Module Information

Module Identifier
EN32430
Module Title
WRITING CONTEMPORARY WALES
Academic Year
2011/2012
Co-ordinator
Dr Natasha Alden
Semester
Intended for use in future years
Other Staff
 

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Seminars / Tutorials 10 x 2 hours, of which 1hr will be conducted as a discussion-based literature seminar, one as a practice-based 'workshop' drawing on the relevant literary texts.
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment 1 x 3000 word essay  50%
Semester Assessment 1 x 3000 word creative writing portfolio  to include a commentary of 750-1000 words  50%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit failed and/or make good any missing elements  100%

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate a detailed knowledge of a range of Welsh Writing in english from 2000-present day;

2. articulate this knowledge in the form of reasoned critical analysis of particular texts

3. locate the texts studied in appropriate literary, historical and cultural contexts;

4. explain, and engage with, relevant aspects of recent scholarly and/or critical debates about the texts studies;

5. produce informed and creative work drawing on the stylistic and/or thematic features of the texts studies.

Content

Each seminar comprises a close literary critical focus, and a related creative interpretation, intervention or adaptation exercise, around key themes and the relevant texts. `Cross-currents' in critical thinking are to be encouraged by approaching the texts from more than one thematic angle. Themes to be considered might be:

Urban/noir: eg. Sheepshagger, Aberystwyth Mon Amour
Landscape and ecology: eg. The Claude Glass, Sheepshagger
Memory and childhood: eg. The Hiding Place, Sugar and Slate, The Claude Glass
Documentary/lifewriting: eg. Dial M for Merthyr, Blue Sky July, Sugar and Slate
Developments in poetry: The Pterodactyl's Wing (two seminars)
Developments in the short story: Urban Welsh, Wales Half Welsh (two seminars)
Myth and cultural inheritance: eg. Mr Vogel, The Pterodactyl's Wing

Brief description

This module focuses on the field of contemporary Welsh writing in English, but in a new interdisciplinary way that encourages the students to offer their own creative interventions and academic analysis of a broad range of thematic concerns relating to contemporary Welsh identity. We look at poetry, non-fiction, novels and short stories published in the last eight years, exploring the factors that shape both the prescribed texts and the students' own work, and encouraging a multi-faceted approach to the texts. In identifying these factors, we will ask students to analyse what they understand by "Welshness", how it is understood in society and how tensions around issues of language and identity/otherness have evolved in contemporary writing, especially since devolution. The module asks students to look at how these factors shape the works discussed and how, in turn, the prescribed texts and the students' individual responses, creative and critical, respond to the particular challenges the debates present.

Aims

The module focuses on post-2000 prose, non-fiction and poetry written in English but by Welsh writers or concerning Wales; students will work from a portfolio of texts which they will study in broadly thematic seminars while being encouraged to draw connections between texts. This module offers a chance for English Students to take a Creative Writing module, which we anticipate will be popular in itself, but also as a way of combining the two approaches in a new and potentially exciting format.

We hope to invite some of the authors whose texts are represented on the module to visit the department.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number n/a
Communication Written communication in the form of essays or portfolio or whatever the module contains. (Oral presentation, if applicable) Oral communication in seminars
Improving own Learning and Performance Use of electronic resources (discussion board and use of online media resources), production of written work
Information Technology Use of electronic resources (discussion board and use of online media resources), production of written work
Personal Development and Career planning No, except insofar as this module is related to a research, academic or writing career
Problem solving Formulating and developing an extended argument
Research skills Developing advanced study
Subject Specific Skills Detailed critical/ theoretical analysis of literary texts and evaluation of broad theoretical concepts.
Team work n/a

Reading List

Recommended Text
Azzopardi, Trezza (2000) The Hiding Place Picador Primo search Bullough, Tom (2007) The Claude Glass Seren Primo search Davies, Lewis (2005) Urban Welsh: New Welsh Short Fiction Parthian Primo search Griffiths, Niall (2001) Sheepshagger Jonathan Cape Primo search Gwyn, Richard (2001) The Pterodactyl's Wing: Welsh World Poetry Parthian Primo search Jones, Lloyd (2004) Mr vogel Seren Primo search Pryce, Malcolm (2001) Abeerystwyth Mon Amour Bloomsbury Primo search Tresize, Rachel (2006) Diam M for Merthyr Parthian Primo search Williams, Charlotte (2002) Sugar and Slate Planet Primo search Williams, John (2004) Wales Half Welsh Bloomsbury Primo search Supplementary Text
Bohata, Kirsti (2004) Postcolonialism Revisited: Writing in Wales in English University of Wales Press Primo search Gregson, Ian (2007) The New Poetry of Wales University of Wales Press Primo search Jarvis, Matthew, Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry (2008) University of Wales Press Knight, Stephen (2004) A Hundred Years of Fiction University of Wales Press Primo search Peach, Linden (2007) Contemporary Irish and Welsh Women's Fiction University of Wales Press Primo search New Welsh Review Primo search Planet Primo search Poetry Wales Primo search Welsh Writing in English: A Yearbook of Critical Essays Primo search

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6