Everyday Ornaments: Feminist Poetics and Time

“What shall our new ornaments be? How should we adorn mortality now?,” asks the poet Lisa Robertson in her introduction to The Weather, a book that is itself dedicated to the everyday practices of atmospheric description. This class will examine how feminist poetic practices can transform the nonmonumental realm of day-to day life through documenting, description, performance, and ornamentation. In addition to Robertson, Gertrude Stein, Lyn Hejinian, CA Conrad, Rosmarie Waldrop and others, we will look especially closely at the writings of Bernadette Mayer, who, in her book Midwinter Day, attempts to exhaustively document a single day, December 22, 1978.