Writing Workshops at Brunnenburg CASTLE

The program focus includes classroom instruction, a field trip to Venice and special events, including guest lecturers and poetry readings, as well as volunteer work days on the castle estate. Auditors interested in attending courses on a non-credit basis are welcome, as space permits. Transfer credit is possible through the Registrar’s Office of LSU New Orleans.

The basic cost of the program includes tuition for six credit hours (two classes). Students may enroll in up to nine credit hours, or one class in each session, for an additional fee. When completing your online application, please select your first and second choice in each relevant section, keeping in mind that you cannot enroll in two classes that meet at the same time.

All for-credit students will receive a transcript for their participation.  This official transcript can be sent to the appropriate home institution at the participant's request, after a final assessment and payment of room damages and other remaining charges.  If you have any questions about the transcript process, please feel free to contact the Writing Workshops Abroad office.

Course descriptions

ENGL 4391/5391: The Poetry of Ezra Pound

This course is a seminar on the poetry of Ezra Pound. Although we will read some excerpts from Pound’s extensive prose writings, including “A Retrospect,” “Vorticism,” “The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry,” ABC of Reading, from his Rome radio broadcasts, and from his letters, we will concentrate primarily on his poetry, since our objective is to become as familiar with his creative work as possible and to reflect on its bearing. For the first week’s seminars, we will read and discuss Pound’s shorter poems from Personae, as well as his sequence Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, while for the latter two weeks we will concentrate on his epic, The Cantos. In Venice, we will also read from his earliest poems and The Cantos. 

Requirements:

Readings: Completion of all reading assignments by the start of class.
Class Presentation: For this course, each participant, regardless of status (credit or audit) will be asked to prepare and deliver at least one oral presentation of a poem (or Canto) to the class. This assignment asks that each student do some basic research in the Brunnenburg library before class on a work selected in consultation with the instructor. The student or participant will read the poetry aloud, present it by discussing its form, content and theme(s), and facilitate class discussion. 
Final Exam: To receive full course credit, a student will need to take a two-hour final exam on site.
Term Paper: To receive full course credit, a student will need to meet with the instructor, propose a term paper topic, conduct research on site, and complete an essay of 11-13 pp. (graduate students) or 8-10 pp. (undergraduates), with an option (if approved) to send the completed paper by mid-July.

ENGL 4163/6173 Advanced Poetry Writing

This is an advanced workshop in the writing, reading, analysis, criticism, and revision of poetry. Although some time will be spent on principles and the process of composing and interpreting of poetry, as well as writing exercises, based on reading assignments, primarily the class will focus on students’ poetry – its composition, vision and revision, craft, and artistry. Students will submit their own poems to class for analysis, criticism and discussion, as well as prepare written critiques of others’ works.

Requirements:

• 3-5 Poems for class discussions: Each student will be asked to bring to Italy 10-13 photocopies each of 3-5 of her or his own poems, to be distributed to the class in a timely way to be prepared for class discussion. (My hope is to consider at least 3 original poems by each participant in class.)
• Critiques for class: In addition to composing and/or revising her or his own poetry for class, each student will also be expected to prepare written comments on others’ poems for each class meeting.
• Class Presentations (1): Each participant, regardless of status (credit/audit), will be asked to “present” another participant’s poem in a 5-7-minute oral presentation, as assigned by the instructor.
• Final exam: To receive full course credit, you will need to complete the Take-Home final exam (an analysis of a poem from the assigned texts), as approved by the instructor
• Final Manuscript: To receive full course credit, you will also need to complete a10-13 –page manuscript of poetry including a “preface” (undergraduates, 8-10-pages, without a preface), due the final day on site, with an option (if approved) to send the completed manuscript to me by mid-July.

ENGL 4391 or FTA 3090: Directed Study

Admission by permission of Academic Director and advising professor. Qualifying undergraduate students may take 3 hours of Directed Study in the genre of their choice. Counts toward nine-credit summer course limit.

ENGL 6397 or FTA 6090: Directed Study

Admission by permission of Academic Director and advising professor. Qualifying graduate students may take 3 hours of Directed Study in the genre of their choice. Counts toward nine-credit summer course limit.

ENGL 7000: Thesis Research

Admission by permission of Academic Director. Qualifying LSU New Orleans MFA students may take 3 hours of Thesis Research. Counts toward nine-credit summer course limit.