Documentary Poetics
Course Description
Summary
Drawing from news articles, interviews, archival materials, and more, writers throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries have sought to document the world through poetry. As Phillip Metres writes, such poets often collage first-person narratives with found materials in order to “give voice to stories of people and movements that the mass media tend to ignore or misrepresent.” This class will study a range of works that might be categorized under the heading of Documentary Poetics, such as Muriel Rukeyser’s long poem The Book of the Dead, about the struggles of West Virginian mine workers in the 1920s-30s; Ernesto Cardenal’s use of filmic techniques to document social unrest and revolution in Nicaragua; Mark Nowak’s blending of photography, drama, and working class oral history; Jenny Xie’s exploration of the aftereffects of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in her recent collection Rupture Tense; and more. Reading several full-length collections as well as essays on the subject, we will ask: What does it mean for the poet to serve as journalist, as historian, as archivist—but perhaps first and foremost as poet? What are the ethics of appropriating, erasing, and otherwise manipulating found texts? How does one give testimony to the world one lives in, while honoring the boundaries of other people’s experiences?
This course may be of interest to students whose Plans include history, politics, poetry, nonfiction, archival studies, or multimedia art, or who are otherwise interested in using art as a lens into sociopolitical and historical questions. Students will write several critical responses to the readings before crafting their own long documentary poems which draw from research into a topic of their choice.
Learning Outcomes
- To understand the history of documentary poetics, including the range of formal approaches poets in and outside of the American context have employed to document their worlds
- To close read and analyze works of poetry, especially their multimedia, polyphonic, and fragmentary elements
- To think (and create) critically through the tensions of ethical concerns about appropriation as a craft tool
- To explore methods of conducting artistic research
- To learn and experiment with various approaches to both manipulating found materials and writing from a personal standpoint
Prerequisites
Students are required to have taken at least one previous course in Literature (2000 or 4000 level) that included critical study of poetry. Students who have not previously taken a 4000-level poetry course are welcome to apply but should submit a writing sample (see below).
Please submit an application that includes 1) a list of up to five relevant courses you have taken in Literature, History, Politics, APA, or Media Studies, and 2) one or two ideas you might be interested in exploring in your own documentary poem. If you have NOT taken at least one 4000-level Literature class on the study of poetry, please also submit a sample of critical writing, no more than 8 pages. Submissions should be submitted via this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScuWN5vs6d7CrPk28hfvI9jiAI8BO5…. Submissions are due by November 13, 2025. Students admitted to class will be notified by email by November 18, 2025.
If applications exceed the number of available seats, admission will be determined based on strength of interest and instructor's determination of preparation for the course. Students who do not meet the prerequisites may be placed on a waitlist, at the instructor's discretion.
Corequisites
Students in 4000-level Literature classes are required to attend Literature Evenings and Poetry at Bennington readings, typically held on Wednesdays at 7pm.
Cross List
- Advancement of Public Action