Department of English
Late Modernist Long Poems: Their social and political grounds, their formal issues, their claims in poetics
A graduate seminar under the rubric Temple-Penn Poetics. Readings from about the 1940s to the 1970s will include Charles Olson, George Oppen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Melvin Tolson, Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, H.D., Aimé Césaire (in translation), Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Allen Ginsberg. Emphasis on the meaning of "late modernism" as a rubric, on the historical context as affecting poet and text--including WWII, the bomb, the Holocaust, colonial relations, debates on race and rights, gender and sexuality, the question of national culture. We will investigate and critique some of claims in poetics; thus the essays and ancillary texts of poets will be deployed. There will be some critical reading on the meanings and pursuits of late modernism.
This course will be co-taught by Bob Perelman, University of Pennsylvania and Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Temple University. Professor Perelman will be in charge of grading Penn students; Professor DuPlessis will be in charge of grading Temple students. Enrollment is limited to graduate students. Some schedule and student adjustments may be necessary to accommodate calendar differences between the schools. Requirements: TK, but commensurate with graduate-level study.
Undergraduates are not permitted to take 700-level courses.