Hybrid Poetics of Prose and Poetry 

Overview

The module will explore contemporary hybrid writing at the formal intersection of poetry and prose – from the prose poem to the lyric essay. Students will consider how writers engage with the formal techniques of prose and poetry in cross-genre ways, opening up the range of possibilities that the different forms of writing can offer.

The aim of the module is to explore the exciting potential of these areas of overlap, to discover a range of creative practitioners who have embraced formal imbrication, and to find new ways to allow the structures of narrative prose (“cognitively non-interruptive”), or poetry (the lyric event; coding) to influence and shape each other.

The module will be open to prose and poetry students on both the Creative Writing MA and the Poetry: Creativity and Criticism MA, filling a gap in crossover offering at MA level. This is important for cross-MA conversation and development at QUB for the future. Also, this will be an attractive and popular module offering as increasing numbers of incoming students look to explore experimental contemporary writing styles as they seek to creatively interpret the difficult global moment. Hybrid modules are an increasingly in-demand feature of top creative MA and MFA curriculums across the UK and the U.S.

Learning Objectives

On completion of the module, students will have:

A clear insight into why writers might specifically choose prose, or poetry, as a vehicle for creativity;

An understanding of the differences in the two mediums;

An understanding of what may be gained or lost when poetry and prose formally overlap;

An understanding of poetic formal techniques such as parataxis, rhyme (internal and end rhyme), masculine and feminine words, rhythm, and endings, and formal structure – and how these might be applied to prose writing;

An insight into the nature of how formal structure and narrative goals might work together to produce hybrid texts;

An understanding of the nature of inspiration and its relation to form and structure.

Skills

On successful completion of this module students will have acquired and developed the skills in:



Producing cogent critical readings of less straightforwardly genre-bound hybrid texts;

Developing imitative and reflective creative writing skills;

Developing discursive and analytical critical reflection skills;

Oral and presentation skills; and

Flexibility of thinking across genres and the ability to move between theoretical and practical applications of the module content.

Assessment