Registration required:
Online, 5 sessions / $325
Registration Begins Soon
What does it mean—ethically, politically, artistically—to make a work of art out of another writer’s made work? All poets are thieves: there’s the famous maxim by T. S. Eliot, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” Literary appropriation, including cutups, found poetry, Dadaist remixing, and erasure, can be a delightfully fun and slightly mischievous way to play casually with language. In recent years, erasure (or “blackout poetry”) has become a popular way of confronting or debating with problematic texts. But at its heart, erasure is a form akin to any other, a system of constraints—after all, what is a sonnet but a song inside a set of rules? Instead of treating erasure as an exercise or a fad, how might we read erasure as being equally worthy of critical analysis as any other form? What are the possibilities afforded by extreme constraint? In what ways is erasure dangerous?
Together, we will explore some of the most rigorous and complex examples of erasure as the engine of a full-length poetry collection. We will read diverse works with sometimes startlingly unique approaches to the form. We’ll look at erasures that retain the original text to engage in direct conversation with the source; erasures that incorporate visual artwork, erasures oriented both antagonistically and in honor of the texts from which they were born, and even an erasure in the form of an illustrated story book.
Class will consist of serious critical discussion of primary texts (below) and supplementary readings; students will also receive generative take-home prompts and recommended reading lists.
Crash Course seminars require outside reading of assigned texts. After enrolling, students should plan to access (purchase or borrow) the following texts in time to read them ahead of class sessions. Enrolled students should join the first session having read the first title listed below.
Reading List:
- Mary Ruefle, A Little White Shadow
- Matthea Harvey, Of Lamb
- M. NourbeSe Philip, Zong!
- Srikanth Reddy, Voyager
- Matthew Rohrer, Anthony McCann, and Joshua Beckman, Gentle Reader!
Class modality: Online synchronous (real-time attendance required)
Class size: 8 to 25 students
Required textbooks: Yes
Recorded: Yes
In-class & prompted writing: Yes
Workshopping & feedback: No
Chase Berggrun is a trans woman poet, educator, and organizer, and the author of R E D (Birds LLC, 2018) and the chapbook Somewhere a seagull (After Hours Editions, 2023). Her poems and essays have been published in Poetry Magazine, The Nation, and many other venues. She lives in Brooklyn with her many houseplants.
A limited number of need-based scholarships are available to cover the enrollment costs of Poetry Society classes. To receive and fill out a scholarship survey, email parker@poetrysociety.org.
