Description

A systematic introduction to the levels and objects of analysis pertinent to modern (i.e. post-Saussurean) poetics. We'll conceive of "poetics" as a mode of inquiry into the full spectrum of social activities through which poetry enters the world. We'll draw on a variety of resources in the course of our collective and individual researches, including the hermeneutics of Freud and Gadamer, the formal analyses and theories of literary evolution articulated by the Russian Formalists and Czech Structuralists, the work of French post-structuralists like Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes, the cultural studies of Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu, and statements by poets ranging from Poe, Hopkins, and Valery through to the contemporary moment. No prior work in poetics or critical theory is presupposed (with one exception noted below).

Note: Students will be expected to have read Aristotle's Poetics closely (and recently) prior to the first class meeting.

Required Texts

Bakhtin & Medvedev, The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship
Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method
Roman Jakobson, Language in Literature
Julia Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language
Lemon & Reis, eds. Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays
Matejka & Pomorska, Readings in Russian Poetics
Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics
Tzvetan Todorov, Introduction to Poetics
Raymond Williams, The Sociology of Culture

Recommended Texts

Derek Attridge, Poetic Rhythm
Reuven Tsur, What Makes Sound Patterns Expressive
New Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms

Evaluation

Seminar Paper of twenty pages
Five annotated bibliography entries
Frequent brief (ten minute) in-class presentations on assigned readings

Rough Outline of Readings: Detailed Reading Syllabus Here

week 1

Introduction, Aristotle's Poetics

week 2

Todorov, Introduction to Poetics
Bourdieu, "The Field of Cultural Production" (handout)
Jakobson, "Linguistics and Poetics" (in Language in Literature)

week 3

Saussure, Course in General Linguistics
Brooks, "Aesthetics and Ideology" (handout)
Perloff, "In Defense of Poetry" (on-line)
Bourdieu, The Rules of Art

week 4

Saussure, Course in General Linguistics
Bourdieu, The Rules of Art

week 5

Freud, Interpretation of Dreams
Lacan, "The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious" (handout)
Bourdieu, The Rules of Art

week 6

Gadamer, Truth and Method
Bourdieu, The Rules of Art

week 7

Lemon & Reis, Russian Formalist Criticism
Bourdieu, The Rules of Art

SPRING BREAK

week 8

Jakobson, Language in Literature
Williams, Sociology of Culture

week 9

Jakobson, Language in Literature
Williams, Sociology of Culture

week 10

Matejka & Pomorska, Readings in Russian Poetics
Williams, Sociology of Culture

week 11

Matejka & Pomorska, Readings in Russian Poetics
Williams, Sociology of Culture

week 12

Bakhtin / Medvedev, The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship
Williams, Sociology of Culture

week13

Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language
Williams, Sociology of Culture

week 14

Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language
Williams, Sociology of Culture