The Politics of Poetic Form
English 694-The Politics of Poetic Form
English 694
Charles Bernstein
Spring 1991
Thursday 12:30 - 3:10
Clemens Hall 438
The Politics of Poetic Form: The Peripheral 2
** required text at Talking Leaves
* means limited number of copies available at Talking Leaves
PR -- available in the Poetry Room, Room 420
X -- in Kinko's packet or handout
1/2. High, Middle, & Low: Art and Its Others (Jan. 23 & 30)
Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture -- "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" &
"The Plight of Culture" (X, L)
Deleuze/Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature*, esp chap. 3
(X, L)
Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Woman, Native, Other**(L)
Politics of Poetic Form**, ed. Bernstein (all but Silliman,
McGann, hereafter PPF)
3. Theories of Ideology (Feb. 7)
John Berger, Ways of Seeing* (L)
John Thompson, Studies in the Theory of Ideology* (X, L)
Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" in
Lenin and Philosophy* (L)
4. Poetry as Discourse -- Antony Easthope (Feb. 14)
Easthope, Poetry as Discourse**(L)
Easthope will be present
5. North of McCaffery (Feb 21)
McCaffery: North of Intention**, The Black Debt**, Panopticon*
(PR)
Works in PR
McCaffery will be present.
6. Engendering Creeley (Feb. 28)
Collected Poems**(L, PR)
Collected Prose**(L, PR), esp.: "Mabel: A Story" "Listen: A Play"
"A Dress"
Essay by Ted Pearson (X)
Creeley will be present
7. Leslie Scalapino (March 7):
How Phenomenon Appear to Unfold**, Way**, That They Were at the
Beach* (and all in PR)
Works in PR
Frank O'Hara: "Second Avenue"(X)
Scalapino will be present
8. Mainstream, Outside, & Not Around -- Poetry and Communities
(March 14)
Michelle Wallace, "Invisibility Blues" (X)
Jed Rasula, "Nietzche in the Nursery" (X)
Alan Golding in Canons, ed. von Hallberg (X) (L)
PPF essay by Silliman
Clayton Eshleman, "The Gospel According to Norton" (X)
Packet from the National Association of Scholars (X)
Patterns, Contexts, Time**, ed. Bernstein (PR, Tyuonyi 6/7)
Course lists (X)
9. Antholgy Wars (March 21)
mostly (L or PR) & limited copies at Talking Leaves
Each participant will be assigned two for class presenation.
Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets (PRB and on order L)
American Poetry Since 1970: Up Late, ed. Andrei Codrescu (L)
"Language" Poetries, ed. Douglas Messerli (L)
In the American Tree, ed. Ron Silliman (on order for L)
The Maverick Poets, ed. Steve Kowit (on order for L)
A Gift of Tongues (L) & An Ear to the Ground (on order for L),
ed. Harris & Aguero
The Direction of Poetry, ed. Richmond (on order for L); out of
print so alternative at Talking Leaves is Strong Measures
Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Times, ed. Morse & Larkin (on order
for L)
(continued as necessary April 11)
10/11. The Politics of Romanticism / The Politics of Textual
Editing -- Jerome McGann (April 4, 11)
The Romantic Ideology** (L), A Critique of Modern Textual
Criticism** (X on reserve)
PPF essay on Byron
plus X of essays on Coolidge, Blake, Pound, Silliman
& see (L): Swinburne, The Beauty of Inflections, Social Values
and Poetic Acts
McGann will be present April 4
12. Politics of Gender -- Rachel DuPlessis (April 18)
Rachel DuPlessis's The Pink Guitar*, Tabula Rasa* (L/PR)
& on reserve (L): Writing Beyond Ending
Kathleen Fraser, "The Tradition of Marginality (X)
Duplessis will be present
13. Robin Blaser (April 25)
Works in PR
Pell Mell**
Essay in Line #1 (X)
14. Last Class (May 2)