Week 1: Jan 23: Introduction
Week 2: Jan 30: Introduction
Reading:
Frost:
Introduction
Wittig: Extracts from the Straight
Mind and Other Essays may be read here.
Stein: Tender Buttons
We won't discuss TB until next week, but start
reading now: it's
not a quick job! Read portions aloud. Try reading some parts very
quickly.
Assignment:
Go foraging at the Reserve Desk. Make copies of
Loy’s “Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose,” & of all the Stein readings
you will need next week
Assignment:
Scout the work of all five poets and start
planning your semester. You
will compile and annotate anthologies
for two poets, one of whom must be either
Stein or Loy. You will prepare and lead class discussions for at least two
poets. They will not necessarily be the same two poets, since
not everyone can
lead a discussion for Stein or Loy.
By Monday of next week (the day
before class) you must e-mail to me your preferences for poets to
discuss.
Please list three choices, in order of preference.
In class:
Each week, we will need volunteers to
read aloud from some of the work under discussion.
When it’s your turn, please practice at home and get to know the
piece(s) well. You
may want to make photocopies and mark them up, to help you locate
stresses and
pauses. This is a separate responsibility from preparing to lead
discussion,
but either I or the discussion leaders may ask you to read certain
poems or
passages. This week,
everyone will read aloud, so we can hear selections from each of our
poets.
Week
3: Feb 6: Stein: Tender Buttons
Reading:
Stein: Tender Buttons
Stein: Mary Nettie, Susie
Asado (handed
out in class)
Frost: Chapter One
Class Handout: Summary of interpretive points of view on Tender Buttons (from Chessman)
Class Handout: Table of contents of Michael Hoffman's Critical Essays on Gertrude Stein
Assignment:
Choose a single poem
from Tender Buttons &
write at
least two pages of associations based on its words
and phrases. Include sound associations (rhymes, puns, rhythms) and
jokes. For
a model of this process, see pp 92-93 of next week’s Chessman reading.
Resources on
Futurism:
F.T.
Marinetti. “The Founding & Manifesto of Futurism.” The
Futurist Home Page, Kim
Scarborough, ed. http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/ Fifteen
Futurist manifestos appear on this site, including all
mentioned by Frost.
Maurizio
Scudiero. "The Italian Futurist Book." Colophon.
http://www.colophon.com/gallery/futurism/index.html A
short, illustrated essay. You gotta see 'em to get
it. You can see the cover of Blast!
here, too.
Resources on Stein:
Stein recordings at Penn Audio -- no Tender Buttons, alas.
http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Stein.html
Stein page at the Electronic Poetry Center: http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/stein/
Gertrude Stein Online http://www.tenderbuttons.com/gsonline/index_2.html
Stein page at the
Modern American Poetry site http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stein/stein.htm
Week 4: Feb 13: Stein:
Tender Buttons
Snow day: no class
Week 5: Feb 13: Stein:
Tender Buttons (rescheduled)
Reading:
Stein: Tender Buttons
Stein: Poetry & Grammar (electronic & print reserves)
Those working on Stein
for the first anthology or for the paper should read an additional
critical
essay.
Assignment:
Create a writing prompt, for poetry or creative
prose, based on TB or another Stein reading.
Bring a hard copy to class, so we can talk about them, but you also
must e-mail
your prompt to me and to the class. Please identify the poem(s)
you
derived your exercise from, and explain in a few sentences how your
exercise derives from principles or qualities of those poems and/or how
completing this exercise provides insight into Stein.
Week
6: Feb 27: Mina Loy: Poems from Lost
Lunar Baedeker
Reading:
Conover:
Introduction to Lost Lunar Baedeker &
endnotes to assigned poems & prose
Loy:
poems from Lost Lunar Baedeker:
Poe,
Lunar Baedeker, The Effectual Marriage, Virgins Plus Curtains Minus
Dots, Three
Moments in Paris, Sketch of a Man on a Platform, Songs to Johannes,
Parturition
Loy:
prose from Lunar Baedeker:
Feminist
Manifesto, Aphorisms on Futurism
DuPlessis:
“Corpses of Poesy” (print reserves)
Resources
on Futurism: see Week 3
Resources
on
Loy:
Janet
Lyon & Elizabeth Majerus, eds. Mina Loy page of the
Modern American Poetry Web site. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/loy/loy.htm
Mina Loy Page. Electronic Poetry
Center.
Week 7: March 6: Mina Loy: Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose
Reading:
Loy: "Anglo-Mongrels
and the Rose" (electronic & print reserves)
Frost: Chapter Two
Another essay, recommended for those who
are writing on Loy:
Perloff,
Marjorie. "English as a Second Language: Mina Loy's Ango-Mongrels
and the Rose. In
Schrieber & Tuma. 131-148. Also on Jacket Magazine web site:. http://jacketmagazine.com/05/mina-anglo.html
Assignment:
Create
a writing prompt, for poetry or creative prose, based on Loy's poems.
Bring a
hard copy to class, so we can talk about them, but you also must e-mail
your
prompt to me and to the class.
Please identify the
poem(s) you derived your exercise from, and explain in a few sentences
how your
exercise derives from principles or qualities of those poems and/or
how completing this exercise provides insight into Loy.
Week 8: March 13: Spring Break, no class
Week 9:
March 20: Sonia Sanchez: We a
BadDDDDD People & Love
Poems
Assignment: First Annotated Anthology
due at the start of class. Please read the Guidelines
carefully.
Reading:
Sanchez: Poems from We a
BadDDDD People
Sanchez: Poems from Love
Poems
Frost: Chapter Three
Houston A. Baker, Jr. "Our Lady: Sonia Sanchez and the Writing of a
Black Renaissance." In Studies
in Black American Literature, Volume III: Black Feminist Criticism and
Critical Theory. Eds. Joe Weixlmann & Houston A. Baker, Jr.
Greenwood, FL: The Penkevill Publishing Co, 1988. 169-202. (electronic
& print reserves)
De Lancey,
Frenzella
Elaine. "Rufusing to Be Boxed In: Sonia Sanchez's Transformation of the
Haiku Form." In Blackshire-Belay 21-36. (electronic & print
reserves)
<>
Resources
on Sanchez:
Susan Kelly: "Discipline and Craft: An Interview with
Sonia
Sanchez"
African American Review, Winter 2000.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_4_34/ai_70434329/pg_1
David Reich: "As Poets, As Activists: An Interview with
Sonia Sanchez
Unitarian Universaist World
(May/June 1999)
http://www.uuworld.org/1999/0599feat1.html
Sanchez page at Academy of American Poets
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/276
Modern American Poetry page on Black Arts Movement
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/blackarts/blackarts.htm
Week 10: March 27: Sonia Sanchez: Does Your House Have Lions?
Reading:
Sanchez: Does
Your House Have Lions?
Since relevant resources on
Sanchez are scarce (lots of appreciation out there, not much hard
thinking) use this week's reading time to catch up on some classics of
black criticism, poetics, and literary history, such as:
Stephen Henderson: "The
Forms of Things Unknown" (electronic & print reserves)
This essay lays a groundwork on which most later essays on black
poetics stand. Even those who differ from Henderson in their
primary
interests use him as a point of departure.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: The
Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. Oxford
University Press, 1988. I have put Chapter 2: "The Signifying Monkey
and the Language of Signifyin(g)" on electronic and print reserves.
This will also be very useful background for discussing Mullen.
Assignment:
Create
a writing prompt, for poetry or creative prose, based on Sanchez's
poems. Bring a
hard copy to class, so we can talk about them, but you also must e-mail
your
prompt to me and to the class.
Please identify the
poem(s) you derived your exercise from, and explain in a few sentences
how your
exercise derives from principles or qualities of those poems and/or
how completing this exercise provides insight into Sanchez.
Week 11: April 3: Susan Howe:
"Articulations of Sound Forms
in Time"
Howe: "The Falls Fight" & "Hope Atherton's Wanderings"
Frost: Chapter Four
Resources on Howe
Cary Nelson, ed. Susan Howe Page. Modern American Poetry. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/howe/howe.htm
The page on "Hope Atherton's Wanderings" includes part of
Peter Nicholls' essay on Howe's sources.
Charles Bernstein
& Al Filreis, eds. Susan Howe sound files at PennSound.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Howe.html
Several readings & radio broadcasts.
Extracts from Rachel
Blau DuPlessis. "Whowe" may be read here.
The essay is not directly concerned with "Articulations of Sound Forms
in Time," but contains several passages interesting to our discussions.
DuPlessis begins with a quote from Tender
Buttons and remarks on "the mark" in Stein and Howe; she
draws attention to Stein's essay "Forensics," in which she takes up the
problem of "how to write" in terms also suitable to Howe; and she
briefly
discusses Hope Atherton in the context of other characters in Howe's
poems. You can read the whole essay here: http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/howe/howe_duplessis.html
Susan Howe Page. Electronic
Poetry Center. http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/howe/
Kathleen Fraser, ed. The HOW(ever)
Archives.
http://www.how2journal.com/archive/
Assignment:
Choose a single poem or
passage from Howe & write
at
least two pages of associations based on its words
and phrases. Begin with sound and work through semantic entanglement,
coming last to narrative or theme.
Week 12: April 10: Susan Howe: "Articulations of Sound Forms
in Time"
Howe: "Taking the Forest"
Those working on Howe
for the second anthology or for the paper should read an additional
critical
essay, or an interview, or a substantial part of My Emily
Dickinson.
Assignment:
Create
a writing prompt, for poetry or creative prose, based on Howe's poems.
Bring a
hard copy to class, so we can talk about them, but you also must e-mail
your
prompt to me and to the class.
Please identify the
poem(s) you derived your exercise from, and explain in a few sentences
how your
exercise derives from principles or qualities of those poems and/or
how completing this exercise provides insight into Howe.
Week 13: April 17: Harryette Mullen: Trimmings
Mullen: Trimmings
Frost: Chapter Five
Week 14: April 24: Harryette Mullen: Muse & Drudge
Mullen: Muse & Drudge
Those working on Mullen
for the second anthology or for the paper should read an additional
critical
essay, or an interview. I recommend this interview for its extensive
attention to Muse & Drudge, but
there are many others:
Assignment:
2-page proposal for final paper, with annotated bibliography, due by e-mail on Monday April 30.
Assignment:
Create
a writing prompt, for poetry or creative prose, based on Howe's poems.
Bring a
hard copy to class, so we can talk about them, but you also must e-mail
your
prompt to me and to the class.
Please identify the
poem(s) you derived your exercise from, and explain in a few sentences
how your
exercise derives from principles or qualities of those poems and/or
how completing this exercise provides insight into Mullen.
Week 15: May 1:
No new reading. We will finish our discussions, if need be.
Remember:
Your 1-2 page proposal for final paper, with annotated bibliography, is
due by e-mail on Monday
April 30.
Assignment: Second Annotated Anthology
due at the start of class. Please read the Guidelines
carefully.
Exam Date: May 8
Final papers (& poems, if you choose this option) due in my mailbox
in the English Department by 7:30 pm.
Please put your work in a large envelope (not loose in a folder). Put
my name, your name, and your phone number and e-mail on the outside of
the envelope. Ask
a staff or faculty member to initial & date it (to verify when it
was turned in, in case it goes astray) before you turn it in.
Do not put your work under my office door, under the English office
door, or in any other strange place.
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