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SoSe 22: S-Lit. Stud.: Periods-Genres-Concepts: War Poetry

Lukas Lammers

Kommentar

Poets have often wrestled with the question whether war is an appropriate theme for poetry. It seems contradictory to combine creative production and mechanical destruction. From a different perspective, however, war can also be seen – in an admittedly rather perverse sense – as the most fruitful soil for poetic output. For, if, as Wordsworth suggested, “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, then war could be said to provide ideal conditions for its production.

Historically, the relation between war, poetry, patriotism, imperialism, peace, and propaganda, to name but a few coordinates, has varied greatly. One might suspect that war poetry is a male genre, written by white, middleclass soldier poets at the front. One aim of the course will be to look beyond such an understanding and take in a much wider view on war. War can be far of or very near; it can be hated presence, an anticipated future, or a fading memory from the past that we desperately try to remember. We will study established historical narratives to consider the role of race, class, and gender in the formation of canons and dominant accounts of a war. We will read poetry by combatants, non-combatants, by those who lived through wars as well as by those who live(d) in the long historical shadows of wars. We will start with a fairly broad survey to then focus on more recent conflicts, especially the two world wars and their reverberations in contemporary culture.

Sometimes we will pore over a line to tease out its potential meanings, or situate it in the historical contexts of its production, and sometimes we shall probe into a poem’s different articulations across time and place. How does a poem by Kipling about colonial Burma, for instance, resonate when it is recited by Lord Mountbatten (played by the actor Charles Dance) in the recent TV series The Crown? What happens when the same actor recites the same poem at an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of VJ Day in London? And what meanings are generated when the same poem is recited by Boris Johnson on a visit to Myanmar? What connects these moments of articulation and what is poetry’s function for commemoration more generally? We will discuss different ‘sites of memory’ (Nora) and try to identify common tropes and forms to trace echoes and changes across different conflicts.

Students wishing to participate should be interested in reading, listening to, and closely analysing poetic texts. Familiarity with basic terminology will be a prerequisite for our discussions. However, the course will also offer sections on reading and writing strategies. The seminar will take place on campus if regulations allow this. Texts will be made available via Blackboard.

Assessment will be on the basis of regular attendance, active participation in classroom activities (e.g. presentations, response papers), and an essay of about 4,000 words (for the Vertiefungsmodul with 10 LP), to be submitted after the end of the semester.

Schließen