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Carol Ann Duffy: Mean Time
In this course, Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) explores Carol Ann Duffy’s 1993 collection, ‘Mean Time'. After an introductory module in which we think about the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy in general and the collection as a whole – and especially the implications of its title – the course continues with a reading and analysis of each of the thirty-nine poems in the collection, one by one.
Introduction
In this module, we provide a brief introduction to Carol Ann Duffy and her 1993 collection, 'Mean Time', focusing in particular on: (i) the stage in Carol Ann Duffy's career that 'Mean Time' was written; (ii) some of the key themes and preoccupations of the collection; and (iii) the multiple meanings of the collection's title, 'Mean Time'.
I'm John McCrae,
00:00:06and today I'm talking about Carol Ann Duffy's wonderful 1993 collection.
00:00:07Meantime,
00:00:12just stop before we start and think how young she was when she wrote this
00:00:151993. She was 28. Shocking, isn't it?
00:00:20But this is the collection where she really hits her stride
00:00:25and we'll find in these poems. There are about 39 of them.
00:00:29We'll find
00:00:33so many of the things that make Carol Anne the great poet that she is,
00:00:35who then became the poet laureate and is now Dame
00:00:40Carol Ann Duffy and very much a national treasure.
00:00:44And I hope that by the time we've read all these,
00:00:47you will agree that she thoroughly deserves to be a national treasure.
00:00:50One of the things that Carol Ann has said
00:00:55again and again about her writing is that she likes words to be flexible
00:00:57and elastic and to stretch their meanings and play with them and make upwards and
00:01:02find old Scottish words and old English words and
00:01:09make language play
00:01:13for her purposes.
00:01:16So although her themes are really quite
00:01:18shall we see normal for poetry like love and loss and time,
00:01:21she
00:01:26is doing great things with language
00:01:27as an example. Just look at the title
00:01:30mean Time
00:01:34two words. But it could be one word meantime,
00:01:37it could be the time
00:01:40is
00:01:43mean
00:01:44and nasty.
00:01:45It could mean
00:01:47something about time
00:01:49and, well, that's just the beginning,
00:01:51because we're going to find lots of things in mean time.
00:01:53
Cite this Lecture
APA style
McRae, J. (2021, March 01). Carol Ann Duffy: Mean Time - Introduction [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/carol-ann-duffy-mean-time/the-captain-of-the-1964-top-of-the-form-team
MLA style
McRae, J. "Carol Ann Duffy: Mean Time – Introduction." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 01 Mar 2021, https://massolit.io/courses/carol-ann-duffy-mean-time/the-captain-of-the-1964-top-of-the-form-team