WR-320-01 The Monstrous-Femme: Theory as Generative Praxis
Dianca Potts
Mondays and Wednesdays 10:00 am – 12:50 pm
Summer Session II
Inspired by Barbara Creed’s seminal text The Monstrous-Feminine, this course will examine a diverse selection of literary, cinematic, and works of art that embody, explore, and reimagine the narrative possibilities of feminism, monstrosity, otherness, and subversion. Students will foster new ways to invoke and center the monstrous-femme and the body through narrative design and experimentation with form by crafting works that intentionally bloom outside of the binary (in terms of identity, tradition, form, and aesthetics). Throughout this course, students will be encouraged to develop new approaches to their creative practice while cultivating innovative works and approaches to revision and craft. Students will also learn how to incorporate archival material(s), new media, and theory into their work to further develop new terrain within their creative practice. Together, we’ll uncover the narrative potential of the monstrous-femme, otherness, and the power of fierce subversion. Students will engage with works by Agustina Bazterrica, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Eliza Clark, David Cronenberg, Natalie Diaz, Barbara Creed, Sasha Rainbow, Otessa Moshfegh, Alexandra Kleeman, Alice Maio Mackay, Lucille Clifton, Julia Armfield, Coralie Fargeat, and more.
WR-320-02 Poetry and Nature
Jasmine Reid
Wednesdays 1:00 pm – 5:20 pm
Summer Session I
This course will explore how poetic expression not only offers us a means of experiencing the intimate immensities of the natural world, but of deriving lessons for how to be human undivorced from being an earthling. In this way, we will read nature-centered poetry and essays that simultaneously consider questions of identity, historical grief, and ecological crisis. What, for instance, do mushrooms, snails, and dolphins have to teach us about the hardiness and creativity needed to survive this historic moment when all life is at stake? With these texts as guides, students will engage generative poetic practices, writing themselves into the survivance and posterity of the world. The course will focus on process and revision, with students receiving feedback from their peers as well as the instructor. We will play with form and craft while considering who and how we want to be in the world.