7 November 2011--James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison

We're dealing this week with the genre of cultural criticism: political polemic on one hand, a theory of the arts on the other.

October 17--Lowell (Updated)

Now that we've spent a lot of time with a single poem, I'd like to discuss Lowell more generally in our next section. We can talk about issues raised by Life Studies as a whole and Lowell's position as a poet in 1950s America.

Please continue to post if you haven't already done so for last week. (Or you can post again, if so inclined.)

October 3rd--Kerouac

September 6--O'Hara and Ginsberg

The poetry of everyday life, anti-poetry, stream-of-consciousness: how do we want to characterize the poems we've read this week? Do you like the poems? Do the work? Do they make sense? What passages do you want to look at as we try to answer these questions?

September 19--Mailer and O'Connor

Race, violence, and trauma. This should be a fun week! What did you like, what made you angry, what should we discuss? Please note which time your section is.