124080 VK BEd 08a.3: VK Literature and Language Education (2024W)

Poetry readings, performances, pop songs. We often encounter poetry not in books but spoken or sung, on the radio, at public ceremonies, concerts, open mics and poetry slams, or on social media. Events such as Bob Dylan’s 2016 winning of the Nobel Prize for literature and Amanda Gorman’s much-noted performance at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration in 2021 have demonstrated once again that poetry is an art of the voice. This course will explore these ‘other’ media of poetry that are often neglected in literary studies but which are immensely popular with young people and hence, also, a valuable resource in the EFL classroom.
Paying close attention to the medial specificities of oral poetry performance, we will critically interrogate ideas around the ‘authenticity’ of the performing voice in relation to the generic conventions of lyric poetry and the dramatic monologue. We will further examine the identity politics enacted by poetry performances, which can often be understood as forms of socio-political activism, resonating, for instance, with #MeToo and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The course will include guest appearances by Shefali Banerji, M.A. and Dr. Rachel Bolle-Debessay, as well as by Mag. Claire Palzer, who will guide students’ didactic work on poetry performance and song lyrics in two sessions.
AIMS:
Students will become familiar with a range of spoken word texts and audiotext formats (partly of their own choosing). They will learn to apply various critical perspectives to these texts, such as media studies, performance analysis, genre theory, gender studies, life writing studies, and postcolonial criticism. Students will also become familiar with a range of methods for incorporating spoken word poetry and song lyrics in the EFL classroom and will have the opportunity to implement, and reflect on, some of these methods.
METHODS:
Short lectures, classroom discussions, group work, presentations, individual research/writing/teaching assignments.
-- The course further includes one teaching session at a school of your choice (contacts can be provided, if required), between 18 November 2024 and 31 January 2024. These sessions must be arranged by the students, and you are advised to schedule your session as soon as possible. You must have set the date, school and age group by 31 October!