Techniques of Poetry: Hidden Histories
ENGL 216A
Fall 2024
| Section:
01
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Through a series of immersive reading and writing experiments, we will work toward uncovering and preserving histories that might otherwise be forgotten. In order to do this, we will study the documentary and investigative techniques poets have employed while attempting to write about hard-to-articulate events like grief, secrecy, unrecorded events, ecological disasters and environmental concerns, traumas, racism, gender politics, bright-but-fleeting moments of existence, and hauntings of all kinds. We will read and record accounts that cannot be told but must be told. We will work to uncover--and possibly heal--areas of historical numbness. We will explore poetry's relationship to preservation and the dynamic bonds between representation and reparation. And we will rewire history through history, making use of archival materials, public testimony, newspaper accounts, photographs, family documents, and more.
Guided by critical and creative investigations, in-class writing experiments, and extended projects, students will compose poems inspired by their own research. There will be presentations on the literature we read, as well as class discussions and workshops of one another's creative work. The class will culminate in a book arts project and a reflective essay.
Special attention will also be given to cultivating community and the benefits of sustaining an embodied artistic practice during extreme times and how doing so may benefit the health of the whole artist. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ENGL)(ENGL-Creative W)(ENGL-Literature) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Cole Swensen, GRAVESEND
Jennifer S. Cheng, HOUSE A
Solmaz Sharif, LOOK
Ross Gay, BE HOLDING
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Examinations and Assignments:
There will be bi-weekly presentations on the literature we read, as well as class discussions and workshops of one another's creative work. The class will culminate in a book arts project and a reflective essay.
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course contributes to the fulfillment of ENG major requirements: CW requirement, CW path (but not 300-level or upper workshop), elective.
The English department highly recommends that students be enrolled in only one CW course in a semester. If you are admitted to more than one CW course, the department requests that you choose one and let the instructors know during Adjustment Period. By doing so you will be considerate of instructors and other students. |
| Instructor(s): Vogel,Danielle Times: ...W... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 5 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 5 | FR: 5 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 4 | 1st Ranked: 1 | 2nd Ranked: 1 | 3rd Ranked: 2 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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