English 494WI - Whitman and His Legacy

Poetry as a literary form often calls us to interpret it. Our primary task is to say what a poem means. But poetry can also be taught as a highly "integrative" art that is always engaged with "real-world problems" and to which we respond not just with interpretation, but with narration and explanation. Now our primary task becomes to explain what a poem does, or what we can do with a poem. This course builds on English majors' interpretive skills to lead them into these integrative powers of poetry. After students have discovered and explored them, they will be challenged to speak and write about poetry in ways that are also explanatory ? that enable their audience to understand and make use of poetry by integrating it with what they already think or know. We will also explore narrative as a powerful mode of explanation. Three main questions will shape our path into the integrative powers of poetry and lead us to discover that it deals with questions and issues that animate inquiry in many academic disciplines. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Engl majors.

This class is open to Senior English majors only ENGLISH 200 w/ C or E200 This class is intended for English Primary Majors only.