Lyric Poetry and Music: The Color and Politics of Cry, Sound, and Voice
ENGL 304
Fall 2020 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
AMST 302, AFAM 305 |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate, Caribbean Studies Minor |
Lyric poetry may be the most musical of literary forms. In one of its basic definitions, the lyric poem begins after the overhearing of a sound. This sound may be familiar and pleasant, like the timbre and cadence of a lover's voice. Or it may be unrecognizable and terrifying. It may be imbricated with other senses and feelings, provoking a memory that stimulates a sense of touch or smell. Or it may stimulate a sense of horror at the inevitability of death. In any of these cases, sound is thought to reveal an attachment, a memory, and to give rise to composition in the poet's effort to reshape memory and feeling in lyric form. But such articulations do not always come out as evenly as this description may imply. Indeed, moans, screams, stutters, cries, and the madness of possession by the Muses are part of lyric's history and practice. In this course, we will read from African American, African diasporic, Caribbean, Latina/o/x, and Indigenous poetics, and we will consider their relation to myth and musical forms, such as the blues, son, bomba, biguine, jazz, reggae, hip-hop, salsa, among others. The dynamics between lyric speakers and musicians, sound and story, seen and voiced language will play out. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(ENGL) |
Major Readings:
We'll read selections by the following poets, poet-theorists, and literary and music theorists: Langston Hughes, Nicolas Guillén, Vachel Lindsay, James Weldon Johnson, Sterling Brown, Federico García Lorca, Michael S. Harper, Sonia Sanchez, Yusef Komunyakaa, Miguel Algarín, Pedro Pietri, Michael Smith, Edouard Glissant, Nathaniel Mackey, Fred Moten, Michael Stone Richards, Alexander Weheliye, Jacques Attali, Rown Ricardo Phillips, Kevin Young, and Tracey K. Smith.
A soundtrack of blues, bomba, biguine, jazz, reggae, salsa, and hip-hop will accompany the course and be provided to students by the instructor.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Two short essays, one peer-editing written piece/intervention, final research essay |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literatures of Difference and Theory requirements and contributes to the American Literature, Race & Ethnicity, and Theory & Literary Forms concentrations of the English major. |
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