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Module

SEL3386 : Modernist Poetry: Pound to the Beats

  • Offered for Year: 2020/21
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Alex Niven
  • Owning School: English Lit, Language & Linguistics
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0

Aims

This module explores the development of modernist poetry from the early-twentieth century to the heyday of the post-war Anglo-American counterculture. It begins with the poetic revolution initiated by Ezra Pound in the 1910s and concludes with the late modernism of the Beat Generation and the British Poetry Revival.

After looking at Imagism's break with poetic tradition, we will examine various currents in modernist verse: its origins in the late-Romantic avant-garde of the nineteenth century, its ambivalent relationship with English, American and regional identities, its use of music as inspiration and ideal, the often neglected centrality of women poets and the much-contested political backdrop. In the final weeks students will look closely at how these subjects found expression in Newcastle-upon-Tyne from the 1960s onwards, in the writing and activities of local poet Basil Bunting and his circle (a field trip/walking tour of Newcastle will supplement this part of the module).

The module aims to give students a thorough grounding in the techniques and historical evolution of twentieth-century modernist poetry. Particular emphasis will be placed on Poundian modernism as a project combining aesthetic radicalism with social and political engagement.

Outline Of Syllabus

Texts for study may include works by Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Basil Bunting, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, George Oppen, Barry MacSweeney and Allen Ginsberg.

Teaching Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Assessment Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Reading Lists

Timetable