Creative Derivation: Rewriting, Remaking, and Unmaking Literature

The American experimental poet Robert Duncan famously described his work as “derivative.” His contemporary, Ronald Johnson, once remarked: “I read to steal.” In this course we will take these articulations of reading-focused poetics as a premise for surveying seventeenth- through twenty-first-century literature that enacts the reading of other texts; repurposes the narratives and terms of canonical or hegemonic writing; or uses critique as a means of generative engagement. Along the way, we will consider the stakes of rewriting or reworking texts across cultural, historical, generic, and formal distances. Students will be invited to pursue creative final projects. 3 hrs. lect./disc.