“Sixth Annual Graduate Student Comparative Poetics Colloquium
Department of Comparative Literature, Princeton University
Saturday, May 7, 2011
UPDATE: Deadline for Proposals: March 20, 2011
On Saturday, May 7, 2011, the Department of Comparative Literature at
Princeton University will host a colloquium in comparative poetics titled
“Formal Measures.” Graduate students at any stage in their work are
welcome to submit proposals for a twenty-minute paper presentation.
In addition to two panels, the colloquium will feature a keynote lecture
given by Derek Attridge (University of York), a poetry reading by A.E.
Stallings (poet and translator; recipient of the Richard Wilbur Award),
and a roundtable discussion in which Princeton scholars and poets will
discuss the changing role of traditional metrical and prosodic
considerations in the study and writing of poetry today.
“Formal Measures” proposes a multidisciplinary discussion of the cultural,
political, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance of form and
metrics in the writing and study of poetry today. In the wake of free
verse, how does the transmission of traditional forms across historical
and linguistic boundaries continue to shape our critical understanding and
poetic practice? Are particular forms or meters indissociable from the
languages in which they first appear? If yes, how do poetic forms
nonetheless circulate between traditions and languages? Is there a formal
or linguistic definition of poetry? In recent years, these questions have
taken on increasing urgency, both inside and outside of the academy, as
academics and poets have renewed their engagement with form. We are
particularly interested in the circulation, appropriation and
reinterpretation of formal schemes and metrical systems within and across
poetic traditions and languages, in the tension between experimental and
traditional forms, as well as in the metrical dimension of translating
poetry.
We welcome papers that offer questions, challenges, elaborations, and
interpretations of this year’s theme. Papers may focus on any poetic
tradition, language or period. We are especially interested in proposals
that take a comparative or interdisciplinary approach.
Topics may include but are not confined to the following:
Form as constraint/Form as freedom
Avant-garde/ Experimental use of traditional forms
Compositional constraints as poetic practice (Oulipo, etc.)
Theories of the relationship between form and literary meaning
Theories of prosody
Definitions of “poetry,” the “poetic” or “poetic language”
The relation of poetry to music
The metrical dimension of translating poetry
Pre-modern form
Form and literary history
Form and the formation of literary canons
Form and individual style
Form and genre
Form and aesthetics
Form and the senses
Political uses of poetic form
Form and technology
Hybrid forms
Paper proposals should include a title, 250-word abstract, brief biography
(including department affiliation and areas of interest) and contact
information. Please include at least one close reading in your paper and
send us attachments of the poems before the colloquium. Papers will be
pre-circulated to moderators in late April in order for them to prepare
responses in advance. Audio-visual equipment is available upon request.
If you are interested in moderating a panel, please submit a curriculum
vitae and a brief description of your interest in the colloquium by the
proposal deadline.
Please send proposals via email attachment, as well as any questions, to
formalmeasures@gmail.com.
Thank you for your interest.
Ella Brians (Comparative Literature), Andy Lemons (Comparative
Literature), Kathryn Stergiopoulos (Comparative Literature), Amelia
Worsley (English)”