Poetry from Britain and Ireland

Overview

This module introduces students to the work of poets writing in Britain and Ireland in the period 1940-2010. Students will study nine collections of poetry, beginning with the work of Keith Douglas in World War Two, and closing with Patience Agbabi’s ‘glorious poetic take on all things black, white and read’. In the process, they will acquire knowledge of key movements and shifts in Irish and British literary history, from the ‘Movement’ aesthetic, through the 1960s ‘new poetry’ and the challenges posed by the Northern Irish Troubles in the 1970s and 1980s, into late 20th and early 21st century debates about race, class, and gender.

Learning Objectives

Having completed the module, students will have an enhanced understanding of poetic form, and of the work of key figures in modern Irish and British poetry. They will develop an understanding of how a poetry collection works as a coherent text, and be able to identify the main forms, themes and preoccupations at work in each individual volume studied. They will have the ability to situate those poetry collections in their context of production, and a grasp of some of the aesthetic principles and influences underpinning developments in poetry from 1940-2010.

Skills

Students will enhance their skills in the formal analysis of poetry, in the analysis of textual and paratextual elements in individual poetry collections, and in comparative reading of different poets. They will hone their ability to research historical and cultural contexts in Ireland and Britain in the period 1940-2010, and bring those contexts to bear on the critical interpretation of modern poetry.

Assessment

None