Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Word

In 1917, Wallace Stevens wrote his famous poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", a sequence of 13 short poetic miniatures in each of which occurs the word blackbird. This approach of poetically exploring the potential and range of a single word is what the title refers to.

The focus of the course will be on a practical engagement with words, speech, language with regard to translation in a wider sense. We’ll be discussing translation between languages as well as between non verbal forms of expression (such as music or visual arts) and language, depending on the participants’ interests.

We will explore issues of consensus and convention which define and limit our relationship with language, and look at language as material beyond its communicative function.

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" will be our starting point for translation exercixes, I’ll probably suggest one or two additional poems by other authors later.