As the semester began, we spent some time discussing the general principles of modernism, and I want to give you a brief list of some modernist principles to look for as you keep reading the poetry I've assigned.
*the address of aesthetic problems similar to those examined in art (Cubism in relation to "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," and its aesthetics of fragmentation and multi-perspectival space and time)
*alientation brought on by the loss of historical heritage, the loss of religion, etc.
*disjointed timelines, loss of narrative/poetic coherency
*introspective / psychoanalytic contemplation of "selfhood"
*collapse between subject and object ("The Snow Man": one has to be nothing in order to know nothing)
*borrowings from other cultures and languages
*open form, free verse, unconventional use of metaphor
We'll keep building this list as we keep reading.
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