[Wgcp-whc] reminder/Whitman WG/Poetics

[richard.deming at yale.edu]

Dear all,

this is just a reminder that the Working Group in Contemporary Poetry 
and Poetics will have its first session of the semester this Friday at 
1.45 in Rm 116 of the Whitney Humanities Cnter.  We will be revisiting 
our discussion of Whitman, this time focusing on the 1855 version of 
his seminal "Song of Myself." 

There is a suggestion goind around that, since the poem is so 
sprawling and massive,we ought to consider ways of breaking the poem 
down for a productive conversation.  One possibility for doing this 
would be that while people read they might choose a section to 
concentrate on for a close reading that might be useful to the 
conversation--thus, this might give a sense of Whitman's idiosyncratic 
use of grammar and ellipses, for instance.  The other possibility is 
that the poem be read thematically with a specific concentration on 
seeing the text as enacting the possibility of an avant-gardist 
aesthetic, and thus one might seek out specific sites (and cites) 
where the poem evinces this.

Looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday.  At that time we will 
draw up on agenda for readings for the rest of the semester, so come 
with some ideas of poets and texts that the group might read.

--R. Deming, group secretary