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Poetry & the Technologies of Text - ENG00145M

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  • Department: English and Related Literature
  • Module co-ordinator: Information currently unavailable
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

Poetry, more than any other textual product, has a unique relationship to medium and form, and thus to its method of (re)production. As with any new technology, print invited experimentation even as it posed challenges for poets and printers. This course will consider the complex interrelation of print and poetics starting with the transition from manuscript to the newest technologies of today.

The course will consider examples such as the shape poetry of George Herbert, the complicated printing history of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, the challenges of printing Emily Dickenson’s poetry, and more recent examples like the printing of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and even poetry on the blockchain. In the print lab, students will design, set, and print poems from the department’s Writer in Residence, Vahni Capildeo, and other York poets to put into practice the ways technologies of print make poetry legible. The module will allow students to hone their close reading of poetry while assessing how close reading interacts with the visual and material form of poetry on the page.

Taking advantage of the archival collections at both the York Minster Library and the Borthwick Institute for Archives as well as the innovative print laboratory housed in the English department, Thin Ice Press, we will explore the interplay of print and poetics through archival work, bibliographic research methodologies, and through hands-on creative experimentation. We will alternate weeks between the archives and Thin Ice Press. During laboratory periods, students will have an opportunity to use traditional printing practices and technologies to produce works that creatively demonstrate the interaction between print technologies and poetic meaning, applying what they’ve learned in the archive and seminar sessions to the printing of works by the University of York’s Writer in Residence or other York authors.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

This module will:

  • introduce students to material studies and bibliographic methodologies of research.
  • encourage students to consider the impact of medium and evolving textual technologies on the production and possibilities of poetry.
  • introduce students to the ways in which textual technologies can work with substance to create meaning.
  • through experiential learning, students will familiarise themselves with printing methodologies and technologies and the interplay between production and meaning in printed poetry.

Module learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:

  • to demonstrate a broad knowledge of the printing of poetry

  • to use bibliographic and book historical methodologies to ask and answer literary and historical questions by drawing upon archival, manuscript, and rare book resources (and to know how to find and acquire such resources in special collections and online)

  • to produce confident and clear written and oral accounts of how technological production influences meaning in poetry

Module content

Indicative reading:

George Herbert, The Altar

Claudia Rankine, Citizen

Emily Dickinson, selected poetry

Gillian Wright. Producing Women’s Poetry 1600-1730: Text and Paratext, Manuscript and Print. Cambridge University Press 2015.

William Proctor Williams and Craig S. Abbott. An Introduction to Bibliographical and Textual Studies 4th ed. Modern Language Association of America (MLA) 2009.

D. F. McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts. Cambridge UP 1999

[Anon.]. "Interlude: At the Typographical Altar: Interlude for Randall McLeod: ". Out of Sorts: On Typography and Print Culture, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011, pp. 93-102. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812203639.93

Dan Chiasson, “Emily Dickinson’s Singular Scrap Poetry” The New Yorker. 27 November 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/05/emily-dickinsons-singular-scrap-poetry. Accessed 3 Sept 2021.

Random Cloud [Randall Mcleod], “FIAT fLUX”, in Randall M Leod, ed., Crisis in Editing: Texts of the English Renaissance, AMS (1994).

Megan Heffernan. “Stationers’ Figures: Mixed Forms and Material Poetics” in Making the Miscellany: Poetry, Print, and the History of the Book in Early Modern England. University of Pennsylvania Press 2021. Pp.54-88.

NEA Literature Staff. “A Behind the Scenes Look at Editing Claudia Rankine’s ‘Citizen’.” https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2017/behind-scenes-look-editing-claudia-rankines-citizen. Accessed 3 Sept. 2021.

S. P. Rosenbaum. “Emily Dickinson and the Machine.” Studies in Bibliography, vol. 18, 1965, pp. 207–227. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40371400. Accessed 3 Sept. 2021.

Katy Waldman. “The New Printing of Citizen Adds a Haunting Message About Police Brutality.” Slate. 7 January 2015. https://slate.com/culture/2015/01/claudia-rankines-citizen-new-printing-mourns-michael-brown-eric-garner-black-victims-of-police-brutality.html. Accessed 3 Sept 2021.

Tana Jean Welch. “Don't Let Me Be Lonely: The Trans-Corporeal Ethics of Claudia Rankine's Investigative Poetics.” MELUS, vol. 40, no. 1, 2015, pp. 124–148., www.jstor.org/stable/24569956. Accessed 3 Sept. 2021.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline, and will often receive it more quickly. The purpose of feedback is to inform your future work; it is designed to help you to improve your work, and the Department also offers you help in learning from your feedback. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further you can discuss it with your module tutor, the MA Convenor or your supervisor, during their Open Office Hours

Indicative reading

George Herbert, The Altar

Claudia Rankine, Citizen

Emily Dickinson, selected poetry

Gillian Wright. Producing Women’s Poetry 1600-1730: Text and Paratext, Manuscript and Print. Cambridge University Press 2015.

William Proctor Williams and Craig S. Abbott. An Introduction to Bibliographical and Textual Studies 4th ed. Modern Language Association of America (MLA) 2009.

D. F. McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts. Cambridge UP 1999

[Anon.]. "Interlude: At the Typographical Altar: Interlude for Randall McLeod: ". Out of Sorts: On Typography and Print Culture, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011, pp. 93-102. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812203639.93

Dan Chiasson, “Emily Dickinson’s Singular Scrap Poetry” The New Yorker. 27 November 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/05/emily-dickinsons-singular-scrap-poetry. Accessed 3 Sept 2021.

Random Cloud [Randall Mcleod], “FIAT fLUX”, in Randall M Leod, ed., Crisis in Editing: Texts of the English Renaissance, AMS (1994).

Megan Heffernan. “Stationers’ Figures: Mixed Forms and Material Poetics” in Making the Miscellany: Poetry, Print, and the History of the Book in Early Modern England. University of Pennsylvania Press 2021. Pp.54-88.

NEA Literature Staff. “A Behind the Scenes Look at Editing Claudia Rankine’s ‘Citizen’.” https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2017/behind-scenes-look-editing-claudia-rankines-citizen. Accessed 3 Sept. 2021.

S. P. Rosenbaum. “Emily Dickinson and the Machine.” Studies in Bibliography, vol. 18, 1965, pp. 207–227. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40371400. Accessed 3 Sept. 2021.

Katy Waldman. “The New Printing of Citizen Adds a Haunting Message About Police Brutality.” Slate. 7 January 2015. https://slate.com/culture/2015/01/claudia-rankines-citizen-new-printing-mourns-michael-brown-eric-garner-black-victims-of-police-brutality.html. Accessed 3 Sept 2021.

Tana Jean Welch. “Don't Let Me Be Lonely: The Trans-Corporeal Ethics of Claudia Rankine's Investigative Poetics.” MELUS, vol. 40, no. 1, 2015, pp. 124–148., www.jstor.org/stable/24569956. Accessed 3 Sept. 2021.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.