“Make it new” said Ezra Pound; Wallace Stevens said “It must be abstract”; William Carlos Williams wanted “no ideas but in things”; “play it cool” said Langston Hughes; but “a rose is a rose is a rose” for Gertrude Stein. This module introduces you to some of the finest modern poets of America, many of whom spent their lives in Paris or London; others, who stayed mainly in America, whether in Harlem or New Jersey, still dominated the European scene, publishing in the numerous international, avant-garde, little magazines that flourished in the modernist period.
The module will examine not only the historical and cultural contexts of modernist poetry, but also introduce students to the diverse theoretical challenges thrown up by experimental writing.
What makes their poetry American? What makes it modernist? Why does American modernist poetry remain so influential and so controversial? Ezra Pound described the new poetry of the twentieth-century as “ the dance of the intellect among words”. This module will show you some of the steps.
Individual volumes and collections will be recommended, but most of the poetry for this module is available in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume D (1914-45).
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