ENW.2025 Poetics
This course examines the wide range of poetry analysis (i.e., "poetics") from the ancient Greece, China, and Japan to the contemporary moment. In this class, students will engage the writings of Aristotle, classical Chinese, and classical Japanese poetry and poetics to form the foundation for their study of contemporary poetic theories. From here, students will examine and discuss one of the key transitional texts of early Modernism to which Chinese and Japanese poetics were so vital: Ernest Fenellosa's "The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry" (edited by Ezra Pound). After two weeks of reading and discussing the poetry and poetics of writers from the Black Arts Movement (and particularly the use of Japanese poetic forms by Black Arts poet Sonia Sanchez), the semester will conclude by students trying to create their own "poetics" to describe the work of poets from the contemporary moment and two important anthologies in the "Breakbeat Poets" series: Black Girl Magic and Halal If You Can Hear Me. Students will make in-class presentations and write brief papers that examine the evolving relationships between these classical and contemporary moments of action and interaction.
LA
Prerequisite
Prerequisite: ENW.1013