PARIS PROGRAM SYLLABUS 2013 Writers in Paris Mondays and Wednesdays 3:30-6PM Instructor: Matthew Rohrer mr167@nyu.edu THE CITY AS GENERATIVE PROJECT Course description and Objectives This course will introduce students to the idea of writing as a long-term process. We will look at poems by a wide range of poets who engage in self-generating projects; we will look particularly at the city – particularly Paris -- as a generative element in those projects; and we will look at this phenomenon as a way to approach our own writing. There will be daily readings that examine different methods of generating writing, including poems by Matthea Harvey, Guillaume Apollinaire, Frank O’Hara, Phillipe Soupault, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and many others. The class will consist of in-class and take-home writing exercises based on the readings for the week, and discussion thereof. By the end of the course, students will have developed their own extended, generative project to carry them into the Unknown.

Requirements Your grade will be based on: • In-class participation, including attendance. This is 75% of your grade. This

means being an active participant in our discussions and doing the presentations and writing exercises.

• Turning in a 750 word written response to the readings for each class. 25% of

your grade. To save paper, these should be emailed to me by classtime, on the day they are due. Please send as Microsoft Word doc. I will use “track changes” and return them to you as soon as possible.

Required Textbooks:

• Matthea Harvey Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form, Greywolf

• ISBN-10: 1882295269

• Ted Berrigan, The Sonnets, Penguin • ISBN-10: 0140589279

• Jen Bervin, Nets, Ugly Duckling Presse • ISBN-10: 0972768432

• Mary Ruefle, A Little White Shadow, Wave Books • ISBN-10: 1933517034

• Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems, City Lights • ISBN -10: 0872860353

• Jon Woodward, Rain, Wave Books • ISBN-10: 193351714X

• Selected Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire, New Directions • ISBN—o-8112-0003-5

• CAConrad, A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon, Wave • ISBN-: 978-1-933517-59-9

• Coursepack from me/NYU in Paris office

Schedule –Have the following books read, and your written response ready to hand in, on the day indicated, below: note: no papers due on day 1.

CLASS READINGS

1 June 24

Zapruder (Noelle poems)/Soupault (Georgia)/Breton (Fata Morgana)/Berrigan poem w/explanation

2 June 26

Technique: Harvey/Breton (Free Union)/Yau (vowel sonatas and title poem)

3 July 1

Series: Popa/Woodward

4 July 3

Appropriating: Berrigan essay and sonnets/Cameron poems and afterward Students: please bring a NEWSPAPER (in English)

5 July 8

Erasures: Bervin/Ruefle Students: please bring in a PROSE BOOK you don’t mind defacing – in English please

6 July 10

The City: O’Hara/Whitman/Apollinaire

Mon July 15 NO CLASS…but

Ekphrastic Day You are going on a poetry adventure.

8 July 17

CAConrad Final Class: wrap up/students present their plans for projects