Poetry

The poetry research group meets both formally and informally to discuss work in progress and to discuss questions of pedagogy.

The group consists primarily of members of the department whose main research area is in the genre of poetry. Given that this covers a vast historical range of cultures and nations, the research group encourages participants to present work that raises issues that include significant questions of poetic genre and of poetics more generally, whether the issues be framed in historical, theoretical, aesthetic or other terms. With several of the members being comparatist in their interests and research, the group also encourages research into poetry in languages other than English. Also, since the university does not have a comparative literature program, the group aims also to invite the participation of members of other departments who are comparatists.

Activities

The group meets formally at least twice a year in a seminar format, once in the Fall and once in the Spring, to discuss the work in progress (or completed work) of one or more of its members. Papers to be discussed will be circulated a month in advance to ensure that participants will be able to formulate questions and responses as thoroughly as possible. Additional activities include inviting visiting speakers to conduct seminars on their work or to participate in the group's own work-in-progress seminar.

The group also hopes in the coming years to organize a conference on poetry as a genre that will attempt to focus on emerging critical practices and theoretical models that question the prevailing tendency to assume the historical, national, and cultural discreteness of poetic practices and traditions at the expense of exploring their articulations