Fall 2024 Writing UN3321 section 001

Ecopoetics

Poetry Seminar - Ecopoeti

Call Number 13562
Day & Time
Location
M 12:10pm-2:00pm
317 Hamilton Hall
Points 3
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Samantha Zighelboim
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

“There are things / We live among ‘and to see them / Is to know ourselves.’”

George Oppen, “Of Being Numerous”

In this class we will read poetry like writers that inhabit an imperiled planet, understanding our poems as being in direct conversation both with the environment as well as writers past and present with similar concerns and techniques. Given the imminent ecological crises we are facing, the poems we read will center themes of place, ecology, interspecies dependence, the role of humans in the destruction of the planet, and the “necropastoral” (to borrow a term from Joyelle McSweeney), among others. We will read works by poets and writers such as (but not limited to) John Ashbery, Harryette Mullen, Asiya Wadud, Wendy Xu, Ross Gay, Simone Kearney, Kim Hyesoon, Marcella Durand, Arthur Rimbaud, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Muriel Rukeyser, George Oppen, Terrance Hayes, Juliana Spahr, and W.S. Merwin—reading several full collections as well as individual poems and essays by scholars in the field.

Through close readings, in-class exercises, discussions, and creative/critical writings, we will invest in and investigate facets of the dynamic lyric that is aware of its environs (sound, image, line), while also exploring traditional poetic forms like the Haibun, ode, prose poem, and elegy. Additionally, we will seek inspiration in outside mediums such as film, visual art, and music, as well as, of course, the natural world. As a class, we will explore the highly individual nature of writing processes and talk about building writing practices that are generative as well as sustainable.

Web Site Vergil
Department Writing
Enrollment 12 students (15 max) as of 9:05PM Friday, December 13, 2024
Subject Writing
Number UN3321
Section 001
Division Interfaculty
Fee $15 Creative Writing C
Section key 20243WRIT3321W001