In this class, we will cover major female voices in British poetry since
1945, beginning with Stevie Smith and Sylvia Plath, and working our way
forwards in time, with selected poems by authors such as Carol Ann
Duffy, Jackie Kay, Alice Oswald, and Liz Berry. We will finish our
survey with examples of what is now critically received as ‘spoken word’
or ‘performance poetry’, e.g. by Kate Tempest and Hollie McNish. In
terms of didactics, this seminar will allow for (and invite) discussing
your aesthetic reading/listening experiences of these texts, whilst also
taking time to equip everyone more thoroughly with academic close
reading skills, critical vocabularies and contextual knowledge to
qualify our discussions. Be prepared to contribute to this seminar by
way of short (!) presentations, brief reading response papers and, of
course, much reading aloud and sharing your thoughts!
- Dozent/in: Katrin Becker