Recovering Pasts, Imagining Futures: Four Women Poets

Recovering Pasts, Imagining Futures: Four Women Poets

Susan Van Dyne
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM (PT)
Repeats every Tuesday until Tuesday, Mar. 11, 2025
Price: $205.00
21 slots available
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Black and photo photos of four women poets

The 1970s and 80s are remembered in part for the political activism of the women’s movement. How did women poets imagine a future in which women were not defined by traditional gender expectations? How might poetry reveal new insights on the past, alternative histories and future possibilities ?

You'll read four women poets from this period — Adrienne Rich, Elizabeth Bishop, Audre Lorde, and Sharon Olds — who each examine the shaping forces of family, sexuality and culture on women’s lives. What tools do these poets give us to recover and revise memory in our own lives? What do we learn about ourselves as we engage with this work that is both intimate and public?

Course goals include:

  • increasing your pleasure and confidence in reading and talking about poetry;
  • understanding poetry as a series of choices of language and images that give shape and meaning to lived experience;
  • appreciating how poetry does “cultural work” to change our understanding of the past and to enable us to imagine new futures.

Faculty Bio

Susan Van Dyne earned her PhD from Harvard and taught for four decades at Smith College. An enduring interest has been teaching American women poets from Emily Dickinson to Rita Dove. Her book, Revising Life, examines the drafts of Sylvia Plath’s most famous poems. Her most recent publications analyze Alison Bechdel’s queer graphic memoir, Fun Home.

This is an In-Person Course

  • Classes meet in person at the Golden Bear Center, Suite 365, at 1995 University Ave., Berkeley
  • Classes will not be livestreamed nor recorded
  • Limited to 40 members
  • You must be a current OLLI @Berkeley member to register. Learn about membership, including our fee assistance program.

Schedule Highlights

  • Course starts on Tuesday, Feb 18, and ends on Tuesday, Mar 11
  • Classes meet for 4 weeks, 2 hours per session (1–3 PM)
  • All course materials will remain available to view and enjoy through Mar 30

Member Praise for Susan Van Dyne

Susan Van Dyne is extraordinary. She is one of the best instructors that I have ever had. She is worthy of accolades. Sign her up for more classes and soon!

Van Dyne has a very inviting, participatory teaching style. Every member of the class participated in interpreting poems together with her guidance. The class was thoroughly engaging.

Faculty Q&A