Overview
Explores how twentieth and twenty-first-century writers have challenged the boundaries of poetry, literature, and the arts and how this poetic revolt relates to wider social, cultural, and technological change.
Poetic Revolt from Soho to Social Media explores the place of language, literature, and art in our rapidly changing world. You will investigate how writers—from London and New York to Jamaica to Aotearoa New Zealand—have over the past century created radically new forms of literature. You will explore how these poetic revolutions respond to dramatic changes in society, technology, politics, art, culture, and language—from the First World War to anticolonial movements and Instagram. You will study how contemporary writers build on this tradition of poetic revolt as they continue to push the boundaries of language and literature today. You will also have the option of linking theory to practice by producing your own creative work.
About this paper
| Paper title | Poetic Revolt from Soho to Social Media |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2026 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,103.10 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- 18 200-level ENGL points
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Notes
- Students who have not passed the normal prerequisite may be admitted with approval from the Head of Programme.
- Eligibility
- Usually a 200-level English course is required to enrol in a 300-level English paper. Alternative arrangements may be possible in some cases. If in doubt, please contact the course co-ordinator.
- Contact
- More information link
View more information on the English and Linguistics Programme website
- Teaching staff
- Paper Structure
Each week begins by introducing a writer—such as T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Frank O'Hara, Langston Hughes, Djuna Barnes, or Kamau Brathwaite—whose work both responds to the rapid changes of the modern world and shapes the subsequent course of modern and contemporary poetry.
The second class compares the work of this influential writer with that of a late twentieth or twenty-first-century writer whose work in some way engages the earlier poet’s example, while responding to our contemporary social, political and technological world
Each week you will have the opportunity to write critical and/or creative responses to poetic works and to discuss these responses in class.
You will also have opportunities to study local Aotearoa New Zealand literature, including Māori and Pacific writing, meet local and visiting writers, attend live readings, and explore the material culture of modern and contemporary literature from rare books and manuscripts and literature-inspired art works to online poetic culture.
Please note that the outline above is indicative only and may be subject to change.
- Teaching Arrangements
One 1-hour and one 2-hour class per week, with a mixture of lecturing, discussion-based teaching, and workshop sessions in which students are encouraged to engage actively and creatively with poetic and critical texts.
- Textbooks
All readings will be made available electronically.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
Global perspective, Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Ethics, Environmental literacy, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.- Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the paper will:
- Analyse radically strange or new poems and other literary texts with confidence
- Present a coherent argument based on their analysis
- Independently research a topic in modern and contemporary literature
- Compare and critically evaluate major moments and movements in twentieth-century English-language literature, especially poetry
- Experiment individually and collaboratively with creative methods for analysing and responding to modern and contemporary literature
- Theorise about the relationship between literature and the rapid social, political, economic and technological developments of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
- Reflect on the relationship between developments in literature and the other arts
- Critically evaluate major aesthetic, philosophical and political issues that have shaped and continue to shape the production and reception of modern and contemporary literature, especially poetry
- Assessment details
The exact assessment structure is subject to confirmation but is likely to include:
- Weekly in-class responses
- A research project, which may be an essay, but which may also take the form of a creative and/or multimedia work
- A final exam
Overview
Explores how twentieth and twenty-first-century writers have challenged the boundaries of poetry, literature, and the arts and how this poetic revolt relates to wider social, cultural, and technological change.
Poetic Revolt from Soho to Social Media explores the place of language, literature and art in our rapidly changing world. You will investigate how writers, from London and New York to Jamaica to Aotearoa New Zealand, have over the past century created radically new forms of literature. You will explore how these poetic revolutions respond to dramatic changes in society, technology, politics, art, culture and language, from the First World War to anticolonial movements and Instagram. You will study how contemporary writers build on this tradition of poetic revolt as they continue to push the boundaries of language and literature today. You will also have the option of linking theory to practice by producing your own creative work.
About this paper
| Paper title | Poetic Revolt from Soho to Social Media |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 1 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for 2027 have not yet been set |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- 18 200-level ENGL points
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Notes
- Students who have not passed the normal prerequisite may be admitted with approval from the Head of Programme.
- Eligibility
Usually a 200-level English course is required to enrol in a 300-level English paper. Alternative arrangements may be possible in some cases. If in doubt, please contact the course co-ordinator.
- Contact
- More information link
View more information on the English and Linguistics Programme website.
- Teaching staff
- Paper Structure
Each week begins by introducing a writer, such as T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Frank O'Hara, Langston Hughes, Djuna Barnes or Kamau Brathwaite, whose work both responds to the rapid changes of the modern world and shapes the subsequent course of modern and contemporary poetry.
The second class compares the work of this influential writer with that of a late 20th- or 21st-century writer whose work in some way engages the earlier poet’s example, while responding to our contemporary social, political and technological world.
Each week you will have the opportunity to write critical and/or creative responses to poetic works and to discuss these responses in class.
You will also have opportunities to study local Aotearoa New Zealand literature, including Māori and Pacific writing, meet local and visiting writers, attend live readings and explore the material culture of modern and contemporary literature from rare books and manuscripts and literature-inspired art works to online poetic culture.
Please note that the outline above is indicative only and may be subject to change.
- Teaching Arrangements
One 1-hour and one 2-hour class per week, with a mixture of lecturing, discussion-based teaching and workshop sessions in which students are encouraged to engage actively and creatively with poetic and critical texts.
- Textbooks
All readings will be made available electronically.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Ethics, Environmental literacy, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the paper will:
- Analyse radically strange or new poems and other literary texts with confidence.
- Present a coherent argument based on their analysis.
- Independently research a topic in modern and contemporary literature.
- Compare and critically evaluate major moments and movements in 20th-century English-language literature, especially poetry.
- Experiment individually and collaboratively with creative methods for analysing and responding to modern and contemporary literature.
- Theorise about the relationship between literature and the rapid social, political, economic and technological developments of the 20th and 21st centuries.
- Reflect on the relationship between developments in literature and the other arts.
- Critically evaluate major aesthetic, philosophical and political issues that have shaped and continue to shape the production and reception of modern and contemporary literature, especially poetry.
- Assessment details
The exact assessment structure is subject to confirmation but is likely to include:
- Weekly in-class responses
- A research project, which may be an essay, but which may also take the form of a creative and/or multimedia work
- A final exam