- Poetics and Power

Institution:

The Evergreen State College

Subject:

Description:

Faculty: Leonard Schwartz (poetics, creative writing), Steve Niva (international politics, political philosophy) Major areas of study include poetics, poetry, literature, political science, cultural studies and creative writing. Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome. Prerequisites: Faculty signature required (see below). Faculty Signature: Students must submit a portfolio of seven to ten pages of poetry or critical writing to the faculty. For information, contact Leonard Schwartz, (360) 867-5412 or schwartl@evergreen. edu or Steve Niva, (360) 867-5612 or nivas@evergreen. edu. Portfolios received by the Academic Fair, May 16, 2007, will be given priority. Qualified students will be accepted until the program fills. To what extent is political power created, transmitted and/or resisted through language How do poetry and fiction negotiate with power, reinforcing it or changing its flow How do linguistic conventions shape political and economic policies, and how can they be challenged This two-quarter program will examine these and other questions as it explores the function of the written word as a masking agent and a mediator of history, power and violence in a variety of different genres and political contexts. Poetics and Power will include an examination of 20th-century poetry and poetics in the shadow of world wars, genocide and decolonization, beginning with the visionary poetics of Arthur Rimbaud and critical responses by Paul Celan and Theodore Adorno. We will address the strategies of avant-garde and radical poetics and evaluate several contemporary approaches, including the contemporary "Poets Against the War" project. We will examine realist and anti-representational forms of fiction for their political effects, including the writings of Franz Kafka, J. M. Coetzee and Arundhati Roy. We will also examine how political events and public policies are constituted by various postcolonial discourses, including how "Orientalist" representations of the Middle East as backwards and violent shape U. S. foreign policy, and how the discourse of "underdevelopment" has guided Western economic policies towards the Third World. The work of the program will be analytical as well as creative. In addition to intensive reading and theoretical analysis, students will be expected to experiment in creating poetry, prose poetry, metafiction and nonfiction. Total: 16 credits each quarter. Enrollment: 50 Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the humanities, social sciences, cultural studies, poetry, journalism and politics.

Credits:

16.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.evergreen.edu

Phone Number:

(360) 867-6170

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Quarter

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