“You can’t have art without resistance in the materials.” William Morris
Basic Information
- ENG 3740: Studies in Poetry (The Materials of Poetry)
- MW 3:30-4:45 (Fall 2022)
- Dr. Leonardo Flores
- Website: leonardoflores.net/poetry
Course Description
What is poetry made of? This language art is created, stored, and communicated using material forms such as human bodies, writing in paper and other physical materials, audio and video recordings, and in digital media. This course is an introduction to the strategies used the most concentrated mode of literary creation: poetry. In poetry everything potentially contributes to the experience: words in all their meanings, connotations, and allusions, their sounds, rhymes, and rhythms, their visual arrangement on the page or screen, and the traditions that shape them into poetic forms. This course aims to attune its students to the artistry and traditions that inform poetry, providing a critical vocabulary for their appreciation, analysis, and study of this literary form. It is also an introduction to media studies, because it will explore ways in which poetry explores the materiality of different media in meaningful ways.
Course Objectives
This course is going to enhance your poetry toolkit, so you can better appreciate and analyze the critical artistry and cultural importance of poetic literary works. More importantly, you will come to understand how different media and materials have an impact on the presentation and signifying strategies of language. This will allow you to enhance your analytical toolkit with media-specific analysis. Finally, you will become a more effective reader and communicator as you become attuned to the poetic function of language.
See video flyer below:
Flyer for ENG 3740: The Materials of Poetry
