Arlo, Thank you for posting this article. It really emphasized the art in communication and the early story telling techniques of western culture (Orpheus ) also the ancient ideas of Poiesis and Praxis (Greek). My work load at my new job makes it Difficult to contribute but I do still read the discuss and appreciate gems like your post. Thanks again! -Ron
> On Sep 2, 2015, at 9:40 AM, ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi All, > > A call for abstracts under the category "Poetry as Practice, Practice as > Poetry" came through the Foucault mailing list for the American Comparative > Literature Association's Annual Meeting, 17-20 March, 2016, Harvard > University. I did find the premise of this endeavor very interesting, and am > forwarding on the general description and reasoning behind this. > > Arlo > > ----- Forwarded Message ----- > From: "ROBERT.FARRELL" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Wednesday, September 2, 2015 9:17:38 AM > Subject: [Foucault-L] CFP: ACLA 2016: "Poetry as Practice, Practice as > Poetry" > > > "Poetry as Practice, Practice as Poetry" > > The philosopher Pierre Hadot worked throughout his career to locate poetry, > particularly Goethe’s, within forms of “spiritual exercise” grounded in > western philosophical and religious traditions. For Hadot, spiritual > exercises (or practices) are forms of thinking, meditation, or dialogue that > “have as their goal the transformation of our vision of the world and the > metamorphosis of our being.” While Hadot’s thought on spiritual practice > found its widest audience through Foucault’s work on “care of the self,” it > has recently resurfaced in Gabriel Trop’s Poetry as a Way of Life (2015), > whose title echoes that of the 1995 English translation of Hadot’s Philosophy > as a Way of Life (quoted above). Drawing on Hadot and Foucault, Trop argues > that the reading and writing of poetry can be understood as “aesthetic > exercise,” a form of practice involving "sensually oriented activity in the > world attempts to form, influence, perturb or otherwise generate patterns of > thought, perception, or action.” Though Trop is careful to distinguish his > ideas from Hadot and Foucault, we might argue that poetry allows the > aesthetic or spiritual practitioner to “struggl[e] against the ‘government of > individualization’” (Foucault, 1982) and to enact “a way of being, a way of > coping within, reacting to, and acting upon the world” (Trop, 2015). > > Our seminar takes as its starting point a broad conception of “practice,” > both spiritual and aesthetic. We seek proposals that consider poetries and > ways of reading as forms of practice or that challenge the premise > altogether. Some questions that might be considered: > > • Trop suggests that religious poetries (e.g., Greek tragedy, the Divina > Commedia) are conducive to “aesthetic exercise.” In what ways do poets and > readers within religious/meditative traditions enact disciplines/practices of > the self? > • Poets associated with avant-garde movements often make strong claims about > the urgency of their poetics. In what ways can “poetry as practice” help us > understand their reading and writing practices? Can non- or even > anti-avant-garde poetries be understood in similar terms? > • How might the notion of poetry as a “way of life” help us understand > contemporary lyric poetry? > • Trop argues that late 18th century German poets, including Novalis and > Holderlin, used their poetic practice to constitute themselves as > non-normative subjects. What other times/places/poets might we see as > concerned with poetry as a form of self-constitution? > • George Oppen suggests that “part of the function of poetry is to serve as a > test of truth.” In what ways can Oppen’s poetics, or those of similarly > engaged poets, be understood as enabling spiritual or aesthetic exercise? > • How might the concept of spiritual/aesthetic practice contribute to current > debates about the relevance of poetry to the social/economic/environmental > justice movements? > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
