Poetry Books in Multiple Versions : Editorial, Critical, and Pedagogical Issues

Le Recueil poétique en versions multiples : Enjeux éditoriaux, critiques et pédagogiques

Lieu : Maison de la Recherche de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne/ D 035

 

 

Conference description

Most poetry books exist in various, often strikingly different, versions. Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is a case

in point, though hardly an exception. These internal reshufflings and outward transformations—whether they modify the

order, number, or titles of individual poems, or the book’s general format, layout, cover, and paratextual framework—

deeply affect the content, shape, and reception of the poems themselves. And yet we tend to read, study and teach poetry as

if poetry books were stable, easily identifiable objects. What happens when the poetry book is approached not as a single,

sacred format supposedly frozen in time, but as an unstable, multiple, historicized object ?

Situated at the intersection of textual practice, book history, and digital education, this conference will examine

“Poetry Books in Multiple Versions” from an editorial, critical, and pedagogical perspective. As digital technology makes it

possible to gather all existing versions into one place, providing online access to the general reader (not just the scholar),

how might we make way for “poetry books in multiple versions” in critical discussions of poetry, both in and out of the

classroom ? To what extent should these editorial variations affect the way we, as poetry scholars, teach and study poetry ?

How might these multiple versions ultimately challenge our assumptions about poetry, and redefine reading and writing

practices in the digital age ?

Each of the six invited speakers will address ways in which the different existing versions of poetry books by

American poets have raised—or might yet raise—important critical, editorial and pedagogical issues in the digital age. The

25 min talks (followed by 15 min discussion) will touch upon all three aspects of the topic, though some speakers may

choose to dwell on any two of the three issues at stake. All participants (speakers, organizers, audience) will also be invited

to take part in an informal workshop-type discussion, offering suggestions about how scholars might build a digital edition

of a poetry book in its multiple versions that might benefit the teaching of poetry at university level.

 

 

Conference program :

 

9:00 Coffee and croissants (2nd floor)

 

9:30-10:15 Isabelle Alfandary (Université Paris 3, France)

“Teaching No Thanks (E. E. Cummings)”

Respondent : Antoine Cazé (Paris-Diderot)

 

10:15-11:00 Vincent Bucher (Université Grenoble Alpes, France)

“ ‘Keeping Time with Existence is the Distinction of Poetry’s Technique’ :

The Poetic Object and the Temporalities of the Long Poem in Louis Zukofsky’s ‘A’ ”

Respondent : Gwen Le Cor (Université Paris 8)

 

11:00-11:45 Heather Cass White (University of Alabama, USA)

“Marianne Moore and the Lessons of Multiplicity”

Respondent : Aurore Clavier (Lille 3)

 

11:45-12 :30 Bart Eeckhout (University of Antwerp, Belgium)

“A Million People on a String Orchestra ?

The Metamorphic Challenges of Wallace Stevens’s The Man with the Blue Guitar”

Respondent : Juliette Utard (Paris-Sorbonne)

 

12:30 Buffet lunch (2nd floor)

 

2:00-2:45 Julie Blake (Cambridge University, UK)

“Multiple Versions of American Poems in the UK :

School Poetry Anthologies, ‘Digital Natives’ and the Multimodal Shift”

Respondent : Bastien Goursaud (Université Paris 4)

 

2:45-3:15 Chloé Thomas (Université Paris 8, France)

“Lyn Hejinian’s My Life and My Life in the Nineties :

Expansion and Parataxis”

Respondent : Sarah Montin (Université Paris 3)

 

3:15-4:00 Refreshments (2nd floor)

 

4:00-5:00 Julie Blake (Cambridge University, UK) and Christophe Schuwey (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)

with all speakers & attendees

Conference Workshop

“Poetry Books in 21st century Classrooms :

New Perspectives on Teaching Poetry in the Digital Age”