Experimental Literature

Wallace Stevens once said that all poetry is
experimental poetry. However that may be the case,
some literary works are more experimental than
others. In this class we will study a variety of
texts-in printed books and in digital forms
online-that aggressively experiment with genre,
structure, materiality, and style. We will
question what is gained by literary
experimentation and why writers might want to
deviate from some conventions while cleaving to
others. In this way, we will gain an appreciation
for what Harold Rosenberg called a "tradition of
the new." That being said, we will also consider
larger cultural dynamics that determine what is
considered experimental and what is considered
mainstream. Potential novelists, essayists, and
poets to be studied may include Vladimir Nabokov,
Claudia Rankine, Anne Garréta, Stephanie
Strickland, and Matías Celedón.