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Spring 2013
CLIT 2092: Modern American Poetry: Politics and Aesthetics
Prof. Daniel Vukovich
Venue & Time: PO 316 [Podium Level]; Mondays 2:30—5:20
Phone: 3917- 7934
Office: 934 RR Shaw, Arts Bldg, Centennial Campus
Office Hours: Wednesday afternoons, 12:30-2:30 and by appointment. (I am glad to schedule those, so don't hesitate to contact me.)
Email: vukovich@hku.hk
· Please allow at least a 24 hour response time, even with important emails.
DESCRIPTION:
This course surveys modern American poetry, one of the world’s great literary and cultural achievements of the last century. We will be mostly concerned with 'simply' studying and learning from – and enjoying! -- these poems and poets. We will immerse ourselves in their language. What do they tell us or make us feel about life and the modern world, and how to deal with these things?
But one of the most notable aspects of American poetry is that it forms a long, varied, emphatic, and at times conflicted conversation about American and modern but also more global and ‘eternal’ problems of political and social life. What do democracy and freedom really mean? For who? How to understand the “great unwashed” masses and their 'new' or modern world? Is nature dead? What is the “promise” of America? What difference does race (or racism) and gender (or patriarchy) make? And who or what should be the subjects of poetry, which is to say of the beautiful and the good? These are just some of the topics and questions such poetry raises. Other topics and concerns will come from you as we go along
We will read both canonical and non-canonical authors, and famous, infamous and virtually unknown poems. The authors we read will include Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Kenneth Fearing, Tillie Olsen, Edwin Rolfe, Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Adrienne Rich. But also the anonymous poetry of “illegal” Chinese immigrants and a montage of haiku from Japanese concentration camps during World War II. Radical and angry and anguished poems sometimes, while at other times lyrical and wondrous poems full of hope and light and looking forward to the future.
In addition to these thematic pursuits, we’ll also talk about and practice reading poetry in a more technical and formal sense. The craft of reading poetry, and perhaps of thinking poetically too. I will give background information as needed (not too much) and we’ll also draw on a very useful website (aka MAPS, see below) collating background readings and articles.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of the class you should have:
· A better grasp of the substance and form of modern American poetry
· An enhanced ability to read, re-read, and enjoy modern poetry (often considered too difficult and cerebral), including writing about it academically.
TEXTS
1. Nelson, Cary ed. The Oxford Anthology of Modern Poetry (New York: Oxford UP, 2000). This is now on reserve at the library, and I will also make a second copy available at the Dept. office (958 Arts Bldg.). You are responsible for making copies of this text as needed. Make sure you bring the current and past weeks' poems to class each time. Much of our class-time will be given over to close-reading and discussion of the texts.
2. I’ll occasionally provide photocopies of additional poems not in this volume. I’ll give these out or place them elsewhere if needed (to be announced later).
3. Modern American Poetry Site (aka MAPS): http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/ This website accompanies the Nelson anthology and has much useful background and critical commentary. I’ll refer to it in lecture and you’ll find it a great resource for your studies .http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/
4. You should own or have direct access to a college-level (unabridged) dictionary of English. You can’t understand poetry without understanding diction, and you can’t master diction without using a good dictionary. This applies to native speakers as much as anyone else.
GRADING:
100% Continuous Assessment:
*Instructions for each assignment will be given in class.
10% Attendance & Participation, plus short written assignments on occasion.
*There are no tutorial sections for this course, since we have a 3-hour slate.
25% for Paper 1. Approx. 750-1k words. Due Date: Week 7, Wednesday 6th
30% for Paper 2. Approx. 1k--1.5k words. Due Date: Week 13, Friday the 19th
35% for Paper 3. Approx. 1.5k words. Due Date: May 14th, Tuesday of final week.
LATE WORK POLICY:
Late work is NOT accepted, except under verified medical or other emergencies. If you need a brief extension for a particular assignment, you must see me one week in advance. You must commit to a new due date.
You must complete ALL major assignments to pass the course. Do not skip an essay.
PLAGIARISM:
A writer who presents the ideas or words of another as if they were the writer’s own commits plagiarism. This is a disciplinary offense that can result in failure or expulsion. Consult http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism and http://www.hku.hk/plagiarism. You should never offer quotes or paraphrases of others’ work without providing proper citation. If you have any questions see me and/or your tutors to steer you right. Learn the MLA format.
SCHEDULE (Mondays)
*This schedule is subject to change, owing to student interests and needs as I learn of them. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to find out if there are assignment changes. As noted above, the Nelson anthology is available on library reserve. Copy the poems/authors there via the table of contents.
Week 1, Jan 21: Syllabus Review & Readings from Whitman and Dickinson.
Readings (to be handed out in class): Selections from Whitman and Dickinson (two “early moderns” from the later 1800s); Rhoetke; Wright.
Week 2, Jan 28: Modernism as Radical Break and as Decline of Western Civilization
Readings: Selections from T.S. Eliot in NELSON. Read everything but we will focus on “The Wasteland” and the “Prufrock” poems.
Week 3, Feb 4: Robert Frost, American Poet Laureate: Tradition, Ambiguity, and Nihilism
Readings: All the Frost poems in NELSON
Week 4, Feb 11: Lunar New Year HOLIDAY.
*Start reading and studying Williams & Stevens-- our most difficult poets this term.
Week 5, Feb 18: On the Pure Products of America: William Carlos Williams
Readings: All the Williams poems in NELSON.
Week 6, Feb 25: Wallace Stevens: Poems of the Mind
Readings: All the Stevens poems in NELSON. I’ll also hand out a few extra ones.
Week 7, March 4 : Facts And the Object World, Or Things That Think
Readings: “Cluster: Modernism, the Lyricism and Facts” (photocopy) from Paul Lauter et al. eds.
The Heath Anthology of Modern American Literature, Volume D: Modern Period,
1910 to 1945.) [Hand-out]
*Essay 1 Due on Wednesday.
Week 8, March 11: Reading Week: NO CLASS.
Week 9, March 18: Political Poetry and the Politics of Poetry
Readings: 1. “Cluster: Political Poetry in the Modern Period” in LAUTER, cited above.
2. Kenneth Fearing's Poems in Nelson (library).
Week 10, March 25: Asia/America: Angel Island Poems and A Concentration Camp Haiku
Readings: All the poems under “Angel Island” and “Japanese American Concentration Camp” in NELSON.
Week 11, April 1: Easter Holiday No Class.
Week 12, April 8: Ginsberg and the Ends of America (or Where Are You, Walt Whitman?)
Readings: All poems by Ginsberg (all of them) in NELSON.
Week 13, April 15: Plath, Platitudes, and Patriarchy
Readings: All the poems from Plath in NELSON
ESSAY 2 Due Friday April 19th
Week 14, April 22: Baraka, Black Art, and Why a New Reality is Better than a New Movie
Readings: All the Baraka selections in NELSON, plus the poems I’ll hand out in class on the 9/11 attacks and on Hollywood/mass culture.
Week 15, April 29: The Personal, the Political: Adrienne Rich's Meditations
Readings: Rich’s poems in Nelson. Read all but we’ll focus on “Diving into the Wreck” and “Trying to Talk with a Man.”
FINAL PAPER DUE: Tuesday May 14th by 4 pm.
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