Kreis de vers : Robert Duncan et le programme de Masters of Poetics de New College of California

Abstract

This paper explores Robert Duncan’s association in the 1980s with the Masters in Poetics Program at New College of California in San Francisco where he joined poets Diane di Prima, David Meltzer, and Duncan McNaughton to develop a sui generis course of study, set up in opposition to both traditional literature and creative writing departments, and characterized by curricular materials and pedagogical modes made possible only by the long and intimate friendships of the faculty members and their close relationships with many of their students. The paper plays on the aural cognates (to the ear most accustomed to English) of the German kreis and the French crise to show how this close circle of poets and scholars banded together to face the perceived crisis of professionalization and careerism represented by the explosive growth of the creative writing complex and the long devaluation of poetry as a vital form of knowledge.