Leading a seminar

As seminar leader, your duty is to direct and promote class discussion around the poems and topics for the class. You are not expected to interact with any formal presentation that might occur (that day or earlier), though you are welcome to do so if it is pertinent.

You should come to class with a very solid understanding of the poems. You should prepare topics for discussion, topics that your classmates might want to reflect upon and debate. You are welcome (and encouraged) to scan through some of the critical statements about the poems, to see what scholars have been debating. You should introduce such statements by saying such things as, “So-and-so has identified the theme of such-and-such in this poem ... He says it contributes to a subversion of the genre ... Do you think his theory is valid?”

I do recommend that each seminar leader spend a few minutes (probably no more than five minutes) introducing the poems to the class. You do not have to treat all the poems scheduled for that day, but should cover at least two of them. Keep in mind, of course, that everyone will have read the poetry and have already thought about it. You can give a bit of biographical background where pertinent, summarize what the poem is doing, and highlight some of its interesting features. After the brief introduction, discussion should take over.

You are not responsible for the liveliness of class discussion, but you are responsible for bringing topics to class that might result in lively discussion. You can be a little controversial and creative in what you introduce for discussion, but try to keep the discussion pertinent to our course.

Your role/duty as seminar leader should last from about thirty to forty-five minutes.