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Carleton University Winter 2013 Department of English ENGL 4601A: Studies in Contemporary Poetry Thurs. 2:30-5:30 (Please Confir

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Carleton University Winter 2013 Department of English ENGL 4601A: Studies in Contemporary Poetry Thurs. 2:30-5:30 (Please Confir Carleton University Winter 2013 Department of English ENGL 4601A: Studies in Contemporary Poetry Thurs. 2:30-5:30 (Please confirm location on Carleton Central) Prerequisite: Fourth-year standing in Honours English or permission of the Department Instructor: Brenda Vellino Office Phone: 520-2600 ext. 2321 Email: [email protected] Office: 1815 Dunton Tower Office Hours: Wednesday: 1-3 or by appointment TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETRY OF WITNESS: WRITING HUMAN RIGHTS COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is situated within the emerging interdiscipline of human rights humanities scholarship. Our readings offer encounters with a wide range of world poetry situated in the political, historical, and human rights contexts to and from which they speak. Poets have been both primary and secondary witnesses to the traumas of contemporary history; thus poetry may act as a powerful testimonial form and as a form of countermemory. This course will investigate the ways in which twentieth and twenty-first century poets have responded to state-inflicted political repression, genocide, crimes against humanity, forced exile, torture, illegal detention and disappearance, counterinsurgency campaigns, and suspension of civil rights. It will also consider how they have participated in human rights and transitional justice movements, which seek to record, recognize, remedy, and redress major violations. The course will be divided into three sections: I. Genocides (Armenian, Jewish), II. State Repression: Russia, China, and Chile; and III. Apartheids, Occupations, and Neo-Imperialisms: South Africa, Israel-Palestine, Aboriginal Canada, and the War on Terror. Carolyn Forche makes strong claims for poetry of witness when she writes in her introduction to the course anthology, Against Forgetting: "These poems will not permit us complacency. They come to us with claims that have yet to be filled, as attempts to mark us as they have themselves been marked." We will consider whether and how poetry is an effective medium for witnessing pressing human rights issues by attention to the historical, social, and political contexts to and from which they respond. We will also explore the relationship between poetry and trauma, poetry and witness subjectivity, poetry and the body, poetry and public memory, poetry and history, and poetry and human rights law. COURSE READING LIST: All books will be at Haven Books, 43 Seneca St. at Sunnyside Ave. *Carolyn Forche, ed. Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness. New York: Norton, l993. *Brand, Dionne. Inventory. McClelland & Stewart, 2006. *Armstrong, Jeanette and Lally Grauer, eds. Native Poetry in Canada. Broadview, 2001. Course Reserve Articles: Chapters and/or articles will be taken from books that I have placed on reserve in the Carleton library. COURSE ASSIGNMENTS *Poetry Annotation, worksheet, and summary: due Jan. 17th: 10% *Two Reader Responses (1 - 2 pages): 5 marks each: 10% *1 Short Seminar: 25% *Essay Proposal: due March 22 by email: 5% *Research Essay (12-14 pages): April 11: 40% *Seminar Attendance and Participation: 10% COURSE CALENDAR Jan. 10: Paradoxes of Human Rights **Download and read the UN declaration. Underline and circle key words and bring to class, ready to discuss. Create your own notes toward a Canadian human rights time-line and bring to class for discussion. *Readings from Library Books on Reserve: *Alexandra Schulteiss Moore and Elizabeth Goldberg. “Introduction.” Theoretical Perspectives on Human Rights and Literature. Routledge, 2012: 3-18. *Arthur Kleinman and Joan Kleinman, “Cultural Appropriations of Suffering in Our Time” from Social Suffering, pp. 1-9. *Cohen and Brau, “Knowing Enough to Feel Too Much.” Truth Claims: Representation and Human Rights. *Please photocopy these, read, underline, and bring to class for discussion Jan. 17: Witness Poetics & Witness Positions *Carolyn Forche, “Introduction,” Against Forgetting *On Reserve: Shoshanna Felman and Dori Laub, Excerpts from Chapter One: “Education and Crisis”(pages 1-6; pages 25-37): Excerpt from Chapter Two: “Bearing Witness” (pages 67-82) in Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History. *Stanley Cohen, Excerpts from Chapter One on “Bystanders” (pages 15-20) and from Chapter Three (pages 68-75) in States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering. *Lacquer, Thomas. “The Dead Body and Human Rights.” The Body, pp. 75-93 **Poetry Worksheet Due in Class for discussion and submission: pick one of the two Margaret Atwood Poems (“Notes Toward a Poem that Can not Be Written” and “Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture”). *See Poetry Annotation and Poetry Worksheet Templates on Web-CT Wed., Jan. 23, 4-6 p.m.: Poetry Recitathon Gala Fundraiser for PEN Canada: Get 2 extra credit points added to your overall grade for participating! Bring your friends, foes, and family! I. Genocide Studies: Aftermath and Countermemory Jan. 24: The Armenian Genocide: The Anti-Elegy as Countermemorial * “UN Convention on the Prevention & Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” *Readings On Reserve: Adam Jones, “The Armenian Genocide,” Genocide, pp. 101- 119 *Ramazani, Jehan. “Introduction.” The Poetry of Mourning, 1-31. *Poems from Against Forgetting: Siamanto and Tekeyan *from Peter Balakian's June Tree: “In Armenia, 1987,”“The Oriental Rug,” “The History Of Armenia,” ”The Claim” (handout). Reader Response Due: A Group Jan. 31: The Shoah/Jewish Holocaust: *On Reserve: Adam Jones, “The Jewish Holocaust.” Genocide, pp. 147-184. *Young, James E. “Introduction.” At Memory’s Edge” pp. 1-11. *Poems from Against Forgetting: Nelly Sachs, Miklos Radnoti, Primo Levi, Paul Celan. *Reader Response Due: B Group II. Totalitarianism and State Terror: Feb. 7: Stalin Terror Years: *On Reserve: Adam Jones, “Stalin's Terror,” Genocide, pp. 124-46. *Russian Poets: Akhmatova, Pasternak, Mandelstam, Serge (in Against Forgetting) *Reader Response Due: A Group Feb. 14: Democracy Struggle in China and Tibet: *Charter 08 for Reform and Democracy in China: http://www.charter08.eu/2.html *On Reserve: Adam Jones, “Tibet under Chinese Rule.” Genocide, “ 94-98. Chinese and Tibetan Poets: Bei Dao in Against Forgetting. *Tibetan Poet Tenzen Tsundue, Kora: on-line publication: http://www.friendsoftibet.org/download/kora.pdf Reader Response Due: B Group Winter Break: Feb. 21-25 Feb. 28: Counterinsurgency Wars in Latin America *International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 1993 *On Reserve: “Death Squads” and “Disappearance,” from Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know. *Chile: Pablo Neruda, Ariel Dorfman; Nicanor Parra, Against Forgetting. *El Salvador: Claribel Alegria, Against Forgetting; Carolyn Forche “The Colonel” (HO) March 7: Witness to the War on Terror *On Reserve: Judith Butler, “Violence, Mourning, Poltics,” Precarious Life, 19-49. *Poetry: Dionne Brand, Inventory III. Apartheid, Occupation, and Settler-Colonialism: Mar. 14: Apartheid/South African Poets: *UN “Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid,” 1973: on-line *Focus on Black South African Poets Mphahlele and Sepamla (in Against Forgetting); *TRC poems from Ingrid De Kolk Seasonal Fires (Hand Out) ESSAY PROPOSAL DUE: March 20th by email. Mar. 21: Occupied Territory or Holy Land? *On Reserve: Jeff Halper, “The Key to Peace: Dismantling the Matrix of Control.” The Other Israel, pp. 20-40. *Yehudi Amichai, Mahmoud Darwish (in Against Forgetting); See also Amichai’s “Yom Kippur” and Darwish’s “Identity Card” (handouts) *from Rachel Tzevia Back “On the Ruins of Palestine” (Handout) Mar. 28: Our Home and Native Land? Native Poetry Class One *UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007: online *On Reserve: Adam Young, “Genocides of Indigenous Peoples.” Genocide, pp. 67-77, 81-89. *Native Canadian Poets: Rita Joe, Marie Anneheart Baker, Jeanette Armstrong, Wayne Keon: from Lally Grauer and Jeanette Armstrong, Native Poetry in Canada. *Jeanette Armstrong, “Introduction: Four Decades” (pages xv-xx); Lally Grauer “Introduction: Tuning In, Tuning Up” (pages xxi-xxviii) in Native Poetry. April 4, 2012: Native Poetry, Class Two *Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution *Nicole Enns Fehr, “Locating Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Global Trends: http://www.beyondintractability.org/case_studies/locating_canadas_trc *Beth Cuthand, Louise Halfe, Marilyn Dumont, and Gregory Scofield: from Lally Grauer and Jeanette Armstrong, Native Poetry in Canada. Term Essay Due: April 11, 2013 in the English Department drop box, 18th floor Dunton Tower. Course Assignment Instructions Poetry Annotation, Worksheet, and Summary: Please chose one of the two Margaret Atwood poems and do a detailed annotation on the poem handout (circling key words and images, noting recurring patterns of words, phrases, space, line-ending, and sound patterning); then using the worksheet guide, fill in the matching sections on your worksheet forms. Finally, do a summary that makes connections between your insights from the worksheet and some aspect of the assigned essay readings for this class. Worksheet instructions and template on are on Web-CT. Reader Response Papers/Shadow Texts: The aim of this assignment is to provide you with an informal space to respond in-depth to a poem every second week. Roger Simon in The Touch of the Past, suggests that an ethical way of creating a response to testimonial accounts of suffering is to create our own “shadow texts” which engage the unresolved
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