Poetry as Ecological Practice
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General
Course Long Title
Poetry as Ecological Practice
Subject Code
CMWP
Course Number
683
School(s)
Academic Level
GR - Graduate
Description
This exploratory poetry writing course proposes a collective investigation into the intersection ofpoetic practice with the idea--or the dream--ofecological practice.In other words, the class is interested in how poem-making as a human form or practice of living might be taken up as part of ongoing efforts to live more ecologically oriented lives, lives understood to be inseparably entangled with other non-human forms of earthly life.
The class is frankly undertaken under the pressure of climate breakdown, in which circumstance it is no longer possible-one hopes!- to ignore how centuries of developments inhuman agriculture and the general human technosphere--including, most dramatically, the ongoing legacies of colonialism and globalized fossil-fuel based capitalism--have pushed so much of the non-human world to the point of extinction (or past it). In this course we will seek to challenge the ways our own literary and other life practices might center the human at the expense of other forms of earthly life. North American English language poets such as dg nanouk okpik, CAConrad, Larry Eigner, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Sherwin Bitsui and others may assist us in our efforts. We may also seek out the help of poets in translation from other places and times. Additionally, in the course, we will read nonfiction prose to make sure scientific and political perspectives on ecological thinking and climate breakdown remain prominent in our aesthetic conversations. On the way we will be paying special attention to poetry as a daily life practice--oriented as much or more towards the transformation of the practitioner as towards the communication of a specific ethos. All participants in the class will produce a body of work in poetry which engages, in its way, with the problematics and strategies encountered in the course. Frequent writing prompts will be provided to help instigate student writing as needed. The second portion of the course will be given over to the presentation and workshopping of student work.
The class is frankly undertaken under the pressure of climate breakdown, in which circumstance it is no longer possible-one hopes!- to ignore how centuries of developments inhuman agriculture and the general human technosphere--including, most dramatically, the ongoing legacies of colonialism and globalized fossil-fuel based capitalism--have pushed so much of the non-human world to the point of extinction (or past it). In this course we will seek to challenge the ways our own literary and other life practices might center the human at the expense of other forms of earthly life. North American English language poets such as dg nanouk okpik, CAConrad, Larry Eigner, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Sherwin Bitsui and others may assist us in our efforts. We may also seek out the help of poets in translation from other places and times. Additionally, in the course, we will read nonfiction prose to make sure scientific and political perspectives on ecological thinking and climate breakdown remain prominent in our aesthetic conversations. On the way we will be paying special attention to poetry as a daily life practice--oriented as much or more towards the transformation of the practitioner as towards the communication of a specific ethos. All participants in the class will produce a body of work in poetry which engages, in its way, with the problematics and strategies encountered in the course. Frequent writing prompts will be provided to help instigate student writing as needed. The second portion of the course will be given over to the presentation and workshopping of student work.
Registration Restrictions
RGCMWP - Creative Writing Program Only