MA Poetic Practice
The Programme | Details of Courses | Entry Requirements | Teaching Schedule | Methods of Assessment | Course Teachers | Useful Links | AHRC funding | Exam submissions
MA in Poetic Practice
The MA addresses poetry and poetic production for the 21st Century. It explores contemporary experimental practices in poetry and writing in relation to contemporary theory, new media and the visual arts. Students study innovative poetries by writers from Britain and North America and consider how contemporary poetry and poetics intersects with conceptual art writing, digital poetics, site-specific writing, bookarts, installed texts and live-art. Students produce their own writing in relation to these contexts and also have the opportunity to gain basic skills in the production of writing for web-based projects. In addition, all students undertake a practical work project and a dissertation which contextualises their own practice.
The principal aim of the programme is to achieve an understanding of contemporary experimental practice in poetry from the UK and North America, and to enable students to develop (and reflect on) their own practice in this context. The programme aims to develop advanced skills in poetic practice, to develop a critical and theoretical language to discuss practice and to introduce students to the possibilities of writing in an expanded field of contemporary poetic practice.
The programme is designed for students intending to develop both their knowledge of contemporary practice and their own poetic practice beyond first-degree level. The emphasis of the programme is on developing poetic practice in the context of contemporary UK and North American experimental poetic practice and in relation to current theoretical explorations of poetic practice. It is designed both for intending research students and for those who simply wish to extend their poetic practice. We welcome applications from students with a wide variety of backgrounds including: literature, the visual arts, live-art and performance. The programme lasts for one year (50 weeks), beginning in September, or two years (102 weeks) for part-time students and consists of five elements. Part-time students normally take elements 1, 2 and 5 in their first year, and elements 3 and 4 in their second year. Elements 1 and 2 are taught by weekly two-hour seminars running through the first two terms.
- Poetic Practice
- Contemporary Technologies of Writing
- Practical Work Project
- Dissertation on Practice
- Methods and Materials of Research
EN5903 - Practical Work Project
The project will be arranged during Term 2 and will be worked on during the Summer Term and through the summer. A programme of group meetings will be arranged to monitor the progress of the project.
EN5904 - Dissertation on Practice
The Dissertation consists of reflection on the practice of the project, situating the project theoretically and in relation to work studied on the course.
EN5001 - Methods and Materials of Research
Methods and Materials of Research is designed to inform students about Library and computing resources and to introduce some of the skills required for graduate work. Students are also expected to attend the Department's research seminars and the TALKS series organised by Professor Hampson. They also have the opportunity to attend a variety of other seminars at the CES, IUSS and other central London locations.
The entry requirement for the course is normally at least an Upper Second in Single Honours English or Combined Honours English, but candidates with degrees in other subjects or with relevant publications would be considered. Candidates will need to display some ability in the area of poetic practice. An equivalent level of achievement is looked for in applications from overseas candidates. Non-standard applicants are considered on their merits, but ability to follow the course depends on a degree of familiarity with contemporary literature and with the practices of literary study.
Teaching is mainly by weekly two-hour seminars during the first and second terms. Seminars are currently timetabled 5:00pm till 7:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday to permit part-time students in employment to attend. Students develop a practical work project during the remaining part of the programme. Teaching is in central London.
Each student is examined in elements (1), (2), (3), and (4) of the programme. Element (5) is not examined. There are no traditional examination papers. Instead, each course in elements (1) and (2) is examined by a portfolio of work, which comprises four projects and relevant methodologies. In addition, students are required to write a dissertation of 12,000-15,000 words (excluding bibliography and appendices) on an approved topic related their practice and its contextualisation, to be submitted at the end of the year's study. Part-time students submit the dissertation at the end of their second year.
COURSE TEACHERS
Professor Robert Hampson has had a long-standing involvement in contemporary innovative poetry. He co-edited New British Poetries: The Scope of the Possible (1993), and Stride published his selected poems, Assembled Fugitives in 2000. He co-organises the TALKS series of seminars at the Centre for Poetics Studies, Birkbeck College, London, and is currently working on a monograph on Poetry and the Politics of Postmodernity.
Dr Redell Olsen's publications include Secure Portable Space (Reality Street, 2004), The Book of Fur (2000) and the co-edited (with Susan Johanknecht), here are my instructions (Gefn Press, 2004). Redell Olsen studied English at Cambridge before completing an MA in fine art. Her Phd; Scripto-Visualities: Contemporary Writing by Women and the Visual Arts explored relationships between L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Writing, the visual arts and Feminism. She is the editor of How2 online journal.
Dr. Kristen Kreider (BA, MA, PhD) is a practicing poet and artist whose research develops a 'material poetics' at the crossover between poetry, fine art and spatial practice (Toward a Material Poetics: Sign, Subject, Site [PhD completed 2008, UCL]). Working collaboratively with artist and architect James O'Leary, Kristen has exhibited work in the UK as well as internationally in Japan (ArtX Toyama, 2006), Ireland (European Capital of Culture, 2005) and Croatia (Art Radionica Lazareti, 2005). Current work includes a project sited in Bagno Vignoni (Italy) constructing a phenomenology of architectural experience through the filmic/poetic image.
Past Students
Students from this course have been highly successful in gaining recognition for the work that they have produced on this course. They include:
- Rosheen Brennan
- John Sparrow
- Sophie Robinson
- Ceri Buck
- Stephen Willey
- Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
- Helen Sizer
- Lydia White
- Frances Kruk
- Albert Pellicer
- Ben Olin
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
The information on this web site is accurate at the time of being up-loaded, but tutors may be changed and/or courses may be withdrawn in the light of tutor availability and student numbers. While, therefore, the English Department makes every effort to run all listed courses, it cannot guarantee the availability of every course throughout the duration of each student's time on the MA course.
Tel/Fax : +44 (0)1784 443214/479059