Postmodern and Contemporary American Poetry

Catalog description

An introduction to postmodern American poetry, with a view towards cross-lingual and cross-cultural contact zones in the hemispheric Americas. We will examine in detail the poetry of Wallace Stevens, W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, Frank O'Hara, Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery, and Gwendolyn Brooks, among others. We will also consider how these might offer a comparative framework, in the study of poets like Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz. We will explore how these poets' works intersect with and influence broader poetic and historical contexts. In parallel, we will gain an understanding of various schools of poetic criticism as they relate to the poems, analyzing how critical perspectives have evolved and shaped the interpretation of poetry over time.