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=AMERICAN POETRY AND THE SELF wiki=

This Wiki will serve as a place for finding supplemental readings from our course syllabus and, later in the course, information on readings and other poetry events. We may also use this Wiki as a site for discussing poetry events between class sessions (more on this to come). For now, below please find the readings for our upcoming classes as PDFs.

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__Class 1: The Lyric "I"__
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__Class 3: Gertrude Stein__
Note: short assignment #1 is due in class. Please bring a hard copy with you. Please find the readings below.

As mentioned in my email, class will be held at my apartment: 248 Wyckoff Street Apt 3B Brooklyn 11217. As my buzzer is broken, please call if I don't see you and buzz you in: 203.927.9178. See you all at 9:00! I'll have some bagels or something like that, too.



__**Class 4: Wallace Stevens**__
Note: Please read the following poems, in addition to those listed on the syllabus: "A Postcard from the Volcano," "Prologues to What Is Possible," "The Rock," and "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven." If it helps to have it all in one place, the syllabus asks you to read from Stevens: "The Idea of Order at Key West," "The Poems of Our Climate," "The Man on the Dump," "Of Modern Poetry," and "Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour." I should say, "Ordinary Evening in New Haven" is a long poem and one we might spend a little time on, so I'd suggest reading that a few times at least.

Also, of course, please read the Adorno text:

__Class 5: I, Too__
Note: I have altered the reading list slightly, so please read what I've included in these PDFs and disregard what's on the syllabus. We'll spend the first half of class focusing on Hughes's essay and the poems from the 1920s and 30s (by Hughes, Johnson, Cullen, and McKay). Then we'll spend the rest of class on the post-War poems of Gwendolyn Brooks--we're reading her entire book //Annie Allen//--and the essay by Lesley Wheeler (and maybe make a note on the Knight poem). PDFs of the texts follow:



Class 7: The New York School
Note: we'll spend the first two-thirds of class discussing Ashbery's extraordinary "Self-Portrait," and then turn to O'Hara poems. I've included some of O'Hara's poems that Andrew Epstein discusses in his book chapter, which we can also discuss--though I'll suggest that you don't have to read *everything* in Epstein's essay, which is on the long side. Perhaps, after getting his basic argument down, you might focus on one or two of his close readings that follow. I've also included a link to the image that Ashbery's poem is describing. It will be really useful to look at this image as you read the poem.

Also, please remember that we're meeting at Jen's apartment for our next class, which is on Saturday, April 21. Her address is: 3515 84th St 1B Jackson Heights 11372.

Enjoy your break and see you all then! Raf



Class 8: It's not me, it's L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E talking
Note: the syllabus says we'll be reading Lyn Hejinian's "My Life," though I've switched that reading to Ron Silliman's "The Chinese Notebook." I will also bring in to class, or perhaps provide beforehand, one other example of "Language School" poetry, either a selection from Hejinian's poem or a short work by Charles Bernstein.

Class 9: Poetry in Performance
The essay for our final class is posted below. In addition to this, I'll post some clips of poetry in performance soon.