September 2024 Modules

Welcome to the Readings in Poetry page for the Advanced Old English Series in which students explore, in alternating months, a work of prose and then a work of poetry to introduce students to the breadth and depth of Old English texts available for study. Each month Dr. Swain surveys the group to see what they want to tackle next from month to month.

In this two-month module, we will read and discuss the fifth Dune novel, Heretics of Dune. 1500 years after the reign of Leto II, humanity is locked on the path laid out by the tyrant. Yet a new threat emerges from the shadows: the Honored Matres, a deadly ecstatic cult bent upon the destruction of the planet Dune...

Whether you are a new or continuing student in our Dune book club, all are welcome to join this class. Connect with book lovers, compare to the adaptations, and share your insights.

Let the spice flow!

In one weekend, we're going to celebrate creativity by attempting a complete short story, novelette, or novella! Our format will include SPACE class sessions, WriterSpace focused writing time in excellent company, Bandersnatch Breakout room for talking about our craft as well as giving and receiving peer feedback, and an enthusiastic celebration of Story. So sharpen your quills, line up the inkpots, make a BIG casserole to last the weekend.

Here's the plan:
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Friday the 13th Good Luck Session from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern
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Saturday the 14th from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Eastern
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Saturday the 14th from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM Eastern:
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Sunday the 15th from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern
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Our goal is to create a completed first draft in one weekend! Prompts, planning, focus methods, peer encouragement, machete editing, character crucibles — we’ll do it all. Writers will write between sessions as well as during.

You are going to end this amazing experience with a complete first draft of your story!

This module will explore a range of English sonnets, some familiar and some more obscure, looking at the wordplay of all and exploring the contexts and reception of these poets or their authors where known. In the second half of the month, we will also explore the versatility of the sonnet form, looking at adaptations, variations, and the effects thereof.

In this module we examine the use of magic in the early Christian world, its relationship with contemporary magic, and related texts. We will explore the origins of this magic, how it was used, and how it evolved over time. We will look at both religious and non-religious magic through a number of examples, both verbal spells and magical items, such as Aramaic incantation bowls. Note: This module was formerly called Ancient Magic 3.

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Lecture 1: Introduction and ancient world
	Discussion 1: Christianity to circa 1000 CE
Week 2	Lecture 2: High and Late Middle Ages circa 1000-1500 CE
	Discussion 2: Medieval Condemnation of Magic circa 1000-1500 CE
Week 3	Lecture 3: Witchcraft circa 1500-1800 CE
	Discussion 3: Renaissance to Enlightenment circa 1450-1800 CE
Week 4	Lecture 4: Magic in the West circa 1800 CE
	Discussion 4: Excursus

This course is for those who have an interest in Japanese culture and wish to continue our study of Japanese. We will continue using Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, and covering grammatical structures. Through use of conversational Japanese, we will continue to explore how the language is used in anime, manga, and music.

Japanese is a language of great nuance and depth. This module will open the door to that world and build a foundation for greater insight into Japan's culture and its people.

In this series, we will continue our study of Japanese expressions and grammar through history, daily life, and pop culture such as anime. We will read, listen, speak, and write Japanese.

Note: Japanese Through Culture will be taught in Japanese. Therefore, it is for students who already have basic level of Japanese.

Middle High German (MHG) is the umbrella term for the German dialects used in the Holy Roman Empire from about 1050 to 1350. Its written form was the language of the court, and most MHG poetry embraces chivalric intellectual interests—adventure, romances, and courtly love! Come join us this month to begin learning Middle High German, and you’ll learn how to read some of the greatest monuments of medieval literature—The Nibelungenlied, Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan und Isolde, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, the poems of the Minnesänger (courtly poets)—in the original language!

This module requires absolutely no modern German, but you may find that the course awakens that bit of “school German” you remember from high school. We will begin with the first text in our textbook, An Introduction to Middle High German: an excerpt of Berthold von Regensburg’s sermon Von den siben planêten (“On the seven planets”). After that, we will continue through the textbook, reading as many texts as the student interest demands.

We will begin with a short presentation on the grammatical features of Middle High German and what separates German from other Germanic languages (the so-called High German Consonant Shift). After a general introduction and an example of “how to read MHG like a philologist”—slowly, word-by-word, and relaxed—we will begin reading!

I do not anticipate that we will complete all reading texts in the textbook before the end of the month, but we will read as much as we are able. Generally speaking, it takes about three months to read Middle High German competently, but after completing the sequence, students should be able to participate in SPACE’s Readings in Middle High German series. Middle High German offers tons of adventure, including Heroic Epic (Das Nibelungenlied, Kudrun), Crusader Epic (König Rother, Willehalm), Arthurian Romance (Parzival), and the Tristan story (Tristan und Isolde). Completing this sequence will prepare students for their journey into a new and large world of medieval literature.

Ready to begin learning Old English? This series of modules introduces students to the vocabulary and structure of the earliest recorded form of the English language. One year of modules prepares the student to read texts from over a thousand years ago! Each one-month module builds on the previous one, so students ready to learn Old English will communicate with our Director and Professor Swain to make the right placement for everyone.

Paganism was most likely never a unified system of belief, and may have been much more complex and diverse than our current sources can let us know. Beyond semi-structured beliefs, we also encounter more practical forms actively trying to influence the environment – sorcery, most often referred to as seidr, a collective term to designate soothsaying, divination, healing, controlling weather, battle magic and much more.

In this module we will be critically exploring the sources for such powerful practices, the vocabulary of sorcery, as well as attempting to enter the Viking soul in search of its logic and manifestations through everyday witchcraft, while confronting the great hindrances in the study of an elusive phenomenon.

Why is Odin a god of sorcery? Who performed magic in Viking times? Was it gendered? Was sexuality involved? What did magic reveal, and how was it perceived? Put your name into the goblet of mead and let‘s get started.

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Lecture 1: Old Norse religion and magic - definitions, sources and challenges
	Discussion 1: Discussion about lecture 1 and extra material topics
Week 2	Lecture 2: The performers - types of magic and magicians, social status and gender issues
	Discussion 2: Discussion about lecture 2 and extra material topics
Week 3	Lecture 3: The performance - ritual places, toolkit, magic staffs
	Discussion 3: Discussion about lecture 3 and extra material topics
Week 4	Lecture 4: Spells and amulets - actual runic spells and their potential meanings
	Discussion 4: Discussion about lecture 4 and extra material topics

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