Short Form

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Clarissa

April 22, 2014

Students are unhappy with long readings and want everything that’s short. So I decided to give them so much short stuff that they will hate it for ever and ever. And I invented a course on the short form.

Then I started reading Jonathan Mayhew’s blog and discovered that he also invented such a course. His is better than mine because he thought of more short form genres than I have. For instance, he is including epitaphs, which is brilliant. Also, he’s doing mottos and slogans. I can teach brilliant lectures on mottos and slogans.

No that I know that an undisputed star of my field is teaching this kind of course, too, I feel very justified in offering it.

This will be fun.

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15 responses to “Short Form”

danmillerinpanama

April 22, 2014

Great idea. Only talking points (preferably of Twitter length or shorter), sound bites (eight seconds or shorter after editing for political correctness) and bumper stickers should be used. They will prepare your students to participate fully in, and even to elevate, the national political process.

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 22, 2014
  
  Don’t worry, I’ll make them read very long pieces if criticism on the short genres. The short form is a trap to lure them in and make them SUFFER. 🙂
  
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j.

April 22, 2014

little do the students suspect that twenty pages of aphorisms is not exactly a breeze to say anything cogent about.

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 22, 2014
  
  J.: EXACTLY. They will beg for a novel after I’m done with them.
  
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el

April 22, 2014

// Students are unhappy with long readings and want everything that’s short.

I think you read very fast. If students take several courses, reading novels would demand to read 2-3 novels of 300+ pages a week in a foreign language, in addition to criticism and other responsibilities (work, home, relationship, sleep, etc.) I would read only summaries in this situation since can’t really read that fast. Let alone, enjoy.

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Jonathan Mayhew

April 22, 2014

I will make them read 5 horas con Mario and parts of Don Quijote to see the context in which proverbs are used. It seems like an easy course but it can be very demanding.

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 22, 2014
  
  I’m going to do parts of el Quijote, too. 🙂 5 horas con Mario is my favorite novel, I’d use any excuse to teach it. 🙂
  
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good enough professor

April 22, 2014

To really do this right you should insist that the only way they can demonstrate their mastery of the course content is through tweets and text messages.

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NancyP

April 23, 2014

Martial. Preferably in an uncensored translation, the ruder, the better. He’s caesar of “rude”. Hey, he’s even Hispanic! Calatayud, in Zaragosa.
Here’s one for my own line of work:
“I felt a little ill and called Dr. Symmachus.
Well, you came, Symmachus, but you brought 100 medical students with you.
One hundred ice-cold hands poked and jabbed me.
I didn’t have a fever, Symmachus, when I called you –but now I do.”
Book V, No. 9

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1. NancyP
  
  April 23, 2014
  
  Yes, I know you need readings in Spanish, but who can resist including at least one or two epigrams?
  
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  1. Jonathan Mayhew
    
    April 23, 2014
    
    Seguramente se pueden leer epigramas de Marcial en traducción castellana.
    
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  2. Clarissa
    
    April 23, 2014
    
    Epigrams are another great idea.
    
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2. Clarissa
  
  April 23, 2014
  
  Very funny. 🙂
  
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JT

April 23, 2014

Are any of your students aware of your blog?

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 23, 2014
  
  My students don’t know what a blog is and are not even familiar with the word. 🙂
  
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