LT909-7-SP: MEMORY MAPS: PRACTICES IN PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY
Year: 2013/14
Department: Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Essex credit: 20
ECTS credit: 10
Available to year(s) of study:
Available to Study Abroad / Exchange Students: Yes
| Module is taught during the following terms |
| Autumn |  | Spring |  | Summer | |
Module Description
The skies, trees, ponds, rivers, and light of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, still resemble closely the vision of some of the countrys greatest artists, in spite of ecological, social and historical changes. It is one of the oldest inhabited parts of the British Isles, a landscape marked and shaped by human presence, history and activity, from the pastoral hinterland to the estuarian bustle, including light and heavy industry. Several of the artists who have lived and worked in the area have not confined their interest to the clouds and streams alone: horsetrading, shipping, historical connections to trade and empire, bridgebuilding and car works figure in their vision. The archive of Recording Britain, kept at the V&A, with works by Michael Rothenstein, John Nash, Kenneth Rowntree, as well as pastoral woodcuts by Eric Ravilious, enrich the picture greatly.
See the connected website at the Victoria and Albert Museum
http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/adult_resources/memorymaps/
A new genre of literature has been emerging very strongly: moving between fiction, history, traveller's tales, and memoir, it explores the spirit of place. Writers bring in personal associations and experiences, as well as stories attached to locality. Sometimes called psycho-geography, it has roots in the English essay tradition, and in sixteenth and seventeenth century meditations by Thomas Browne, for example, and Robert Burton and his Anatomy of Melancholy. The tradition has been most vividly taken up and given a new contemporary twist by other writers in the eastern stretches of England: Ronald Blythe, who has lived and written about the area for several decades; W.G. Sebald (his book The Rings of Saturn takes place along the east coast) and Iain Sinclair, who has followed in John Clare's footsteps, also partly in the region (The Edge of the Orison, 2005).
Please see CMR for fuller course details.
Learning & Teaching Methods
The course is taught by Marina Warner and Adrian May; there is at least one field trip planned, and a visit to local archives; one or more writers whose works are included will visit the class; some films will also be viewed. The weekly readings are themed, and they explore the multifaceted and digressive diversities of the genre(s). Units will include exemplary classic texts of the genre, both old and contemporary, and relevant local writings, including history, folklore and urban myth. Study will overlap with writing workshops, where students will be able to develop their own writings in this area.
Assessment
100 per cent Coursework Mark
Coursework:
In lieu of the standard essay format, creative writing students will normally be expected to submit creative work of their own, accompanied by a reflective, critical commentary.
Exam Duration and Period
Bibliography
- * Extracts photocopied for the course reader
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BaringGould, Sabine. Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes (1880)
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*Blythe, Ronald. Akenfield (l957)
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Breton, André. Nadja (l928), trans. Richard Howard (New York, l960)
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*Browne, Thomas. Hydriotaphia, Urne-Burial or, A Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns Lately Found in Norfolk (1658), and The Gardens of Cyrus, ed. R.H.A Robbins (Oxford, l972)
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Bunting, Madeleine. The Plot (2009)
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Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), extracts.
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Dean, Tacita. 'W.G. Sebald' (essay, 2002)
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*Dillard, Annie. A Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek (l975)
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Hollander, John. The Gazer's Spirit: Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art (l995)
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Lawrence, D.H. [Autobiographical Fragment], in Phoenix II (London: Heinemann, 1968)
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*Oswald, Alice. Dart (2002)
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*Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn (1995) trans. Michael Hulse
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*Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost
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*Sinclair, Iain. Lights Out for the Territory (l997); London Orbital: A Walk around the M25 (2002)
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The Edge of the Orison (2005)
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*Thoreau, Henry David. Walden (1854)
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*Wright, Patrick. The River : The Thames in Our Time (1999)
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Films
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Peter Hall, Akenfield (l974)
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Dean, Tacita. Michael Hamburger (2006)
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Patrick Keiller, Robinson in Space (l99)
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Robert Macfarlane Wild Essex (BBC, 2009)
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See CMR for suggested further reading
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