FREN 1303

FWS: Misfit Poets: From Baudelaire to Bob Dylan

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

For centuries, misfits and outcasts have chosen poetry as their mode of expression.  In this course, we will explore the ways in which poems and songs can serve as a form of subversion, protest, or refusal or societal norms.  Readings will come from three generations in literary history which bear a strong relation to each other.  The so-called "accursed poets" of nineteenth-century France, the American Beat poets of the 1950s and 1960s, and folk and rock 'n' roll artists from the 1960s to the present.  Critical readings from Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Rancière, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin will help us consider ways in which poetry functions inside and outside of society.  Frequent writing assignments will help students refine skills in expository and analytical composition.

When Offered Spring.

Satisfies Requirement First-Year Writing Seminar.

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