AJL16059 Post-1945 British Poetry, Culture and Society

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024

The course is not taught in Autumn 2024

Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites (in Czech)
( AJ09999 Qualifying Examination || AJ01002 Practical English II ) && AJ06002 Intro. to British Studies II
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/30, only registered: 0/30, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course will look at developments in post-1945 British poetries in their social and cultural context, taking into primary account in this semester questions of ethnicity, class region, nationality, religion, philosophy and aesthetics.The aims in this semester's course will be to focus on a relatively small number of English poets in order to bring out differences in their cultural backgrounds and preoccupations and the ways in which they introduce new elements of consideration,in terms of both form and content,through a process of close-reading and discussion,culminating in an analytical essay. This semester's course will focus on aspects of the work of Basil Bunting, Tony Harrison, Geoffrey Hill, Ted Hughes, David Jones Philip Larkin, Edwin Morgan, and J.H. Prynne.
Learning outcomes
Students who have completed the course will have gained an understanding of the concerns and contextual influences of some of the most respected practitioners of poetry in the British post-war period and have expressed that understanding in the form of organised discussion and written analysis
Syllabus
  • Week 1 Sept. 22nd:INDUCTION WEEK: NO LESSON Week 2 Sept. 29th:Introductory Week 3 Oct.6th:Larkin: Going; Church Going; Ignorance; An Arundel Tomb Week 4 Oct 13th: Larkin: Afternoons; Home; Mr Bleaney; Talking in Bed; Here Week 5 Oct. 20th:Larkin High Windows; Annus Mirabilis; Posterity; Homage to a Government; This Be The Verse; Going, Going Week 6 Oct 27th:Hill: Ovid in The Third Reich; September Song Hughes: Hawk Roosting; Ravens; Week 7 Nov.3rd:David Jones: In Parenthesis (extract);Anathemata (extract) Basil Bunting:What the Chairman Told Tom; Brigflatts Week 8:Nov.10th: Tony Harrison: Them & [uz]; A Good Read; Tom Leonard: The Proof of the Mince Pie; Morality; Poetry; 'This is the six o'clock news; Edwin Morgan: The First Men on Mercury: Stobhill Week 9 Nov.17th: READING WEEK: NO TEACHING Week 10 Nov.26th:J.H. Prynne: The White Stones (extracts) Week 11 Dec.1st: J.H. Prynne: Brass(extracts) Week 12 Dec.8th: J.H. Prynne: Wound Response (extracts) Week 13 Dec.15th:J.H. Prynne: The Oval Window (extracts)
Literature
  • Reading, Peter Essential Reading (1986) London Secker & Warburg
  • Thomas, R.S. Collected Poems 1945 - 1990 (2000) London Phoenix
  • Auden, W.H. Selected Poems (1979) London Faber & Faber
  • Eliot, T.S. Collected Poems (1974) London Faber & Faber
  • MACDIARMID, Hugh. Selected poems. Edited by Michael Grieve - Alan Riach. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1994, xxxiii, 32. ISBN 0-14-018754-5. info
  • BUNTING, Basil. The complete poems. Edited by Richard Caddel. Oxford University Press pbk. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, xii, 226. ISBN 0192822829. info
  • HEANEY, Seamus. New selected poems, 1966-1987. London: Faber and Faber, 1990, x, 245. ISBN 0571143725. info
  • LARKIN, Philip. Collected poems. Edited by Anthony Thwaite. London: Marvell Press, 1988, xxvii, 330. ISBN 0571151965. info
  • HILL, Geoffrey and David A. HILL. Collected poems. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1985, 207 s. ISBN 0-14-008383-9. info
  • HARRISON, Tony. Selected poems [Harrison, 1984]. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984, 203 s. ISBN 0-14-007158-X. info
  • HUGHES, Ted. Selected poems : 1957-1981. London: Faber and Faber, 1982, 238 s. ISBN 0571119166. info
Teaching methods
The course will be taught by a combination of close reading and small and full group discussion.By the end of the course students will have written an essay indicating their ability to analyse elements of the poetry discussed on the course in their cultural context.
Assessment methods
Assessment will be by essay (5-8 pages; to be submitted by the exam date)(subject of essay must relate to texts taught during course and, in this course to those texts which are post-1945)(60%) and class participation and attendance (40%).Teaching will take the form close reading, reading aloud and related discussion.The essay has the status of an exam and needs to be registered for. Essays must be submitted in hard copy form.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
Teacher's information
http://elf.phil.muni.cz/elf/course/view.php?id=411
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