LFU:online

Students will familiarize themselves with methods of the analysis of poetry. They will enhance their ability to perform close readings, set these into cultural and political context, select and critically discuss relevant research, and they will train how to combine these tasks to produce a scholarly analysis and argument.

At first glance, ‘war’ and ‘poetry’ may seem to have very little overlap. In common contemporary perception, poetry is often associated with ‘inspirational’ or ‘beautiful’ topics, and not often understood to intervene in political discussions. However, in the course of literary history poets have actually frequently engaged with war. Probably the most prominent cases in English literary history are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon and their poems reflecting their experiences as soldiers in WW1. While their tradition of anti-war poetry is influential to this day, poetry has also often been used to celebrate or glorify war. 

            In this course, we will explore and discuss the relations between war and poetry at different times in the history of Anglophone poetry, and we will ask how this connects with our own time, when, sadly, war once again is a topic that dominates the news. Our survey will take us through different centuries and to different locations. We will see how the topic of war intersects with other topics, such as gender, class, and race. And of course we will ask about the functions of poetic form in the context of war poetry. Students will be able to bring in their own examples, in addition to those collated in the course reader.

Discussion, presentations, group work, writing/research assignments

Oral (group presentations and moderation of a session, active participation in class) and written (short writing assignments during the semester, final paper)

A reader with the poems and additional mandatory reading material will be available at the start of the semester.

Recommended introductory reading:

Tom Furniss/Michael Bath, Reading Poetry: An Introduction, Harlow: Longman, 2007.

BA 2015: positive completion of compulsory module 10

Teacher Training Programme BA 2015: positive completion of compulsory module 13