POETICS & THEORY

The Advanced Certificate Program in Poetics and Theory is a transdisciplinary initiative that provides an institutional framework for diverse theoretical initiatives and practices at NYU. By offering an integrated approach to theoretical concerns in the Humanities, it responds to frequently voiced desires for a theory initiative across the disciplines. Rather than pure theorizing, the program focuses on sharing theoretical approaches and fosters interdisciplinary and international collaboration.

The program traces a historical progression from the ancient practices of poetics and rhetoric to their modern theoretical counterparts. The intimate but vexed relations between aesthetics and hermeneutics, philosophy and literature, social institutions and the work of art, form the core of study. The transdisciplinary orientation of the Certificate complements disciplinary study and sharpens students’ career profiles.

The Poetics and Theory program currently comprises three elements: a reading group composed primarily of Poetics and Theory members but open to all graduate students and faculty; an annual schedule of events, including lectures, seminars, and conferences; and the certificate program itself.

I. Eligibility

All students enrolled in Ph.D. and M.A. programs in the Graduate School of Arts and Science are eligible. Students funded through the MacCracken program pay no additional tuition or fees.

Students who are not concurrently enrolled in a non-NYU degree program and have already completed a graduate degree are also eligible to apply.

II. Requirements

Students enrolled in a Ph.D. or an M.A. program at New York University should complete the application and return it to poeticsandtheory@nyu.edu.

Students not already enrolled at NYU may apply to the advanced certificate program through the Graduate School of Arts and Science (select “online application”).

As stated in the GSAS Bulletin, a total of 20 points of coursework is required (a maximum of 8 points may be shared with the points required for the M.A. or Ph.D.): Proseminar in Poetics and the Origins of Literary Theory (POET-GA 2001), Poetics and Theory Seminar (POET-GA 2002), and three additional courses, of which one must cover either philosophy or rhetoric or be a theory survey, and two must be listed outside the student’s home department. (Courses cross-listed with the home department are acceptable; however, in such cases students should be sure to register for the course under the number associated with the department in which the course originates).

In addition to the five courses, students seeking the advanced certificate must present a paper at at least one workshop or conference held by the Program in Poetics and Theory. The paper may be a chapter of the student’s dissertation.

Flirtations: Rhetoric and Aesthetics This Side of Seduction

Flirtations: Rhetoric and Aesthetics This Side of Seduction, the product of a workshop hosted by the Program in Poetics & Theory, is now available from Fordham University Press. The volume, edited by Daniel Hoffman-Schwarz, Barbara Natalie Nagel, and Lauren Shizuko Stone, includes essays by Rüdiger Campe, Paul Fleming, John Hamilton, Jacques Lezra, Elisabeth Strowick, and Barbara Vinken, among others.

Lucretius and Modernity

Lucretius and Modernity: Epicurean Encounters Across Time and Disciplines will be published in October 2016 by Palgrave MacMillan. The volume, edited by Jacques Lezra and Liza Blake, includes essays by Anne Denys-Tunney, Alain Gigandet, Brooke Holmes, Thomas Kavanagh, David Konstan, Warren Montag, and Katja Vogt, among others.

Reading After Blanchot

Reading After Blanchot, special issue of SubStance, Johns Hopkins University Press (50.2, 2021). Reading after Blanchot collects papers presented at “Timing Blanchot,” a Poetics and Theory symposium held at the Maison Française in 2018, as well as a conference held at Northwestern University a year earlier. The volume, edited by Zakir Paul, features essays by Tom Conley, Ann Smock, Jean-François Hamel, Anne-Gaëlle Saliot, Kevin Bell, Nasrin Qader, John Brenkman, and Christophe Bident.