[Cwgrad-announcements] Chris Abani's Spring Graduate Poetry Syllabus

[Andrew Winer]

Graduate Poetry SyllabusDear MFAs,

Please see Professor Chris Abani's syllabus below.

Best,
Andrew


Graduate Poetry Workshop Syllabus. Spring 2008. Prof. Abani
Obscurity and The Veil of Meaning.

"Lyric obscurity is a fact, perhaps the only fact divulged by a poem"
Daniel Tiffany.
 
This workshop is designed to present the student with the opportunity to become a more nuanced reader, of his or her own work and of the work of other writers (some of whom maybe also be in the workshop). The belief is that we become better writers only after we become better readers. With that in mind we will attempt a series of exercises and readings, combined with the usual peer workshop approach, to achieve this craft of nuanced reading. As writers we find ourselves often locked into our own unique language of expression and yet we seldom find the distance to examine, analyze and gain perspective on these languages, much less achieve the ability to expand, explore, rearrange and when necessary change them. We will come to terms with the obscurity and even opaqueness of these languages and ask true questions about how much they can and even should reveal. This will help us contain meaning within our work, while solving the paradox of simultaneously moving beyond it.  We will hopefully learn the relationship between obscurity and the poem, and also explore the paradigm of being and identity as obscurity. 
Each student must read the chapters of M.M. Bakhtin that are given by the professor. They will discuss these in detail and be able to apply the ideas raised by Bakhtin to their own work and the work of their classmates.
 
Requirements:
 
1.    Each student must bring to class 3 poems of their own that they want to work on. There should be enough copies for everyone one in class, including the professor. The numbers can be found on GROWL. These must be hard copies, and in 12-point font, except where the font and layout are integral to the poems aesthetic thrust.

2.    Over the course of the workshop, those three poems will be revised to take into account ideas and suggestions raised in class and then resubmitted to classmates and the professor.

3.    Each student will be expected to complete 3 poems each during the quarter based on the ideas raised in class. Those poems will be submitted by the sixth week to the whole class, and any revisions should be submitted to the professor before the final day of instruction (see academic calendar). One of these poems must be in jargon - more explanation will be offered in class.

4.    Students will work in groups of 3 or more to solve a selection of the Exeter Riddles. To make this work, please do not read or research these riddles in advance of class.

5.    Students will work in groups of 2 to make 2-minute silent movies around ideas generated in workshop.



We will discuss the work in relation to staging, architecture, meaning, obscurity and subjectivity.




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/cwgrad-announcements/attachments/20080320/6a006589/attachment.html