English 204
CRAFT OF POETRY
WORLDLY PROSODIES

Tuesdays, 2:30-5 in Stern 6

Juliana Spahr
Mills Hall 315
office hours: Tuesdays 10-11:30 am

 

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While the world is rich with poetic forms, formalism in the United States has tended to act as if the forms of Europe are the only ones around. This course is an attempt to study poetic forms from elsewhere. I have chosen five forms or sets of forms to begin with: haibun and renga; ghazal; lament and chant; balah, zamil, and qasidah; and ghinnawa. We will spend two weeks on each form. The first week we will read a wide range of example poems and some critical discussion of the form. Most of the poetry will be read in translation. A great deal of the critical reading will be anthropological. We will obviously have to spend some time discussing the politics of cultural appropriation and borrowing. The second week we will continue to discuss the form by attempting to write something in it. Participants will do presentations on additional forms and a final creative or critical project. Disclaimer: I am not a world poetry expert and my plan is for us to explore these forms together. Most of them are new to me, perhaps newer to me than they are to you.