LARTS 349 Contemporary American Poetry
This course will examine a complex range of poetic traditions and forms that have contributed to the richness of contemporary poetry. We will explore the relationship between poetic form and its historical contexts, attending to the intricate ways contemporary poetic practice registers new modes of consciousness in order to break down and challenge norms and hierarchies of being, language, and belonging. As poet Robert Duncan says, “A poem is an event; it is not a record of the event.” Reading and listening to the work of some of the most innovative and visionary poets of our time, we will think closely and rigorously about syntax, placement of words, speaker, imagery and figurative language, levels of diction, point of view, historical context, and word choice, while also listening for tone, sounds, pacing, line breaks, and rhythmic effects. Over the course of the semester, we will engage docupoetry, ecopoetry, queer and trans poetry, innovative Black women’s poetry, Jazz poetry, conceptual poetry, poetry of disability, and Native American poetry, as well as poetry and poetic traditions that are non-Western and decolonial in their politics and aesthetics. As Audre Lorde reminds us, “Poetry is not only dream and vision…It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.” As a community of artists, we will take up and explore poetry’s radical imagination this semester.