Undergraduate Course: Ezra Pound and his American Poet Friends, W.C. Williams and E.E. Cummings (LLLG07081)
Course Outline
| School | Centre for Open Learning |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | THIS IS A FOR-CREDIT COURSE OFFERED BY THE OFFICE FOR LIFELONG LEARNING (OLL); ONLY STUDENTS REGISTERED WITH OLL SHOULD BE ENROLLED.
Though Ezra Pound left the United States for Europe in 1908 at 23, he built up a vast network of contacts with the most important American writers of his day. Two of these, the poets William Carlos Williams and e. e. cummings, were lifelong friends. They kept in touch by regular correspondence, worked on common projects, read each other's work and engaged in keen controversies on the meaning of (American) poetry. The course gives insight into three strands and ideologies of modernist poetry and makes us aware of the diversity of American poetry in the first half of the twentieth century.
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| Course description |
Outline of the course
Week 1: Introduction.
Week 2: Ezra Pound in London and his connections to the U.S.: Imagism and W.C.Williams.
Week 3: Young cummings in Paris. The apprenticeship of a poet- painter.
Week 4: Writing A Draft of XVI Cantos. Epic, history and modernity.
Week 5: Williams and the objectivist aesthetic: Spring and all
Week 6: The poems of a painter: cummings' concrete poetry.
Week 7: Writing The Cantos in the 1930s: the politics of a modernist poet
Week 8: Europe in ruins - The Pisan Cantos.
Week 9: Williams' response to The Cantos - Paterson.
Week 10: Imprisoned in the madhouse - Pound and his friends.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course student should be able to:
* Demonstrate an understanding of methods, procedures and ideologies of American modernism
* Use close reading skills
* Explain the interplay between literary biography and poetry in the modern period
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Reading List
Essential
Pound Ezra. 1990. Personae. New York: New Directions.
Pound, Ezra. 1993. The Cantos. New York: New Directions.
Cummings, E.E. 1994. Selected Poems. New York: Liveright.
Williams, Carlos William. 2011. Spring and all. New York: New Directions.
Williams Carlos William. 1963. Paterson. New York: New Directions.
Recommended
Kenner, Hugh. 1972. The Pound Era. London: Faber. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
* Critical reading and analysis
* Participation in discussion
* Collaborative working
* Composition of discursive essays
* Understanding of interpersonal relationships
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| Special Arrangements |
None |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Anya Clayworth
Tel:
Email: aclaywor@staffmail.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Sabine Murdoch
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email: Sabine.Murdoch@ed.ac.uk |
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