Course Description
The history and theory of the modern lyric from the Renaissance to the present. Critics will include Sidney, Pope, Dryden, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Mill, Emerson, Poe, Arnold, Yeats, and Baudelaire. 20th-century approaches to the lyric include the Frankfurt School, the New Criticism, Structuralist and Post-Structuralist theory, Feminism, and New Historicism.
Athena Title
Poetics Lyric Hist and Theory
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, students, having read a substantial body of literature, will be able to discuss the assigned works (orally and in writing) with a considerable degree of critical sophistication. Students will also be able to demonstrate understanding of the forms and conventions of the lyric in historical and theoretical contexts, analyze texts through a theoretical, rhetorical, and/or historical framework, generate a logical argument or article based on evidence from primary and secondary sources, and apply and synthesize appropriate knowledge to produce clear and effective writing.
Topical Outline
This course will engage formal as well as historical concerns: as we study the various ways in which the modern lyric has been defined and conceived, we will consider some of its central forms (sonnet, pastoral, elegy, ballad, ode, song, free verse). One of our chief concerns will be to trace how and why the lyric, originally distinguished from epic and dramatic modes, comes to stand in for Poetry more generally; and to explore why the lyric has proven to be an influential and contested territory for a number of twentieth-century critical trends. Our readings in criticism and theory will be accompanied by readings in relevant (often contemporaneous) lyric poets. In providing an understanding of the history and critical study of the Anglo-American lyric, this course also aims to hone students’ analytical skills and to inspire an engaged conversation (both written and verbal) with poetry and theory. Topics covered will include: 1. Renaissance Lyric 2. 18th Century and Romantic Lyric 3. Modern and Contemporary Lyric