Studies in Poetry: Modern Poetry

Catalog description

Where does “modern poetry” begin? What makes it “modern”? What forms does it take? This course begins with an examination of some of the major forerunners of “modern poetry” from an international perspective—the French poets Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Paul Valéry-- and continues by examining some of the major modern poets whose work we will read in translation, including Pablo Neruda (Chile), Rainer Maria Rilke (Czechoslovakia), Gabriel García Lorca (Spain), André Breton (France), Paul Éluard (France), César Vallejo (Peru), Anna Akhmatova (Russia), Marina Tsetayeva (Russia), and C.P. Cavafy (Greece). Students will also achieve an understanding of theories and problems of translation.