back to
|
TO THE STUDENT: English 486 is an introduction to poetry from the perspective of the writer. As Kenneth Koch argues, I believe that reading and writing poetry are similar processes. Both proceed in half-formed understandings, partially glimpsed imagery, and moments of comprehension that are difficult to paraphrase in our usual language. In this course, students will have the opportunity to experience poetry from both sides of the page, engaging their own texts and others' in a variety of ways. We will discuss narrative, imagery, vision, voicing, place, and the play of language as ways of approaching poetry as a reader and a writer. We will also delve into complex concepts of objective and projective verse, displacement of the individual voice, fragmentation and multiplication of language, and other characteristics of the contemporary avant-garde in American verse. Throughout the semester students will be expected to deal with mature subject matters in a thoughtful fashion. We will read poems that come out of personal trauma as often as we read poems that celebrate. We will read poems meant to horrify as much as poems that laugh. Particularly when students respond to the work of their peers, but also in responding to course readings, it is important to offer thought-provoking readings without diminishing the significance of the work. Texts should generate varieties of response, but should always be treated respectfully. The course will proceed as a combination of outside readings and workshops of class participants' poems. In addition to reading and writing poems, students will be required to present to the class information on a poetry topic, to write a short essay on a poetry topic, and to write a critical introduction to a final portfolio of their own work. By the end of the semester, students will have had the opportunity to pursue their own poetic voices while beginning to understand the relationship between that voice and the many fields of contemporary poetry. Not only will students gain experience and perspective as writers, their skills as critical, articulate readers of poetry will be sharpened by course readings and class discussions. This web module constitutes the course syllabus. The toolbar on the left presents the traditional syllabus categories of "required texts," "coure calendar," "course policies," and "assignments and grading," as well as links to relevant on campus sites. Students are responsible for all information presented on this page, which will include changes to the calendar, new assignment pages, and all due dates and policies.
|