Rough winds shake sonnets in ‘decolonised’ curriculum

SHAKESPEARE proclaimed that nothing would overcome the “powerful rhyme” of his sonnets, but the writing may be on the wall for the traditional poetic form.

Sonnets, a romantic form of metered verse employed by poets from Petrarch to Auden, have been described as “products of white western culture” and sidelined on a creative writing course, university documents reveal.

Second-year students taking the University of Salford’s creative writing course will no longer have to write sonnets for their assessment after “pre-established literary forms” were reviewed to “decolonise the curriculum”.

A slideshow illustrating best practice, which was shared with staff, states that course leaders have “simplified the assessment offering choice to write thematically rather than to fit into preestablished literary forms which tend to the products of white western culture”.

Examples of such traditional forms include sonnets and “sestinas” – a complex verse form used by figures like the Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney.

Dr Zareeer Masani, an author and historian, called the changes “patronising” and “outrageous”.

He said: “Poetic forms vary widely across the world, but good poetry is universal. It’s content, not form, that counts.

“It is hugely patronising to assume non-white students would be put off by Western poetic forms. Will we sideline Shakespeare next as white drama? Even the English language?”

Dr Scott Thurston, the leader of the creative writing course at Salford, said the Writing Poetry in the Twenty-first Century was “often updated to take account of new trends and developments in contemporary writing”.

He added that students would still be taught about traditional forms in their first year, and would be required to undertake exercises in composing them on the writing poetry module while being given opportunities to “experiment creatively with their own forms”.