Literature
First Poets of the Modern City: Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue & Eliot
A Beginner (A1) literature seminar examining Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue and Eliot’s poetry of the modern city and their literary influences.
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Upcoming classes
1 class
About this course
The course follows changing poetic responses to urban life, beginning with Baudelaire’s city writing, prose poetry and use of “correspondences”, and Whitman’s poetry of democratic experience. It then traces how Whitman and Baudelaire influenced Jules Laforgue and how Laforgue, in turn, shaped Eliot’s early work. Poems including Preludes, Prufrock, Rhapsody on a Windy Night and The Waste Land are considered as responses to the modern metropolis. Teaching is seminar-based, with tutor-led discussion. Poems are read in French alongside available verse translations.
What you'll learn
- Explain how Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue and Eliot responded to the modern city.
- Trace the influence of Baudelaire, Whitman and Laforgue on Eliot’s early poetry.
- Examine poetic techniques including urban imagery, “correspondences”, prose poetry and irregular rhyme.
- Discuss selected poems in relation to their social and urban contexts.
Is this course right for you?
Listed at Beginner (A1), the course is intended for learners with no particular knowledge or skills in the subject. Sessions use a seminar format, with students invited to contribute to tutor-led discussions. Participants receive reading materials beforehand and are expected to prepare for discussion.
- No particular prior knowledge or skills are needed.
- Participation involves tutor-led group discussion.
- Reading is undertaken in French alongside verse translations.
Before you go
- Poems and other course materials are provided electronically in advance and on paper for each session.
- Bringing a pen is helpful.