Week 2: Poetry as a Technology

Monday, August 21

Wednesday, August 23

  • In class:
  • Assignment:
    • Read: Jacobson’s concept of the Functions of Language.
    • Read “The Poetic Function of Language” in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.

Friday, August 25

  • In class:
    • Discuss Jacobson’s concept of The Poetic Function of Language
    • Read and discuss Frank O’Hara “Why I Am Not a Painter“
  • Assignment
    • In our Facebook Group, post a brief (1 paragraph) analysis of a quote, phrase, ad, excerpt from a song lyric, poem, or text that uses the poetic function of language powerfully. In your analysis, focus on what draws your attention to that bit of language.
    • Share your excerpt and analysis no later than noon on Sunday and respond to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts.

By Leonardo Flores

Professor Leonardo Flores is Chair of the English Department at Appalachian State University. He taught at the English Department at University of Puerto Rico: Mayagüez Campus from 1994 to 2019. He is President of the Electronic Literature Organization. He was the 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar in Digital Culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. His research areas are electronic literature and its preservation via criticism, documentation, and digital archives. He is the creator of a scholarly blogging project titled I ♥ E-Poetry, co-editor of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3, and has a Spanish language e-lit column in 80 Grados. He is currently co-editing the first Anthology of Latin American Electronic Literature. For more information on his current work, visit leonardoflores.net.