Minimalism
Course Description
Summary
This course will test the constraints and opportunities offered by brevity, simplicity, and silence. We will consider the very short poem; the sparse, laconic, and/or willfully incomplete fiction, paintings that utilize few colors and brushstrokes, the play that folds in upon itself and goes nowhere, and music that uses only a few notes or moves in an endless circle. Literary minimalism is characterized by an economy with words, a paring down of description and story, the unpaid, slippage and silence, Together we will look at minimalist pieces by 20th century poets like Aram Saroyan, Lorine Niedecker, Robert Creeley, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mark Strand, Robert Grenier, Vasko Popa, and Lucille Clifton, and the contemporary poets Rae Armantrout and Graham Foust. We will also read the fiction of Lydia Davis and David Markson (The Last Novel) and plays by Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot) and Caryl Churchill (A Number). Additionally we will examine minimalist art and listen to minimalist music as we attempt a range of creative assignments ranging from the erasure to the monostich (one-line) poem to the concrete poem to the five-sentence story to the flash fiction. One critical essay in addition to multiple writing prompts.
Learning Outcomes
- Students will hone their aesthetic sensibility and critical proficiency through reading and discussing a diversity of innovative 20th and 21st century poetry, fiction, and dramatic literature. We will strive to contextualize currents in literature alongside similar currents in instrumental music and visual art.
Prerequisites
Submit a statement of interest and a minimalist poem, story, play, or artwork to Michael Dumanis via THIS FORM by May XX.
Please contact the faculty member : mdumanis@bennington.edu
Corequisites
Students are required to attend all Literature Evenings and Poetry at Bennington events this term, commonly held at 7pm on most Wednesday evenings.