Module Information

Module Identifier
EN30420
Module Title
Twentieth Century Welsh Writing in English
Academic Year
2016/2017
Co-ordinator
Dr Neal Alexander
Semester
Semester 1
Other Staff
 

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Seminar 10 x 2 Hour Seminars
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Exam 4 Hours   Individual Oral Presentation  10 minutes individual oral presentation  30%
Semester Assessment Essay Assignment  1 x 3000 word essay  70%
Supplementary Assessment Revisit the Individual Oral Assessment  30%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit failed or missing essay assignment  Resubmit 1 x 3000 word essay (writing on a fresh topic from previous essay submitted)  70%

Learning Outcomes

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

1. locate and discuss Welsh writing in English in its cultural and historical contexts;

2. assess the influence of linguistic, economic, social and political factors on literary texts;

3. examine the tensions inherent in the cultural programme of Welsh Writing in English;

4. examine the way in which these texts interrogate issues of class, gender and national/ linguistic identity;

5. write about literary texts in a critically-focused and well-structured manner.

Aims

Drawing upon existing staff expertise and the latest research in the field, this module introduces students to the range of achievement in Welsh writing in English during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Besides making students more aware of and responsive to the Anglophone literature of Wales, the module facilitates critical engagement with key debates over language, place, and identity. The module also seeks to give students a basic understanding of some elements of Welsh-language culture, and their significance for Welsh writers who write in English.

Brief description

This module introduces students to the vigorous and diverse tradition of Welsh writing in English that flourished during the twentieth century. It explores the ways in which Welsh writers engage with issues of class, gender, race, and sexuality, and traces the dialogues that unfold between Wales’s two linguistic cultures. Particular attention is paid to representations of places and landscapes – from industrial south Wales to the holy island of Enlli – in an effort to understand the intertwining of geography and history in much Welsh writing in English. Throughout the module, students will be encouraged to examine the ambivalent relationships between literature and national identity. At the same time, a key objective of this module is to give students a clearer and more nuanced understanding of what makes Welsh writing in English distinctive in the wider field of Anglophone literatures. A wide variety of literary forms and genres are considered, including poetry, novels, short stories, and memoir.

Estimated Student Workload:
Contact time - 20 hours
Reading essential texts - 60 hours
Preparation for seminars - 20 hours
Research for assignments - 80 hours
Writing assignments - 20 hours

Content

Week 1 Introduction;
Week 2 Dylan Thomas, Selected Poems I
Week 3 Dylan Thomas, Selected Poems II
Week 4 Gwyn Thomas, The Dark Philosophers
Week 5 R.S. Thomas, Selected Poems I
Week 6 R.S. Thomas, Selected Poems II
Week 7 Brenda Chamberlain, Tide-race
Week 8 Christopher Meredith, Shifts
Week 9 Charlotte Williams, Sugar and Slate
Week 10 Revision session

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number N/A
Communication Written: By developing a sustained critical argument. Oral: Through class discussion, small group exercises, and individual oral presentations
Improving own Learning and Performance Through independent and directed research and reading
Information Technology By using word-processing packages; using AberLearn Blackboard and other e-resources to research and access course documents and other materials; by submitting assignments via Turnitin.
Personal Development and Career planning Through increased critical self-reflection and the development of transferable, ICT, communication and research skills.
Problem solving By evaluative analysis and the use of critical skills
Research skills By directed and independent research; by synthesizing information in an evaluative critical argument.
Subject Specific Skills Through the reading, writing and researching skills involved in the interrogation of literary texts; through comparative models of reading and understanding; and through the conceptual/theoretical analysis of works of imaginative literature in relation to a range of other non-literary texts.
Team work Through group work in seminars; and through preparation for paired presentations in seminars.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6