Columbia College Chicago, MFA Poetry
Graduate Craft Seminar: Documentary and Poetry, 52-6531-02
Tuesdays 6:30-9:20 pm; 33 E Congress Pkwy Room 318
Jill Magi, Instructor;
Office Hours & Location: Wednesdays 5-6 pm and by appointment, 33 E Congress 520
Description & Goals
Film theory locates “documentary” not around a fixed set of characteristics (truth, use of document, non-fiction versus fiction), but instead defines documentary as a discourse, a set of intentions and resulting modes of practice. Documentary film often aims to raise awareness around an issue in order to teach. This Enlightenment idea that the more we know, the better off we will be is challenged by poetry, which exploits the subjective nature of language, and therefore questions how we use language to know. Still, poems often include facts, documents, politics, and history, and there is currently a lively discourse around “documentary poetry” with anthologies on the subject going to print even as you are reading this description. In this craft seminar we will survey the discourse and make “documentary poetry,” if we want to call it that, and, taking cues from film theory and “the documentary turn” of the 80s and 90s in visual art, perhaps expand our textual practices to incorporate interviewing, observation, found text, and self-reflexivity.
Required Texts
Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip (Wesleyan)
The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers by Bhanu Kapil (Kelsey Street)
One Big Self: An Investigation by C. D. Wright (Copper Canyon)
Coal Mountain Elementary by Mark Nowak (Coffee House)
To After That (Toaf) by Renee Gladman (Atelos)
Course packet and pdfs.
Assignments
Creative assignments brought into class printed out; willingness to exchange this work with peers and give and receive feedback. These assignments should be thought of as experiments, tentative forays into perhaps new territories, and sites of potential. Risk is privileged.
In-class presentation/discussion facilitation: a close reading of the text at hand, background info on author and historical context if necessary, questions for “documentary” and “poetry,” and at least one pertinent ancillary work related to text, such as reviews or essays or critical works.
One 3-page written review/essay on an assigned book of your choice, keeping in mind the in-class presentation guidelines. (Please adhere to MLA or Chicago citation conventions.)
One creative work revised, expanded.
Final essay (can be traditional or lyrical), poetics statement, manifesto, or research paper that draws on or references at least one creative text and one critical text from our class.
Attendance
The official English Department absence policy states: “More than two absences in classes
that meet once a week (and more than four classes in classes that meet twice a week) will affect your grade and can result in failure.” Class will always start at 6:30 promptly; patterns of lateness can affect your grade.
Technology
Please do not use laptops or cell phones or other electronic devices during class.
Grading
Participation and attendance: 30%
Creative assignments: 30%
Presentation: 10%
Book review/essay: 10%
Final creative piece, expanded: 10%
Final essay/poetics statement/manifesto: 10%
Course Schedule (subject to change)
September 4
We ask, “What is documentary”? We consider maps and how we will make a path through this semester.
The poet crosses the threshold of their study, their classroom, the library, and goes for a walk, making a map as they go. The map of what is beyond seen = poem.
September 11
Toward a walking poem: an assignment.
Introductory Theory: The Image-world, truth, ideology, writing, art, and the body eleven years after “the event.”
Read Nichols chapter I, “The Domain of Documentary” from Representing Reality (pdf)
Read Hito Steyerl’s “Documentary Uncertainty” (pdf)
Read excerpt from Maurice Blanchot’s The Writing of the Disaster (pdf)
Read Jill’s blog post “Shaking Up Documentary Poetry” here: http://jillmagisblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/shaking-up-documentary-poetry.html
September 18
Due: a walking poem/document/annotated map.
Going Back to Go Forward: Poetry, Social Life, Authenticity, and North American Forerunners
Read Walt Whitman
“Come up from the Fields Father” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16403
Plus any other selection of your choice from Leaves of Grass.
Read Paul Laurence Dunbar
“A Negro Love Song” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16685
“We Wear the Mask” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15888
“When Malindy Sings” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15889
“Frederick Douglas” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19437
The Poet and History
Read excerpts from William Carlos Williams’ Paterson (packet)
Read Susan Howe’s Souls of the Labadie Tract and Singularities (packet)
History, Fact, and Poetry: toward an assignment.
September 25
Due: History, Fact, and Poetry assignment.
The expository mode: The poet identifies a pressing social or contemporary issue and goes and writes. She may or may not be involved—she participates or she watches.
Read Nichols, chapter II: “Documentary Modes of Representation,” pages 32-38 (pdf)
Read Muriel Rukeyeser’s US 1 (packet)
Brainstorm toward an expository poem.
October 2
Class will not meet (Jill at Goddard College)
October 9
The expository mode, continued: Poets look closely at intention and their poetry projects, the possibility of doing and speaking for “others,” and collaborations with photographers.
Read C. D. Wright’s One Big Self: An Investigation
In class: the accompanying project by photographer Deborah Lesser
October 16
Due: poem sequence that (at least) begins in the expository mode.
The observational mode: The poet turns the camera on/places the words on the page and walks away. “Archive fever” looms.
Read Nichols, chapter II: “Documentary Modes of Representation,” pages 38-44 (pdf)
Read Charles Reznikoff, excerpts from “Testimony” (packet)
Read Kenneth Goldsmith, excerpts from The Weather (pdf)
Toward a found text assignment.
October 23
Due: an observational poem—a found text exercise/experiment.
The interactive mode: The poet involves themselves to varying degrees—as interviewer/recording technology/transcript-maker.
Read Nichols, chapter II: “Documentary Modes of Representation,” pages 44-56 (pdf)
Read Corrine Fitzpatrick’s Zambogueña (pdf)
Read Bhanu Kapil’s The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers
Toward a poem-as-interview assignment.
October 30
The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers continued
November 6
Due: poem as/utilizing interview.
The reflexive mode: the poet’s presence is marked either through form or statements of self-reflexivity.
Read Nichols, chapter II: “Documentary Modes of Representation,” pages 56-75 (pdf)
Read Mark Nowak’s Coal Mountain Elementary
Read selections from American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics (pdf)
Toward a documentary poem of formal reflexivity.
November 13
Coal Mountain Elementary continued
Due: review/response essay on one text from class.
November 20
Due: formal reflexivity poem.
Reflexivity, continued: The poet begins with a document, seeks ancestral permission, and performs a ritual as book. The body is on the line.
Read M. NourBese Philip’s Zong!
November 27
Zong! continued
In-class review and notes toward an essay/poetics statement/manifesto.
Read Jill’s blog post on “Documentary Ethics, Textures, and Readers: Considering the Outcomes of Compositional Choices in Documentary Poetry” here: http://jillmagisblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/ethics-textures-and-readers-considering.html
December 4
The poet considers fiction. All hell breaks loose.
Read Rene Gladman’s Toaf
Read selection from Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others (pdf)
In-class: the photographs of Jeff Wall (in class)
In-class: Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston (in class)
December 11
We poets wonder, together, what do we add to the field of documentary? We wonder, what does documentary do to poetry? We invoke and celebrate new and/or refined poems and poetics.
Due: Expanded/revised creative work and poetics/manifesto/theory assignment
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