First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-21)
Topic
Writing Home: Poetries of Diaspora and Domesticity
Instructors
Avey Rips
Meeting Info
University Hall 318: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
What does it mean to "write home" - write of home, write to home - when you can no longer return to that home, whether by force, choice, or circumstance? How do poems reach across oceans and continents, in and out of exile? How does one find or make a poetic "home" within a diaspora (a word that refers to the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland)? How do poetic depictions of home carry within them the enormous histories, memories, and experiences of a distant or absent homeland? Together we will explore these questions as we read a wide range of poems about the experiences of being in exile, in diaspora, and at home. At the same time, we will read about and discuss the political and philosophical stakes of being a diasporic subject in our current moment, as the consequences of climate change, war, and political repression have created a global refugee crisis of previously unimaginable scale. Concurrently, we will also seek to answer questions about poetry itself: how do poems written in diaspora imagine - or reimagine - home? Are there unique ways in which diasporic poetry makes meaning? What can diasporic poetry teach us about reading and writing poetry in general? We will be reading works about exile, home, and homeland by poets from a variety of diasporic traditions around the world, as well as critical texts in diaspora studies and de- and post-colonial theory. Throughout, you'll also be honing your skills as a writer, learning to pose questions, fashion arguments, and develop your own authorial voice.
Teaching Method
Discussion, Short Lecture.
Evaluation Method
Discussion, Analytical Writing.
Class Materials (Required)
All available via pdf.
Class Attributes
WCAS Writing Seminar
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.