Digital, Sound, & Experimental Poetries Seminar, Fall 2001
TU 7-9:40 PM, 6 Clemens
Professor Loss Glazier

READING PRESENTATION

I am pleased to say that I have found your responses so good this semester that I am not going to give the quizzes (10%) mentioned in the syllabus. What I think will be useful instead is a different sort of assignment, a reading presentation (10%), something much more suited to the excellent reading skills you all show.

The reading presentation will require no additional reading on your part and may even be undertaken as an expanded form of one of your responses. What this presentation will entail is as follows. For each one of the four visiting poets (Doris, Toscano, Spahr, or Andrews), three students will prepare a one-page "reading" of the assigned work of the poet. [Stacy Doris: Conference (Poets & Poets); Rodrigo Toscano, Partisans (O Books); Juliana Spahr, Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You (Wesleyan); Bruce Andrews, Getting Ready to Have Been Frightened (Sun & Moon).] Please bring an extra copy of your reading presentation to class to hand in to me.

What is a "reading"? A reading is an opinion, interpretation, analysis, or response to the poet's book. This can be a straight response to the work, an interpretation of what the poet is saying in the work, or the posing of questions that the work raises for you.

You will read your reading presentation to the visiting poet and the combined classes on the assigned day. This will be a way of responding to the poet's work and a way to further discussion on topics their work raises. (Three students will respond from each of the combined classes.) NOTE: These classes will be held in 438 Clemens (10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 11/27).

(You must be sure to attend on the day your presentation is assigned. If an emergency arises have a fellow classmate read your presentation for you. It must be read on the assigned date, except for documentable critical emergencies!)

I would like you to be as thoughtful as possible when you prepare your reading. You can do some background reading or other research if it will help, but it should be enough to read the assigned book, think about it, and express your thoughts in your own words.

Reading presentations should be one page long, double-spaced. Emphasis should be on your own earnest reflects on the assigned text. What does it mean to you? What is it trying to say? What issues does it raise? How does it accomplish its goals? Do you have questions for the poet about the text? Also think about: SOUND. How does sound communicate the text's message or give the text an identity? How does it sound? CONTEXT. How does it compare to other texts we have studied in class, especially from the point of view of sound? What specific comparisons might you make?

If you have any questions about your reading presentation please let me know!