Professor holds Bob Dylan's poetry class at home

"He is always looking for his muse, the perfect female, the Goddess of Poetry," said Professor Frances Hunter, sipping on a cup of coffee. Hunter was not talking about Whitman or Dante though, but about one of the greatest poets of the second half of this century - Bob Dylan.

Hunter has been a professor at ASU for "a long time, much longer than I would like to disclose," she said.

This semester she is teaching World Literature I and Poetry and Drama. She is also teaching a creative novel writing class and a class dedicated entirely to Bob Dylan. This is the second semester Hunter is teaching the Bob Dylan class.

"I taught it back in the spring because the dean at the time wanted some new courses. It was something I had been thinking about for a long time because of his (Bob Dylan's) age, having now 50 years of production, and having studied with Professor Ricks in England," Hunter said.

She said it was not difficult to gain support for the class from ASU. They were looking for something new that would draw students from other departments, who might not normally take an English class as an elective. Her class this semester has 15 students who are primarily majoring in the journalism field.

The class itself is laidback, meeting at Hunter's house every Tuesday afternoon from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. There are snacks, pets and comfortable couches, which helps set an almost Bohemian mood. The class begins with the playing a Bob Dylan CD.

"We are looking at 50 years of work and are examining it from a historical perspective, beginning with the protest period of the early '60s," Hunter said.

The class will continue sifting through his work, using a book by Christopher Ricks called "Dylan's Visions of Sin" as reference. Hunter took a class with Ricks in1980 while he was teaching at Trinity College of Oxford University in England. On Monday nights he taught a class for no cost and no credit over Bob Dylan.

"It was his notion, even then in 1980, that Dylan would be shown to be one of the greatest, maybe the greatest, American poets of the second half of the 20th century," Hunter said.

Hunter saw Ricks two years ago on CBS Sunday Morning, talking about Dylan again.

They corresponded for a period of time and then she invited him to Jonesboro to speak to her class last semester. They had a reception for him in Memphis and over 150 people attended. Many ASU faculty members study or teach Ricks' texts.

"Ricks is a serious literary critic, not a rock critic. That's why we are using his text. Ricks' text legitimizes Dylan's lyrics as poetry," she said.

Although the class listens to several CD's of Dylan's work, Hunter focuses on the top 100 critically acclaimed songs and the songs dissected by Ricks in his book. Also, students must write essays explicating Dylan songs.

"One thing about Dylan is he didn't have a college degree; he went to the University of Minnesota and didn't stay to finish, but its genius willed out. You know, Shakespeare wasn't college educated either," Hunter said.

She went on to say that although Dylan never received a diploma, he was well read. Dylan was almost completely self-educated in both music and poetry - reading works from Dante and Verlaine.

He is interested in Irish folk tradition, the Middle Ages in Europe, but is also like Whitman in that he is a lover of America.

"It has been said of Whitman that he wrote for the common man but it takes the uncommon man to understand what he's doing…that same can be said about Dylan. He is the master of the narrative. He writes both narrative and lyrical poetry," Hunter said.

Ben Pipher, a senior and R-TV major at ASU, is taking the Bob Dylan class offered by Hunter:

"I've never had Dr. Hunter before, but I love Dylan and I thought it would be a fun elective that would expand my knowledge of his work. I love meeting at Dr. Hunter's house - the atmosphere of it. The expectation for the class is still there but the pressure really isn't," Pipher said.

Many of the class members feel that meeting at Dr. Hunter's house is a major perk to the Bob Dylan lecture.

"It's comfortable. It's like a social environment, where everyone is sharing what they know and students end up wanting to give input," Hunter said.