Pedagogical Poetics (Towards Teaching in Writreading)

K Blog, 2009

To be a young poet is, among other things, to ask the question, what can poetry do? From Auden we learn that " poetry makes nothing happen. " But the poet also tells us, though these lines are oft neglected, that poetry " survives, / A way of happening, a mouth. " Early as I am in my career, I have clung to Auden's completed thought, even as poetry continues to cede privilege of place not only to novels and film, but also to hybrid genres and newer media. " Nobody reads poetry anymore, " my students tell me, implying the genre has become outdated and accomplishes nothing. Even in my own schooling, poems were exhibited as pedagogical oddities, at best, or at worst, inflicted as punishment for indolence or inattention. Despite such inauspicious beginnings, I carried on with poetry, bolstered by my friendships with others who shared my fervent belief in its potential. Later, finding myself with students of my own, I looked for poems that I did something, or that made me do something. My students needed a poetry " at least as interesting as, and a whole lot more unexpected than, television, " as Charles Bernstein has written. Where was that poetry? I realized, I didn't know. Although I had begun to style myself as a specialist in contemporary poetry and poetics, I found myself back at the beginning, and back in the library. After much casting about, I turned to the works of various historical avant-gardes and their contemporary survivals. I turned to poets like Cecilia Vicuña. The first meeting of my course, Technologies of Poetic Imagination, was called to order in the drab surroundings of a humanities computer lab. We would question (or so I dreamt, wildly) concerning the relations between textual, visual, and digital forms—and not just in theory, but in practice! We would poem something into happening! Having worked in the fine arts and graphic design, as well as in literature, both as practitioner and teacher, I had always dreamt of such a course. So why was I now, at our first class meeting, so nervous? There was the technical stuff—the students needed to learn to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, how to think visually, and how to talk about their compositions. They needed to learn that poetry need not rhyme, nor dote on flowers and sunshine, that some poetry strikes out toward uncharted—and often unpaginated—territory.

In this paper, I am concerned with the conditions of Roland Barthes’s understanding of the act of writing. My concern is how the will-to-write, which Barthes addresses in his late lecture course La Préparation du roman (1978–80), emerges as ‘a necessity to write intransitively’. I trace how Barthes transposes this will-to-write from Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’s L’Absolu littéraire (1978) into the context of the life of the writer who desires literature. I argue that the historical condition of this act of writing is the emergence of literature as an absolute condition of life and as a pure a priori form of writing in post-Kantian thought.

REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE EDUCAÇÃO, 2019

In this text, teaching is regarded as invention of curriculum and didactics by means of the transcreating translation. The text introduces the dream category for us to think of a poetics in the class constituted of the need of the events. It advocates the right to dream as an artistic work on the teaching file and in the action of writing and reading. It shows that, by means of research, in the approximation between the fanciful image of a class and reason, we produce ink dreams as a feasible way to deal with the urgency to forge other virtuality of utopia: a new staging of the desire of teaching-the first point of a defense and counterattack program that provides conditions to disentangle the longing for poetry. It concludes that, before the real to which we have been confronted, maybe only by being irreverent and turbulent can we be demiurges: dreaming of images during the night and fantasi-zing concepts by day, in order to convert our teacher pain into a golden ornament, as delicate as a cicada wing.

This paper investigates the ways in which the practices and techniques that we still associate with education and schooling –particularly in its most basal forms—have been manifest in quite different times and places, in particular, one that is especially “remote” from conventional educational histories. These practical and material commonalities revolve around writing. They include phenomena such as frontal instruction, forms of dictation and recitation, and a planned sequence of practices or exercises, as well as special materials adapted to suit such an instructional sequence. All of these, moreover, are closely associated with inscriptive practice, and working with written, linguistic and mathematical symbols. In sum, one can characterize the task of this chapter as an attempt to address the question: “How were the techniques involved in tasks of reading, writing and mathematics reproduced from one generation to the next in a society clearly outside of Western influence?”

Journal of Literary Education, 2019

This article brings together findings from translation theory, the poetics of children’s poetry, and the pedagogy of translation, in an attempt to theorise the practice of poetry-translation in the literary, first-language classroom. I argue that translating children’s poetry in the context of translation workshops mobilises skills, and encourages ways of thinking about poetry, that espouse particularly well one of the complex challenges of literary education: namely, triggering in learners an emergent sense of the literary. Poetry-translation, I contend, allows for profoundly experiential engagement with some of the most sophisticated, and least easily articulated, aspects of the aesthetics of literature – prominently, the resistance of the literary text to paraphrase, the lack of a clear content-form dichotomy, and the embodied aspects of the literary encounter. Because translating is never just writing, but always already writing one’s reading, the translation of poetry in the literary classroom requires pupils to capture, experience, and take ownership of their encounters with literature, in order to re-express them. I first explain the practice of literary translation in the classroom; I then talk about contemporary poetry translation theory and its deeply phenomenological approach to text. I next show why the particular poetics of children’s poetry situate that kind of text ideally for a pre-semantic, intuitive approach to poetry translation. Finally, I look at the writing process as a way of turning the pupil into what Roland Barthes calls a poéticien, a person whose poetry-writing does theoretical work. Este artículo recoge resultados desde la teoría de la traducción, la poética de la poesía infantil y la pedagogía de la traducción en un intento de teorizar la práctica de la traducción de poesía en el aula de literatura de L1. Se argumenta que la traducción de la poesía infantil en el contexto de los talleres de traducción, activas destrezas e incentivas maneras de pensar acerca de la poesía que apoya especialmente bien uno de los complejos retos de la educación literaria, concretamente desencadenar en los y las aprendices un incipiente sentido de lo literario. La traducción de poesía, se defiende, permite un compromiso experiencial profundo con algunos de los más sofisticados y menos fácilmente articulados, aspectos de la estética de la literatura. De manera prominente, la resistencia del texto literario a la paráfrasis, la falta de una dicotomía clara forma-contenido y los aspectos integrantes del encuentro literario. Porque la traducción nunca es solo escribir sino siempre haber escrito la propia lectura, la traducción de poesía en el aula de literatura requiere que el alumnado capture, experiencie y se apropie de sus encuentros con la literatura para re-expresarlos. Primero se explica la práctica de la traducción literaria en el aula; después se habla sobre la poesía contemporánea y su enfoque profundamente fenomenológico. Después se muestra por qué la particular poética de la poesía infantil sitúa este tipo de texto idealmente para un enfoque presemántico, intuitivo de la traducción de la poesía. Finalmente, se observa el proceso de escritura como una manera de convertir el alumnado en lo que Roland Barthes llama un poéticien, una persona cuya escritura poética realiza un trabajo teórico. Aquest article arreplega troballes des de la teoria de la traducció, la poètica de la poesia infantil i la pedagogia de la traducció en un intent de teoritzar la pràctica de la traducció de poesia en l’aula de literatura de L1. S’argumenta que la traducció de la poesia infantil en el context dels tallers de traducció activa destreses i encoratja maneres de pensar al voltant de la poesia que dona suport especialment bé a un dels complexos reptes de l’educació literària: concretament desencadenar en els/les aprenents un incipient sentit d’allò literari. La traducció de poesia, es defèn, permet un compromís experiencial profund amb alguns dels més sofisticats i menys fàcilment articulats, aspectes de l’estètica de la literatura. De manera prominent, la resistència del text literari a la paràfrasi, la manca d’una dicotomia clara forma-contingut i els aspectes integrants de l’encontre literari. Perquè la traducció mai és només escriure sinó sempre haver escrit la pròpia lectura, la traducció de poesia a l’aula de literatura requereix que l’alumnat capture, experiencie i s’apropie dels seus encontres amb la literatura per tal de re-expressar-los. Primer s’explica la pràctica de la traducció literària a l’aula; després es parla sobre la poesia contemporània i el seu enfocament profundament fenomenològic. Després es mostra per què la particular poètica de la poesia infantil situa aquest tipus de text idealment per a un acostament presemàntic, intuïtiu de la traducció de la poesia. Finalment s’observa el procés d’escriptura com a una manera de convertir l’alumnat en allò que Roland Barthes anomena a poéticien, una persona l’escriptura poètica de la qual fa un treball teòric.

2012

… Journal of Qualitative …, 2007

In this paper the authors propose Roland Barthes's analytical method, which appears in his classic work S/Z (1974), as a new way of analyzing personal stories. The five codes that are described in the book are linked to the domains of poetics, language, and culture, and expose facets that are embedded in the deep structure of narratives. These codes are helpful in revealing findings with regard to the development of the professional careers of teacher educators.

LEARNing Landscapes, 2019

In this article, we present a set of poems that have helped us to come to know teaching in particular ways. We argue that the artistic medium of poetry can provide unique and important insights into what it is like to live through classroom moments. Using connoisseurship as our mode of inquiry, we share these poems, our interpretations of these poems, and our justification for why poetry is a valid way of knowing teaching. We invite our readers to join us in exploring the aesthetic dimension of teaching.

in education, 2012

"In this paper we consider the kinds of pedagogical engagements a poetic consciousness might invoke. When we reflect on what it might mean to be poetically conscious in moments of teaching, learning, and connecting, what emerges is the possibility of integrating the classroom experience with the everyday of life; such poetically conscious teaching would make connections to the larger web of a person’s experience in the world. To inquire into this possibility, we share our contemplations on our scholarly and personal experiences with poetry, presenting it here as a dis(e)ruptive text in order to invite aesthetic modes of being within the interplay of language and self. Our conversations have evolved over 3 years and have created this in-between space of active disclosure, where, we argue, poetry has offered dis(e)ruptions that celebrate the variations we inhabit in our bodies, personalities, and creative works. Keywords: Poetic consciousness, pedagogy, contemplation, conversation, dis(e)ruptive text"

Jacques Rancière Now, 2012

Review by Samuel Chambers, John Hopkins University, linked below: "This chapter is followed by an essay by Caroline Pelletier and Tim Jarvis, who self-identify as "teachers" of Education and Creative Writing. Their innovative appropriation of Rancière's writing on teaching and learning mobilizes a powerful critique of the pedagogy of Creative Writing as it has become standardly practiced/taught in the UK, US, and Australia. While I am not situated in the fields to which they speak most directly, it still seems clear to me that their critique here should resonate across those fields and call for serious rethinking of Creative Writing pedagogic practices. Close readers of Rancière might easily make the mistake of assuming that this "application" of Rancière to Creative Writing would be of no interest to them; I caution such readers to avoid this too-simple assumption, since in many ways what Pelletier and Jarvis are up to here says more about the core ideas that animate Rancière's work than even the best synthetic summary of Rancière ever could. To refuse to offer an exegesis of Rancière's texts is, of course, to eschew the role of the stultifying master, and the two chapters that I have highlighted from this section do this brilliantly." http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/49025-rancire-now-current-perspectives-on-jacques-rancire/