Experiments in Text: Writing, Radical Pedagogy, and Social Change

Fall 2011 quarter

Faculty

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

Fields of Study

writing

Description

"What if every communication, every encounter, were intimate? Imagine that. You have imagined being a new collectivist. Why not consider yourself one." 
     --from New Collectivists: Poetics of Intent

If we think that language arts and social change are somehow related, how might poetry and prose model new ways of forming social relationships?  How might artistic movements help re-imagine or apprehend social structures and in so doing, help to either undermine or recapitulate dominant forms of acculturation?  In what ways might we uniquely model or contribute to the language and action of protest?  By working on our own creative writing experiments, individually and collaboratively, we will be testing our understanding of what "creative writing" can come to mean in relation to radical pedagogy and social change.  In the second half of the quarter, we'll put our ideas into practice by forming different pedagogical-social formations, facilitated by students in small groups, as an active form of asking "what could a radical pedagogy based in text arts look like/do?" As part of the ongoing literary-politics series PRESS, visiting artists will occasionally workshop with us during the quarter.  For information on 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