Full syllabus for:

The Legacy of the Symbolist Movement in French, German, English, and Dutch Verse

Five term papers will be required for the course, due on the following dates:

26 January, 5-6 pages, on Marianne Moore “To a Snail”

16 February, 5-6 pages on a topic to be determined

16 March, 5-6 pages on a topic to be determined

6 April, 5-6 pages on a topic to be determined

4 May, 10-12 pages on a topic chosen by the student

Readings for the course will include at least five or six poems every week, to be read (and discussed in class) in as much excruciating detail as possible.  The first four papers will be written on one poem each.  The topic of each of those four papers will be determined by discussion among the instructor and the students, in each case two full weeks before the due date.  The poems to be discussed in each class session will be decided, by the instructor and the students, on the basis of where the previous class discussion is headed.

Grading:  each short paper 10%, final paper 30%, class discussion 30%

The Legacy of the Symbolist Movement in French, German, English, and Dutch Verse

Each week at least two or three important symbolist poems will be studied in detail, with a view toward understanding their participation in a movement that revolutionized the very idea of poetry.  Selections from the critical prose of several authors—at least Mallarmé, Pound, Eliot, Hofmannsthal—will also be discussed.  All texts will be read in English, but specific features of non-English originals will be explained in class.  At least five short interpretive papers will be assigned.