An Incomplete List of Readings

This list is something like a bibliography for the class; however, it is obviously not in alphabetical order.  The order is roughly 50% the chronology of the class's use of each text, and 50% the order that I remembered them.

Keep in mind, though this list is quite long, the selections from each book tend to be very short.  From any book, there may only be one or two poems or short stories used.  In general, I only use readings that are very short (all poems under 1 page, and almost all short stories under 5 pages).  Of course, these rules are somewhat limiting (there are lots of long-form essays, movies, novels and novellas that I would love to assign).  However, this is not a literature course, nor an art theory course.  In a way, this is a course in 'practical aesthetics' so the readings and media assignments need to be practically sized.

The readings are purposefully varied, from children's picture books, to comics, to comic short stories and essays, to oral stories, to serious literature, to poetry both high and low.  I have also tried my best to make the readings as diverse (in terms of the backgrounds of each writer) as possible.  This variety and diversity supports one of the fundamental purposes of the media assignments and one of the main arguments of the class.  That culture is constantly recycling and synthesizing so that the themes of this class (or any set of themes) can be found in all kinds of culture.

In these readings, there are few actual essays, and the only art theory comes from Art Theory for Beginners, which is a delightfully informal introduction to some heavy thinking, Two of my main criteria for reading materials are: 1) relatively accessible, and 2) very short. What I like about a poem or a short story is that you can get a discussion of aesthetics contained within an actual practice of aesthetics.  Often the voice is the content (or at least one of the more important contents). 

So, enjoy.

1. Art Theory For Beginners by Richard Osborne (Author), Natalie Turner (Illustrator) ISBN-13: 978-1934389478

The only required textbook for this course.  All other readings, both required and recommended, will be in PDF form.

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2. The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry by J.D. McClatchy,  (Author) 2003, ISBN-13: 978-1400030934

3. Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Fifty Really Short Stories by Jerome Stern, (Editor) 1996, ISBN-13: 978-0393314328

4. After Modern Art 1945-2000 (Oxford History of Art) by David Hopkins, 2000, ISBN-13: 978-0192842343

5.Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, 1976, ISBN-13: 978-0156226004

6. War Dances by Sherman Alexie, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-0802144898

7. 32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics by Adrian Tomine, 2009, ISBN-13: 978-1897299760

8. Pure Drivel by Steve Martin, 1999, ISBN-13: 978-0786885053

9. Labyrinths (New Directions Paperbook) by Jorge Luis Borges, 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0811216999

10.Listening Is an Act of Love by Dave Isay, 2006,ISBN-13: 978-0143114345

 11. Life After God by Douglas Coupland, 1995, ISBN-13: 978-0671874346

 12. The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996, by Robert Pinsky, 1997, ISBN-13: 978-0374525064

13. View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems by Wislawa Szymborska, 1995, ISBN-13: 978-0156002165

 

14. One Writer's Beginnings  by Eudora Welty, 1998, ISBN-13: 978-0674639270