Twentieth-Century English Poetry: Between Lyric and Epic

About

This course will offer a comprehensive and unique introduction to a canonical and indispensable literary field: Twentieth Century Poetry in English. The course will be a useful addition to the NPTEL course offerings because it covers poets and poems not covered in other courses. The selection is also based on new scholarship in the literary history of English poetry. Scholars have recently begun to study the multiple ways in which lyric poetry fills important links in the history of modernism. Hence the unconventional beginning with the lyric poems of Thomas Hardy, usually known as a writer of late Victorian realist prose. The lyric voice of Hardy overshadows a wide range of poetic work to follow in the 20th century. The course then reads the pathos of war, and the consolations of religious faith, in the lyrics of HD and T. S. Eliot. The mid-century focus falls on the work of Adrienne Rich, Elizabeth Bishop, and Sylvia Plath, a powerful trio of American women poets. The course then turns to two epics of the twentieth century: Walcott’s Omeros and Merrill’s The Changing Light at Sandover. Overall, these works provide a wide-ranging, exhaustive, and representative view of twentieth century poetry. Taken together, a study of these poets and poems allows this course to exemplify a study of diverse themes such as gender, race, empire, along with a sensitive and historically accurate attention to the intricacies of genre, tone, style, and form. Both close-reading, and historically-oriented contextual readings will situate these writers in a composite history of twentieth-century poetry.

Intended audience: This course will appeal to the following audiences: 1. Individuals engaged in the formal study of English literature at the UG, PG, and Ph.D level. 2. Individuals pursuing their study of English Literature from their own interest. 3. General readers who have read classic works of English literature on their own,and wish to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation…