About Course
Writing, in addition to being all the other things it is, is a form of communication. The process is not complete until it has conveyed something to others. For this, we use the codes of language, the signifiers and meanings that we have learned through formal and informal methods, both rational and sensory. It is our main tool, but also our limit. We never have certainty that the message has reached its destination as we intended, and perhaps that is not impossible. Literary texts are interpreted in many ways, sometimes in contradictory ways. This fact does not force us to abandon the precision and energy of the content, but it does allow us to consider the potential for possible echoes.
A classic example is the poem “Verde que te quiero verde” by Federico García Lorca, in which “green” represents life for some and death for others. How relevant is this difference? The relationship between the two concepts is intrinsic and inevitable. The poem has moved millions of readers around the world, continuing to do so almost one hundred years after it was written. Wouldn’t it be an admirable achievement to write a text about death that inspires hope in others?
This course is aimed at writers and translators interested in exploring the communicative value of text beyond its strict meaning and the framework of specific languages. Graphic presentation, sound, stage presence, rhythm, interpretive context, and technological resources are some of the tools that allow us to amplify the emission of words and other characteristics they carry beyond their meaning.
We will focus on the poetic text, first for its versatility. It could be said, in a rhetorical play, that a poem is anything except what is not a poem. And second, because it is necessary to concentrate on a specific and manageable object of study. Each participant will begin with their own notion of a poem and work from there. However, the exercises and discussions proposed here can also be useful and inspiring for a sensory and multifaceted approach to any type of writing.