LIT 213(S) Poetry and Being

The course will attempt to show that poetry is central to any study of the humanities. Students will examine a number of problems-philosophical, historical, aesthetic, ethical, political-in order to determine how poets have experienced these problems and have tried to resolve them in their works. The interaction of poetic forms of expression with the experiences of living will be studied according to the following relationships: 1) poetry and history; 2) poetry and death; 3) poetry and language; 4) poetry and nature; 5) poetry and childhood; 6) poetry and power; and 7) poetry in its relation to memory and loss. Poetic and critical works by Celan, Sachs, Sutzkever (and other poets of the Holocaust), Williams, Rilke, Plath, Ashbery, Bishop, Rich, Ammons, Stevens, Walcott, Larkin, Ponge, and Baudelaire will be studied (in translation). Conducted in English. Requirements: three papers, one midterm, and class presentations.

Hour:  STAMELMAN