|
Schedule and Faculty
 |
Let me briefly introduce myself. I am Eric Murphy Selinger,
Associate Professor of English at DePaul
University, director of the seminar. As a teacher,
scholar, and book reviewer, at DePaul University and in
the Chicago community, I have worked to bring poetry to
a wider public -- and, in particular, to show that critical
analysis does not, as Wordsworth worried, grimly "murder
to dissect." Quite the contrary: it gives the reader
a passionate, delicate way to make the poem at hand come
to life. Such reflective, complex, and well-informed pleasure
is, I am convinced, the natural goal of reading poetry
and the heart of remaining a reader and learner long after
one's formal schooling is done. |
My books include What Is It Then Between Us? Traditions of
Love in American Poetry (Cornell University Press, 1998) and
Jewish American Poetry: Poems, Commentary, and Reflections
(Brandeis University Press, 2000), which I co-edited; my essays
and reviews have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Parnassus:
Poetry in Review, the Washington Post Book World, and elsewhere.
I have given "Poetry Appreciation" and "Poetry
Pedagogy" presentations at the Chicago Public Library
for National Poetry Month, led a year-long series of poetry-teaching
workshops for Chicago-area middle school teachers, and directed
three previous incarnations of this NEH seminar.
At several points our conversations will be led by visitors,
including
- master teacher Eileen Murphy, a former seminar participant
who has twice coached Illinois state champions in the national
Poetry Out Loud competition,
- María Meléndez, a rising Chicana poet
fascinated by environmental science,
- Jonathan Gross, a Byron scholar who has recently edited
Thomas Jefferson’s poetry scrapbooks, and
- Melissa Bradshaw, a specialist in the celebrity culture
surrounding poets and poetry across the 20th century.
“Say Something Wonderful: Teaching the Pleasures of
Poetry” will meet Monday through Friday mornings for
the four weeks from June 29-July 24, 2009. All of your afternoons
will be available for reading, for informal discussions with
me and other members of the group, and for the many cultural
opportunities available in the thriving city of Chicago.
The average week will include brief presentations and extensive
group discussions of poems and other materials (textbooks,
exercises, websites, etc.). Our emphasis throughout will be
on discussion and exchange -- as previous participants will
testify, this is an honest-to-goodness seminar of colleagues,
and not a lecture series in disguise!
Week 1: Introducing Poetry
>>
Week 2: Poems as Pleasure
>>
Week 3: Knowledge is Pleasure
>>
Week 4: Sharing the Wealth:
Pleasure and Performance >>
|
