William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Graduate Seminar, Fall 2002 (English 620M)

Instructor: Warren Wedin, Sierra Tower 730

Phone: 677-3418 or 677-3431

Email: warren.wedin@csun.edu

Office Hours: Tues and Thurs, 12:45-1:45; Tues and Wed, 5:45-6:45

This seminar will present an intensive and extensive study of Yeats's poetry, plays, and selected prose, using the 2nd revised edition of the Collected Poems, Mythologies, and special editions of Thirteen Plays and A Vision. We will examine Yeats's interest in and use of Irish myth and folklore, French Symbolist poetry, imagism, and the apocalyptic imagery of the Tarot, the Hermetic Students of the Golden Dawn, and other occult systems. Course work will include class discussion, reports, a ten page background paper, and a twenty page seminar paper on a specific volume of poetry.

Required Books:

• W. B. Yeats, The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, Revised 2nd Edition, ed. Richard Finneran
• W. B. Yeats, Mythologies
• W. B. Yeats, Thirteen Plays [Special Xerox edition]
• W. B. Yeats, A Vision [Special Xerox edition]
• John Unterecker, A Reader's Guide to William Butler Yeats

Course Materials:

• General Syllabus
• Reading and Report Schedule
• Description of Report Topics
• Guidelines for Topics, Reports, and Papers
• Reserve Book List
• Yeats and Cuchulain

Some Available Resources:

• An electronic version of The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats--individual volumes (at CSUN)
• An electronic version of The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats--alphabetically by title (at CSUN)
• A bibliography of critical books on W. B. Yeats
• A bibliography of critical articles in journals on W. B. Yeats
• A bibliography of critical articles in books on W. B. Yeats
• W. B. Yeats's Preface to His Edition of Blake
• An incredible collection of Yeats information from The Yeats Society of New York
• See especially their list of links to other Yeats resources
• The "Real" Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Homepage.
  See especially the "Confusion on the Internet: Will the Real Golden Dawn Please Stand Up" page for an outline of the ongoing battle for control of the name and organization.
• The Florida Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn Homepage
• The Golden Dawn in Yeats Scholarship: A Bibliography
• The H. P. Blavatsky and Theosophy Homepage
• A Poem for Kathleen Raine by Margaret Williams, a former Yeats student

Other Internet Resources:

• Various Student Guides from:
• The Learning Resource Center
• The Office of Online Instruction
• Information Technology Resources

¬…       Research on the Internet:

o      CSUN Library

o      MLA Bibliography [CSUN ID required for sign-in]

o      Sample Seminar Reports and Papers

Warren Wedin <warren.wedin@csun.edu>
Department of English
California State University, Northridge
August 13, 2002