California State University, Los Angeles

College of Arts and Letters/English Department

ENGL 4379-01, Spring Semester 2016-17
Modern and Contemporary Poetry

Instructor: Professor Lauri Ramey

Office Location: Engineering & Technology A613
Telephone: (323) 343-4165
Email: LRamey@calstatela.edu
Office Hours: T, Th, 4:00-5:00
Class Days/Time: T, 6-8:45
Classroom: KH B4013
Prerequisites: ENGL 102

Course Description

We will study the poetry of the modern and contemporary periods (from the start of
the 20th century to the present) from critical, cultural, political, historical,
and formal perspectives. While including some well-known figures, the course will
draw attention to the multicultural, global, marginalized, and progressive poets and
movements that are too often and unjustly overlooked. While our main focus is
Western modernism and postmodernism, our outlook and curriculum will interrogate
and transcend national, linguistic, and geographical borders. The final curriculum
will reflect the classs interests and experiences. Your assignments and syllabus will
be provided to you digitally and in a timely manner using Cal State LA email.

Learning Outcomes and Course Goals

Students will:
1. Develop their own well-informed and substantiated picture of the
characteristics and significance of the modern and contemporary periods;
2. Gain familiarity with a diverse range of poets and poetry which both reflect
and helped form these eras;
3. Articulate their visions of modern and contemporary poetry through assigned
readings, class attendance, and thoughtful completion of assignments;
4. Take responsibility for being invested in some of the larger issues entailed in
this course, such as the purpose and the meaning of poetry to individuals,
societies, communities, and nations during these eras;
5. Progress in skills of critical thinking, writing, and research relating to modern
and contemporary poetry, and reflecting the broader context of current topics
in literary studies.
Grading
40% Patchwork Project. Portfolio style assessment. Expectations and requirements,
criteria of
evaluation, and sample projects will be shared and discussed in class on
February 7. Due on May 16 by email or link.
10% Patchwork Project Plan. Due on February 21.
25% Mid-term. Patchwork Project Progress Review. Due on March 7.
25% Class Contribution. Evidence of thorough preparation, thoughtful and well-
informed participation
 in class discussion, conduct that demonstrates respect for the ideas and
beneficial experiences of all participants, and positive contributions towards a
civil and constructive classroom atmosphere.
Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Spring 2017, 2

Required Texts/Readings
Poems for the Millennium, Vol. 1, ed. Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris. Berkeley,
Los
Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 0-520-07227-
8. Available at University Bookstore.
The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Vol. 2, ed. Jahan Ramazani, Richard
Ellmann
and Robert OClair, 3rd edition (W.W. Norton, 2003). Available at University
Bookstore.
How We Became Human: New and Selected, 1975-2001, Joy Harjo. New York:
Norton, 2002.
ISBN 9780393325348. Available at University Bookstore.
Handouts, links, literary magazines, and other course materials.

Selection of Recommended Secondary Sources

Modernism: An Anthology, ed. Lawrence Rainey (Blackwell, 2005).

Modernism : an anthology of sources and documents, ed. Vassiliki

Kolocotroni, Jane Goldman,

and Olga Taxidou (U of Chicago P, 1998).

The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Vol. 2, ed. Jahan Ramazani,

Richard Ellmann
and Robert OClair, 3rd edition (W.W. Norton, 2003).
Dada and Surrealism, ed. David Hopkins (Oxford U P, 2004).
Jerome McGann, Black Riders: The Invisible Language of Modernism
(Princeton U P, 1993).
Intriguing study of the role of print technology in the development of
modern poetry, with discussion of many modernist figures, especially
Stein, Yeats, Dickinson, Pound, Eliot and Duchamp.
Aestheticism & Modernism, ed. Richard Danson Brown and Suman Gupta
(Routledge, 2005).
Contains excellent chapters on poetry of the 1930s, T.S. Eliot, and
Christopher Okigbo.
African American Poetics: Revisions of Harlem and the Black Aesthetic,
Houston A. Baker, Jr. (U
of Wisconsin P, 1988).
Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, Houston A. Baker, Jr. (U of Chicago
P, 1989).
Anthology of Modern American Poetry, ed. Cary Nelson (Oxford U P, 2000).
The Gender of Modernism, ed. Bonnie Kime Scott (Indiana U P, 1990). Good
sections on Stein,
Pound, Eliot.
st
21 Century Modernism, Marjorie Perloff (Routledge, 2002). A new critical
overview of the
period with excellent chapters on Stein, Eliot, Duchamp and
Khlebnikov.
Madness and Modernism, Louis A. Sass (Basic Books/HarperCollins, 1982).
The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism, ed. Walter Kalaidjian
(Cambridge U P,
2005). Very useful source for many topics relevant to our class. Most of
the essays relate American writing to international modernism.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/. A massive, high quality and extremely
reliable academic site with a
wealth of critical resources on modern American poetry. Use it freely
and confidently (using full and proper MLA citations to the site).
http://www.ubuweb.com/. An exhaustive, stimulating and very rich site
tracing the history of
avant-garde poetry and poetics (often in conjunction with other arts)
which contains a vast array of rare archival recordings and images.
http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/ Pennsound is another voluminous
compendium of very

Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Spring 2017, 3

contemporary literary events, from poetry readings to professional

academic conference panels. A goldmine of content, this sitelike
ubuwebis a topnotch resource of primary and secondary sources.
Additional handouts will be provided, and further readings may be placed on
electronic reserve in the University Library. Resources also are available in
the library and through Inter-Library Loan on major topics and individual
poets of this era, including books and peer-reviewed academic articles which
may be accessed using your student account. Please consult the professor,
or Professor Ying Xu in the Library for research help.
Course Guidelines
Attendance to scheduled class meetings is mandatory, and attendance at
supplementary events is highly recommended. Frequently arriving late,
leaving early, or being out of the room for long periods during class may be
considered an absence. If more than 20% of class time is missed, students
may be denied permission to turn in the final project. You are welcome to
visit the professor during office hours to discuss the class or any academic
topics. Late work and incompletes are not granted except with advance
permission requested in a timely fashion. If students are proven to have
plagiarized, they will fail the course regardless of previous standing.
Recording is forbidden except for students who are registered for this service
with the OSD.
Dropping and Adding
Students are responsible for understanding the policies and procedures
about add/drops, academic renewal, etc., and should be aware of deadlines
and penalties.
Student Handbook
Information on student rights and responsibilities, academic honesty,
standards of conduct, etc., can be found in the Student Handbook. University
policies will be upheld.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Reasonable accommodation will be provided to any student with a disability
who is registered with the Office of Students with Disabilities (OSD) who
needs and requests accommodation. The intent of the ADA is to allow all
students to have an equal chance for success.
Email Statement
Essential communication about this class will be sent using students Cal
State LA email addresses. Please check your account regularly, or connect it
to an account that you check often. Students are responsible for all
communication about this class sent by Cal State LA email.
SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS
The schedule is subject to change with fair notice which will be made
available using Cal State L.A. email addresses. Please read editors
commentaries for assigned readings, and read poems aloud at least twice.
Read all editorial commentary provided on the assigned readings. There
may be additional required reading from handouts, links, or electronic
reserve. Poems for the Millennium is POM. How We Became Human is Harjo.
The Norton Contemporary Poetry Volume 2 is Norton.
Wee Date Topics, R
k
1 1/24 Students welcomed and introduced, course overview provided, syllabus
modernism which modulates into the contemporary or postmodern per
purpose of literature, and in our case, poetry in particular?

2 1/31 Read Introduction, pp. 1-14. Please read and be prepared to discuss
Compost (28-30), Stphane Mallarm, Le Livre (47-49), and Rubn D
associated with modernism in the Introduction? How are these poems t
hear and view poetry? Who and what is serving as figures or ideas of in
of poetry for you? These questions will form the foundation of our first

3 2/7 Futurisms (1909-1914, and After): Prologue to Futurism, 193-194; C

Futurism (196-198), Apres La Marne (199), from Zang Tumb Tuum
Mayakovsky, Screaming My Head Off (244-249); D. Burliuk et al, A S
Wee Date Topics, R
k
Reminder: always read the assigned poems aloud at least twice, and co

Reminder: Your professor is speaking at the Association of Writers and W

Normal office hours will be held on 2/7.

4 2/14 Dada (1916-1921). Prologue to Dada, 289-290; Hugo Ball, from Fligh
paragraph on 299), To Make a Dadaist Poem (VIII on 302), and XVI
hear a recording by Christian Bk of this piece in class]; and Andr Bre

5 2/21 Patchwork Project Plan Due. Instructions will be provided. Read

(https://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/joy-harjo-read-jean-burde
series, will be on our campus on February 23-24 for two scheduled eve
directly relate to our class. You may bring guests to one of both events

Updated Information: Although originally scheduled as the Jean Burden

National Book Award winner Daniel Borzutzky.

Jean Burden Reading, Golden Eagle Ballroom. 5:30-6:30, Dinner buffet

Q & A with Jean Burden Poet. Friday, February 24, 11-12. Refreshments

Reminder: Because of the Jean Burden Reading, there will be no office h

6 2/28 Surrealism (1922-1939): Prologue to Surrealism (465-467); Andr Br
Desnos, Trance Event (470-471) and Cuckoo (492-493); Language E
surrealist experiments:

7 3/7 Patchwork Project Mid-terms Due. Instructions will be provided

Connoisseur of Chaos (355-357); James Joyce, from Ulysses (357-359
Vortex (527-528); William Carlos Williams, The Locust Tree in Flower

8 3/14 Modernism and Women. Gertrude Stein, from Tender Buttons (99-
to the Angels (372-378); and all poems by Edith Sdergran (398-400).
Wee Date Topics, R
k

9 3/21 Negritude and African Diasporic Modernism. Prologue to Negritud

Lopold Sdar Senghor, The African Image is not an Image by Equatio
Black Mountain Blues (788-789); and Melvin B. Tolson, from The Harle

X 3/28 SPRING BREAK

10 4/4 MEET IN THE LIBRARY
For todays class: Please meet at 6:00 in LNB-105 in the Library (NOT
poetry with Professor Ying Xu. Professor Xu will give you general advice
interactive presentation, use the remainder of class time as you think b
Assignment for Today: We now transition from the great era of Mode
Contemporary periods are closely connected in style and chronology. R
Victoria), we see a gradual progression from Modernism (approximately
second half of the 20th century to the present). The connection between
Many poets that we are studying were born in the 19th century, but con
anything, differentiates these two periods that we are covering.
All assignments for the rest of the semester are from Norton or provide
Todays assignment (to be discussed on 4/18): Review everything that w
Modernism, do these poems seem different now than when you first en
responses to rereading this material, on any questions that are now rai
Office Hours: Due to a board meeting of the Center for Contemporary
11 4/11 NO CLASS MEETING TODAY INSTRUCTOR AT
CONFERENCE
Your professor is presenting a paper at an academic
conference. Class will not meet today, and there will be no
office hours. Use the class time to do your assignment, and
to progress on the writing and research for your Patchwork
Projects.

Assignment for today (to be discussed on 4/18):

Introduction to Norton, xliii-lxvii. The Contemporary
Poetry Manifesto. Frank OHara, Personism: A Manifesto
(1072); Dylan Thomas, Poetic Manifesto (1062); and
Charles Olson, Projective / Verse (1053).
Wee Date Topics, R
k
12 4/18 Professor Ramey in China

In class: Retrospective Overview of Modernism (as the foundatio

International Exchange: The final four sessions of our class will be held

Office Hours: For the rest of the semester, the Professor will hold virtua
schedule a virtual appointment (by WeChat, Message, Skype, etc.) that
13 4/25 Professor Ramey in China
Contemporary womens poetry. May Swenson, Question (46); Sy
Bennett, Pass fi White (169), Colonization in Reverse (173), and
Carolyn Forch, The Colonel (918).
14 5/2 Professor Ramey in China
Poetry in a diasporic framework. Michael S. Harper, American Hi
that Name: An Essay on Assimilation (1013); Li-Young Lee, Persimm

15 5/9 Professor Ramey in China

Patchwork Projects Feedback Session. Projects in
their almost-final state of completion will be shared with
the class. The feedback that you receive will be
invaluable in your final editing and revision. You may
each spend 5 minutes concisely sharing and summarizing
your project, and asking the group questions that would
help you. We will spend approximately 3 minutes per
person providing you with feedback.
Do not meet on Exam Day
Patchwork Projects. Due by digital means. Email or provide links to
16 5/16