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Songs of Experience (P02725)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : LLC-P-P02725

This course, will explore a range of poetry from the first half of the seventeenth century, focusing particularly on lyric, epigrammatic and epistolary poetry by John Donne, Ben Jonson, Thomas Carew, Richard Lovelace and Andrew Marvell, though we will also study poems by other poets whose work has been classified as 'metaphysical' or 'cavalier'. The thematic continuity of the course will be provided by a focus on this poetry's worldliness. The late Renaissance in England saw new or renewed attention to secular ways of comprehending the world, ways that troubled but did not displace a theological approach to the comprehension of earthly experience - Bacon's reformed epistemology, the seductions of Epicureanism and Donne's anxious handling of 'new philosophy' are all prominent landmarks in this terrain. Having established an outline of this intellectual framework, the course will examine how it is invoked by the poetics underpinning 'metaphysical' and 'cavalier' poetry. Questions of voice and address, genre, figuration and style will all be explored in this light. The course will also pay particular attention to the thematic handling of erotic love, friendship and nature. Throughout, it will explore the tensions in this worldly poetics between a concern with immanence and the demands of Christian theological doctrine.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

English Literature, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Wednesday	10:00	12:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course students will be able to:

- demonstrate a good knowledge of the poetry studied;
- understand and use appropriately the critical vocabulary for analysing lyric, epigrammatic and epistolary poetry from this period;
- explicate and critically assess the notion of ' worldliness' around which the course is organised;
- show an awareness of relevant intellectual and historical contexts;
- critically assess the categories ('metaphysical', 'cavalier') often used to classify the poetry studied;
- demonstrate a familiarity with important critical work on the poetry studied.