Modern poetry in English: high modernism to postmodernism
D Bartholomeusz and I Pana
12 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Clayton
The subject, which needs close reading skills, begins at the end of the nineteenth century and concludes at the end of the twentieth. Commencing with the early signs of high-modernist style in Hopkins, the study will move to its central focus on the full expression of this style in Eliot, Pound, Yeats and Marianne Moore. The subject comes to a close with the postmodernist work of some of our contemporaries, like Gwen Harwood, Ted Hughes, and the Commonwealth poets who absorbed modern influences, like Michael Ondatje, Patrick Fernando, Kamala Das and Ezekiel. Questions of critical theory that parallel and shape high modernist and postmodernist work are taken up, and the strong connections that exist between the poetry of the twentieth century, and some of the great movements of thought in art and music, philosophy, psychology, the physical sciences, anthropology and politics are explored. The third-year subject in modern literature has always been a helpful introduction to the fourth-year subject in modern poetry, though it is not a prerequisite. An optional experimental component in creative writing has been introduced into the subject where original modern poems may be presented as a part (20%) of the total assessment, with the tutor's agreement.
Assessment
Class paper (2000 words), or as an alternative to one paper, one original poem, after consultation with your tutor: 20% * Short essay (2000 words): 20% * Long essay (4000 words): 50% * Seminar participation and attendance: 10%
Prescribed texts
Eliot T S Collected poems Faber
Eliot T S Anabase Faber
Fernando P Selected poems OUP
Hopkins G M Selected poems Penguin or Everyman
Hughes T Selected poems 1957-1991 Faber
Lawrence D H Selected poems Penguin
Moore M Complete poems Faber
Pound E Selected poems Faber
Stevens W Selected poems Faber
Yeats W B Collected poems Macmillan
Barnes J and McFarlane B (eds) Cross country Heinemann
Recommended reading
Davie D Articulate energy Routledge
Eliot T S Selected essays Penguin
Lawrence D H Fantasia of the unconscious Penguin
Lawrence D H Psychoanalysis and the unconscious Penguin
Perkins D A history of modern poetry Harvard UP
Stead C K The new poetic Pennsylvania UP
Yeats W B Selected essays, autobiographies Macmillan