Poetics: Poetry's Data

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What is poetry's data? And how is this question different than "What is poetry"? We read poetry from the eighteenth century to now and explore questions of poetry's use as data in disciplines as various as folklore, philology, linguistics, literary history, literary theory. Conversely, we ask what the perceived resistance to datafication has reified about affect, authenticity, genius, originality, intention, or indeed Poetry? Understanding poetry's data through quantification, pedagogical instrumentality, prosodic regularity, and machine learning, we think about how poetry's data impacts our contemporary reading practices.

• Blair, Lectures on the Art of Rhetoric
• Gummere, The Beginnings of Poetry
• Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought
• Johnson, Book of American Negro Poetry
• Richards, Practical Criticism
• Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp

See instructor for complete list.

• Paper in lieu of final - 30%
• Papers - 30%
• Oral presentation(s) - 10%
• Class/precept participation - 30%

Open to Graduate Students Only.

None.