Logopoesis
Revised Last Updated: 12/16/2009
Fall and Winter quarters
Faculty: Kathleen Eamon philosophy, Leonard Schwartz poetry
Faculty Signature Required: Students must submit two prior evaluations from faculty and a portfolio of ten pages of poetry or critical writing to the faculty by the Academic Fair, May 13, 2009. For more information, contact Leonard Schwartz, schwartl@evergreen.edu or (360) 867-5412. Applications received by the Academic Fair will be given priority. Qualified students will be accepted until the program fills.
Major areas of study include philosophy, poetics, literature and creative writing.
Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.
Accepts Winter Enrollment: This program will accept new enrollment, with signature. This will be a difficult program to enter without significant background in critical and theoretical work in literature or philosophy, specifically German Idealism and American Modernism. Students interested in joining the program midway through should bring a summary of coursework and a writing sample to the Academic Fair in Week 9. Faculty will not be available during winter break. Before the beginning of Winter Quarter, new students will be required to read assigned portions Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (the Introduction, the section on “Consciousness"), as well as selections from Ezra Pound’s Cantos and other selected poetry. Over the first couple of weeks, the newly admitted will also be asked to read a short secondary source on Hegel.
Ezra Pound coined the term "logopoeia" to refer to a form of creative activity we might also call idea-making. Philosophy and poetry are both devoted to such a form of making and composition. Philosophy pursues its logopoetic task in a singular way, one that might be conceived as an attempt to cover over the relationship between its conceptual products and the aesthetic materials out of which these are forged. Poetry proceeds in clear relation to melopoeia (music-making) and phanopoeia (image-making). How do the two arts of philosophy and poetry go about making structures from ideas? In this two-quarter program, we will investigate the relationship between philosophy and literature, logic and creativity. Philosophy will be considered as a form of writing, poetry as an epistemology and an ontology.
We will explore works drawn from the continental philosophical tradition and from the American avant-garde. We will embark on a two-quarter length study of Hegel's "Phenomenology Of Spirit" and Ezra Pound's "Cantos". Other works to be read will be drawn from Kant, Hegel, Freud, Adorno and Merleau-Ponty on the philosophical side, and Gertrude Stein, Pound, Theresa Cha, Alice Notley, and Fanny Howe on the literary side. Each quarter the program will involve an ongoing poetry writing practicum (workshop), a philosophy practicum, and a series of guest poets and philosophers. What do philosophers have to say to poets, and poets to philosophers?
Credits: 16 per quarter
Enrollment: 50
Books: www.tescbookstore.com
Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in philosophy, education, writing, publishing and translation.
Planning Units: Culture, Text and Language
Program Revisions
| Date | Revision |
|---|---|
| December 16th, 2009 | Winter enrollment details updated; faculty will not be availabe during break. |