Module description
Writing in 1979, the British Marxist historian E.P. Thompson made the following claim:
Poets can't be committed to any politics because they are devoid of any value stubborn or palpable enough to bear the weight of political commitment. They are left to espouse unreal politics […] which entail few consequences, which enmesh them in no enduring obligations and loyalties, and hence which should be seen as attitudes or poses rather than commitments.
Thompson's statement suggests that there is a gap between politics and poetry. This gap might be closed by the concept of 'commitment'. But what if a poet's lived experience is already political? As the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o said: 'Every writer is a writer in politics. The only question is what and whose politics?'
This module explores the recent history of politics and poetry in Britain, from the founding of the Welfare State to the aftermath of the 2011 London riots. This was a period of dramatic social change and frequent unrest, which saw the breakup of the British Empire, the transformation of law, institutions, and the family, and the emergence of anti-racist, feminist, and gay liberation movements. Literary language and style were transformed by new technologies, music, fashion.
This module introduces students to the work of major modern poets, including Denise Riley, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Lee Harwood, and others. These poets and their contemporaries shared a preoccupation with the relationship between poetry and politics. They participated directly in social struggles for equality and liberation, and tried to find new ways to write about their lives and the events they lived through.
Is what Thompson says true? What is the relationship between poetry and politics? Can poetry create a space to think through and even enact a form of politics? Can we find in poetry a real politics?
Assessment details
Coursework
1000 word close reading exercise (15%) and 3000 word essay (85%)
Educational aims & objectives
The aim of this course is twofold:
1) To introduce students to a range of exciting and challenging post-war British poets.
2) To encourage students to think critically about the relationship between poetry and politics in the post-war period.
Lectures will provide thorough contextual narratives, and seminars will involve close-reading and discussion. Studying these poets will expand and complicate our understanding of what constitutes 'British' poetry, and will allow students to consolidate and extend the skills and knowledge they acquired across level 5 learning.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this module, students will:
- Have an understanding of some of the major developments in post-war Britain and British poetry
- Have a knowledge of the dialogue between recent anti-colonial, feminist, and gay poetics
- Be able to interrogate the form, style, and language of modern poetry
These outcomes are reflected in the assignments. The mid-semester exercise, which involves close-reading and commentary, will encourage students to develop their literary reading. The end-of-semester essay will allow students to pursue areas of research in the period 1950-2010 in more detail, and to combine close-reading with contextual and theoretical argument.
Teaching pattern
1 x 2 hour seminar, weekly