A Poetics of Difficulty

Harvard HDS

Through the careful reading of and exploratory writing about selected works of contemporary poetry, together with some key pieces of criticism and philosophy, the seminar will explore different modalities of difficulty. The hypothesis driving the course is that in difficult times, reading difficult writing can be a vital, intellectually and affectively powerful task. Readings will likely include work by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Myung Mi Kim, Susan Howe, Dan Beachy-Quick, Harryette Mullen,…