ENGL 365 - Studies in Contemporary Poetry

FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years

Prerequisite: ENGL 299 or instructor consent. Focused study of poetry in English from 1980 to the present. Topics vary but can include the role of place in contemporary writing or 21st-century poetry and performance. Depending on interest and department needs, readings may involve mainly U.S. authors or English-language poetry from other regions such as Ireland or the Pacific.

Winter 2014 topic:

ENGL 365: Studies in Contemporary Poetry: Here, Nowhere. (3) Literature is deeply informed by landscape, human community, and geographical boundaries. In this class, we focus on contemporary poetry concerning endangered, damaged, or imagined locations, beginning with the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A midterm hinge swings us through the works of two Lexington poets. In the second half, we turn to writers who consider Aotearoa, New Zealand, as homeland, colony, and Pacific nation. (HL) Wheeler