If lyric poetry can be said to represent the self's experience, often obliquely in relation to metaphysical and universal issues, early film and Modernist poetry can be said to have wrestled with questions about representing sociohistorical reality. Starting with an examination of theories of the lyric, we will focus on some of the major American avant-garde poems of the twentieth century. We will be drawing some exemplary conclusions from reading crucial Modernist in conjunction with viewing a number of early films. As appropriate, in addition to formal and thematic analyses, we will consider issues of gender, race, nationalism, and class embedded in these poems.
Instruction consists of brief lectures and class discussion.
Students will also be asked to give an oral report.