Speech Acts

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

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
plan and develop a research portfolio on voiced writing
evaluate and produce diverse forms of writing
develop an informed and reflective understanding of how vocal performance shapes interpretation of a text

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

writing techniques that explore the sonic aspects of language--on the page, onscreen and in recorded performance
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

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

develop confidence as a creative and critical writer
devise an independent and innovative creative-critical project
understand how to analyse a (recorded) live performance

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.

Study time
Type	Hours
Seminar	11
Completion of assessment task	30
Teaching	5
Follow-up work	10
Lecture	11
Wider reading or practice	53
Preparation for scheduled sessions	30
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.

Charles Bernstein, ed. (1998). Close Listening: Poetry and the Performed Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Angela Leighton (2018). Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature. Boston: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Brandon Labelle (2014). Lexicon of the Mouth: Poetics and Politics of Voice and the Oral Imaginary. New York: Bloomsbury.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Portfolio	100%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
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.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Portfolio	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External