There are no pre-requisites for this module to be added

In his essay ‘The Defence of Poetry', P. B. Shelley famously described poets as ‘the unacknowledged legislators of the World'. In this module you will examine Shelley's claim by looking at a range of poets (some in translation), from Shelley's own Romantic period to the present-day. You will examine the contexts in which various poets were working, such as particular national contexts - for instance, W. B. Yeats in Ireland - and ask various questions, such as: What cultural, artistic, and political aims did these poets have? How successful were they in changing their society? What uses does poetry have or serve? How has the role and figure of the poet changed in history from the Romantic period up to the present? And how do you view Shelley's claim now, in our own post-Romantic era? This module will enable you to read and critically analyse a variety of poems and engage with poetry from the Romantic era to the present. You will become familiar with public debates on poetry in the ‘voices' of poets across two centuries. You will study poets in their particular contexts, and analyse their political, cultural and artistic aims. The module will introduce you to well-known poets and to lesser known names, to illustrate the ‘politics' of the ‘public sphere'. Movements like that of Romanticism and Modernism will form a backdrop to our analysis of various poets and their work.

Upon completion of this module you will be able to

LO1: Analyse the stylistics of a range of poetic forms.

LO2: In light of Shelley's claims that 'poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world', critically reflect on the text in its context and the figure of the poet.

LO3: Demonstrate an understanding of the processes of anthologisation and canonisation in relation to the politics of literary representation discussed on the module.

LO4: Critically analyse a variety of poems from the Romantic era to the present in relation to poets' cultural, political, and literary aims.