Friday, September 14, 2012

Modern & Contemporary American Poetry @ FIX University Campus

Fernando IX University

Modern & Contemporary American Poetry

Al Filreis

This course is a fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, from Dickinson and Whitman to the present. Participants (who need no prior experience with poetry) will learn how to read poems that are supposedly "difficult."
Fernando IX University

 MODERN & CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY - syllabus/reading schedule


CHAPTER 1: WHITMAN & DICKINSON, TWO PROTO-MODERNISTS (weeks 1 & 2)

chapter 1 (week 1): two proto-modernists

Monday, September 10 through Sunday, September 16. In the first week of our course, we'll encounter two 19th-century American poets whose very different approaches to verse similarly challenged the official verse culture of the time. As a matter of form (but also of content!) Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were radicals. What sort of radicalism is this? In a way, this course is all about exploring expressions of that radicalism from Whitman and Dickinson to the present day. Such challenges to official verse culture (and, often, American culture at large) present us with a lineage of ideas about art and expression, a tradition that can be outlined, mostly followed, somewhat traced. In this course we follow, to the best of our ability--and given the limits of time--that tradition, and try to make overall sense of it. You will find that we do this one poem at a time. Here in week 1 we will explore Dickinson first, Whitman second, and then begin to sketch out the major differences between them, which, some say, amount to two opposite ends of the spectrum of poetic experimentalism and dissent in the nineteenth century. Which is to say: on the spectrum of traditional-to-experimental poetry, they are on the same end (experimental); on the spectrum of experimentalism, their approaches can put them on opposite ends. In short, they offer us alternative poetic radicalisms, and their influences down the line (which we will explore in week 2) are both powerful but largely distinct. One question you'll be prepared to ask by the end of the course: is the Dickinsonian tradition more ascendant and apt in today's experimental poetry, or the Whitmanian?
1.  listen to audio introduction to chapter 1, week 1: link to audio (12 mins) [summary text]
2. read Emily Dickinson's "I dwell in Possibility": link to text


3.  watch video on Dickinson's "I dwell in Possibility": link to video

4. read Dickinson, "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant": link to text
5.  watch video on Dickinson's "Tell all the Truth": link to video
6. read Dickinson's "The Brain within its Groove": link to text
7.  watch video on Dickinson's "The Brain within its Groove": links to video part 1 & part 2
8. read sections 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 14, 47 & 52 of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself": link to text
9.  watch video on Whitman's "Song of Myself": links to video part 1 & part 2
10.  watch video discussion of the Whitmanian and Dickinsonian modes: link to video

chapter 1 (week 2): some Dickinsonians, some Whitmanians

Monday, September 17 through Sunday, September 23. During this week, the second half of chapter 1, we will read the work of two poets writing in the Whitmanian mode and three poets writing in the Dickinsonian mode. We will encounter our Whitmanians, William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, again later in the course - Williams as a modernist and Ginsberg as a "beat" poet. The Whitman/Williams/Ginsberg connection is a strong one; Ginsberg wrote directly in response to both Whitman and Williams and saw the lineage as crucial to the development of his approach. Our Dickinsonians are more disparate in their response to Dickinson's writing. Of the three - Lorine Niedecker, Cid Corman, and Rae Armantrout - only the last could be said really to be a direct poetic descendent of Emily Dickinson's aesthetic. Image: Rae Armantrout (left), Lorine Niedecker (right).
1.  listen to audio introduction to chapter 1, week 2 (not yet available)
2. read William Carlos Williams's "Smell!": link to text
3.  listen to Williams perform "Smell!": link to PennSound
4.  watch video on Williams's "Smell!" (available soon)
5. read Williams's "Danse Russe": link to text
6.  listen to Williams perform "Danse Russe": link to PennSound
7.  watch video on Williams's "Danse Russe" (available soon)
8. read Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California": link to text [alt. link]
9.  listen to Ginsberg perform "A Supermarket in California": link to PennSound
10.  watch video on Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California" (available soon)
11. read Lorine Niedecker's "Grandfather advised me": link to text
12.  watch video on Niedecker's "Grandfather advised me" (available soon)
13. read Lorine Niedecker's "You are my friend": link to text
14.  watch video on Niedecker's "You are my friend" (available soon)
15. read Cid Corman's "It isnt for want": link to text
16.  listen to Cid Corman perform "It isnt for want": link to PennSound
17.  watch video on Corman's "It isnt for want" (available soon)
18. read Rae Armantrout's "The Way": link to text
19.  listen to Rae Armantrout perform "The Way": link to PennSound
20.  listen to Rae Armantrout talk briefly about "The Way": link to PennSound
21.  listen to PoemTalk discussion of "The Way": link to notes, link to audio
22.  watch video on Rae Armantrout's "The Way" (available soon)
23.  watch video discussion on distinctions between "Dickinsonian" and "Whitmanian" proto-modernism (available soon)


 Dear FIX,

 This note is about three upcoming ModPo events:

 1) beginning of Week 2 on Monday;
2) open period for writing & submission of the first short essay;
3) our first live webcast next week.

 Let me take these three in turn.

 1) Week 2 (second half of "chapter" 1 of our course) begins officially on Monday, September 17. (For a look at the whole schedule, with dates for each chapter, go here.)

 On Monday, you will find a new discussion forum - with subforums for each poem - for Week 2. The Week 1 forum will remain for another week, and you can continue your conversations there. When we begin Week 3, the Week 1 forum will be archived (although still available).

 As always, your first stop in ModPo is the main syllabus page (here). Under Week 2 you'll find seven short poems to read - along with audio recordings of the poets themselves performing these poems. And for each, as always, you can watch a video discussion. Three of the 7 poems are by poets influenced by Whitman; four by poets influenced by Dickinson.

We suggest the following approach: 1) read the poem, 2) listen to the recording of the poet reading the poem, 3) watch the video discussion, 4) post a comment or response to the discussion forum. For those of you who are busy (so many of us!) we suggest one poem per day.

 The links to the Week 2 videos will be available at midnight (eastern time) on Saturday, September 15.

 2) Week 2 is also the time when the first short essay (of four) will be written and then submitted. On Sunday night, at midnight eastern time, the instructions and directions for writing the essay will be available on the "writing assignments" page (link is on the left-hand navigation bar of our ModPo page). The open period for writing and submitting essays is 9/17/12 through 9/23/12. After that there will be a period in which peer comments and responses will be written. Essays and peer comments will be posted to a special discussion forum, whereupon any of us can also comment.

 3) Our first live webcast session will take place for one hour starting at 10 AM (eastern time) on Wednesday, September 19. It's easy to join us. Go to our live webcast page to learn more. Basically, if you are able to watch a YouTube video, you can join this webcast. If you are in or near Philadelphia, you are welcome to join us at the Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, on Penn's campus.

 Thank you for all the excitement you've already generated as we encounter the poems together. And thank you for the many expressions of praise - especially for the ModPo TAs who have been so active in the discussion forums. We are working hard and also having a great deal of fun. Nothing like a great experiment.

 Yours,

 - Al

 Kelly Writers House: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~wh
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