Poiesis

Catalog description

Considering the etymological roots of poetry, this course explores the idea of poetry as making, creation, fabrication, composition. How have poets and theorists of lyric understood the relationship between poetry and creation and between poetry and worldmaking? How and under what circumstances did poetry come to be identified as making and doing rather than observing and knowing? To get a better grip on this peculiar idea of making that links language to materiality, to the body, and to the polity, we'll explore the relationship between poiesis and mimesis, poiesis and techne, and poiesis and praxis.