Postgraduate

MA in POETRY STUDIES

The Irish Centre for Poetry Studies is now pleased to announce the advent of a unique academic programme at Mater Dei, our new MA in Poetry Studies.
This taught Masters programme enables students to acquire specialised skills in the analysis and appreciation of poetry. It is the only programme of its kind currently being offered in Britain and Ireland, and is reaching out to various communities, both professional and non-professional, with an interest in poetry.
The programme is of particular use to those aiming to progress to the study of poetry at doctoral level, but it also attracts second-level teachers of English and other subjects who are seeking specialized knowledge and who wish to expand upon their understanding of poetry through lifelong learning.

International Partners
MDI has strong links with Portugal’s University of Coimbra, the only other European institution currently offering a comparable MA in Poetry Studies. Possibilities exist for student exchanges, or for MDI students to visit Coimbra and experience their internationally-celebrated Meeting of Poets, which takes place biennially.

Course Content & Academic Structure
MA in Poetry Studies students will be required to complete six of the following taught modules (60 credits):

Code

Credit

Title

HENG5A

Single Author Module
Co-ordinator Michael Hinds

Focus for 2010: Elizabeth Bishop
In this module, the students are taught in weekly seminars, and through them they will follow the work of a single poet. Notions of development and biography will obviously play a part, but there is also an opportunity here to explore the metonymic significance of one person's achievement in wider contexts, whether national or international, historical or sociological.

HENG5B

Contemporary Poetries
Co-ordinator Kit Fryatt

Poetry from 2000-the present

This module explores developments in poetry and criticism over the last ten years, and will focus on how poetry acts as a cultural barometer, manifesting the social, political and metaphysical anxieties and pressures of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Each seminar will focus on a significant collection, sequence or long poem which provides an entry point to the work of an important poet and the debates surrounding his or her work.

HENG5C

Sacred and Profane Lyric
Co-ordinator Michael Hinds

Poetry as Song from Sappho to ACDC

This module traces the evolution of lyric poetry from its apparent origins in Antiquity to the Present Day. A particular emphasis will be paid to the idea of poetry as song, and also the crisis in lyric that took place in lyric poetry around romanticism. The module will also feature studies of modern songwriters (questioning the standard distinction between poets and songwriters) and their ancient DNA. Among the massive array of things we may refer to: The Sapphic Genes of Lyric, Catullus and Horace, The Psalms, Troubador Poetry, Medieval, Renaissance Lyric: Donne’s Holy Sonnets, Shakespeare’s Songs, Romanticism and the Birth of the Meta-Lyric, Twentieth Century Lyric: Cole Porter or T.S.Eliot?, Modern Troubadors: Dylan, Van Morrison, Springsteen, Morrissey, Motown and Modern Hit Factories.

heng5e

Seminar and Workshop
Co-ordinator Kit Fryatt

Analytical & Close Reading Skills

Over the course of 12 2-hour workshops, students will engage with every aspect of poetic form, gaining a thorough grounding in the techniques used to produce poems and the the scholarly discourse which respond to them. Over the course of the academic year, students will be expected to attend the 4 John Devitt Memorial Seminars (2 per semester) and to participate in a conference related to poetry studies.

HENG5D

Poethics: Poetry, Politics and the Civic Space
Co-ordinator Michael Hinds

Philosophical, political and cultural contexts

Beginning from the premise that writing, reading and listening are not ethically or politically neutral activities, this module explores a variety of philosophical, theoretical and poetic texts to investigate the relationship between poets, audiences and civic spaces. Areas that might be covered include: the representation of violence and cruelty in poetry, poetry related to the Holocaust; the relationship between poetic experiment and ethics; philosophical approaches to ethical production of and engagement with poetry; ethical responses to ideology and propaganda; ethics surrounding the study of gender and sexuality; poetic censorship from Ovid's banishment to terrace chants.

INT

Holocaust and Modern Culture
Co-ordinator Louise O'Sullivan

Interdisciplinary Module

HENG5f

Verse Drama
Co-ordinator Paula Murphy

From Ancient Greece to Modernity

This proposes to introduce students to representative examples of verse drama drawn from a wide historical perspective. Students will be made aware of the changing nature of verse drama across the centuries in Europe and factors that influenced these changes, including social, historical, political and literary contexts.

HENG5G

Imaginaries: Poetry and Place
Co-ordinator Michael Hinds

Focus for 2010: Imagining Italy

This module looks at the attachment of poetry to particular geographies, and how those "real" geographies are altered and radicalized through poeticization. For 2010, the proposed focus will be on the poetic mapping of Italy from antiquity to the present.

In addition, students must complete the established ResearchSkills Module, which includes a minor thesis (30 credits).

Flexibility

We schedule classes sensitively to enable an apt life-work balance for our students.

Rationale
The preparatory work for this project identified a pattern: in Ireland, time dedicated to poetry studies has declined at undergraduate level while it thrives at more advanced (research) levels, and as a corollary, a need exists for a course in poetry and poetics. This pattern appears to hold good internationally. As well as for graduates looking to specialize in poetry research, this degree also aims to appeal to the community of Irish people who have a non-professional interest in poetry, particularly those participating in writing workshops. We want to provide a sense of disciplinary confidence to those who write poetry for pleasure. The abiding popularity of poetry as apt raw material for classroom teaching at all levels is also remarkable, and this programme is attempting to provide specialized knowledge for teachers of English and other subjects at second-level who want to expand upon their understanding of the subject through lifelong learning.

For more details and a copy of our Module Booklet, contact Michael Hinds by email (michael.hinds@materdei.dcu.ie)

Postgraduate

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