Studying at York
The Making of Modern Poems: A Workshop - ENG00095M
Module summary
This module will offer a practical perspective on various modes of modern poem-making. Beginning with, but moving quickly beyond the formal foundations of lyrical prosody and rhyme, we’ll focus on the proliferation of ‘experimental’ approaches in British and American poetry over the past one hundred years, which have in common a broadly materialist approach to language as a medium – hence ‘making’ as much as ‘writing’. Following developments in concrete and visual methods, constraint-based procedures, field composition, homophonic and homolinguistic translation, and other innovative practices across the twentieth century, we’ll work towards the more recent emergence of conceptualism and other appropriative or post-internet techniques, considering the legacy of any number of avant-garde impulses underlying the contemporary ‘post-lyric’.
Teaching sessions will adopt the structure of what the American poet Charles Bernstein calls a ‘reading workshop,’ in which discussions centre around students’ creative responses to the assigned reading. No prior poetry writing experience is necessary, as the aim is equally to explore new critical perspectives through your own experiments.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2023-24 |
Module aims
This module will:
- explore a range of established approaches for producing innovative or experimental poetry;
- relate these approaches to their historical, theoretical, and aesthetic contexts;
- support your production of a body of original writing, which demonstrates a critical engagement with readings.
Module learning outcomes
On successfully completing this module, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with a range of established approaches for producing innovative or experimental poetry.
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the historical, theoretical, and aesthetic contexts within which these approaches have developed.
- Produce a portfolio of original writing which demonstrates a critical engagment with modern (twentieth- and twenty-first century) poetry-making.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
The summative assessment for this module is 4500 words (or an agreed equivalent), developed out of the formative weekly responses. In keeping with the module’s hybrid critical-creative nature, students will determine the balance of poetry and criticism in their final submission, and are welcome to divide it evenly or unevenly between the two. A 4500-word essay will be perfectly acceptable, as will a fluid hybrid submission moving between new writing and comment, or a selection of shorter pieces. An equivalent word-count for visual poetry or other non-standard formatting can be agreed with the tutor in advance. All submissions should include a bibliography, though standard referencing may not always be appropriate.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Peer and tutor feedback will be provided on formative work in seminars throughout the module. Feedback on summative portfolios will be provided in the Spring term, following submission.
Indicative reading
Indicative reading:
- Paul Hoover (ed.), The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry, 2nd Edition (2013).
- Emmett Williams (ed.), An Anthology of Concrete Poetry (Primary Information, 2014).
- Craig Dworkin and Kenneth Goldsmith (eds.), Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Poetry (Northwestern UP, 2011).
- Tom Chivers (ed.), Adventures in Form: A Compendium of Poetic Forms, Rules & Contraints (Penned in the Margins, 2012).
- Robert Sheppard, The Meaning of Form in Contemporary Innovative Poetry (Palgrave, 2016).