 |
 |
There was a great efflorescence of women poets in the 20th century, Mairead, almost none of whom had anything to do with writing programs, which are with very few exceptions only a couple of decades old (as is their dominance), or pubs, for that matter. Mark At 08:56 PM 8/10/2009, you wrote: >Come to think of it, Blake shouldn't have bothered his barney going >to art school either. But then poetry isn't an art or a craft or a >skill or a trade (what the heck is it...?). No, the pub is the only >writing workshop we need boys. Who on earth would want a more >structured approach to the whole thing? Women with children? As if >they can write poetry ....let them do pottery. Which is an art and >a craft and a skill and a trade, unlike poetry. >Mairead > >On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 7:31 PM, Carrie Etter ><<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Some of these comments about workshops sound like they're based more >on supposition and hearsay than numerous, varied experiences. Ulli >Freer used to--does he still?--run a workshop at Birkbeck which I >heard was anything but dictatorial and didactic, and I've got to say >the workshops I run at Bath Spa do anything but espouse convention >and conformity (which could be didactic in itself, if you consider >the general initiative toward originality to be didactic). Different >instructors have different approaches, of course, and I despise the >general category referred to earlier as "domestic realism" (which I >find still painfully rampant), but I don't think the workshop itself >is at fault so much as individual instructors' attitudes toward their purpose. > > > >Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:28:52 +0100 >From: Jeffrey Side <<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: Found a good article called 'POETRY SCENE: CURRENT DIFFICULTIES' > >Tim, needless to say I agree with you. I find that workshops tend to be r= >un by=20 >poetic dictators who are more concerned with peddling their own ideas of=20= > >what a poem is than trying to facilitate genuine curiosity in the people=20= > >they "teach". It is this didactical element that I find disturbing, and e= >xplains=20 >why (as you say) workshops have had such a big influence on poetry in=20 >Britain.=20 >