As the title suggests, the focus of this seminar is three-fold: We will look at poetry that negotiates the myriad crises of contemporary capitalism – economic, socio-economic, social, ecological, political, geopolitical… As this is a seminar in literary and cultural studies, we will primarily be concerned with how poetry evokes/invokes the crisis-ridden contemporary moment, how poets shape poetic form to interrogate the roots of capitalist crises and potentially imagine other routes forward.
We will first familiarise ourselves with our three basic terms – poetry, capitalism, crisis – before moving on to our main case study: Kae Tempest’s Let Them Eat Chaos, a long poem published in book form and as a studio album in 2016, and usually performed in one sitting by the spoken word artist. In a third step, you will have the opportunity to focus on poets/poems of your choice – we will compile a list of possible texts together at the beginning of the semester.
Please note that this is an intensive course – the main face-to-face sessions take place in mid-August. In addition, we will meet face-to-face for an intro session in April, conduct online consultations in small groups during the semester and make use of the moodle platform to prepare for our face-to-face sessions in mid-August.
- Dozent/in: Katrin Becker