Feminist poet and critic Adrienne Rich suggested that poetry could be a space that allows 'the structures of power to be described and dismantled'. Romantic poet P. B. Shelley called poets 'the unacknowledged legislators of the world'. Can poetry help us reimagine and restructure our world? What forms might those imaginings and restructures take? What are you, and your poetry, invested in? And what kinds of writing could your poetry be?
This module approaches these questions from different angles. You will have the opportunity to discuss and learn how to write texts for sound performance, visual texts, traditional poetic forms, prose poems, and lyric essays. We will explore what poetry can be and where it meets prose, art, and music, looking at a range of writers: from more traditional poetic texts to contemporary and experimental writing that defies traditional form and easy categorization as a ‘poem’, and investigating how language can be played with through writing experiments and exercises.
This module allows you to think through the relationships between identity, intention, effect, and subject matter through a variety of different writing methods, techniques, procedures and approaches and forms. You will learn how to apply this thinking to your own writing: how, for example, might you want to write back against something that’s made you angry? Could a poetic procedure help you to take back or examine its power over you? Could you erase it, collage it, reduce it to it sound? You will be given the tools to learn how to identify how what is important to you could make an interesting writing project, and discover what forms of articulation can enable you to write this most effectively.
Contact hours: 45
Private Study Hours: 255
Total Study Hours: 300
Main assessment methods:
Written Assignment (1,500 words) 20%:
8 poems 60%
Seminar and Workshop Participation 20%
Reassessment methods:
Alternative Assessment: 100% coursework (8 poems plus 1,000 word reflective essay)
The University is committed to ensuring that core reading materials are in accessible electronic format in line with the Kent Inclusive Practices. The most up to date reading list for each module can be found on the university's reading list pages: https://kent.rl.talis.com/index.html
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Read and respond to a range of traditional, modernist and post-modernist poetries as technical exemplars of the craft of writing poetry.
2 Critically question and reflect upon how poetic traditions and movements are formulated and understood, and the ways in which poetic innovation participates in, and develops, traditions that precede it.
3 Understand how their own work may be contextualized in relation to cultures that precede and surround them.
4 Identify and evaluate the technical and stylistic choices made by writers and understand how these choices can be applied to their own writing.
5 Develop their capacities for close reading and editorial scrutiny.
6 Apply these developed skills to the reading of poetry produced by their classmates and by themselves.
7 Begin to identify their own formal, stylistic and thematic approaches and reflect on the range of narrative, stylistic and technical choices open to the contemporary writer.
8 Apply sophisticated writing techniques to their own creative work.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Enhance their capacities for close reading and editorial analysis.
2 Extend their creative writing skills to an advanced level
3 Effectively communicate their creative ideas using a variety of methods;
4 Apply sophisticated writing techniques to their own creative work.
University of Kent makes every effort to ensure that module information is accurate for the relevant academic session and to provide educational services as described. However, courses, services and other matters may be subject to change. Please read our full disclaimer.
