Module Identifier EN34020  
Module Title POETRY BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT-UK POETRY SINCE 70S-REMAPPING  
Academic Year 2005/2006  
Co-ordinator Professor Peter T Barry  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   Seminar. 10 x 2 hrs  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Continuous Assessment: 2 essays (2,500 words each)100%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected. 

Learning outcomes

On completion of the module students should typically be able to:

1. demonstrate knowledge of a wide range of contemporary British poetry from outside the 'mainstream'

2. engage in critical appreciation of the handling of language and form in particular poems;

3. relate the poetry to appropriate cultural contexts;

4. explain and engage with recent critical and/or theoretical debates about contemporary British poetry.

Brief description

This module by-passes the best-known landmarks - Larkin, Heaney, Hughes - and asks you to boldly go into hitherto unmapped territory. It takes for granted the fact that you probably find poetry reading quite difficult but also assumes that you are just as keen to encounter new and challenging work in poetry, as in, say, film or pictorial art. The module offers `poetry with an edge', and poetry with a strong contemporary flavour (it's a daffodil-free zone). It offers reading strategies for poetry, especially for poetry of an innovative kind. It seeks to remove it from the 'page vacuum' and looks at it in its various contexts, such as: the contemporary art scene, the processes of small-press publishing, the dynamics of reading and performance, the influences of 'alternative' cultures and lifestyles, and various networks of regional and political allegiances.

Content

The module will consist of weekly meetings, as follows.

PROGRAMME

Seminar 1: 'The End is Nigh'

Seminar 2: 'Border Countries'

Seminar 3: 'Outside History'?

Seminar 4: 'Planet Alice'

Seminar 5: 'Have You Been Here Long?'   

Seminar 6: 'Talking Pictures' (or 'Let's Get Ekphrastic')

Seminar 7: `Oh No, Not the New Rock and Roll Again'

Seminar 8: 'Birmingham's What I Think With'

Seminar 9: Liverpool Accents - `The Hard Lyric'

Seminar 10: 'Return to Planet Alice'

Reading Lists

Books
** Supplementary Text
Kicking Daffodils Edinburgh U.P. 074860782X
Rees-Jones, Deryn Memory Tray Seren Bks. 1854111167
New British Poetries edition n.e. . Manchester U.P. 719046920
Thing About Roy Fisher Liverpool U.P. 853235252
Contemporary British Poetry State Univ.New York P. 791427676
Rees-Jones, Deryn Carol Ann Duffy Northcote Ho.Publrs. 746308523
Huk, Romana Assembling alternatives : Wesleyan University Press, 819565407
Kennedy, David New Relations edition n.e. . Seren Bks. 1854111639
Barry, Peter Contemporary British Poetry and the City Manchester U.P. 719055946
O'Brien, Sean Deregulated Muse Bloodaxe Bks. 1852242825
Mark, Alison Contemporary women's poetry : Macmillan, 333734386
Gregson, Ian Contemporary Poetry and Postmodernism Macmillan 333655664
** Should Be Purchased
Carol Ann Duffy, Vicki Feaver, Eavan Boland (1995) Penguin Modern Poets: Carol Ann Duffy, Vicki Feaver, Eavan Boland Penguin
Peter Robinson (ed.) Liverpool Accents: Seven Poets and a City Liverpool U. P.
Roy Fisher (1996) The Dow Low Drop: New and Selected Poems Bloodaxe Books
Maura Dooley (ed.) (1996) Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets Bloodaxe Books
** Recommended Background
J. Acheson & R. Huk (1996) Contemporary British Poetry: Essays in Theory and Criticism SUNY Press
Ian Gregson (1996) Contemporary Poetry and Postmodernism: Dialogue and Estrangement Macmillan
David Kennedy (1996) New Relations: the Refashioning of British Poetry, 1980 - 1994 Seren
Sean O'Brien (1997) Deregulated Muse: Essays on Contemporary British and Irish Poetry Bloodaxe
Stephen Wade (ed.) (2001) Gladsongs and Gatherings: Poetry in its Social Context in Liverpool Since the 1960s Liverpool U. P.
Deryn Rees-Jones (ed.) (2000) Contemporary Women's Poetry: Reading / Writing / Practice MacMillan
J. Kerrigan & P. Robinson (eds.) (2000) The Thing About Roy Fisher: Critical Studies Liverpool U.P.
R. G. Hampson & P.Barry (1993) New British Poetries: the Scope of the Possible Manchester U. P.
Vicki Bertram (ed.) (1997) Kicking Daffodils: Twentieth-Century Women Poets Edinburgh U. P.
Peter Barry (2000) Contemporary British Poetry and the City MUP

Articles
Peter Barry, 'Contemporary British Poetry and Ekphrasis' Cambridge Quarterly , vol. 32, no. 2, 2002, pp. 155 - 65

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6