• Inactive for Year: 2023/24

• Module Leader(s): Dr Rosalind Haslett

• Owning School: English Lit, Language & Linguistics
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Aims

This module will explore how plays, performances and novels respond to current events, as well as the role that narrative, performance and imagination play in our everyday lives. Students will use research methods associated with creative, performance and sensory ethnography to analyse performance events and reading communities and/or to create their own creative responses to the everyday.

The module has three central characteristics:
1. It is based in the idea that narrative tropes and dramatic scenarios provide social scripts that inform the way that people interact in personal, social and/or political contexts
2. It considers a range of different kinds of texts comparatively, including: plays, performances, novels and audiobooks; oral histories and personal testimonies; political speeches and debate; government and academic reports; social media campaigns and podcasts.
3. It requires students to undertake field research, to participate in weekly research activities and to maintain an independent critical/creative writing practice based upon creative, performance and sensory ethnographic methodologies.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module will be taught through weekly lectures and workshops. It will be structured as 2-3 case studies, which will require students to engage in:
1.       the critical analysis of literary and performance texts
2.       the development of an individual critical/creative writing practice

The case study method will allow for comparative analysis of the texts, rather than working through one text per week.

Students will be required to attend a live performance at a local theatre as part of their studies.

Critical analysis: the case studies
Students will analyse literary and performance texts within the cultural and political contexts that that were produced. The actual content of the case studies will change from year to year, but students will think about the texts and other case study materials in terms of:
•       the processes that go into making the creative work, such as individual writing practices, working with auto/biographical material, devising/improvisation, rehearsal
•       the modes through which this work is transmitted, such as publication, live/recorded performance, audiobooks
•       how others interact with the work, such as reviewing practices, audience experience, podcasts/reading communities

Individual writing practice:
Students conduct their own creative, performance or sensory ethnographies. In other words, they will record and write about their own lived experience, or the practices of specific communities they have access to. This material will form the basis of a critical essay or a creative response.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures introduce students to knowledge outcomes and facilitate a range of learning activities, which are appropriate to the aims of the module.

Small group teaching develops the ideas and critical theories introduced in the lectures and provides students with an opportunity to practise a range of skills in support of assessment preparation.

Student-led group activities will allow students to rehearse and develop their ideas prior to the small group teaching, as well as providing them with access to peer support groups.

The proportion of time set aside for assessment preparation reflects the fact that students are required to compile a portfolio of materials over the course of the module, and that these portfolios must demonstrate substantial independent research.

Students will be provided with structured research and reading activities each week to support their access to the lectures and to facilitate discussion in the small group teaching.

The development of an independent practice is central to the module outcomes and time allotted to independent study reflects this.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The end of module assessment (worth 100%) takes the form of a portfolio of critical/creative work that demonstrates an engagement with creative, performance and/or sensory ethnography.
In close consultation with the module leader, these portfolios can be presented in a form that supports the particular skills or interests of the students and accommodates a range of learning styles. They may include any of the following: essay, a collection of curated images, recorded presentation/podcast, research diary/journal, creative response. These different forms of presentation will be explored, discussed and modelled in lectures and workshops.

Reading Lists

• SEL3433's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• SEL3433's Timetable