Spring 2010

E 379S • Senior Seminar—The Beginnings of the Avant Garde-W

Course Description

This class will focus on some of the predecessors and early exponents of the avant garde in the twentieth century. We will begin with Rimbaud and Apollonaire, two figures who stand alone in their innovative literary production then proceed to the more collective concerns of Futurism, Dada, Surrealism and OULIPO. Students will be required to produce three creative works that exemplify or react to the ideas and procedures of particular avant gardes. Also students will be required to write a manifesto of their own, parodic or otherwise. A final paper, on an individual poet or manifestations of the avant garde not explored in class for instance, will be the foundation for an in-class presentation during the last few weeks of the semester.

Grading Policy

Three poems or works of prose, 20%; One 5-10-page position/reaction paper, 20%; One 20-25-page research paper, including revisions, 40%; Attendance and participation, 20%.

Texts

Apolloniare, The Self-Dismembered Man; Rimbaud, The Illiminations; Tzara, The Approximate Man and Other Writings; Breton, The Manifestos of Surrealism; Lorca, Poet in New York; The Random House Book of Twentieth Century French Poetry; handouts galore.

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