209-10 with 12 of 22, and then by AMST 202-01 with only 12 of 26.

Finally, some awesome news: Ruth Antosh from Modern Languages and Susan Lord from English at SUNY Fredonia have agreed to do guest appearances in mid-September, the former for Section 10 and the latter for Section 11 (although people from the other section are invited to each). Professor Antosh will discuss her research on Cinderella in Quebec and Professor Lord will read some of her poetry that sets up a dialogue with classic fairy tales. See the schedule of assignments on the main page of the course web site for exact dates.

8/26/04
Hey all, I've made a couple of small changes to the syllabus--mostly just fixing typos and formatting errors, but I did give more details on the xeroxed readings for 9/7 (Section 11) and 9/13 (Section 10). We'll read two very short stories by Sandra Cisneros and one short story by Agnes Sam that day--Sam had not been on the syllabus before today, just so you know.

8/19/04
Welcome to the course! The rest of the site will be up and running by the end of the week, so don't worry if many links are as yet inactive. I'll put announcements here as new links come on-line.

ENGL 209: Novels and Tales, Fall 2004
Created: 8/19/04 12:05 pm
Last modified: 12/10/04 10:26 am