ENGH 608: Craft Seminars

ENGH 608-001: Moore and Neidecker
(Fall 2012)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM M

Section Information for Fall 2012

We will read and write our way through these two great poets of the 20th c, one a Modernist, one an Objectivist, who offer two distinct and distinctly American voices. Split them by their urban/rural identities, their insider/outsider status, their complex or spare syntax. Or pair them by their Dickinson influence; their deep interest in craft and in gender; their invention of new stanza forms; their quick minds and lovely wit; their poems of nature, and of travel; their enjoyment of research to feed their poems. Moore offers a palette of syllabics, rhyme, free verse, catalog, collage, cubism, ekphrasis, a curious relationship to the power she wielded as an influential editor, and an over-determined relationship to gender that led one critic to describe her as a “female female impersonator.” Niedecker counters with a short-line, ear-sensitive free verse studded with rhyme, collage, a touch of surrealism, class consciousness, a unique crossbreeding of folk roots and avant-garde sophistication, an especially pure dose of what we now call ecopoetics, and acute consciousness of her own marginal position as a poor female rural writer. / Secondary reading will be included but not dominant. Class time will be roughly half discussion of our reading and half workshop. Written work will be all or nearly all poems. Beyond that, you may customize the course to suit your needs. Those reading these poets for the exam may want to read additional biographical and critical works. Those interested in closely related poets (Bishop or Zukofsky, e.g.) may want to add them into the mix. We will also devote a little time to poets these two have influenced. Required texts: Niedecker’s Collected Works (ed. Penberthy, 2002) and The Poems of Marianne Moore (ed. Schulman, 2005). Be sure to get the right editions, as earlier collections are inadequate.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Non-MFA students seeking permission must submit manuscript of original written work in appropriate genre. Various sections offer work in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, each focusing in different ways on the practices and the craft development of writers. Numerous writing assignments mixed with reading followed by careful analytical and craft discussions. Notes: Assignments vary with genre and specific topic. May be taken concurrently with ENGH 564, 565, 566. Offered by English. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 15 credits.
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies
Recommended Prerequisite: Admission to MFA program or ENGH 494, ENGH 492, ENGH 486, or permission of instructor. Non-MFA students must submit manuscript for review prior to registration.
Registration Restrictions:

Enrollment limited to students with a class of Advanced to Candidacy, Graduate, Junior Plus, Non-Degree or Senior Plus.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate, Non-Degree or Undergraduate level students.

Students in a Non-Degree Undergraduate degree may not enroll.

Schedule Type: Seminar
Grading:
This course is graded on the Graduate Regular scale.

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