The English Lyric, in Theory and Practice

Course goals

At the end of the course, successful participants:
•          can understand the development of a poetical genre within a specific historical context;
•          display an understanding of the ways in which texts are transmitted through literary and cultural institutions and are translated between different cultures, linguistic systems and periods;
•          can communicate effectively, in critical and/or creative modes, an understanding of the ways in which texts are re-presented creatively through acts of reading, interpretation, composition and performance.

Content

Lyric poetry, rooted in the practice of a single voice expressing feeling and originally accompanied by music, has given rise to the purest literary form: the composition of the self.

This module examines the history, theory, and methodologies of the English lyric since the Renaissance to the present day, providing not only a broad historical survey of major traditions of the vernacular short poem (keyed to manuscript, publication, and reception), but also engaging with a range of recent theoretical assessments of lyric as a genre and an construction of selfhood. In particular, the course looks to poetic, linguistic, and psychoanalytic theory to help unravel the intricate historical processes that embody the speaking subject; the singular voice of the lyric 'I'.

Most primary materials are available in the Norton Anthologies; theoretical and methodological work will be drawn from Jackson and Prins, eds., The Lyric Theory Reader.

Additional information

This course is part of the 'States of Literature'/'Transforming Texts' specialisation.

LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major, need to complete a compulsory preparation course/assignment. See for more information: https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/