COMP 402(F) Senior Seminar: The Cultures of Poetry
To study poetry in a comparative light is to travel inside cultures and languages
in ways that connect the universal and the particular, the personal and the
political, the traditional and the groundbreaking. This course provides the
opportunity to read poetry from a wide range of traditions, eras, and styles. We
will study the poets' own mission, the culture in which they produced their
verse, their language of composition, and the poetic traditions of their language.
Questions of identity, beauty, history, place, technique, and creativity will go
hand in hand with explorations of individual themes in each poet's work. Our
comparative focus will also help us formulate useful questions about the
puzzling act of reading poetry in translation. We will also perform translation
exercises according to student skills. Our syllabus will include the study of
certain key examples from Persian, Arabic, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish,
Greek, and English traditions, with possible ventures into other languages. Poets
studied will include Omar Khayyam, Hafez, Rumi, Saint John of the Cross,
Lorca, Akhmatova, Szymborska, Adonis, Sappho, Cavafy, Carson, Neruda,
Senghor, to name some. Selections from music and theory will lend support to
our investigations.
Conducted in English.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on meaningful participation, short
papers, and one final research paper of 15 pages.
Prerequisites: any 200-level literature course at Williams, or permission of the
instructor. No enrollment limit (expected: 10). Preference given to majors in
Comparative Literature and students with knowledge of a foreign language.