senryu

We'll learn the time honored art of senryu, including the structure of senryu and the technique of understatement. We'll find ways to get our points across without being confrontational! Can you be polite yet to the point? The Japanese have been doing it for centuries. Let's learn the fine art of senryu from them! Previous participation in the beginner Japanese forms class or the intro to Japanese Aesthetics class required.

Week I--We'll learn the different kinds of humor--from political commentary to the double entendre (or we may combine both)! We'll look at humor as diverse as the writer Fran Lebowitz and the actor Bob Newhart. Students will choose a kind of humor and write senryu on it.

Week II--We'll learn the structure of senryu. Do senryu have to have a 5/7/5 syllabic count? Do they even have to be three lines? Students will be given the opportunity to construct senryu based on their chosen kind of humor.

Week III--Here is where we all get into the act. We as a class will create senryu together based on the different kinds of humor! Be sure to bring your party hat, as there will be a senryu party this week!

Week IV--Refinement of senryu. Here, we'll refine the senryu from the second week of class and prepare them to send off for publication. We'll have the whole site and possibly the whole word laughing!


Instructor: Alvin Thomas Ethington

About The Instructor: Alvin Thomas Ethington (B.A. With Highest Honors, Oberlin College, 1979; M. Div. With Honors, Yale University, 1983) is a noted teacher, writer, and reviewer. He has taught at Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, California and Triton College, River Grove, Illinois. He prepared community college students for study at major private and public four-year colleges and universities, including Pitzer College, Claremont, California; the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and the University of Illinois-Chicago campus.

He is a published author and was recently honored for his haiku. His poem "haiku (empty chair)" is on the audio tour of The Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California, Poets on Site Tour.

He specializes in languages, culture, and religion. He has substituted for the Greek instructor at California State University at Fullerton and has tutored Biblical Hebrew.

He has been a member of FanStory since 2006 and has won Reviewer of the Month six times. He has also performed pre-publication editing for the former Bishop of Los Angeles, Episcopal (The Rt. Rev. Frederick Houk Borsch) and reviewed college textbooks.

His philosophy on teaching comes from his work as a counselor--he believes that teaching should be student-centered and designs his courses according to the students' needs.