Tuscana Ristorante Fieldtrip, September 7

During class time on Tuesday, September 7, we will be meeting at Tuscana Ristorante. Students must arrive to the dining hall by 12:00. I highly recommend that you get there early if at all possible in order to get a table--or send someone in your small group to get a table for the group. You will need to find me, hand me a note card with your name on it (so that I can take attendance quickly and quietly) and get a copy of the discussion guidelines. Students without meal plans will need to buy lunch. The element of "food" is an important part of making this "fieldtrip" work.

The purpose of this fieldtrip is to highlight--and practice--the social aspect of literature. By social, I don't mean "socializing" as a "social butterfly" might do. I mean simply, normal human interactions between people. In "real life," when literature is discussed, it is most often discussed around dinner tables or at lunch time. Literature is about life and the doing and happening of literature takes place, in addition to in classrooms, in the arenas of real life.

The guidelines are as follows:

1. You need to bring a literary text or several texts to discuss. These may be ones we've read in this class or ones you've read elsewhere. They should, however, be literature, meaning poetry, fiction, drama or so on. While philosophy and theology and self-help books are all worth discussing, and can be brought to bear on the reading of literary texts, this event should focus on literature proper.
2. You should prepare beforehand some discussion questions or points or comments. You also need to get from me, when you arrive, a copy of my discussions questions.
3. You need to sit with members of the class. You should sit with the small group you've been meeting with in class; however, if there are less than three members in your group, you may join with another group. No group, though, should have more than five or more than can fit around a small table.
4. You should get some food and drink.
5. You will have to stay "on topic" from after you get your food and make sure you know each other's names, until the end of the class period. However, you can decide what constitues being "on topic." You can decide what is relevant to discuss about literature and life. This will be hard work, especailly if you are not used to having meaningful discussiong about literature. But since I am taking this risk of having this fieldtrip, please give it a long, solid try.
6. Make sure to continually "return to the texts," whatever texts you have, weaving the actual words of the literature throughout the whole discussion. Make sure during the course of the discussion to read aloud short passages to each other.