Παρουσίαση/Προβολή

(ENL178) -  Σταματίνα Δημακοπούλου

Περιγραφή Μαθήματος

The course offers a selective survey of significant developments in the poetry of the United States. The first part of the course (weeks 1 to 6) starts with the emergence of a distinctly American poetics in the 19^th century: we will focus on the idea of democracy in the poetry of Walt Whitman, and on the power of the poetic mind in Emily Dickinson. We will then move onto different strands of American modernism in Europe and in the United States. We will start with T. S. Eliot, focusing on the experience of modernity, the question of subjectivity and the crisis of the modern masculine subject; we will then move onto Ezra Pound’s ambition to renew poetry and the significance of his ideas for American poetry. We will then examine diverse strands of modernism through poetic voices that tackle gender, race, politics, and American modernity (H.D. Lola Ridge, Carl Sandburg, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens).

In the second part of the course, (weeks 8 to 12) we will explore postmodernism, multiculturalism, and identity politics. This part begins with various departures from modernism in the immediate postwar period); we will study the poets’ opposition to the political climate of the Cold War, through a focus on the subject-in-the-world (Charles Olson), or their critique of the social and cultural establishment (Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath). We will then study poets who reflect on gendered, racial, or ethnic identity, sexuality, structures of power and representation, in the context of the opposition to the Vietnam War and the growth of the feminist and the civil rights movement and minority voices (Amiri Baraka, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Joy Harjo, John Yau, Cathy Song).

 

Throughout the course, we will consider larger cultural features historical and political contexts, as well as the formal, thematic, experimental and innovative characteristics of the set texts: we will perform close readings in order to deepen your critical thinking, and in order to strengthen your analytical and interpretive skills.

It is advisable to read the poems and the poets’ biographies before each class (online at the Academy of American Poets (http://www.poets.org/), and at the Poetry Foundation (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/). It is also advisable that you read introductions to movements, periods, and poets in the Norton Anthology of American Literature (vols. B, C, D, and E) [our library holds multiple copies]. A very useful resource is the Modern American Poetry website (http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/).

Links to diverse resources (audio and visual), and handouts will be uploaded on the e-class in advance of each session. It is essential that you come to class prepared, and bring your questions and ideas about the poems, the poets and their contexts. Please note that the e-class is being updated regularly throughout the term, so keep up with updates and announcements about the course.

Assessment

Attending students who attend classes on a weekly basis will be assessed through:

• One in class-exercise and a revised draft (20%)
• Translate-A-Poem and Poetry Reading: (15%) [individual project or groups of up to five students]
• Final Exam (65%)

Non-attending students will be assessed through a final exam weighted at 100%

NOTE ABOUT THE EXAMS:

In the mid-term examination you will be asked to provide a critical commentary focusing on specific themes on given poems. You are expected to write a critical commentary on the given texts, and be able to build an argument in an appropriate academic register and critical vocabulary.  Exam essays that are based on paraphrase and/or reproduce class notes and handouts verbatim will receive a Fail

Ημερομηνία δημιουργίας

Τετάρτη 23 Φεβρουαρίου 2011