This thesis explores the relationship between performance poetry and page-based poetry and the academic and non-specialist audience for performance poetry in the UK. Performance poetry in the UK is rapidly becoming a popular medium for experiencing poetry and I analyse the impact this has, and will have, in relation to the study of poetics, and the reading of poetry within the public sphere. I have identified three primary areas of research. First, I analyse the reception of performance poetry in the academy. Second, I assess the mechanisms of affect transmission in performance. Finally I interrogate the utilization of space through performance which contributes to the production of social spaces. Alongside an exploration of how these factors construct a different affective experience for the reader I analyse the critical position performance poetry holds in relation to the wider body of poetics. Performance poetry has been relatively absent from critical study of poetry and the formation of a poetic canon in the UK. I contend that there has traditionally been an opposition to performance poetry in the academy, defined along the lines of a ‘high’ and ‘low’ art binary. This is a contention I analyse with focus on the development of UK poetics in the mid-20th century. By assessing the value discourses inherent to an academic appraisal of spoken word I stage a discussion of the pedagogical potential of performance poetry. Combining both the affective capacities of performance and the role performance plays in renegotiating our experiences of social and shared spaces, I argue performance is an important tool for structuring a re-engagement with contemporary poetry. Tracing the potential pedagogical implications of performance poetry through each of these aspects brings the thesis to a conclusion regarding the value of contemporary UK performance poetry and the important pedagogical role it plays. Underpinning my analysis, I conduct interviews with various prominent UK performance poets in order to construct an accurate account of the contemporary performance poetry scene, and to facilitate predictions regarding its future development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:720435 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | McGowan, Jack |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/89799/ |
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