English 331 - Poetry II: Docupoetics

This advanced critical-creative hybrid course’s goal is to study, and develop the craft vocabulary for an artistic practice of, an emerging genre known as the documentary poem: the use of poetic form and craft techniques to engage, or otherwise bear witness to, questions of historical significance, in and beyond the realm of the “personal” lyric. In critically examining the historical material conditions that make such a genre popular today, this course will ask participants to rigorously consider questions of positionality and witness, archives and their colonial erasures, along and against questions of poetic form, voice, and the politics of language. Class time will center theory-informed discussion of research-based and activist creative works, including readings by Anthony Cody, Layli Long Soldier, Courtney Faye Taylor, Solmaz Sharif, M NourbeSe Phillip, and Quenton Baker, alongside theoretical interventions by Sylvia Wynter, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, and more. Students will present original documentary poetry for peer critique in workshops, and the class will culminate in a final project that involves shared engagement of a local archive (to be discussed).

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Christoff and Writer-in-Residence Abraham.

How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to English majors and seniors.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on refining creative writing craft language and practice, critical analysis of contemporary literature, high-level theoretical readings, discussions of difficult histories and activism, and the production of a research-based poetic work