Studies American Poetry II

Catalog description

Beat, Black, and (Sometimes) Blue: Poetry of the 50s and 60s from San Francisco to Black Mountain to the Black Arts Movement. In this course we will explore poetry that breaks out of what Robert Bly called "the new critical jail," or resists what Haki Madhubuti called the "protective custody" of cultural institutions dominated by white wardens and masters. Some members of this generation went from "liking Ike" to hiking out, as far out as words and rucksacks could take them, while others, such as Amiri Baraka, hoped to "clean out the world for virtue and love" by writing "poems that kill." Our discussions of such raptures and ruptures will begin with an analysis of two seminal anthologies, both published in 1960-the 3rd edition of Understanding Poetry, edited by New Critics Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren; and The New American Poetry, 1945-1960, edited by Iowa's own Donald Allen. Many of the poets listed in Allen's anthology-Ginsberg, Snyder, Kerouac, Levertov, Olson, Creeley, Jones (Baraka), O'Hara, and Ashbery, to name a few-are now safely ensconced in the American literary canon; none were included in that edition of Understanding Poetry. Excerpts from memoirs by Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones, poetry by Elise Cowen, Lenore Kandel, Diane di Prima, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez, and the historical fact of Natalie Jackson, will help us reassess the patriarchal assumptions undergirding the practice of editorial inclusion. Prerequisites: 8 credits at the 200-level in English; 4 credits must be ENG-204, 210, 215, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 240, 273, or 290. ANDREWS