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Warwick Writing Programme

Reeling and Writhing

Aims and Objectives:
 This module, which is centred upon the experience of occidental cultures, aims to encourage an understanding that both the making and the reception of literary texts (and other artworks) are inseparable from deep cultural currents and trans-national responses to religion, myth and history. It hopes to deepen and intensity students' familiarity, critically but especially through practice, with one of the key aspects of all literary work: intertextual writing. Cultural and in particular literary production will be examined in relation to human strategies of myth-making. Students will become literate in the means by which mythologies are constructed, and will find ways of deploying their analytical skills in the making of new texts. The module is a writing module and aims primarily at generating and enhancing skills in the construction of texts. Inseparably from that, it aims also to reinforce skills in close reading, deconstruction of rhetorical strategies, and awareness of cultural and historical contexts and cross-national comparative dimensions. Students will be required to create intertextually-conceived writings in poetry and to make manifest the thinking behind their work.

It is in the nature of the material studied that some may potentially appear offensive to a modern sensibility.
Learning Outcomes:
 By the end of the module you should have

1 acquired fluency in the writing of poetry conceived in interplay with existing primary texts,

2 developed an independent ability to identify texts that can usefully serve as source material for intertextual exploration,

3 demonstrated an ability to distinguish the means by which religious, heroic and historical mythologies are created, and

4 demonstrated an awareness of the complex intertextual relations of ancient religious, historical and mythological writing to later canonical literature from the Renaissance to the present.
Teaching Methods:
 This module is taught in two hour classes. The first hour of each class will be a scholarly discussion of historical and modern texts, and in the second hour students will workshop each other's poems written on the same subjects.
Structure of the module:
 This module is taught in two hour classes. The first hour of each class will be a scholarly discussion of historical and modern texts, and in the second hour students will workshop each other's poems written on the same subjects.
Assessment:

This module may be taken either on a fully assessed basis, or as a combination of assessed work and an examination.

100% Assessed: You will be required to submit both an original portfolio (300 to 500 lines of poetry, with a 1,000-word commentary) and a 4,000-word critical essay.

Part Assessed and Exam (50/50): You will be required to submit both an original portfolio (150-200 lines of poetry, with a 1,000-word commentary) and a 2,500-word essay (50%) AND a 2-hour exam (50%).  

Titles for assessed essay

Note: these are only suggestions, and I’d welcome it if you formulated your own title.

  • Compare a passage of Homer with a later re-telling and consider what aspects of the Homeric world benefit from being re-imagined by a later writer.
  • Compare any two versions of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, bearing in mind their relation to the original telling by Ovid and/or Virgil.
  • Discuss the contention that Herodotus has merely served later writers as a source of powerful stories.
  • How necessary is faith if a reader is fully to respond to re-tellings of Biblical narratives?
  • If it is true that the Crucifixion has proved more amenable to presentation by visual than by literary artists, examine the reasons why this might be so.
  • Discuss female passivity in presentations of Leda and the Virgin Mary.
  • Discuss the popularity of the myth of Prometheus in the modern era.
  • What gender issues would you expect to address, and how might you hope to resolve them, in writing a modern version of the story of either Pygmalion or Candaules and the Queen of Lydia or Leda and the swan?
  • To what extent can literary and/or visual artists be said to create iconographies?
  • If mythologies are socially constructed, can it still be possible for a single literary/visual artist to create a mythology?
Reading:
Key primary texts

  • The Bible (Authorized Version)
  • Herodotus, The Histories
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses
  • Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey
Selected poems by

Anon, Arnold, Byron, Dryden, Gautier, Goethe, Hughes, Milton, Rilke, Sisson et al (examples used in seminars will typically include those noted above, section 10)

Visual images in reproduction by

Bellini, Bosch, Bruegel, Caravaggio, Ghiberti, Giotto, Leonardo, Simone Martini, Michelangelo, Raphael, van der Weyden, et al (examples used in seminars will typically include those noted above, section 10)

Key secondary texts

  • Roland Barthes, Mythologies
  • Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God
  • Northrop Frye, The Great Code
  • E. H. Gombrich, The Story of Art
  • Robert Graves, The Greek Myths
Background bibliography
  • W H Auden, The Dyer’s Hand
  • Nicholas Boyle, Sacred and Secular Scriptures
  • Terry Eagleton, The Idea of Culture
  • Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation
  • James Fenton, The Strength of Poetry
  • Sigmund Freud, ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’ (1908), Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood’ (1910), ‘The Moses of Michelangelo’ (1914)
  • Helen Gardner, Religion and Literature
  • Brewster Ghiselin (ed.), The Creative Process
  • Dana Gioia, Can Poetry Matter?
  • Michael Hamburger, The Truth of Poetry
  • Anthony Hecht, On the Laws of the Poetic Art (especially chapter one)
  • W N Herbert/Matthew Hollis (eds.), Strong Words
  • Vladimir Mayakovsky, How are Verses made?
  • J D McClatchy (ed.), The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry
  • Czeslaw Milosz, The Witness of Poetry
  • Ezra Pound, The ABC of Reading
  • Michael Schmidt, Reading Modern Poetry
  • Paul Valéry, The Art of Poetry
  • Edgar Wind, Art and Anarchy
Term One
Term 1, weeks 1 to 5: Myths and histories of antiquity.

Exploration of some key non-Biblical historical and mythological narratives in the western tradition (from Ovid, Homer, Herodotus, etc.), together with poetry and visual images derived from these narratives. Workshops combine analysis of original texts and images with discussion of student work produced in response to the studied texts and the writings derived from them.

Every week there will be both reading and writing assignments.
  Week 1 Introductory
  Week 2 For discussion: Homer, Iliad Book XVIII and W H Auden, ‘The Shield of Achilles’. Followed by workshop.
  Week 3 For discussion: Ovid, from Metamorphoses, Book X, Rilke, ‘Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes’ and Ovid, from Metamorphoses, Book VIII, Swift, ‘Baucis and Philemon’. Followed by workshop.
  Week 4 For discussion: Ovid, from Metamorphoses, Book X, Hughes, ‘Pygmalion’ (Shaw et al). Followed by workshop.
  Week 5 For discussion: Herodotus, extracts on Polycrates, poem by Schiller; Herodotus, extract on Candaules and Gyges, poem by C H Sisson. Followed by workshop.
 
Term 1, weeks 7 to 10: The Great Code.

Examination of selected Biblical narratives together with poetry and visual images derived from these narratives. A typical workshop session will spend one hour examining texts and images and one hour discussing student texts produced in response to both the Biblical texts and the writings derived from them.
  Week 7 For discussion: Genesis ch. 2-3, extracts from Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IX. Followed by workshop.
  Week 8 For discussion: Daniel ch. 4-5, Byron ‘To Belshazzar’, Heine ‘Belsazar’. Followed by workshop.
  Week 9 For discussion: Luke 15, 11-32, poem and prose extract by Rilke, painting by Rembrandt, sculpture by Rodin. Followed by workshop.
  Week 10 For discussion: Matthew ch. 26-28 (Mark 14-16, Luke 22-24, John 17-21), paintings by Brueghel, van der Weyden, Mantegna, sculpture by Michelangelo. Followed by workshop.
Term Two
Term 2, weeks 1 to 5: Creating mythic images.

Examination of some key iconographies, using sources in the visual arts as well as texts. In workshops, analysis of texts and images is followed by discussion of student texts produced in response to these.
  Week 1 For discussion: Prometheus, paintings by Rubens and Ribera, poems by Goethe, Byron and Gautier. Followed by workshop.
  Week 2 For discussion: Leda and the Swan, paintings by Boucher, Correggio, Paul Matthias Padua, poem by W B Yeats. Followed by workshop.
  Week 3 For discussion: The Annunciation (Matthew 1, 18-25; Luke 1, 26-38), paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Simone Martini, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (discussion of the iconography of the Virgin Mary). Followed by workshop.
  Week 4 For discussion: Bluebeard, texts by Perrault and Angela Carter. Followed by workshop.
  Week 5 For discussion: Dracula. Followed by workshop.
 
Term 2, weeks 7 to 10: Student choices.

Historical and mythological texts chosen by students on the module will be discussed. Workshops follow the model already described, combining scrutiny of texts and images with discussion of student texts
Student Feedback On This Module:
This has been an exhilarating and creative module.
I really enjoyed this module, it was my favourite seminar.
This is my favourite module, it has re-sparked my interest in poetry, and Michael is a fantastic tutor.
My favourite module of the year, most thought-provoking seminar yet.
I feel I’ve learnt the most on this module this year.
I cannot praise these seminars enough. The module is wonderfully constructed. The seminars are engaging and informative. The group have produced incredible pieces of writing. Fantastic!
These have been some of the most interesting seminars I have attended for my degree – always engaging, stimulating and enjoyable!
The content is what I have always been interested in and having a tutor like Michael has made it even more interesting. I have rebuilt the confidence to write poetry.
Feedback was incredibly helpful, safer environment than Practice of Poetry.
Extremely supportive and conducive learning environment for students who want to do poetry.
[The tutor was] knowledgeable about seemingly everything but still always interested in what everyone else has to say – truly encouraging & inspiring teacher – feel utterly privileged to have been student. Learnt so much and gained interest in so many new things.
[The tutor] created a very supportive peer group and fostered everyone’s talents, extremely apt at filling in spaces of knowledge for class.
I cannot express how fantastic Michael has been as a tutor.
Fascinating discussions, and really helpful feedback on poetry.
Brilliant module, Michael is so knowledgeable about everything!

I loved the combination of visual arts and other aspects of culture. Overall I’ve gained so much historical and artistic knowledge that can be applied to so many aspects of literature!This module is refreshing – it encourages students to explore their own interests and strengths, to learn to be self-critical and to explore texts from a broad spectrum of time periods.The texts we’ve studied have been so interesting that they’ve actually inspired some of my best poetry

Michael is inspiring and always brings so much knowledge and nergy to every topic that he may be omniscient / a genius.

The discussion is well-guided and the tutor knows everything about everything. I have never been bored.