| Kommentar |
With his villanelle "Do not go gentle into that good night"—regularly drawn in undergraduate introduction courses to English literary studies as a rare English adaptation of the French verse form— the Welsh poet secured himself a place in the history of English verse. Even the poem's appearance as the opening feature of the science fiction movie Interstellar (2014), gives proof to the lasting legacy of this one literary piece in popular culture. Recordings of Thomas reading the poem in his low, yet penetrant broadcaster's voice are currently accessible on streaming platforms such as Youtube, adding a whole new meaning to the expression "poetic presence".
Regarded by contemporary poet and critic T. S. Eliot as the budding hope of literary modernity, Thomas' oeuvre—in the form of poems, short stories, radio broadcasts, film scripts, and even news reports for the South Wales Daily Post —is representative of the shifting artistic scene of the inter-war years. The course aims to do justice to Thomas' prolific literary and mediatic legacy in the context of English literary history and critiism. A selection of his writings will be discussed, supplemented by contemporary documents for the purpose of historical contextualization. Students are advised to obtain the Weidenfeld & Nicolson paperback edition of Dylan Thomas Omnibus [1995], ISBN 978-1-7802-278-3. The remaining material will be provided by the course instructor. |
