350:605

Index # - 72874

Distribution Requirement:  A5, B, C

Thursday – 9:50 a.m.

MU 207

Harriet Davidson

Seminar:  Problems in Art and Politics:  Feminism and Poetry

I always tell my introductory poetry students that poetry, like physics, grapples with the very small and the very large.  In this sense poetry seems especially inappropriate for the middle ground of politics in which we negotiate, strategize, and generally conduct political thought.  But feminism as a political movement is distinguished by its crossing of the boundaries between the personal and the political, as well as by a theoretical fecundity in rethinking the largest issues of subjectivity and being.  Twentieth century women’s poetry and feminism may be especially well suited for each other, on the one hand because of the poetry’s intense engagement with history, politics and public performance, and on the other hand because of the way feminist theory grapples with issues more proper to poetry such as aesthetic constructions of the subject or issues of affect.

In this class, we will read some founding 20th century texts of art and politics from the Frankfurt School, and we will tie some of the most prolific feminist poet/theorists such as Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Gloria Anzaldua to current theories in feminist thought, from psychoanalytic feminism to post-structural and postcolonial theories, drawing a thread through to note where theorists and poets come together in recent feminist debates about specificity, difference, hybridity, affect, subjectivity and agency.  More recent poets might include Harryette Mullen, Alice Notley, Teresa Cha, or a performance based poet like Tracie Morris. 

We will explore the connections of feminism and poetry through several lenses.  First we will think about the historical moment of second wave feminism and the role of poetry in that social and political movement.  Second we will think about the way many feminist theories reference the poetic or the aesthetic to solve theoretical problems, and look at poetry which anticipates or follows this innovative thinking.  Finally we will pay special attention to the role of affect in feminism as a political/theoretical category and connect it to the use of affect in poetry.  Theorists might include a few of the following:  Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Gayatri Spivak, Donna Haraway, Drucilla Cornell, Elaine Scarry, Rita Felski, Ruth Behar, Chela Sandoval, Saba Mamood, or Sara Ahmed.