Left Poetries: Dee Morris: The University of Iowa

8:135 Topics in American Literature: Poetries of the Left

Professor Dee Morris
Office: EPB 460
Office hours: Th 1:00-3:30 & by appointment
dee-morris@uiowa.edu

Provocation:

We can put the Left at the center of contemporary teaching and research if we choose to do so. We have the power to make that difference if we wish. We can choose to make our work answer to certain personal and political needs and desires. In the process, we can certainly alter the way we remember the past and thus the way we live the present. Just what effect we can have on the future remains unclear. but it is perfectly clear that we live in a time when the traditional center no longer holds and that for some of us that suggests an opportunity, not a cause for fear.

--Cary Nelson, "What Happens When We Put the Left at the Center?"

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

This course examines the intersections between poetry and politics in three pivotal decades of U.S. history: the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s. For poets who positioned themselves as historical subjects committed to Leftist causes, these were consequential and often dangerous periods. We will look at the production of poetry in response to a series of specific crises in these decades, including the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, the Cold War and McCarthy Inquisition, the Vietnam War, and the social actions that marked the rise of feminism, Black Power, and the sexual liberation movements.

The reading for the course is intensive and immersive. Our texts will allow close scrutiny both of the careers of individual poets (Langston Hughes, George Oppen, Adrienne Rich, Amiri Baraka) and the development of poetic movements (Objectivist Poets, Black Arts). Among the issues the course will examine are the development of documentary poem; the Left's use of small presses, periodicals, and broadsides; the art of polemics and manifestos; the construction of a viable lineage for a left poetics; and the interplay between political commitments and poetic form.

In addition to sustained and intensive reading, course work includes active participation in class discussions, frequent postings, annotated bibliographies of primary and secondary texts, short papers, and a midterm and final examination.

KEY TO THE HOTLINKS ON THE CLICKSTRIP

Home: This page contains a course description, a key to the hotlinks on the clickstrip, and a description of departmental and collegiate policies and procedures.

Syllabus: This overview of the course includes a list of required texts, a reading schedule, and due dates for collaborative and written assignments. Because the syllabus will shift to meet our needs as the semester proceeds, check the on-line version for the current reading and writing assignments.

Assignments: This page contains a description of the class presentations, writing projects, and examinations for the semester, a note on grading, and a note on ethics.

Discussion: This password-protected discussion site contains two forums: one for postings in response to the readings; one for more general research questions, bibliographical observations, and synoptic comments.

Resources: This page contains a list of books on three-day reserve.

Gallery: This page contains scanned exhibits intended to bring the visual back into the field of the literary. The exhibits will change with the nature of the texts we are reading. Please feel free to suggest book covers, historical prints, graphic novels, and other materials for inclusion in the exhibits.

MAPS: This resource was developed by Cary Nelson and his coworkers to accompany the Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry. It is part of the clickstrip because we will consult it frequently for cultural and historical documents, interpretations of poems, biographical and archival materials, photographs, images, sound files, and external links. It is, for a course such as ours, a crucial component of each assignment.

DEPARTMENT AND COLLEGIATE POLICIES & PROCEDURES

1. Disabilities: I would like to hear from anyone who has a physical, mental, or learning disability that may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements so that appropriate arrangements may be made. Please contact me during my office hours. Before this visit, it is the student's responsibility to contact Student Disability Services, 3100 Burge Hall (5-1462), to obtain a Student Academic Accommodation Request form (SAAR). This form specifies what course accommodations are judged reasonable for a given student. If necessary accommodations can't be provided, I will contact the Student Disability Services counselor who signed the request form within 48 hours of receiving it from the student.

2. Academic Policies: Because this course is given in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, policies on matters such as requirements, grading, and sanctions for academic dishonesty are governed by CLAS regulations. Students wishing to add or drop this course after the official deadline must receive the approval of the Dean of the College. Details of University policy of cross enrollments may be found here. Students should assume, unless told otherwise, that all courses taken in the English Department employ plus-minus grading.

3. Disputes: A student who has a complaint against any member of the college's teaching staff is responsible for following the procedures described in the Student Academic Handbook, which is available here. Serious disagreements about grading or other policies are generally resolved through negotiations. The first step is to talk with the instructor--which would be me; if we cannot come to a satisfactory agreement, the second step is to talk with the Associate Chair of Undergraduate Programs, Professor Douglas Trevor (douglas-trevor@uiowa.edu, 335-0472); if that doesn't work, the third step is to talk with the English Department Chair, Professor Jonathan Wilcox (jonathan-wilcox@uiowa.edu, 335-0454). After these options have been exhausted, a student may turn to the CLAS administration and submit a written complaint to the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Professor Helena Dettmar, whose office is 120 Schaeffer Hall (335-2633). Please note that in complaints involving the assignment of grades, it is college policy that grades cannot be changed without the permission of the department concerned.

4. Plagiarism and Cheating: All students are expected to be honest and honorable in their fulfillment of assignments and in test-taking situations. Plagiarism and cheating are serious forms of academic misconduct. Specific examples of these practices are available in the CLAS Handbook. Review these examples carefully. Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else's work as one's own and may involve lifting language from published essays or books, copying sources found on the internet, or using other students' work (as, for example, from a roommate or a dorm, fraternity, or sorority file). The English Department works with individual instructors to detect plagiarism and cheating and to ensure that appropriately serious punishments are applied. An instructor who suspects a student of plagiarism or cheating must inform the student (in writing) as soon as possible after the incident has been observed or discovered. Instructors who detect cheating or plagiarism may decide, in consultation with the departmental chair, to reduce the student's grade on the assignment or the course, even to assign an F. In either case, the instructor will write an account of the chonology of the plagiarism or cheating incident for the departmental chair, who will send an endorsement of the written report of the case to the Associate Dean for academic programs. A copy of the report will be sent to the student, who has the right to request a hearing within the Department and/or within the College.

5. Homework Expectation: On average, students should expect to spend approximately six hours per week outside of class preparing for class sessions. When particularly arduous reading or writing assignments are due, you may need to schedule additional out-of-class preparation time.