Sound Poetics

Professor Loss Glazier

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Experimental poetry, sound poetry, and digital media poetry share certain features of improvisation, composition, and structure. This seminar will concentrate on a close examination of innovative literary and media forms from the perspective of sound. It will involve careful reading of experimental poetry, close listening to sound poetry, and examination of digital media works, where applicable. The point will be to establish a framework for what might be innovative in relation to digital media design. This seminar will allow students the chance to examine a wide range of experimental poetry and sound works, with an emphasis on hearing the potential for innovative sound through a focus on the marginal, the "other", jazz, dissonance, and works where meaning is problemmatized. Attendance is crucial. Students will design a final project based on material discussed in class. Primary text: Adalaide Morris, ed., Sound States. Other texts: Stacy Doris: Conference (Poets & Poets); Rodrigo Toscano, The Disparities (Green Integer); Juliana Spahr, Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You (Wesleyan); Bruce Andrews, Getting Ready to Have Been Frightened (Sun & Moon). Also required: Listening/reading of numerous recorded works and online materials. Recommended: Charles Bernstein, ed., Close Listening.