An advanced seminar in the poetry of Louise Glück, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. We will read Glück's entire oeuvre, from Firstborn (1968), written partly in late adolescence and expressing the passions and fears of a young person, to Marigold and Rose (2022), written for her infant grandchildren. Glück's subjects were the phases and cycles of ongoing life. She explores the experiences of being a child, wanting a child, having a child, having grandchildren; of being part of relationships and communities--a marriage, a village, friendships, artistic collaboration, a college faculty--and of leaving behind, or being excluded from, those structures; of finding passionate comfort in art, music, poetry, TV, gardening, cooking; of facing illness and disability in a changing body; of being a woman in a patriarchal culture and in an art that favors men. These subjects and others were embodied in changing forms that challenge us by the clarity and complexity of their emotional logic and the sheer force of their beauty.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ENG 120, one English course at the 200 level.

Instructor: Chiasson

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: