Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

none

Co Requisite Comment

none

Aims

This module provides an introduction to selected texts and literary movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students are introduced to a range of issues and approaches which will be developed at stages 2 and 3: the varieties of writing in English, the cultural and political contexts in which texts are produced and read, and a range of critical practices. Students are invited to explore the relationship between texts and contexts, and how texts might be read in relation to particular generic expectations.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module will typically include weeks focussed on a text or a theme - from across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - and then a response to that text. Particular attention will be paid to historical and social context and to different critical approaches.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the following:

1. The cultural and political contexts of literary production.
2. A range of genres and literary movements.
3. The current debates informing the critical study of literatures.

Intended Skill Outcomes

1. Ability to develop and practice skills in the analysis of texts.
2. Ability to grasp the interplay between texts and contexts.
3. Ability to exercise a sensitivity to verbal creativity.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures introduce students to learning outcomes (and incidentally to the staff of the literature section, all of whom are involved in either this module or its partner module, ILS 2). Seminars provide the opportunity to practice the skills outcomes outlined above, including oral presentation.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The formative essay asks students to produce an outline and a draft outline for a close reading.

Summative Essay 1 is designed to assess students' ability to structure an argument, as well as their ability to engage with secondary material.

Summative Essay 2 is designed to assess students' ability to write a critical essay that makes an argument about the text, uses secondary criticism, and that, as part of its argument, engages with aspects of literary form and style.

Together these essays enable students to develop written communication skills and to develop their ideas about and understanding of the subject and the core academic skills of research and analysis associated with it.

General Notes

N/A