Lyric Poetry and Music: The Color and Politics of Cry, Sound, and Voice
ENGL 304
Fall 2014
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
AMST 302 |
| Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
Lyric poetry is often said to 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, smell, or the image of a certain kind of light. Or it may stimulate a sense of horror at the inevitability of oblivion. In any of these cases, sound is thought to give rise to composition and to the poet's effort to reshape memory and experience 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 the African American, black diasporic, Caribbean, and Latina/o poetic traditions, and we will consider their relation to Homeric and African griot traditions and to musical forms of the U.S. South and the Caribbean, such as the blues, son, bomba, biguine, jazz, reggae, and salsa. We will study the dynamic between lyric speakers and the musicians embodied in the words of blues and jazz poems and the relationship between hip-hop and dub and slam poetries. |
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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) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
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. |
| Instructor(s): Ellis Neyra,Rachel Times: .M.W... 11:00AM-12:20PM; Location: WYL115; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 25 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 7 | | |
| Seats Available: 2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 5 | JR non-major: 5 | SO: 3 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 3 | 1st Ranked: 1 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 1 | Unranked: 1 |
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