Department of English

The books we’ll examine are declarations: this formation of poets and ideas EXISTS and it is NEW. To anthologize is not simply to gather in print but also to make historical. Of the editors and poets we will ask, what criteria of newness does each anthology offer? Who and what determined who was in, who was out? As opposed to what each anthology proposes as new and necessary poetic information, what stale poetry is to be cleared away?   

Note that the course is taught in TWO PARTS. Part 1 covers the post-war period through the 1980s (through Language poetry) and Part 2 covers postmodern and contemporary poetry up to the present. Spring 2022 will be a Part 1 semester.

We will use a course reader (you can but will not need to purchase all of these big books) likely to include selections from the following: The New American Poetry, Black Fire, The Angel Hair Anthology, The LANGUAGE Book (Poetics of the New).

Weekly response papers (on poems and poets of the week) and a final paper of approximately 10 pages.