Auteurs des Etats-Unis d'Amérique

Formal lectures given in English and focusing on texts in close reading. This is not a virtual class (attending and participating in classes are highly recommended).

To introduce students to contemporary American poetry and poetics, as well as to some major poetic works and their socio-historical context; to strengthen students' literary analysis skills and their ability to analyse a poetic text by themselves.

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

Very high level of English required (the course demands engagement with complex experimental texts).

In certain years, the course explores the vision of the "Beat Generation," a literary sensibility that paved the way for the sixties' counterculture and whose creativity peaked in between 1944 and 1960. In others, the course examines the ecological/ecocritical discourse and the ecopoetics developed by contemporary US authors, with occasional incursions into foundational texts of the 19th century. For both classes, the course content focuses primarily on poetry and cutting-edge poetic texts.

In 2022-23, the course will focus on the visionary quest of the Beat Generation (including its spiritual, aesthetic and ecological/ecopoetic dimensions).

Contribution to the teaching profile

• Consolidating the techniques of literary analysis and interpretation.

• Understanding literary genres and their transformation over time.

• Understanding intertextuality.

• Understanding some of the links between aesthetics and social issues.

• Learning to formulate a research hypothesis; learning how to structure the result of individual research/reflection for oral presentation.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

For the 2022-2023 academic year, the course will focus on the writers of the Beat Generation.

Set Reading List for 2022-2023 (compulsory reading):

Materials Discussed in Class

1)          GINSBERG, Allen. “Paterson” (written 1949; publ. in Empty Mirror, 1961).

2)          KEROUAC, Jack. “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose” and “Belief & Technique for Modern Prose” (1953; reprinted in The Penguin Book of the Beats, ed. Ann Charters, 1992)

3)          ---. “Mexico Fellaheen” (from Lonesome Traveler, 1960)

4)           GINSBERG, Allen, "Siesta in Xbalba" (written 1954; publ. in Reality Sandwiches, 1963)

5)          SNYDER, Gary, "Buddhism and the Coming Revolution," "Passage to More than India," "Why Tribe" and "Poetry and the Primitive" (all from Earth Household: Technical Notes and Queries to Fellow Dharma Revolutionaries, 1969). (If time permits, we might also include a short poem by Snyder).

6)          KEROUAC, Jack. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity (1960).

7)          McCLURE, Michael.  “Peyote Poem” (from Hymns to St Geryon & Dark Brown, 1959)

8)         di Prima, Diane (final selection to be confirmed, depending on the time left at the end of the term).

Materials to Be Prepared Individually (with the aid of tutorials given by the doctoral student, Ms Claire WATT)

A)       KEROUAC, Jack. The Dharma Bums (1958; rpt. Penguin, ISBN 978-0-141-18488-3)

B)       GINSBERG, Allen, "Howl" (from Howl, 1956) 

C)        WALDMAN, Anne, "Fast Speaking Woman" (from Fast Speaking Woman, 1975; revised 1996)

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

e-mail: franca.bellarsi@ulb.be

Tél.: 02/650 67 47 (office) ou 02/650 38 24 (secretariat)

Interviews by personal appointment only (Office no.: AZ4.117)

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Oral examination

Oral examination

There will be an oral examination in January 2023 (50% for texts covered in class, 30% for individual reading, 20% for quality of oral expression in English).

Please note that the examination forms a whole ("l'examen n'est pas scindable"): the examiner will refuse to interview students having prepared only one of the sets of texts required for the examination.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

The breakdown of the final mark is as follows: 50% for texts covered in class, 30% for individual reading, 20% for quality of oral expression in English.

Language(s) of evaluation

• english