Introductory description

The module provides a critical overview of some of the main currents and writers of poetry in English worldwide since the end of the Second World War.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Autumn term
Week 1
Introduction
Poetry and the speaking voice
Poetry and tradition(s)
Poetry and national identity
Poetry and post-colonial identity
Poetry: the public and the personal
Poetry, religion, myth
Rhythm, image and the anti-rational
Week 2
Post-War US poetry (1): a polarity
Richard Wilbur and Allen Ginsberg
Week 3
Post-War US poetry (2): the speaking voice
Elizabeth Bishop and Frank O’Hara
Week 4
Post-War US poetry (3): the public and the personal
Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell
Week 5
Post-War US poetry (4): alternative routes
John Ashbery and Charles Simic
Reading Week
Week 7
Poetry and English identity:
Philip Larkin and Geoffrey Hill
Week 8
Poetry and Caribbean identity:
Derek Walcott
Week 9
Poetry and Irish identity:
Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley and Derek Mahon
Week 10
Poetry and urban identity
Ciaran Carson (Belfast) and Tony Harrison (Leeds)
Spring term
Week 1
Poetry and Australian identity (1):
A. D. Hope and Les Murray
Week 2
Poetry and Australian identity (2):
Judith Wright and Robert Gray
Week 3
Poetry and self
Sharon Olds, Michael Hofmann and Hugo Williams
Week 4
Poetry and medicine (1)
A. D. Hope, Julia Darling and Hugo Williams
Week 5
Poetry and medicine (2)
Thom Gunn, Peter Reading and Rebecca Goss
Reading Week
Week 7
Poetry and myth (1)
Allen Curnow and James K. Baxter
Week 8 1 Mar
Poetry and myth (2)
Ted Hughes
Week 9
Poetry, forms and freedoms (1)
Free verse and syllabics
Week 10
Poetry, forms and freedoms (2)
The sonnet from Claude McKay to Tony Barnstone

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• familiarity with a substantial range of late twentieth century world poetry in English;
• understanding of the nature of poetics in different English-speaking cultures worldwide, of the implications of contemporary debates on language and cognition for the writing of poetry, and of the evolution of the sense of self as a social, psychological, philosophical and political individual in poetry;
• the construction of a cogent argument from examination of primary and secondary texts; a critical understanding of the global character of contemporary poetics in the English language; evaluation of the relative merits of regionalism and internationalism in literature;
• close analysis of a range of texts; critical evaluation of primary, secondary literature and of other student papers;
• an understanding of poetry as an ideological as well as aesthetic performance; historical and critical exegesis.

Indicative reading list

Illustrative Bibliography
Primary reading
The anthology used for the course is Michael Hulse/Simon Rae (eds.), The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Ebury Press, 2011). Supplementary material will be provided in hand-outs. For the final class, students may also wish to buy Tony Barnstone: Tongue of War (BkMk Press, 2009), but some poems will be available in hand-out.
The following anthologies are also recommended:

Keegan, Paul (ed.) The New Penguin Book of English Verse, Penguin, 2000
Fallon, Peter and Mahon, Derek (eds.) The Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry, Penguin, 1990
Vendler, Helen (ed.) The Faber Book of Contemporary American Poetry, Faber, 1986
Gray, Robert and Lehmann, Geoffrey (eds.) Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century, Heinemann/Minerva, 1991
Hulse, Michael, Kennedy, David and Morley, David (eds.) The New Poetry, Bloodaxe, 1993

Secondary reading
Atwood, Margaret (ed.), The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English, OUP (Canada), 1982
Bornholdt, Jenny, O’Brien, Gregory and Williams, Mark (eds.), An Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English, OUP (New Zealand), 1998
Buckley, Vincent (ed.), The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse, Faber, 1991
Corcoran, Neil, English Poetry since 1940, Longman, 1993
Davie, Donald, Under Briggflatts: A History of Poetry in Great Britain 1960-1988, Carcanet Press, 1989
Gray, Richard, American Poetry of the Twentieth Century, Longman, 1990
Gregson, Ian, Contemporary Poetry and Postmodernism, Macmillan, 1996
Herbert, W.N. and Hollis, Matthew (eds.), Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern Poetry, Bloodaxe Books, 2000
Jefferies, Lesley and Sansom, Peter (eds.), Contemporary Poems: Some Critical Approaches, Smith/Doorstop Books, 2000
Kennedy, David, New Relations, Seren, 1996
Larrissy, Edward, Reading Twentieth-Century Poetry, Blackwell, 1990
Markham, E.A. (ed.), Hinterland: Caribbean Poetry from the West Indies and Britain, Bloodaxe, 1989
Krishna Mehrotra, Arvind (ed.), Twelve Modern Indian Poets, OUP (India), 1992
Maja-Pearce, Adewale (ed.), The Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English, Heinemann, 1990
O’Brien, Sean, The Deregulated Muse, Bloodaxe Books, 1998
Schmidt, Michael, Reading Modern Poetry, Routledge, 1989
Shelton, Pamela (ed.), Contemporary Women Poets, Detroit, 1998

Subject specific skills

• demonstrate a sophisticated conceptual understanding of the field, and a corresponding ability to develop and sustain an argument;
• demonstrate an awareness of the complex aesthetic, societal and cultural issues underpinning different schools of poetics since 1945, and an ability to express their thinking in flexible and effective written English, observing scholarly standards of presentation;
• demonstrate an ability to distinguish and articulate the principal national and international currents in anglophone poetics since 1945, and an awareness of scholarship in the field;

Transferable skills

• articulate independent, self-reflective thinking and effectively communicate information, arguments and analysis in a variety of forms, commenting on scholarly debates;
• demonstrate an ability to distinguish and articulate the principal national and international currents in anglophone poetics since 1945, and an awareness of scholarship in the field;