| Unit name | The Poet as Witness |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL29006 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. James |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The aim of this course unit is to study poetry written in response to war, political violence and civil unrest. Students will consider how these issues have been addressed in poems relating to national and international conflicts, and in the works of specific writers (e.g. Robert Lowell, Geoffrey Hill, Seamus Heaney, Carol Rumens). Attention will be paid to the distinction between actual and imaginative acts of witness, and dilemmas central to both the practice and the analysis of modern verse will be explored. For example: how may a poet authenticate a political voice when he or she is not writing under blatant political duress, or is not a first-hand witness of the events recounted? What are the implications of a poet's direct (or, indeed, indirect) approach to sensitive subject-matter? And in what ways might a poem be said to either court or guard against the dangers of ethical complacency?
Aims:
In addition, issues to be addressed will include: artistic freedom versus civic responsibility; the figure of the poet as national spokesperson; poetry as reportage; poetry as fable; uses of mythology; uses of rhetoric; the politics of poetic form.
One x 2 hour seminar per week.
Both summative essays map onto ILOs 1-5.
The specific syllabus alters annually, but indicative texts include:
Seamus Heaney, North (London: Faber and Faber, 1975; new edition, 2001)
Geoffrey Hill, Selected Poems (London: Penguin, 2006)
George Walter, ed., The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (London: Penguin, 2006)
