Module overview
How do writers activate and amplify the sonic properties of language? Why do artists use vocal performance of text in video art? How can text ‘perform’ on the page (or onscreen), and what does it mean for language to be performative? What does writing for performance require? How can audiences ‘read’ what is spoken, and how do they hear what is written? In this module, you will read a range of literary and critical material which explores the relation between writing, speaking and sounding. You will consider how contemporary artists deploy voiced text to incite political change and learn how 20th-century manifestos and 21st-century spells transform words into actions. You will analyse poetic texts as sonic artefacts and have the opportunity to write and perform innovative texts of your own. Over the course of the module, you will investigate what happens when language is lifted off the page.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- understand how to analyse a (recorded) live performance
- devise an independent and innovative creative-critical project
- develop confidence as a creative and critical writer
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- develop an awareness of the sonic properties of language
- historical contexts for explorations of sound in writing
- a wide range of forms of recorded vocal performance
- writing techniques that explore the sonic aspects of language--on the page, onscreen and in recorded performance
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- draw on theoretical and critical propositions in analysing a performance
- evaluate and produce diverse forms of writing
- develop an informed and reflective understanding of how vocal performance shapes interpretation of a text
- plan and develop a research portfolio on voiced writing
Syllabus
This module will range expansively across literary forms including poems, essays, videos, performance-lectures, manifestos, letters, spells and lullabies. Throughout the module, you will be encouraged to respond creatively and critically to weekly readings, as well as to audio and video performances of text. Regular writing prompts will help you to develop your close reading skills. Indicative writers and writer-artists you will encounter on this module include Hito Steyerl, Nat Raha, Moyra Davey, Hannah Black, Maggie O’Sullivan, Mona Hatoum, Peter Manson, John Akomfrah, David Antin, Fred Moten, Sophie Seita, Caroline Bergvall, Tony Cokes, Holly Pester, CA Conrad, Sean Bonney, Nisha Ramayya, Samuel Beckett, Harry Josephine Giles, Jay Bernard, Nancy Holt.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- Lectures
- Seminars
- Learning support hours
- Individual consultations
Learning activities include
- Independent study, including reading and writing
- Engaging with set listening and watching exercises
- Group discussion
- Peer appraisal of writing
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible contact hour, 5 in total, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour may include (but need not be limited to) activities such as language, theory and research skills classes; group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; assignment consultations; feedback and feed-forward sessions. In this module, these hours will be particularly focused on supporting and workshopping your creative and critical responses.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Completion of assessment task | 30 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 30 |
| Wider reading or practice | 53 |
| Seminar | 11 |
| Follow-up work | 10 |
| Lecture | 11 |
| Teaching | 5 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Internet Resources
Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation.
Textbooks
by David Antin, ed. Stephen Fredman (2014). How Long is the Present: Selected Talk Poems of David Antin. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Brandon Labelle (2014). Lexicon of the Mouth: Poetics and Politics of Voice and the Oral Imaginary. New York: Bloomsbury.
Angela Leighton (2018). Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature. Boston: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Charles Bernstein, ed. (1998). Close Listening: Poetry and the Performed Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Portfolio | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Portfolio | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Portfolio | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External