ENGL-259 Poetry and Poetics

Faculty:

Rifkin, Libbie

We will be reading a wide range of poetry, from oral poetry and ballads to many of the canonical figures to contemporaries of varying stripes. In addition, we'll read a number of the major statements in poetics, from Plato to Shelley to the contemporary avant-garde. This field, obviously huge, will be focused by continual reference to Modernist through contemporary writing, where histories of primary and long lasting questions continue to surface. Does poetry derive from divine inspiration or personal imagination or collective deliberation? What is the relationship between poetic language and the “real”? Is poetry civilized or elemental? Was Plato right in kicking the poets out of his Republic? What sort of work (imaginative, emotional, social, political) can poetry do?

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: ENGL 040, 041, 042, or 043

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Spring '11: Rifkin, Libbie (file download)

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• 2007-2008 Fall and Spring
• 2009-2010 Fall and Spring
• 2012-2013 Fall and Spring

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