Lyric poetry has become the stepchild of literary studies. A hundred years ago, it was still considered the highest of all literary modes. This course will provide an introduction to reading poetry, offering a survey of lyric terminology and forms, a selective historical survey of the English lyric, and a discussion of its communicative functions. On the one hand, poetry appears to appeal to deeply anchored (anthropological) dispositions of self-reference and biomorphic patterns; on the other hand, it has become progressively more difficult to say what poetry might refer to or "be about". Why and how can poetry (still) give pleasure?
- Teacher: Ingo Berensmeyer