World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

Course Overview
This course will provide a comprehensive exploration of Carol Ann Duffy's 1999 collection, 'The World's Wife'. After a brief introduction to the collection as a whole, we will delve into the context of Duffy’s work and her background. We will then discuss the hallmarks of Duffy's poetry such as her writing style, content matter and her feminist perspective. The students will be provided an overview on the various literary devices specific to The World's Wife such as intertextuality, enjambment and imagery.

The student will then be guided through careful analysis of the works, including guided annotations which will help the student to not only pick up on literary and stylistic devices employed, but the effects of the devices individually and in tandem. Through close reading and analysis, the student will gain a thorough understanding of the poems and their cultural and historical contexts.

Supporting the guided annotations, we will then discuss how the literary devices in the poems contribute to the messages in the poems and the understanding of its themes. We will focus on the themes, messages, and challenges to traditional gender roles and dominant narratives. We will also pay special attention to the audience Duffy’s poetry seeks to invoke and the impact the body of work has on contemporary poetry and feminist literature. This will help the student to synthesize their knowledge and apply it to broader discussions of literature and culture.

We will also pay special attention to literary analyses in written form, and as such the student will be guided and coached to be able to compose their own detailed literary analyses and written arguments. By the end of the course, students will be able to confidently engage in literary analysis and writing about The World's Wife to exam criterions.