English 303ap - Seminar: Topics in American Literature-American Poetry in the Age of Emergency

What is poetry’s role in bearing witness to an age of seemingly unremitting emergency? How can poets represent and respond to ongoing crises such as collapsing public health infrastructure, racialized police brutality and environmental devastation? Conversely, what is poetry’s relationship to highly mediatized “crisis events” like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina? Through literary and cultural analysis, this course explores and historicizes the concept of “emergency” in the United States. What is a state of emergency, and who gets to declare it? Moving between shorter, witness-based poems and longform documentary poems, the class considers how poetry can compel people to reimagine the terms upon which crises are rendered socially, politically and culturally legible. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required.

[CE] JR/SR only