Syllabus
Po úvodním semináři budeme každý další týden pracovat s referovanými texty, jejichž seznam (v pořadí, v němž budou probírány) najdete v rubrice "Literatura".
Konkrétní data referátů a denitivní seznam referovaných textů stanovíme po prvním semináři na základě počtu účastníků.
Annotation
Although the seminar’s title refers to a famous passage from Plato’s Republic, our focus will be on modern texts ranging from Shelley’s “Defense of Poetry” to some theories of poetic experiment from the second half of the 20th century. The texts selected are authored by poets themselves as well as philosophers or literary theorists – but this is not a seminar on verse theory or the history of poetry.
Our aim is to make acquintance with the widest possible range of views on the relevance of poetry as a mode of thought and expression that is not translatable to philosophical reflection, however close the two may often be. We will avoid interpretations that use poetry to illustrate a particular philosophical doctrine, preferring instead to consider reflections that draw on the letter of the poem or the process of its creation.
By the same token, we will address various aspects of the controllability and uncontrollability of language, including the interplay of speech with the ongoing activity of imagination. If the poem is “a prolonged hesitation between sound and sense” (Valéry), this hesitation will be further extended.