Pictures of Building 494

I've heard people complain about the odd colors of the CCS building, but this is what it looked like in 2003 (credit to Brendan Barnwell):

I like the colors:

Blogs by Literature students

A couple of CCS Lit writing classes have encouraged people to start blogs, and some of us have just decided to do this on our own.

Here are a few that I know of by current students (some prefer to remain anonymous):

• AUDJ LODJ
• Buffalo not Beef
• Clockwork Oren
• Conejito
• Dog-Eared — Danielle
• Jeweled Platypus — me

I helped Robyn write a few posts too: Uncle Saxophone.

And Barry has a blog: Poetry Matters.

Some by recently graduated Lit students:

• Inword — Sophia '07
• tie me in a knot and CinderLisaDesign — Lisa '07
• Unnecessary Analysis — Jessica '08

The big three

People don't always like the Literature requirement of taking Milton, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and there isn't much official communication about why we have to take them. Here are some reasons that I've heard or thought about:

• They're a vestige of traditional Literature education — back thirty years ago, all you studied as a Lit major (or equivalent) was old white men. Now we study a much wider range of writing, but there's a little bit of that left.
• Robyn says that part of the reason we study those three is because they each changed the English language.
• Nobody knows, especially since our founder was not a fan of them: "we were asked (though perhaps not expected) to get through piles of Shakespeare (whom he called a misogynist), Chaucer ('just pretend it’s horribly misspelled'), and Milton (again, no favorite of Mudrick's)".
• They show that Lit is a "hard" major.
• For bragging rights.
• To inspire debate about the literary canon.
• To understand allusions and references (but then why not include the Greek and Roman epics or the King James Bible?).
• Because they're old white men.
• Because they're just that good.
• Because they're challenging.
• Because it'd be ridiculous to get a Lit degree without having read them.
• Because it sounded like a good idea at the time.

For one of the three, we used to be able to substitute a class about an author if taught in the original language; now we can substitute any single-author class.

Litify it!

Hello, all! Danielle here, pinch-blogging for Britta to give you the happenings from the Literature meeting held last Friday:

Notes

The Annual Literature Meeting began on a somber note, with Bruce having to explain to us that a beloved teacher was going to have to take the remainder of the quarter off. As a result:

1. Solo Authors is canceled. Students will be rewarded 2 units for work already completed.
2. Donelan takes control of Milton after a week and a half hiatus.
3. Graphic Novels will be covered by another professor.
4. Lim will oversee the creative writing advisees as well as independent studies and my colloquium.

A "Thinking Of You" card will be circulating throughout classes to be signed by all students who feel so inclined this week and next.

After the bad news, we received some better news. Changes are happening within the Lit program in order to make ours as defined and organized as all the others in CCS. Most of the changes that will be implemented to support this project sound great so far.

In conjunction with the struggle to cover Robyn's classes and advisees, more student advisers are being sought out so each professor will have fewer students to advise and we, in turn, will receive more one-on-one mentorship.

Classes will be outlined hopefully a full year in advance to aid in planning of schedules.

Bruce is working to expand the breadth of topics covered by Literature classes, as in recent years they have been mostly regarding the same types of subjects (ie. specific authors, time periods, regions). In the past, however, Literature classes ranged from philosophy, religion, history, etc. studied through "a literary lens."To help bring in new literary topics outside of our usual studies, professors from departments including German/Slavic Studies and Psychology will be on loan.

A few students, including myself, will be working with Leslie to define more clearly the requirements for Literature majors in order to graduate. Lists will be drafted to clarify which classes fulfill the breadth and related reqs.

The mid-residency review process is still being polished, but its basic function remains this: to determine after a few quarters in CCS if a student is really meant to remain within the college, or might possibly be best served in another deparment. This decision will rest in the hands of a panel of faculty that will review a student's portfolio as it stands at the end of the sophomore year.

The senior portfolio is also a work-in-progress. They are not required this year but may be next year. The senior portfolio will also be critiqued by a panel of faculty to polish the set of work for graduate school applications and resumes.

Bruce introduced the idea of a Literature Symposium that all freshmen would take to reveal to all students the resources that are available to them at our university. The skills focused on in this one-quarter class would aid students in writing university-level papers and the general critical study of literature.

Spectrum and Teeth for this year have received full funding but other arrangements need to be made to match their budgets against next year. One goal Bruce has for Spectrum and Teeth is to reopen them to the literary world on a national level by increasing circulation.

These are the changes that so far are in effect/being finalized. Some other problems with the Literature program were brought to the Dean's attention by students.

Colloquiums are remaining at two units but the prospect of a writing workship colloquium counting for writing requirement credit was proposed. Bruce agreed that with a supplemental two-unit independent study with a faculty member would allow this.

The number of L&S students appearing in writing classes was brought up in relation to lack of opportunities to fulfill writing requirements. Marthine is going to be researching the ratio of L&S students to CCS Lit students in all classes, not just Creative Writing, to determine if this is a valid concern. Among the possible solutions suggested were a weeding-out process for any non-CCS Lit students in the form of a submitted piece of work to the professor.

Thoughts

The final concern voiced was the monotony of Literature Symposium. Whether students realize it or not, Literature Symposium is an opportunity to hear from many different kinds of people, writers and performers and publishers alike. It exposes us to a variety of careers and genres of writing and even the speakers we hate further educate us in what we do not want to do. As long as speakers are not being repeated within the year, we really have no right to complain. On top of all of this, it is only one hour a week. What doesn't kill us, makes us a stronger, for lack of a better way of phrasing that thought.

This brings me to a point of Bruce's I would like touch on. Many Literature students waste their time complaining about the Literature class offerings not fulfilling every one of their educational desires. What many Literature students do not realize is that all other CCS majors receive the majority of their education outside of CCS. There are hundreds of classes out there in the university that will provide the subjects and studies we all want to persue. CCS cannot cover everything. The Literature program should primarily concern itself with teaching classes we cannot get outside of the college, otherwise money and time is being wasted. Also, a variety of professors should be circulated through CCS in order to give us all well-rounded educations.

These are all important things we need to think about concerning our futures in CCS and within the Literature major. We also need to keep in mind that Bruce cannot come up with a solution to every single problem we come up with. Changes take a lot of time and Bruce does his best to listen to everyone and take all opinions into account.

If you by choice did not attend the Literature meeting, seriously think about attending next year. Not only is it the perfect forum to have a say in your education (which you're paying thousands of dollars for), but it's also a great way to meet other Literature students and get to know our loveable Dean.

Thanks to Britta for having me as a guest blogger on the official Literature Collaborative blog =)

Literature course catalog descriptions

The official UCSB Catalog descriptions for CCS Lit classes sound so good:

CS 110. Genres
Emphasis on the development of literary forms, represented in the work of major authors, essential traditions. Exploration of ways genre directs and, discovered by a topic, takes individual shape.

CS 111. Literary Structure: Chronological
Emphasis on periods and influences: intervals during which literary production especially corresponds with or responds to activity in the culture at large.

CS 112. Literary Structure: Nonchronological
Logical, analogical, cyclical, and repetitive schemes.

CS 113. Subjects and Materials
Emphasis on style and content of literary texts: critical investigation of how matter and manner work together in serious literature.

CS 114. Themes and Motifs
Emphasis on structure and meaning in literary texts: analytic focus on principles of representation, and on recurrent features, in the literature studied.

I hope all of that is what I've actually been learning during the past 3.75 years! But no, Lit Collab has decided that these descriptions were probably just made up by our instructors a long time ago when UCSB demanded that they list something in the catalog. I still like them.

Photos from recent events

Into the Teeth of the Wind staff members putting up a poster next to a "pre-dental meeting" poster:

Teeth is currently accepting poetry for its 10th anniversary issue (no particular deadline - see website for details), and Spectrum is accepting writing and art until February 11. Both CCS publications are open to submissions from non-UCSB students.

Part of the crowd at Lit Collab's Scrabble evening on Friday:

See more pictures on Facebook. The top scorer was a biochemistry major, but that's OK. We'll have another rematch next quarter.

What the college would like us to know

As part of our series of posts learning about Mudrick (see these five descriptions and an alumna's perspective), here's a description of him from the Spring 2008 Literature Symposium announcements, probably written by John Wilson or Caroline Allen [paragraph breaks mine]:

Marvin Mudrick founded the College of Creative Studies in 1967. The existence and survival of CCS have depended on the ideas for education that Mudrick set down after Chancellor Cheadle asked him to "work up an academic plan for this campus." After the Regents approved it, Mudrick ran CCS as its Provost for nearly twenty years. Moreover he taught a literature class and a class in the writing of narrative prose every quarter. 

His classes were exciting, funny, and unlike anybody else's. Besides being a teacher and administrator, Mudrick was a brilliant and prolific writer. He published essays quarterly in The Hudson Review without missing a deadline for over twenty-five years, and most of these essays are collected in his books. But as good as his writing was, his talk was even better. He had the gift of gab and used it. In the classroom, according to Max Schott, Mudrick "took delight in arguing, loved hyperbole, had a propensity for intellectual provocation and irreverence and blasphemy, took pleasure in kicking against the pricks, and was convinced and tried to convince others that talk and the thinking in it (even about serious things, or especially about them) could and should be entertaining." 

Mudrick spoke in this way in a number of CCS symposia: starting with certain notions and improvising as he went along with a lot of wit and a lot of enthusiasm, trying to ignite a feeling for literature and music in others. One of these, an Art Symposium called "Am I Enjoying Myself Yet?" was videotaped in 1985. It will be shown for this symposium.

I enjoyed watching that videotape; it was helpful to hear him speak in his own words.

Also check out the only mention of Mudrick on the college website right now, this dull page titled History of the College of Creative Studies [paragraph breaks mine]:

Planning for the college began in 1965 when Chancellor Vernon I. Cheadle commissioned Dr. Marvin Mudrick, Professor of English, to serve as Academic Planner for the UCSB campus during the academic year 1965–1966. He was asked to propose a long-range academic plan for this campus’ growth. Chancellor Cheadle informed Dr. Mudrick early in their discussions that he was interested in the possibility of a special small college that would serve a part of the student population for which the University, at that time, made no provision.

Dr. Mudrick, who himself entered college at 15, formulated several proposals. Among them was the suggestion for a separate college, independently staffed and administered, with a specially selected and identifiable student body: students who, in addition to meeting UC entrance requirements, demonstrate “talent for original work in an art or science” (CCS Proposal, p. 1). The proposal was approved by the Regents in February 1967 and the College opened in Fall 1967 with an enrollment of 50 students. The College was originally housed in a cramped Marine barracks building next to the library — a relic of WWII when the seaside campus was a military base. The College moved to its present site, still a former Marine barrack, but a larger one, in the fall of 1975.