The Poet-Scholar

Session 150 | Thursday, 7:00–8:15 p.m. A special session. Presiding: Hillary Gravendyk, Pomona Coll. Speakers: Julie Carr, U of Colorado, Boulder; Heather Dubrow, Fordham U; Margaret Ronda, Rutgers U; Jennifer Scappettone, U of Chicago; Juliana M. Spahr, Mills C; Barrett Watten, Wayne State U

  1. At #S150, the Poet-Scholar. Starting #mla13 off with a very-relevant-to-dissertation bang.
  2. Now at #s150, "The Poet-Scholar." (Something I once aspired to be, and still do, sort of.) #MLA13
  3. @ncecire Oh hah, of course we're at the same panel. I should have sat at the "tweeters" table. #mla13 #s150
  4. Panelists: J Carr M Ronda H Dubrow J Spahr J Scappettone B Watten
  5. J Spahr: nothing unique about my story; prof job, then job in the "mfa bubble economy." #mla13
  6. Spahr: creative writing once treated like "candy," delicious too much will make you sick. Became unregulated as students became "consumers."
  7. Spahr: "Creativewritingization" due to student demand (b/c "easier" and/or b/c writing has greater contact with an imagined audience) #mla13
  8. Spahr: MFA programs couldn't pay their profs so little if it weren't for all the MFA-holders they turn out. Bennington fired tenure #mla13 +
  9. -line profs by claiming that they preferred "working artists" (as opposed to non-working profs?) #mla13
  10. Spahr: MFA glut enables low pay for comp instructors. #MLA13
  11. The elephant in the room at #s150: changing notions of autonomy and freedom. #mla13
  12. Spahr: but "creativewritingization" enables much more interesting hybrids of research & creative work, esp among undergrads. #MLA13
  13. Poet-critic vs poet-scholar vs poet-critic? #s150 #mla13 (ready, set, Charles Olson!)
  14. .@barrettwatten: I'm a poet-critic and a poet-teacher, but what is a "poet-scholar"? First encounter with one was with Charles Olson. #mla13
  15. RT @kqandrews: The elephant in the room at #s150: changing notions of autonomy and freedom. #mla13
  16. Watten: am I a poet-scholar? poet-critic, poet-teacher, yes. Who's a poet-scholar? Olson. Talks about Olson's book West. #MLA13
  17. Watten reads bits of Olson's West, unfamiliar to me. Sounds like Cantos Pound. #MLA13
  18. Watten: the Olson poem sounds just like notes. How is it a poem? Sifting, arrangement. Crazy Horse died at 28. #MLA13
  19. Watten: also reads Olson poem from West about elephant. "Anagogic vision." It sent W to Gloucester.
  20. .@barrettwatten on Olson's West: an impressive "synthesis of knowledge-claims and poetic self-discovery." #mla13 #s150
  21. .@barrettwatten: But knowledge-claims crumble under pressure of self-disc; what remains is the way that lang structures itself #mla13 #s150
  22. Knowledge claims in Olson's poetry drop away, leaving focus on formalisms. (This is a summary of the linguistic turn...) #s150 #mla13

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Natalia Cecire

American modernism, naturalism, experimental lit, history and philosophy of science, gender, childhood, and media studies.

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