LT143-4-AU-CO:
Poetry: A Very Short Introduction
2024/25
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 4
Current
Thursday 03 October 2024
Friday 13 December 2024
15
14 February 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA W800 Creative Writing,
BA W801 Creative Writing (Including Year Abroad),
BA W803 Creative Writing (Including Placement Year),
BA W808 Creative Writing (Including Foundation Year),
MLITQ392 Creative Writing,
BA PW38 Film and Creative Writing,
BA PW39 Film and Creative Writing (Including Placement Year),
BA PW88 Film and Creative Writing (Including Foundation Year),
BA PWH8 Film and Creative Writing (Including Year Abroad),
BA QW30 Literature and Creative Writing,
BA QW31 Literature and Creative Writing (Including Year Abroad),
BA QW33 Literature and Creative Writing (Including Placement Year),
BA QW38 Literature and Creative Writing (Including Foundation Year),
MLITQ393 Literature and Creative Writing
This ten week module in creative writing will explore poetry from its origins to the present by asking students to engage with both traditional forms and recent experiments. By taking a long view of poetry it will explore the way in which poetry changes over time, migrating from one place to another, one form to another, from cave wall to bark, to page, to body, to building, to advertising billboard, to electronic media.
Contemporary work will be explored which both engages with and departs from traditional forms of poetry, including work that extends the boundaries and the language and forms of poetry towards actions, non-poetic language, and word-games. While the history of poetry might seem to demonstrate that the best poets – Mallarmé, Maxwell – are essentially unemployable, poetry and its utilitarian functions in advertising and related fields connecting to employability will be a central feature.
Teaching itself, as far as possible, will itself be experimental – including the gathering of feathers and objects, five-minute lectures, and field work – attempting to perform the "restrangement" that underpins much poetic activity.
This module aims to introduce students of creative writing to a variety of poetry and to conceptions of poetry through analysis and practice that extend the norms of mainstream poetic practice, including Ice Age poetry, poetic actions, word-games, curses and spells. While the module will introduce the students to traditional forms, such as the sestina and epithalamium, it will also explore how writers have challenged traditional forms and conceptions of poetry, and taken forms from the page to the body and to walls and advertising billboards.
At the end of this module, students will be able to:
1. Display a detailed knowledge of poetic form.
2. Show understanding of some of the main ways in which poetry has developed and changed throughout its history.
3. Evidence how their own poetry is informed by the poetries of the past and the present.
4. Demonstrate an ability to explore poetry practically, engaging with a variety of approaches.
No additional information available.
Anticipated teaching delivery: Students will be taught by a combination of 5-minute lecture, seminar, workshops, practical writing exercises, and writing experiments. This will take place over a ten week period in which there will be scheduled 2 hour seminars.
- Francis Alys. (no date) A Story of Deception: tate.
- Stephen Emmerson. (no date) Stephen Emmerson's Poetry Wholes: if p then q.
- Bishop, Elizabeth. (2002) Complete Poems, 1927-1979, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc.
- (no date) Frank O'Hara Selected Poems: Carcanet.
- (1998) Poems For The Millennium Volume Two: University of California Press.
- Heaney, Seamus. (1997) Rattle Bag, London: Faber & Faber.
- Shakespeare, William; Callow, Simon; Gilbert, John. (2019) Tempest, London: Pan Macmillan.
- Philip Terry. (2019) The Penguin Book of Oulipo: Queneau, Perec, Calvino and the Adventure of Form: Penguin Classics.
- Rothenberg, Jerome; Joris, Pierre. (1995) Poems for the Millennium, Volume One, Berkerley: University of California Press.
- Nasser Hussain. (no date) SKY WRI TEI NGS: Coach House Books.
- Frederic Forte. (2014) Minute-Operas: Burning Deck.
- Pound, Ezra; Eliot, T. S. (1948) Selected Poems, London: Faber & Faber.
- Heaney, Seamus. (2010) Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables, London: Faber & Faber.
- Philip, Terry. (no date) Dictator: Carcanet.
- Derek Beaulieu. (2019) Aperture: Penteract Press.
- Ian Hamilton Finlay. (no date) Ian Hamilton Finlay Selections: University of California Press.
- Ono, Yoko; Lennon, John. (2000) Grapefruit : a book of instructions + drawings, New York: Simon & Schuster.
- Simon Taylor. (2017) Prospectus: If P Then Q.
- Heaney, Seamus. (1996) Spirit Level, London: Faber & Faber.
- Hollander, John. (1981) Rhyme's Reason: Yale University Press.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Participation mark |
|
5% |
| Coursework |
3 Poems |
|
40% |
| Coursework |
Ghost Companion and Commentary of 500 words |
|
50% |
| Coursework |
Advertising Slogan |
|
5% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Philip Terry, email: pterry@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Phil Terry
LiFTS General Office – email: liftstt@essex.ac.uk
Telephone 01206 872626
Yes
Yes
Yes
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
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