Proseminar Modern American Poetry

Many students regard the study of poetry as difficult, intimidating, or downright boring. This need not be the case if we do not see poems as awe-inspiring repositories of profound wisdom, waiting for us to identify their timeless messages (only one message per poem, please!). Instead, we could try a different approach and see them as riddles with many answers, as games waiting to be played, as lines waiting to be performed. Interested? In this seminar we will do close readings of a wide range of modern American poems and try to explore their stylistic and semantic potentials, to reconstruct the cultural, political, and historical contexts of the times in which they were written and to analyse recurring topics such as gender, class and race. We will concentrate on the modern period (~1910-1945), but we will also read poems written in the periods before and after. A full reading list will be provided in mid-April. For the first session, please prepare the following poems by Robert Frost: -Mending Wall-, -The Road Not Taken-, -Fire and Ice-, -Nothing Gold Can Stay-, -Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening-, -Departmental-, -Desert Places-, -Design-, -Neither Out Far Nor In Deep-, -Once By the Pacific- -Provide, Provide-, -The Gift Outright- + his short essay -The Figure a Poem Makes- Attendance at the first session is mandatory because here will be a short quiz on the poems and the essay. All texts are included in the Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol. D (7th edition, ed. Nina Baym). This volume is recommended for purchase. VoraussetzungenSuccessful completion of the Introduction to literary studies (OK). The willingness to read widely and thoroughly and to participate in class discussions. LeistungsnachweisRegular attendance, active participation, research paper (12-15 standard pages) & a short oral report. FB 02 Institut für Anglistik / Amerikanistik Uni Kassel SS 2009 English and American Studies Wirtschaftspädagogik Dr. Heiler Lars