Multilingual Poetry Writing Workshop: Finding Your Own Voice

general courses

Classroom

We will study the basics of history of poetry, lyrical aesthetics and poetic technique from an applied point of view. Practical exercises will be carried out in order to help students apprehend the art of poetic writing, and students will be assisted and encouraged in the writing of their own poetic pieces.

Students' works will be read and analysed in class from a theoretical and critical point of view. Depending on the group's and the individual learners' inclinations, poems will vary and evolve from classical Western and Eastern poetic forms (ballad, sonnet, haiku, tanka among others), folklore-based poetry, slam poetry, graphic poetry, multimedial poetry.

Students will be evaluated on consistent attendance and participation in class, effort, literary development, and poetic originality and technical ability.

We will study the basics of history of poetry, lyrical aesthetics and poetic technique from an applied point of view. Practical exercises will be carried out in order to help students apprehend the art of poetic writing, and students will be assisted and encouraged in the writing of their own poetic pieces.

Students' works will be read and analysed in class from a theoretical and critical point of view. Depending on the group's and the individual learners' inclinations, poems will vary and evolve from classical Western and Eastern poetic forms (ballad, sonnet, haiku, tanka among others), folklore-based poetry, slam poetry, graphic poetry, multimedial poetry.

Students will be evaluated on consistent attendance and participation in class, effort, literary development, and poetic originality and technical ability. Evaluation method - graded credit (zaliczenie na ocenę).

The language of instruction is labelled as English, but there may be multiple languages used in class for both theory and practice depending on the students' preferences and needs, as well as the lecturer's possibilities.

ECTS credits:

-Participation in class - 1 ECTS (30 hours)

-Preparation for classes - 1 ECTS (30 hours)

-Preparing the final project (zaliczenie) - 1 ECTS (30 hours)

Students will be given handouts and receive links to articles and other texts depending on the needs of the group. The following literature is recommended for further reading on the subject:

-Caplan, David. Poetic form: An introduction. Pearson Longman, 2007.

-Carey, John: A Little History of Poetry, Yale University Press, 2020.

-Gregson, Ian. Contemporary Poetry and Postmodernism. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1996.

-Padgett, Ron. Handbook of Poetic Forms. Teachers and Writers Collaborative, 5 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003, 1987.

-Pollard, Natalie. Speaking to you: Contemporary poetry and public address. Oxford University Press, 2012.

-Spiegelman, Willard. How poets see the world: The art of description in contemporary poetry. Oxford University Press, 2005.

-Wainwright, Jeffrey. Poetry: the basics. Routledge, 2015.

Students will be continuously assessed for class attendance and participation (30%), homework (20%) and asked to submit a project at the end of the semester (50% - mandatory in order to receive a passing grade). The work can be a poetic work (or a series of such works related thematically, formally or conceptually), in written or oral form (in a video file).

Attached to the final project should be an analysis of the presented work (works) answering the following questions:

1. What is the formal conception of the given poetic text?

2. What are the main problems, themes, rethorical figures and motifs of the poem?

3. What were the influences and sources of inspiration for the author?

Each of this questions will be given a score from 0 to 3 points, and the text will be analysed holistically. The realisation of the project will be mandatory to obtain a passing grade.

Points to grades converter:

4.5-5 points – dst (3.0)

5.5-6 points – dst+ (3.5)

6.5-7 points – db (4.0)

7.5-8 points – db+ (4.5)

8.5-9 points – very good (5.0)

9+ points – very good! (5!)

A 5! grade will be reserved for texts and analyses of extraordinary merit.