English Language and Creative Writing BA Hons - 2020 Entry

Course Structure

Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme to complement your main specialism. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster please visit our Teaching and Learning section.

The following courses do not offer modules outside of the subject area due to the structured nature of the programmes: Architecture, Law, Physics, Engineering, Medicine, Sports and Exercise Science, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedicine and Biomedical Science.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, and the University will make every reasonable effort to offer modules as advertised. In some cases changes may be necessary and may result in some combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research.

Year 1

Core

• English Language

  This module will introduce students to the English language – how to describe it, how it varies and how it functions in a variety of contexts. You will not only study the traditional linguistic areas of English (e.g. lexis, grammar, phonetics), but also areas that are often overlooked (e.g. letters, spellings) and areas that have more recently come to the fore, such as pragmatics or conversation analysis.

  You will learn about and apply linguistic frameworks in the analysis and explanation of variation in English, both present-day and, to a lesser extent, historical. In order to study this variation, you will become conversant with crucial descriptive concepts, such as accents, dialects, registers, genres, and styles, as well as possible explanations for variation.

  You will learn about the role of practices and contexts in shaping the English language, for example, how new TV genres have come about; and also about the functions of English, for example, how it can be creatively exploited for the purpose of constructing a joke. Finally, you will learn about the teaching of English, especially as a foreign language.

• Introduction to Creative Writing

  In this module we aim to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence of apprentice writers and their command and enjoyment of the craft. The module approaches literature as something made by individuals out of their experience, imagination and knowledge, rather than as finished artefacts encountered as commodities. We encourage you to experiment with different forms and approaches, to discover your individual strengths as a writer, whether of poetry, prose or drama.

  Lectures provide insight into a syllabus of key skills, techniques and approaches to writing poetry, prose fiction and drama. Workshops are tailored to reflect on the content of the weekly lectures and put these skills, techniques and approaches into practice. You will discuss in detail each others’ works-in-progress, developing critical and editorial skills and insight into the writing process. These skills and insight are then applied to your own, as well as peers' work. The 'Reading for Technique' element of the module allows you to develop skills to read as a writer, rather than as a critic or general reader.

Optional

• Linguistics

  This module will introduce students to areas and topics across the full breadth of the linguistics discipline. The core areas of phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax will be covered in some depth, whilst semantics and pragmatics will also be included. In relation to these areas, students will get an appreciation of some of the nature of some of the major theoretical debates, whilst they will also acquire some actual analytical skills, using data not only from English, but crucially also from other languages.

  In addition to these core areas, a number of important sub-fields of linguistics will be dealt with, including Sociolinguistics, the study of language acquisition and learning, historical linguistics, and linguistic typology.

  Finally, a number of applications will be discussed. Indicative topics here are; forensic linguistics, educational linguistics, and language testing.

Year 2

Core

• Developing Academic Practice

  This short module provides support for students transitioning from year one to the more independent work expected in year two and beyond. It gives students the opportunity to reflect on the feedback from their coursework and exams in year one, as a foundation for developing the level of academic writing required in subsequent coursework. It also develops students’ awareness of the resources available from the library and how these may be accessed and used, particularly for independent research in coursework and the dissertation, and offers early alerts to the Careers service and planning for life after university. All majors and joint majors with either Linguistics or English Language must take this module in their second year.

• Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop

  You will develop the key skills introduced in the first year with an emphasis on writing as process, exploring creative voice, identifying point of view, the implied author and authorial guises whilst considering the creative and interactive nature of reading. Lectures will deepen your engagement with, and understanding of, literary forms. Weekly workshops will enable the development of specific aesthetic and technical skills through participation in constructive criticism relating to fellow students’ work-in-progress. Through this process, you will gain a deeper understanding of many important concepts such as structure, linguistic texture and resonance, point-of-view, form, pace, characterisation, the mediation of tone, and reader awareness. While the learning environment will usually be in the form of workshops, certain weeks will be designated for focused and practical set tasks. You will be expected to read widely from modern and contemporary creative works and to explore the work of ‘writers on writing’. The aim of the module is to develop a closely edited creative and peer-critiqued body of work that displays your own form of expression alongside skills and insights developed through the module.

• Stylistics

  The module is concerned with the linguistic analysis of literary texts, and particularly with the relationship between linguistic choices on the one hand and readers’ interpretations on the other. It deals with all three main literary genres: poetry, prose fiction and drama. Topics typically include:

  • Foregrounding in language: deviation
  • Foregrounding in language: parallelism
  • Figurative language and thought
  • Metaphor, metonymy and pain in verbal and visual art
  • Narrative and point of view
  • Fictional minds 1: point of view and mind style
  • Speech and thought presentation
  • Fictional conversations and characterisation
  • Fictional minds 2: conversation and autistic characters
  • Demonstration stylistic analysis: flash fiction

Optional

• Child Language Acquisition

  This module examines explanations of how we acquire our first language. We bring psycholinguistics and theoretical linguistics together to describe and explain the processes a child goes through in learning their first language. We also look at some more advanced issues such as bilingualism, language impairments, and language development in deaf children. The module is an introduction to language acquisition studies, psycholinguistics and theories of mind and language – looking particularly at the wide spectrum of different explanations for language acquisition.

• Corporate communication

  While this module is intended for students of both English Language and Business, the focus is on language and its use by and in companies, focusing on key areas such as intercultural, gendered and leadership communication. This will be complemented by input on methods and genre, with a view to enabling you to apply the knowledge in your own assessed work.

  The module aims to help you develop the skills to be :

  • aware of how different social and cultural contexts affect the nature of language and meaning
  • able to apply knowledge of corporate communication, including genres and audiences, to the analysis and critical examination of authentic data
  • able to apply your knowledge of corporate communication to produce your own spoken and written texts in that area
  • able to evaluate the merits of linguistic and management theories for the study of corporate communication
  • able to apply your knowledge of corporate communication to produce your own texts in that area.
• Creative Non-Fiction: Genre and Practice

  You will explore the writing of creative non-fiction (mainly, though by no means exclusively, in the areas of memoir and biography) through the development, in a workshop environment, of your own work, combined with the directed reading of a selection of contemporary work and secondary texts. Over the course of ten weeks, you are expected to read and discuss each key text, and to submit your own work for workshopping on a regular basis. You are also expected to familiarise yourself with books listed as ‘supplementary’ and ‘background’ reading: the books are selected to offer different perspectives on the key issues raised. The module should be considered to have a cumulative effect, in that the books discussed early on may be drawn upon in later weeks to illustrate different aspects of writing. During the module you are also expected to keep a journal, in which you reflect upon your writing and reading. This journal will form the basis of the reflective element of your final portfolio, and it will be discussed in an end-of-term personal tutorial with your tutor.

• Discourse Analysis: Looking at Language in Use

  The module aims to introduce students to the critical analysis of spoken and written discourse in contemporary social contexts. It provides a range of resources and techniques for analysing texts, and enables students to apply them in looking at use of language as one aspect of social processes and change in postmodern society. Methods include functional grammatical analysis of clauses and sentences, analysis of text cohesion and generic structure, conversational and pragmatic analysis of dialogue, and intertextual and interdiscursive analysis. With a focus on spoken data and conversation analysis, we will also address written texts and introduce Critical Discourse Analysis and provide a focus on institutional discourse. The module aims to support you in:

  • developing your capacity for language analysis
  • learning to apply academic knowledge and analysis to real world issues and problems
  • developing a critical stance towards your social environment in its language aspects
  • questioning and challenging social and intellectual authority and knowledge, including what is taught on the module.
• English Grammar

  The module will cover important aspects of English grammar, stressing the sense in which grammar (in English and in general) is not an abstract system of arbitrary rules but is motivated by meaning and shaped by usage. We will apply this so-called functionalist perspective not only to present-day English but also to the way in which certain grammatical constructions have developed over time. Topics typically include:

  • The purpose of (studying) grammar
  • Simple sentences
  • Word classes
  • Grammatical functions
  • Sentence structures and functions
  • Types and structure of phrases
  • Complex sentences
  • The passive: form(s) and function(s)
  • The grammar of spoken English
• English Phonetics

  This module will provide students with an introduction to the phonetics of English. The first part of the module will cover the initiation, articulation and transcription of speech. We will learn about vocal anatomy and physiology, including the oral cavity, the larynx, and the extrinsic and intrinsic muscles of the tongue. We will also address how sounds are produced, and how to transcribe phonetic variation using the International Phonetic Alphabet. The second half of the module will cover acoustic phonetics and the ways in which we can represent and analyse sounds using computers. Students will learn how to describe the acoustic properties of speech and acquire competence in carrying out particular forms of acoustic analysis. Throughout the module, we will apply some of the above concepts to understanding phonetic variation in English, including various kinds of social and geographical variation.

• Independent Study

  The purpose of this module is to allow students to pursue interests which are not represented in, or central to, named modules, subject to the availability of qualified staff. Students will engage in a programme of supervised reading and produce an extended piece of coursework.

• Language and Pedagogic Practice

  This module provides an opportunity for students to explore language, learning and teaching. A particular focus is on classroom language, including whole class, paired and group work situations. This includes consideration of the role of technologies. We will look at a wide span of educational contexts, as we examine language and learning from the early years of schooling to looking at talk in tertiary education. We will see that language varies greatly in character and purpose according to who is involved and for what purpose. We will compare the language and learning opportunities that arise in whole class situations with pair and group work. What do students gain when they work collaboratively to help one another? What kind of teacher questions and responses promote greater learning opportunities? Do some kinds of interaction limit the potential for learning?

  Using data from actual primary, secondary and/or post-secondary classrooms, students will develop their ability to analyse classroom language to explore how language fosters and/or sometimes hinders learning. This course will be of particular interest to those students who are curious about language and education, or who are considering working in educational contexts.

  This course is complemented by LING209 Literacy and Education. The two modules alternate, so LING209 runs one year and then LING218 runs the following year. Most students therefore have the chance to take both modules, one in their second year and the other in their third year.

• Language Origins and Evolution

  This module examines explanations of how language evolved in humans. We explore the evolution of the human language capacity drawing on evidence from linguistics, evolutionary theory, primatology and (paleo)anthropology. We consider language as a cognitive adaptation and ask what it is an adaptation for, e.g. instruction in tool making, as a form of social bonding, or as a means of winning a potential mate. We consider the phylogenetic development of language within the species as well as what cognitive and communicative abilities in non-human primates might reveal about the origins and functions of human language.

• Literacy and Education

  This module focuses on the role of literacy in relation to education. The module introduces students to different understandings of what literacy is and how it can be taught. We will look at literacy policy in English-speaking countries and how governments seek to convince teachers, parents and the wider public of its preferred method for teaching reading and writing. The importance of literacy in education, as both curriculum aim and curriculum tool, will be discussed in relation to pre-school, primary, secondary, further, higher and adult education. The module will also discuss how digital technologies have changed how people read and write and what role digital technologies play in schools.

  This course is complemented by LING218 Language and Pedagogic Practice. The two modules alternate, so LING209 runs one year and then LING218 runs the following year. Most students therefore have the chance to take both modules, one in their second year and the other in their third year.

• Poetry: Genre and Practice

  The emphasis in this module is on reading as well as writing poetry. You will explore how our own experience translates into poetry and how poetry becomes an experience generated by language, memory, imagination and form. You will be encouraged to seek out new reading as a result of seminar discussion. The writing of poetry is largely dependent on your abilities as a reader and interpreter of poems and on the textures of lived experience. Technique is vital to composition and it is strongly recommended that you buy or borrow a copy of ‘Rhyme’s Reason’ by John Hollander and ‘The Poet’s Manual and Rhyming Dictionary’ by Frances Stillman. You are expected to keep a journal throughout the module, the contents of which will be used to create the reflective essay for your portfolio.

• Short Fiction: Genre and Practice

  The aims of this module are to provide an opportunity for you to develop a knowledge of the short story form, and to develop your experience of writing the form. You will gain experience in reading, writing, workshopping and reflecting on short fiction, and will develop a knowledge of the history and development of the form, current theoretical approaches to reading and practice in this form, and an awareness of your own work’s literary context. The module will offer you the opportunity to develop your oral and written communication skills, enhance awareness of their approach to the creative process, and enhance your skills in the critical analysis of texts. This module is then developed by the third year specialization in short fiction.

  This module will explore the writing of short stories in a workshop environment through the development of your work, combined with the directed reading of selected texts. Over the course of ten weeks, you are expected to read and discuss each key text, and to submit your own work for workshopping on a regular basis. You are also expected to explore some of the books and essays listed as ‘supplementary’ reading: the books are selected to offer different perspectives on the key issues raised. The module should be considered as having a cumulative effect, in that books discussed early on may be drawn upon in later weeks to illustrate different aspects of writing. During the module, you are also expected to keep a journal, in which you reflect upon your writing and reading. The journal will form the basis of the reflective element of your final portfolio.

• Sounds of the World's Languages

  In this module you will learn to produce, describe, and transcribe all the sounds in the World's languages. We will describe the physiology of how different sounds are produced and will look at the acoustic characteristics of particular sounds. You will practise transcribing all sounds within the International Phonetic Alphabet, and will learn examples of where sounds are used. For example, we spend time looking at the occurrence of click sounds in South African languages and at how pitch variation is used in tone languages. Seminars will cover the practical aspects to sound production, and we will also spend some time learning how to use computers for speech analysis.

• Structures of the World's Languages

  This module will cover central concepts around word order, case marking, agreement, alignment, animacy, definiteness and valency changes and teach you to analyse new data from the world’s languages in terms of these topics. You will learn to critically evaluate the extent to which the structures of the world’s languages are shaped by cognition and communication. You will also learn how linguists provide explanations for why languages are structured the way they are, given the functions they serve. It is expected that you will acquire a better understanding of the structure of English as a result of seeing how English differs from other languages.

• The Language of Advertising

  We all know when an ad has caught our attention, and whether it works for us or not, but what precisely is responsible for these effects? In this module, we will learn how to take ads apart using tools taken from linguistics, rhetoric, and semiotics. We will explore how ad writers make use of the different levels of language: for instance, how they exploit sounds and spellings; how they toy with word meanings and word associations; how they manipulate, and sometimes break, the rules of standard grammar. We will also explore how ads interact with other texts and consider the relationship between words and pictures. As well as analysing ads themselves, we will also learn how to test out our intuitions about them, by investigating how the words, structures and visuals used in the ads are employed in other kinds of texts.

• Understanding Media

  The module provides approaches to analysing media discourses and practices, through introductory readings and detailed case studies. We will critically examine a variety of methods to investigate 'old' and 'new' media, engaging with a diversity of modes and technologies.

  There will be an emphasis on language and the internet including Wikipedia, websites, blogging, Twitter and Mumsnet. We also investigate news discourse, the history of broadcasting technology and the Edwardian postcard. Activities in lectures, seminars, and assessments will centre on analysing media texts and practices around them.

• Writing place and landscape

  This module is designed for those students interested in writing imaginatively about places and/or landscapes, providing a grounding for writers of poetry, prose fiction and non-fiction in the broad field of nature, environmental and place writing (which has been undergoing something of a renaissance in recent years). You will study key texts that engage with different kinds of place and landscape – from fields and forests to rivers and urban edgelands – and explore your own emergent interests in place writing. You will be encouraged to consider your own work as part of a larger, ongoing literary conversation about place, and to explore those places and landscapes that interest and excite you. The module also contains an element of fieldwork, linking the act of physically walking through a landscape to the practice of reading and writing about it.

Year 3

Core

• Advanced Creative Writing Workshop

  You will further develop key skills introduced in the second year, with an emphasis on writing as professional practice and process, exploring creative voice, identifying point of view, the implied author and authorial guises whilst considering the creative and interactive nature of reading. Lectures will focus on professional practice, publishing, and the career opportunities available to graduates. A proactive workshop environment will enable the development of specific aesthetic and technical skills through participation in constructive criticism relating to your fellow students’ work-in-progress. Through this process, you will gain a deeper understanding of many important concepts such as structure, linguistic texture and resonance, point-of-view, form, pace, characterisation, the mediation of tone, and reader awareness. While the learning environment will usually be in the form of workshops, certain weeks will be designated for focused and practical set tasks. You will be expected to read widely from modern and contemporary creative works, to explore the work of ‘writers on writing’ and to draw on relevant literary theory where appropriate. The aim of the module is to develop a closely edited creative and peer-critiqued body of work that displays your own form of expression alongside skills and insights developed through the module.

Optional

• Advanced English Phonetics

  This module investigates a range of theoretical and practical issues in the phonetics of English, with a focus on the perception of speech. This means that we will be investigating questions such as: Is perceiving speech different from perceiving music or other sounds? How does our knowledge of language influence what we hear? How do people evaluate different voices and accents? In doing so, we will engage in discussion of key theoretical issues, as well as practical computer-based work, such as designing experiments to test aspects of speech perception.

• Cognitive Linguistics

  The module seeks to provide a closer look at selected aspects of language structure and how they are analysed within various theoretical frameworks. It aims to develop a critical awareness of theoretical constructs and the extent to which they influence not only analyses but also the choice of data to be analysed. Students will also be taught to evaluate the appropriateness of specific analyses for individual languages or facets of language. By the end of the module, you should have a good knowledge of the basic principles, notions and structures of Cognitive Linguistics, particularly of Cognitive Grammar.

  In addition, you should develop:

  • the competence to analyse linguistic (corpus) data in terms of these theoretical constructs;
  • an appreciation of the sense in which Cognitive Linguistics is grounded in cognitive psychology, and how this is different from formalist frameworks such as Generative Grammar and its derivatives.
• Corpus-based English Language Studies

  This module focuses on the contemporary field of English Language Studies. In particular, it will look at corpus linguistics - a research specialism at Lancaster University - and its application to areas such as the description of English grammar.

  The module's programme of lectures will begin with a detailed introduction to the method before moving on, later in the term, to discuss the applications and implications of the method. Meanwhile, lab-based seminars will allow students to acquire and exercise practical skills with the computational tools (such as concordance software) required by the area of study.

• Dissertation

  We will start with taught sessions covering the planning and designing of research in Linguistics and English language. We will cover topics including identifying and accessing relevant literature; formulating answerable research questions; working with data; and ethics and responsibilities in research. This is assessed through a short dissertation proposal. You will then carry out the research project planned in your proposal, working independently but with guidance from a supervisor. This culminates in the second assessment which is your written dissertation.

• Forensic Linguistics

  The module will cover the two main sub-areas of the field, i.e. forensic phonetics and forensic linguistics more generally. Following a general introduction on the nature and history of forensic linguistics, lectures will focus on the two main questions forensic linguists concern themselves with: what does a text say, and who is (are) its author(s)? The issues of trademarks and lie detection do not fit into either of these, but will be covered as well. All aspects of the field will be illustrated with reference to specific (court) cases, which will also help shed light on the evolving status of forensic linguistic evidence in courts of law.

• Language and Identities: Gender, ethnicity and class

  This module is about sociolinguistics, and in particular about how language relates to identities at different levels – for example, how individuals use language to signal their membership of particular social groups, and how different kinds of social groupings – for example peer groups, communities and nations – identify themselves through language.

  The module will focus on three important areas of variation in language within society: gender, ethnicity and class, and will discuss the key research in each of these. Both theoretical and applied aspects of topics will be covered. The notion of ‘Identity’ provides the module with a unifying theme.

  This module aims to broaden and deepen your capacity for language analysis applied to real social issues and problems and to encourage you to evaluate research critically and undertake your own data collection and analysis.

• Language Change in English and Beyond

  This module introduces students to the study of language change. It aims to show how language change can be investigated and explained, particularly in the light of the most recent developments in (functionally oriented) historical linguistics. English is the primary focus of the module but examples from other languages will be used as well. All levels of language will be covered, from phonetics and phonology, via changes in the lexicon and word meaning to grammar and pragmatics. The module is not only theoretical (how can linguistic theory account for the changes we can observed?), but also has a strong practical component, especially in the seminars, where students will get the opportunity to apply the theories and concepts that were introduced in the lectures to actual data, prominently including data related to ongoing change.

• Language in the Workplace: Topics in Professional Communication

  This module introduces some key areas in which language study and social science studies of interaction can help us understand practices in a range of workplaces. It is intended to complement the module Corporate Communication (although this is not a prerequisite for this module). The topics in this module will be applicable to institutions such as social services, non-governmental organisations, technical services, and schools, and be relevant to a wide range of communication-centred jobs including human resources, technical writing, public relations, training, and management.

• Language, Culture and Thought

  The module combines classic philosophical approaches with recent state-of-the-art experimental evidence to address a central topic in modern cognitive science: Does the language we speak affect the way we think? And as a result, do speakers with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds think differently? These questions form the core of the so-called linguistic relativity hypothesis, which will be the focus of this module. The module begins by laying down the foundation of the cognitive mechanisms underpinning the interaction between language and thought, such as working memory, semantic memory, and the structure and nature of meaning representations in the brain. The module then examines in detail the different ways in which language may affect thinking and give rise to cross-cultural and cross-linguistic differences between different populations, different individuals, and during first and second language development. Throughout, emphasis will be given to the different experimental methods used and the kinds of evidence that can inform our understanding of the linguistic relativity hypothesis.

• Longer Fiction: Skills and Techniques for Approaching a Novel

  During this module you will examine, through the set reading and in-class writing prompts and tasks, the unique features of long fiction (novellas and novels). Through seminar discussion of set texts, the workshopping of creative writing in progress and the writing of synopses and other planning documents, you will develop competence in approaching a long fiction project. This includes: strategies for planning and structuring, choosing point of view and tense, developing plot, addressing theme and characterisation, experimenting with form and considering an ending.

• Narrative and New Media

  This module will provide the space for you to work on a creative project that utilises opportunities afforded by new media. New media narratives (please see the list of set ‘texts’ for examples) are often interactive, participatory, immersive and cross-platform and you will be encouraged to design and provide writing samples from a project that engages with these features. During the module you will examine a variety of new media narratives, compare them to non-linear ‘old media’ narratives (books!) and you will work towards placing your own creative work in a literary and critical context.

  The topics we will cover will respond to your own project ideas and interests, but may include:

  • Interactivity and immersion,
  • Space, place, mapping and journeying,
  • The problem of character,
  • Who is the author? Collaboration and crowd-sourced fictions.

  Note: while we will talk about the ways these narratives can resemble games, this is not a module where you will be designing a computer game. You do not need to have any special computer skills – only an interest in the opportunities afforded to writers by new media forms.

• Poetry and Experiment

  This module aims to challenge the received structures of language in your own poetry through a close reading of poets who opened up new frontiers of 20th/21st century literature through their experimental approaches to language. Every seminar will be split in two; the first part will be devoted to a close reading of experimental work by a published poet, from Alice Oswald to Ezra Pound, looking at how they stretch or break the lyric formula; the second part will be a workshop based on critiquing the students' own poetic experiments. You will receive a basic introduction to Wittgenstein's theory of language games, with each subsequent poet examined in the light of how they try to break the rules of the game. Your own experiments are encouraged as either continuations of the radical departures first implemented by the poets in question, or your own attempts to break from comfortable notions of confessional or lyric poetry.

• Psycholinguistics

  Psycholinguistics is the study of the psychology of language, which is one of the abilities that makes humans unique. It can cover topics in social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology. The exact topics we cover vary each year depending on who is teaching on the module, but we aim to balance these areas and include topics on how children learn language and to read, how language is used in social interaction, how adults process sounds, words and sentences, and what happens when children fail to learn language normally or when adults suffer from brain damage.

• Schools Volunteering Module

  This module will provide students with an opportunity to work as classroom volunteers in primary or secondary schools over the course of one term.

• Topics in Phonetic and Phonological Theory

  This module investigates some of the theoretical aspects to speech production and sound structure across the World's languages. We will spend time discussing and evaluating different frameworks for modelling phonetics and phonology, for example generative and usage-based approaches. Then, we will examine some case-study areas which challenge existing theories, for example intonational phonology and the study of historical sound change. This module aims to contribute to questions such as 'How are groups of sounds structured so that we can understand language?' or 'How are sounds stored and processed in the mind?'

• Writing/Reading Poetry

  ‘No art without the resistance of the medium’, Raymond Chandler once said. This module will build on the Writing Poetry module, deepening your engagement with both the writing and the reading process. Poetic form will be explored through a wide-ranging selection of poems (all of which can be found in the set text for the module: The Making of a Poem (ed. Boland and Strand) and Poetry By Heart’s online anthology. We will consider form as historical poetic model and a tradition that has been questioned, adapted, subverted, upcycled, reaffirmed—rather than the binaries of free/formal verse, open/closed form, etc—and there will be particular emphasis on those forms regularly employed or reimagined in a twentieth century and a more recent contemporary context.

  A portion of each seminar will be spent discussing the set poems. You will submit your own poems on a fortnightly basis. The dual assessment (a portfolio of students’ own poems plus a close reading of two of the syllabus poems) reflects the module emphasis on the inter-relationship between reading and writing.