Reading and Writing Poetry: Conjuring El Duende
LIT4147.01
Course Description
Summary
For Federico GarcÃa Lorca, the duende was an elusive, powerful aspect of the poem. Poetry that embodies the duende carries within it the capacity to transmit life’s most tragic and enraptured states. The duende is the mark of a fully realized poetics. As poets, then, what does it mean to channel Lorca’s duende into our own writing? Is Lorca’s creative ecstasy possible for us mere mortals? Throughout CONJURING EL DUENDE, students will work towards their own fully realized poetic practices, through ongoing in-class feedback. We will draw inspiration from poets who attempt to scale the spiritual peak that Lorca defines, visiting the edges of human rationality, the boundary between life and death, the euphoria of dance and music, the horrors of national tragedies, and the slipperiness of gender transition. Book list: Duende, Tracy K. Smith In Search of Duende, Federico Garcia Lorca Compassion: The Culture and Politics of an Emotion, edited by Lauren Berlant Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials, Reza Negarestani Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, Torrin A. Greathouse This Great Unknowing: Last Poems, Denise LevertovPrerequisites
To apply, students should send a sample of 5-8 poems via this form by November 17. Students will be notified of acceptance into the class by November 22.
Please contact the faculty member : anduplan@bennington.edu
Corequisites
Students are required to attend all Literature Evenings, ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø Translates, and Poetry at ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø events this term, commonly held at 7pm on most Wednesday evenings.