Poetry and Science 3301-LA2233-2ST

We will undertake a close and contextual reading of several poetic texts more or less directly alluding to exact sciences, focusing on 21st century poetry, which articulates the tensions of what Lynn Keller describes as „self conscious Anthropocene” (a moment when arts and humanities cannot avoid reflecting on intertwined planetary crises caused by extractive economies). We will reflect on how contemporary poetry, as experimental art, reacts to the transformation of our environment happening at unprecedented pace as a consequence of anthropogenic destabilisation of the life-supporting systems of the earth (climate change, loss of biodiversity, plastic pollution, shrinking of habitats) and to technological progress (social media, artificial intelligence). During the semester we will read and analyse the writings of poets who are interested in various scientific disciplines (geology, botany, molecular biology, astrophysics, medicine, ecology), work as researchers or use scientific knowledge or procedures in their creative practices. In the spirit of environmental humanities and going against the popular assumption that poetry stands in opposition to science, we will try to notice affinities between these forms of human attention without ignoring the differences. We will treat poetry as an area of investigation, a form of research into the questions of our human relationship with other inhabitants of the earth, or the role of technology in shaping that relationship. Can the tools offered by poetry be useful to science (e.g. to communicate its findings to the public)? The course is organised in collaboration with the Ecopoetological Laboratory (Environmental Humanities Center) and will involve guest workshops (led by by poets and scientists). The reading list will include: Walt Whitman Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, Forrest Gander, Brenda Hillman, Adam Dickinson, Evelyn Reilly, Alison Cobb, Tracy K. Smith, Natalie Diaz, as well as theoretical writings by Kate Rigby, Wendy Wheeler i Anny Tsing.

Nature poetry and ecological poetry
The poetry of Walt Whitman
Modernism and the interest in technology
Darwinian evolution and poetry
biosemiotics and new materialisms
trends in 21st century American poetry
"Anthropocene" and "Self-conscious Anthropocene"
the notion of "planetary" perspective
poetics and ecopoetics
poetic experiment, the avant-garde
poetry as a way of knowing the world
poetry as a form of activism in the age of climate catastrophe

Individual poems from the following collections:
Cobb, Alison. Plastic: An Autobiography. New York: Nightboat Books, 2018.
Dickinson, Adam. Anatomic. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2018.
Diaz Natalie. Postcolonial Love Poem. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2020.
Gander, Forrest. Be With. New York: New Directions, 2018.
Gander, Forrest, Twice Alive. New York: New Directions, 2023.
Hillman, Brenda. Cascadia. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
Reilly, Evelyn. Styrofoam. New York: Roof Books, 2009.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (wiele wydań)

Secondary reading (fragments):
Gander, Forrest. „Nymph Stick Insect”, A Faithful Existence, Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2001.
Hume, Angela; and Gillian Osborne, Ecopoetics: Essays in the Field, University of Iowa Press, 2018.
Iovino, Serenella; and Serpil Opperman, Material Ecocriticism, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2014.
Keller, Lynn. Recomposing Ecopoetics: North American Poetry of the Self-Conscious Anthropocene. University of Virginia Press, 2017.
Rigby, Kate. „Ecopoetics,” Keywords for Environmental Studies, Edited by Joni Adamson, William A. Gleason, and David N. Pellow. New York University Press, 2016.
Tsing, Anna. The Mushroom at the End of the World. On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press, 2001.
Wheeler, Wendy. The Whole Creature. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2015.

The 2023/24 edition of the course will host a visit by Forrest Gander (poet, Pulitzer-prize winner) and Anne Pringle (mycologist)