Experiments in Text: Performativity and the Poetics of Reclaiming Public Spaces

Spring 2012 quarter

Faculty

David Wolach creative writing, poetics, aesthetics, media/performing arts

Fields of Study

writing

Description

In this course, we will focus on creating--as Jules Boykoff and Kaia Sand put it--"landscapes of dissent." We will do so through creative writing while examining other art forms that are concerned with the reclamation of public, lived spaces in the wake of increasing privatization and corporatization. We'll ask whether language arts and poetics can, as poet and critic Thom Donovan writes, "provide experiments in the practical organization against anti-democratic social hierarchies and the expropriation of labor, land, and natural resources?" We'll respond to this and similar questions by building individual text arts portfolios and by collaborating in small groups on more sustained text arts projects, responding to specific readings in contemporary poetry, poetics, and text arts that seek to experiment with language made strange: on the page and off.  We will interrogate the 'artistic' and 'poetic' in relation to the 'political,' stretching our understanding of both activism and creative writing. We will do this both by making our own creative works and by surveying the work of contemporary writers, guest readers, visual artists, and scholars.  For more information on past versions of this and related courses, see: blogs.evergreen.edu/wolachd/.  For more on the ongoing literary-politics series PRESS, including past visiting artists and collectives, visit David's public blog at: davidwolach.blogspot.com.

Advertised Schedule

5-7p Wed, 4-6p Sat

Location

Olympia

Online Learning

Enhanced Online Learning

Books

Greener Store

Offered During

Evening and Weekend