Required Texts

Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, v. 2—Ramazani, Ellmann, OClair, eds.

Twentieth Century American Poetics: Poets on the Art of Poetry—Dana Gioia, ed.

Course Description

This class will focus on American Poetry movements during the second half of the twentieth century. We will focus on eight groups of poets who roughly fit into a particular category by virtue of a shared ideology or philosophy, an aesthetic, style or approach, a historical or social contingency. Some of these "movements" have explicit manifestos, others are poets are grouped together because their work relates to a larger social movement such as the women’s movement. For each category, we will study a major figure who was/is at the center of each "movement" as well as some of their contemporaries. Because the main feature that characterizes contemporary poetry is its diversity and variety, our goal will be to test the waters of as many different styles, philosophies, forms and schools as possible over the course of the semester. We will cover as much ground as possible in order to get a sense of the many different concerns and issues that inform this period including gender, race and ethnicity; sexuality and sexual preference; philosophical and spiritual beliefs; and ideas about art and aesthetics. As we shall see, creating categories will allow us to explore similarities and differences in work that shares a central concern, but the divisions will quickly come to seem arbitrary and capricious as we notice that one poet might easily fit into several groups. Thus, the groupings are not absolute; they provide a structure which will allow us to impose a bit of order on this disorderly but exciting period of literary history.

Class sessions will be run as a modified lecture/discussion and you will be expected to contribute your own thoughts and responses to the work. We will also read essays (usually written by one of the poets we are reading) that can further help us grasp the particular concerns of the period and/or the group of poets in question.

· To explore the connections between contemporary poetry and the larger culture.

· To acquire skills in reading and analyzing poetry.

· To learn to conceptualize a writer’s work in both a specific and broad context.

Weekly Reading Assignments including essays.

Regular attendance—more than 4 unexcused absences will be reflected in your grade

Participation in class discussion, work habits, attending conferences (20%)

Participation on panel (15%)

Eight 200-250 word response essays (15%) (posted to Web CT)

One 3-4 page essay that focuses on a single poem (20%)

One 6-7 page essay that focuses on a single poet or on a group of poets within a particular movement (30%)

You will sign up for a panel of 2-4 members. Each panel will provide background information on one or more poets who are associated with one of the poetry movements we are studying. You should present some biographical information, and also contextualize the poet's work within the ‘movement’ he or she is part of. But your primary focus should be on the work, and as a group you will need to choose 2-3 representative poems as the focus of your discussion. You will need to let the class know which poems they should read beforehand. As a panel, you may decide to focus on one poet or several. You will need to organize your time accordingly. All of the panel members must participate in some way and make a contribution. You should come to me with any questions or problems well before the panel date.

1. Informal Response Papers

You will write brief response essays on each of the poets we study in class, usually focusing on a particular poem that interests you. I will make suggestions in class about topics to write about. Response papers will be due the day before the class session meets and must be posted to Web CT by midnight. You may post your response directly onto the Web CT "Assignments" page, or you may attach a Word document. Clearly, you will need to know how to post your responses to Web CT and have access to a computer. If you don’t have a computer at home, you can access your account through the computers in the library or computer centers on campus. Reading responses should be one page long (200-250 words). I will expect to read your responses BEFORE class.

In your response essays, don’t summarize or paraphrase the poem. Try to come to some conclusions about the poem. Try to figure out how the poem is using different poetic elements to make meaning. If you don’t understand the poem, ask questions. Try to the best of your ability to answer your own questions.

2. Essays

The first essay will focus on a single poem by one of the poets we have been reading. Do not choose a poem that we have discussed extensively during class time. If you want to write about a poem that is not in the anthology, you must clear it with me first. The essay should be analytical in that it should formulate an argument about the poem, but you should focus on the poem itself to support your argument. In other words, do not bring in outside sources. Once you start looking at the poem, you will notice all sorts of things--the way the sounds support or conflict with the meaning, the way the images create a cohesive whole, or contrast wildly with each other. Choose a poem that challenges you and that seems mysterious in some way.

The second essay will focus on one of the poetry movements we are studying during the semester. You may want to focus on a single poet or on a few poets.This is also an analytical paper, but you will be expected to use outside sources. You may make an argument about a poetry movement, or about the work of a particular poet. You will again need to support your ideas with evidence from the poems, not from the history of the movement or the biography of the particular poet. You may write about the work of poets we’ve studied in class, or poets who we haven’t touched on, as long as they are associated with one of the poetry movements the class explores.

Essays should be typed, double-spaced, have one-inch margins and include page numbers, and be free of spelling and grammatical errors. I am willing to meet with you to discuss your writing at any stage of the drafting process, but unless the essay is of unacceptable quality, there will be no rewrites. Grades on late papers will drop by one third for each day the paper is late (in other words, a B will become a B-).

3. Comprehensive Exam

The final exam will test your knowledge on a factual and conceptual level.

All work that you turn in for a grade in this course must be written by you from start to finish. Any form of plagiarism or dishonesty in scholarship will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Do not turn in, borrow from or adapt papers you find on the Internet. Do not turn in, borrow from or adapt papers you have borrowed or purchased from fellow students. If I have reason to believe that you are not the author of work you have turned in, I will ask you to provide me with rough drafts, outlines, notes for the paper and other evidence of authorship.

I encourage you to make use of the writing center which is located in Old Falvey Library. They can help you with all aspects of the writing process from early drafts to grammar and mechanics.

Please Note: This schedule is not set in stone. The purpose is to give you a sense of approximate the date on which we will cover particular material. Read all the poems in the anthology by a given poet. I will tell you which poems we will be discussing in detail.

WEEK ONE

Aug     27         General introductions

            29         Introduction to the period and to traditional poetry
                         Elizabeth Bishop
                        Essay: "Tradition and the Individual Talent"—T.S. Eliot (TCAP 111)

WEEK TWO

Sept     3         Labor Day

            5         Elizabeth Bishop
                       Essay:  “Notes on the New Formalism"—Dana Gioia (Web CT)

WEEK THREE

             10        Allen Ginsberg

            12         Allen Ginsberg
                        Essay:  “The Life of Poetry”—Muriel Rukeyser (TCAP 194)

WEEK FOUR

            17          Panel Presentation on the Beats & San Francisco Renaissance:
                          Kerouac, Waldman, DiPrima, Mayer, Ferlinghetti, Snyder

            19         Amiri Baraka

WEEK FIVE

            24         Amiri Baraka
                        Essays:  "The Poetry of Urgent Necessity"—Amiri Baraka (Web CT)
                                       "The New Black"—Gwendolyn Brooks (TCAP 220)

            26         PANEL PRESENTATION ON THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT: 
                         Sanchez, Brooks, Giovanni, Jordan

WEEK SIX

    Oct      1             Sylvia Plath

                3            Sylvia Plath

WEEK SEVEN

                8             Sylvia Plath
                               Essay: "Breaking the Code of Silence: Ideology and Women's Confessional Poetry"—Judith Harris (Web CT)
                               Essay # 1 Due

            10                PANEL PRESENTATION: CONFESSIONAL SCHOOL:
                                Berryman, Sexton, Lowell, Snodgrass

WEEK EIGHT

            15-17         Fall Break

WEEK NINE

            23            Adrienne Rich

            25            Adrienne Rich
                            Essays:    "When We Dead Awaken"—Adrienne Rich (TCAP 310)
                                            "Writing as a Woman"—Anne Stevenson (TCAP 328)

WEEK TEN

            29             PANEL PRESENTATION: WOMEN’S MOVEMENT:
                             Lorde, Kumin, Hacker, Piercy, Clifton, Boland

    Oct   31             Robert Creeley

WEEK ELEVEN

    Nov 5                 CLASS CANCELLED

            7                 Robert Creeley
                               Essays:   "Some Notes on Organic Form"—Denise Levertov (TCAP, 235)
                                               "Projective Verse"—Charles Olson (TCAP, 174)

WEEK TWELVE

            12             PANEL PRESENTATION: BLACK MOUNTAIN SCHOOL:
                             Olson, Duncan, Levertov

            14             Frank O’Hara or John Ashbery

WEEK THIRTEEN

            19               Frank O’Hara or John Ashbery

            21               Thanksgiving

WEEK FOURTEEN

            26                Frank O’Hara or John Ashbery
                                Essay: "Personism: A Manifesto"—Frank O’Hara, 282 (TCAP)
                                Essay #2 Due

            28                PANEL PRESENTATION: NEW YORK SCHOOL:
                                Spicer, Koch, Guest, Notley, Beringer

WEEK FIFTEEN

      Dec 3                  Lyn Hejinian

            5                    Lyn Hejinian
                                  Essay:  "The Rejection of Closure"—Lyn Hejinian (TCAP, 368)

WEEK SIXTEEN

            10                PANEL PRESENTATION ON LANGUAGE SCHOOL:
                                Bernstein, Howe, Andrews, Perelman, Silliman

            12                Wrap up/Final Review

Final Exam according to schedule.

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Bring both texts to every class.

Share your ideas and questions in class. This is a discussion class, not a lecture

Please read all the assigned poems at least twice. Do not just read the poem you are going to write a response paper on. You might want to try the following method:

· Read the poem through once to yourself to get a sense of the subject, rhythms, sounds. Don’t worry too much about what it means initially.

· Read the poem again, more slowly this time and OUT LOUD.

· Try to come up with answers to these questions:

                    Who is speaking?

· Then try to answer at least three of these more observational questions:

                       Which images are the most memorable, disturbing, confusing, striking?

                        Which words in particular catch your eye?

                        What is the language like? Are there many harsh sounds or mostly soft?

                        Are there any words you don’t understand?

                        Does the poem have a particular form?

                        Does the poem use a clear set of symbols?

                        Is the poem written in sentences?

                        Is the syntax clear and easy for you to follow?

                        Why do the lines break where they do?

Make notes about these and any other questions you have and be prepared to share your thoughts with the rest of the class and in your response papers.