ENGL 553

Fall 2017 All Classes

All Classes

Seminar Later American Lit

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Credit: 4 hours.

May be repeated if topics vary. Prerequisite: One college course devoted entirely to an aspect of American studies or consent of instructor.

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ENGL 553 class schedule data for fall 2017
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	32356	Lecture-Discussion	E	1:00PM -2:50PM	M	1140 Foreign Languages Building	Dean, T	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/28/17-12/13/17 Section Title: Poetrics & Poetic Theory Section Info: Topic Section E: Poetics and Poetic Theory NOTE: This class meets in room 107A English Bldg. This seminar approaches later American literature by focusing specifically on poetry—as a genre, as a social practice, and as a mode of utterance that recurrently needs defending. We will begin with Dickinson and Whitman, before turning our attention to 20th- and 21st-century poetic practices. Special attention will be given to the lyric, in order to situate its historical emergence and problematic centrality after romanticism. The course functions as an introduction to various kinds of formalist criticism by studying a range of poetic forms as bearers of meaning and history. Major poet-critics to be read include Susan Stewart on metrical haunting, Allen Grossman on the phenomenology of poetic presence, Charles Bernstein on L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetics, Susan Howe on poetic materiality, and Mark Doty on description. We will also read Jonathan Culler on the lyric and Caroline Levine on rhythm. The course doubles as a theory seminar insofar as it investigates meta-questions that poems pose about poetry, about the determinants of human subjectivity, about vocalization, and about how sounds acquire meaning. We will be reading poems but also discussing different methods of reading them. No special background in poetry, theory, or American literature is required. The overall aim is not to cover a particular period of literary or cultural history but to challenge how you think about poetry. This seminar is open to, and welcomes, practitioners (MFA students). Requirements include: diligent reading of all assigned material, active participation in seminar discussion, and a final research paper (20-30 pp). Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.