What better time to read it than in the spring: poetry. This course will survey 20th century American poetry. Especially emphasized will be the avant-garde aesthetic that would come to be called an American aesthetic. This American experimental aesthetic began to emerge at the beginning of the 20th century and rightly exploded after World War II. This class will chart the major trends, progression, and culmination of an exuberant energy in poetry that shapes a very American aesthetic. Our readings will be organized by movements or rather schools of poetry and because of this it will be necessary for us to consider how economic, technological, and political and social history in America will underwrite the formation of these schools and consequently this American aesthetic. We will begin our reading in the late 19th century and end in the late 20th century. Included in our readings will be Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost; foundational modernists such as Pound, Eliot, Williams, Stein, Crane, Hughes and H.D.; Zukofsky and the Objectivists; Olson and the Black Mountain Poets; The Berkeley and San Francisco Renaissance; The Beat Poets; The New York School 1st and 2nd generations; The Umbra Poets; Rothenberg and Ethnopoetics; L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry and after; and lastly we will dedicate end of our course to Innovative Women in the late 20th century Americas. Some outside theoretical and historical readings will also be included alongside these schools of poetry. Whenever possible I will make available to you links to audio and visual files. Expect the reading and listening to be heavy but also entertaining. Your course material will include a course reader and supplementary audio files.

You will also be expected to write and revise a minimum of 10 pages over the quarter. This will be broken down into 3 essays: the first being 2-3 pages; the second 5-7 pages and the third will be a book review of approximately 3 pages. You will be required to attend at least one writing workshop and one conference.