Thanks Andrew.
Which note by the way gives me the chance to say, once again, that
reading all of them was great fun.
On the subject of the MFA & what it might stand for, in Canada we have
only a few Departments of Creative Writing; otherwise it's taught in
English Depts, & people can get an MA, but not an MFA. As to the actual
courses, well, it's hard to know. I think it's good in so far as it
allows students who will be writing anyway to do so with a certain
support & some feedback form their peers. I've also seen the workshop
work to let people know that they dont really want to write but also
they get a much higher sense of what it means to read carefully.
What seems to be true is that most who do 'teach' (scare quotes
absolutely necessary) in this area in this country do not feel any need
to participate in the MFA program & culture as it seems to have grown
in the US. And we all 'profess' much more, which is to say we're
usually hired to teach courses in English literature.
Doug
On 22-Jan-05, at 5:09 PM, Andrew Burke wrote:
> On 20-Jan-05, at 11:09 PM, Rebecca Seiferle wrote:
> I can't imagine, for
>> instance, that Doug who's attached to a Canadian university is a
>> devitalized poet
>> as a result.
>
> to which I can only say: I hope not.
>
> Doug
>
> And we KNOW not from the weekly snaps - vital, rhythmical, alive on the
> tongue.
>
> Andrew
>
>
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta T6G 2E5 Canada
(780) 436 3320
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
The poet is ecstatic, having dreamt of this visit for weeks.
He takes Erato’s face, dribbling and wild, between his hands
and kisses her gently as if she were a runaway teenager.
Diana Hartog
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