Borne out of conversations on wanting to explore world literature in the classroom, three teachers in the research group and the NIE research team worked on designing and implementing a ten-week poetry unit launched in Term 3 of 2019, focusing on Asian poetry.
The purpose of this unit was to:
1. Introduce to students a variety of poetry from Asia in English/translated into English through dialogic points of convergence, conversation and conflict in theme and form;
2. Present the reading of Asian poetry as a dynamic and open-ended process that embraces the cultural heterogeneity of both the writers, texts and the readers;
3. Show how Asian poets engage with, invent and reinvent poetic forms;
4. Help students recognize their perspectives and responses to a poem are largely embedded in their own cultural-historical context and their lived experiences; and
5. Encourage an engagement with poetry from Asia that is situated in larger global networks of literature exchange.
This unit culminated in an inter-school poetry writing project that saw students collaborate on digital platforms to co-write a poem featuring dialogic teachniques.
Part 1. Asian Stereotypes
These lessons began with an activity that enabled students to become aware of Asian stereotypes in mass media. this was followed by a quiz and map activity that helped students appreciate the varied and rich cultures of Asia.
Part 2. Asian Forms
These lessons focused on poetic forms emerging from Asia specifically the Landay and Ghazal. Students were introduced to the history of the form. They observed and analyzed features of these forms including the aesthetic techniques and themes.
Part 3. Resistance Poets in Asia
These lessons focused on various resistance poets from Asia such as Mahmoud Darwish, and poets writing on historical moments of resistance in Asia such as Rosmon Tuazon. Students discussed the history and issues of their poems and engaged in critical and comparative translation exercises.
Part 4. Dialogic Poems in Asia
These lessons introduced students to the dialogic form including twin cinema. Students were introduced to the history underlying this form and had opportunities to analyze various poets who experimented with dialogic poetry. The unit culminated with students collaborating across schools to write their own dialogic poem on an issue of significance that they chose.
Ghazal - See description by poets.org
Landay - See essay by Eliza Griswold
Twin Cinema - See essay by Ng Yi-Sheng
Landays:
Landays - Poetry of Afghan Women, Translated by Eliza Griswold
Ghazals:
"Ghazal" by Agha Shahid Ali (Kashmir/India/USA);
"A Ghazal For England" by Faith Christine Lai (Singapore/UK)
Resistance Poems:
"ID Card" by Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine): Original Poem in Arabic: Translation 1, Translation 2, Translation 3, Translation 4
"Monk" (a.k.a. "Thich Quang Duc") by Rosmon Tuazon (Philippines)
Twin Cinemas:
"Gone Viral" by Ow Yeong Wai Kit (Singapore)
"Twin Cinema on a Sunday Election" by Joshua Ip (Singapore)
Two Poems by Asmaa Azaizeh (Palestine), Translated from the Arabic by Yasmine Haj
"Bad English" by Ouyang Yu (China/Australia)
Anak Sastra
Asymptote Journal
Asia Literary Review
CHA: An Asian Literary Journal
Cordite Poetry Review
Kitaab
Mascara Literary Review
Mekong Review
Rambutan Literary
Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore
SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English
The Bombay Literary Magazine
The Electronic Intifada
The Kindling Journal
The Shanghai Literary Review
Words Without Borders