What is the relationship between literature and action? How does poetry involve itself in politics? Where is the border between propaganda and art? This module provides an introduction to a body of literature which aims not only to represent politically charged topics and themes, but to actually play a part in bringing about political change. We will explore how such poetry oscillates between the personal, local and global; how poets frame their role as public intellectuals; how writers mobilise the memory of past social and political protests; and what strategies contemporary poets have developed to ‘awaken readers’, as Denise Levertov put it, ‘by other means than shock’.  

We will examine a series of case studies from the mid-twentieth century up to the present day, drawing on a range of poetic traditions. Our emphasis will be on deploying a variety of reading tactics to more fully understand the texts under examination. Students will supplement close reading with historical and archival research and draw on other disciplines such as performance studies and sociology to consider how to read poetry in context, at its time and place of intervention. 

• discuss a range of activist poetries from the mid-twentieth century onwards
• closely analyse literary texts and performances, using various methodological approaches
• evaluate critically the texts studied in order to formulate individual argumentative conclusions

The module will be delivered through a variety of learning methods which may include a combination of digital learning activities to support face-to-face sessions. 

Academic skills: Students will be introduced to a body of literary work and will become capable of engaging critically with it. Students will also use and develop deeper skills in a range of areas, including: critical and contextual reading and analysis of literary texts and performances; seminar engagement and discussion among peers; summarising and organising key aspects of arguments/debates and feeding back to larger discussion; producing clear, well-argued, critically informed perspectives on themes/texts/writers. 

Employability skills: these include clarity of expression in both oral and written form; the ability to develop and challenge arguments; the ability to synthesise diverse materials; and confidence in engaging with materials which may be entirely new to the student. Student-led research will encourage skills of information collation, selection and synthesis. 

Essay: 100%

Formative work to be submitted before summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:
As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period.

Indicative Syllabus:

• Case study of a protest through poetry: ‘Bloody Sunday’, Derry City, 1972
• Disability poetics as case study for other modes of activism: consciousness-raising, education, community-building
• Documentary poetry 1: Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead (1938)
• Building a movement: the Black Arts Movement
• Anti-war poetry: Denise Levertov and the Vietnam War
• Activist poetry in oppressive regimes: Raúl Zuritá and C.A.D.A.
• The new oral tradition: ‘reading’ contemporary spoken word poetry 
• ‘Climate change poets’: Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and Craig Santos Perez
• Documentary poetry 2: contemporary documentary poetry
• Poetry and globalised struggle: Juliana Spahr

Content warning: please be aware that several of the books/topics discussed in this module deal with difficult themes (including graphic depictions of physical and sexual violence, racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia), which some students may find distressing. If you have any concerns about this, please contact the module leader for advice.