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Poetry, Love, and Death (ENGL20032)
Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 1
Overview
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Poetry has always been about extreme experiences, above all in the realms of love and death. But poetry is not only about extremity; it is itself an extreme experience, not least of language. This subject focuses on great poetry about love and death, their continuities and mutations over time and place. Gay, straight, celebratory, condemnatory, strange, terrifying, obscene, beautiful, ambivalent: this subject will run the gamut of the poetry of love and death, introducing students to a wide range of poets from the classics to the present, and examining their accounts of love, death, being and affect through a variety of forms and techniques. Beginning with the great lyric poems of Sappho, the subject moves from ancient Greece and Rome to medieval and early modern Europe through to the present day. Each week will introduce new poets, new modes and new situations that bear upon the central theme; each week will be accompanied by secondary readings that provide salient formal, contextual and theoretical information about the poems.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of representative examples of poems and poetic forms;
- articulate the relationship between exemplary poems and the social, historical and cultural contexts that produced them;
- apply high-level analysis, conceptual sophistication and critical thinking to the study of poetic texts and their uses;
- contribute to the understanding of poetic texts in ways that engage the interests of the discipline of literary studies;
- effectively communicate an understanding of poetic texts and their contexts in both written and oral formats; and
- have gained an understanding of how to act as critically informed participants within a community of literature scholars, as citizens and in the work force at large.
Generic skills
At the completion of this subject, students should gain the following generic skills:
- acquired a transportable set of interpretative skills;
- developed their capacity for independent research;
- developed their capacity for critical thinking and analysis; and
- developed their ability to communicate in writing.
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Assessment
Additional details
- An essay of 1,500 words (40%), due mid-semester
- An essay of 2,500 words (60%), due in the examination period
- Hurdle: This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 80% attendance and regular participation in tutorials. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Dates & times
- Semester 1
Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours Total 30 hours: a 1.5-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial per week. Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 27 February 2017 to 28 May 2017 Last self-enrol date 10 March 2017 Census date 31 March 2017 Last date to withdraw without fail 5 May 2017 Assessment period ends 23 June 2017 Semester 1 contact information
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
A subject reader will be available with selected texts from classical antiquity to contemporary conceptual poetry.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Informal specialisation Graduate Diploma in Arts - English and Theatre Studies Specialisation (formal) Graduate Diplom in Arts - English and Theatre Studies Specialisation (formal) Graduate Certificate in Arts - English and Theatre Studies Major English and Theatre Studies Informal specialisation Graduate Certificate in Arts - English and Theatre Studies - Breadth options
This subject is available as breadth in the following courses:
- Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Last updated: 19 March 2024