Undergraduate Course: Poetry and the English Question: Voice and Belonging in Modern and Contemporary Verse (ENLI10407)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | England has a problem - and the problem is England itself. Since the end of empire the often unspoken question of what England is, and who it is for, has caused obvious political trouble for England, Britain and the rest of Europe. But this English Question has a cultural dimension too - one in which poets have frequently found themselves entangled. This course explores how writing by a range of poets variously born, raised or living in England has been shaped by the cultural condition of the nation in which they work. It examines the ways in which this poetry's engagement with key elements such as voice, place, language and belonging articulates, and speaks back to, the condition of England. |
| Course description |
This course examines the ways in which a range of key aspects of poetry - voice, language, identity, place, belonging - are refracted through the social and cultural conditions of post-imperial England in the writing of a diverse range of poets from the 1960s to the 2010s. Beginning with different local responses to international modernism, the course explores the work of nine poets whose relation to English tradition and authority in the development of their work is variously intimate, oblique or explicitly oppositional.
Seminars and Autonomous Learning Groups will address these key thematic concerns, while also focusing on the distinctive forms, styles and techniques developed by poets seeking to find their own place in an English literary culture not always alert to its own scope, limitations and power dynamics. Each week will focus on one poet, represented either by a key collection or by a selection from their work. The poets are Basil Bunting, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Tony Harrison, Denise Riley, Jo Shapcott, Benjamin Zephaniah, Alice Oswald and Daljit Nagra.
The key critical approach will be close textual analysis, informed by relevant critical and contextual reading and collaborative preparation in response to questions posed by the course leader. Written coursework will focus on informed textual analysis and the presentation of contextual understanding of the work studied.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2020/21, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 12 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework 100%
Made up of:
Portfolio - a) comparative critical analysis of two poems (1,500 words); b) accompanying descriptive catalogue of 5 key contextual objects, events or artefacts (1,000 words plus illustrations). - 30%
Take Home Final Essay - 3,000 words - 60%
Class participation - 10% |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- show a good knowledge of the poets and poetry studied
- identify and analyse the style and prosodic details of the poetry studied
- assess relevant critical controversies surrounding some of these bodies of work
- demonstrate a familiarity with relevant aspects of the postwar 'English question'
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will develop skills in observation and analysis through their preparatory reading; through their participation in seminars and their coursework they will develop their communication skills; through collaboration in Autonomous Learning Groups and class presentations they will develop teamwork and leadership skills. |
| Keywords | Poetry,place,voice,belonging,identity,England |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof James Loxley
Tel: (0131 6)50 3610
Email: James.Loxley@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Kara McCormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: Kara.McCormack@ed.ac.uk |
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