University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 1

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm Tue

The module will start with an overview of the field, and introduce some of the contemporary poet’s most influential forebears, including Louise MacNeice, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, and discuss the way in which they helped shape the dominant aesthetic in British and Irish verse in the post-Second World War period. The poetry of the constituent nations of Great Britain will be covered in detail, and differences and similarities in poetic practice between those nations will be examined. Controversies between Postmodern and ‘mainstream’ poetries will receive some careful consideration, and will focus on the work of a range of poets from J.H. Prynne and Denise Riley to Sean O’Brien and Alice Oswald. The work of younger contemporary poets will be also be presented, affording students an opportunity to study first-hand how a living poetry responds to its political and cultural environment, and how contemporary poetry has radically diversified in recent years. Poetry in the various languages and dialects of the constituent nations of the British Isles will be also be covered. Throughout the module, there will be both a technical and a critical focus, and a number of theoretical approaches to the subject will be discussed, alongside first-hand accounts of poetic practice.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass EN2003 and pass EN2004

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2 x 1-hour seminars, and 2 optional consultative hours.

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 2-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%


Re-assessment: exam = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor D Paterson
Module teaching staff: Prof Don Patterson
Module coordinator email dp31@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the poetry of Great Britain and Ireland, covering the period of the mid-twentieth century to the present day
• Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the techniques of versification
• Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of a number of alternative critical approaches to contemporary poetry
• Demonstrate familiarity with the pertinent cultural, political and aesthetic issues which formed the climate in which the poets themselves worked, and to which they reacted.