Introductory description

This module explores the relationships between poetry and visual art in the modern period.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Ekphrasis, Description and Poetry
Victorian Art and Poetry Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism
Modernism: Collage and Montage
Modernism: Pound, Stein and the Visual Arts
Post-War Poets Painters and Place: O'Hara and the New York School, W. S. Graham and St. Ives
Poetry Plastique: Vito Acconci and the New York Art/Poetry Scene
The Artist's Book and the Poet's Mise-en-page
Ian Hamilton Finlay and Concrete Poetry
Minimalism
Contemporary Poets and the Visual: Susan Howe and Cole Swensen

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a grasp of the history and theory of relations between visual art and poetry
• Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the works studied and their contexts
• Deploy these ideas critically in relation to other forms of art and culture
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• Ability to formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Sophisticated visual and textual analysis
• Bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

Yves Abrioux, Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Visual Primer, London: Reaktion Books, 2006
Vito Acconci and Bernadette Mayer, 0 to 9: The Complete Magazine, NY: Ugly Duckling Press, 2006 
Carl Andre, Poems, Distributed Art Publishing Inc., 2014
Louis Aragon, Les Collages, Paris: Hermann, 1980
Michael Baxandall, Patterns of Intention, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987
Rebecca Beasley, Ezra Pound and the Visual Culture of Modernism, Cambridge: CUP, 2010
J. B. Bullen, Rossetti: Painter and Poet, London: Francis Lincoln, 2011 
Johanna Drucker, The Visible Word, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994
Johanna Drucker, The Century of Artists' Books, NY: Granary Pres, 1995
W. S. Graham, New Collected Poems, Faber & Faber, 2005
James Heffernan, Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993
Susan Howe, This That, New Directions, 2010
Richard Humphreys, ed., Pound's Artists, London: Tate Gallery, 1985
Hans Robert Jauss, 'Poiesis,' Critical Inquiry, Spring 1982, pp. 591-608
Joan Lyons, ed., Artists' Books: a critical anthology and sourcebook, NY: Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1985
Robert Motherwell, ed., The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology, 2nd edition, 1981
Marjorie Perloff, The Futurist Moment, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003
Marjorie Perloff, Poetry On and Off the Page, University of Alabama Press, 2004
Peter Reading, Marfan, Bloodaxe, 2000
Alistair Rider, Carl Andre, Phaidon, 2011
Jay Sanders and Charles Bernstein, Poetry Plastique, New York: Marianne Boelsky Gallery, 2001   
Aram Saroyan, Complete Minimal Poems, 2nd edition, NY: Primary Information, 2014
Cole Swensen, The Glass Age. Alice James Books, 2007

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• Demonstrate a grasp of the history and theory of relations between visual art and poetry
• Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the works studied and their contexts
• Deploy these ideas critically in relation to other forms of art and culture
• sophisticated visual and textual analysis
• critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• familiarity with essential ICT skills
• ability to collaborate effectively with others
• show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• ability to formulate a sustained argument
• think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• bibliographical skills at an appropriate level