About the course

This class offers an introduction to current approaches to meter, rhythm and related properties of verse, with an emphasis on Anglophone scholarship. (This includes work by major theorists with a background in Russian theory, such as Roman Jakobson and Marina Tarlinskaja, who mostly published in English.) In addition to learning to analyze and discuss the formal properties of verse, we will investigate their relevance for the evolution of poetic genres and, more broadly, of literary systems. There will be some emphasis on Graeco-Roman quantitative metrics, its afterlife, and the evolution of Germanic and Slavic syllabo-tonic verse. The course syllabus is open to modification based on students’ interests.

 

Knowledge of English sufficient for reading and discussing scholarly work is a prerequisite. Students must write their letters of motivation in English. Before enrollment is finalized, the instructor will hold short (5 minute) individual interviews with students on zoom; during the interviews the students must have their camera on. In preparation for the interview, the students will be asked to read a short excerpt from a scholarly work on meter in English.

 

To gain the certificate of completion, students should (1) attend class meetings (if you cannot attend, let me know by email) and (2) complete a final project (either a final paper or a data-collection exercise).

 

Professors

  • Anonymous lecturer

    Anonymous lecturer

Program

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For prospective students

How to apply for the course?

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