Module Identifier EN10520  
Module Title CONTEMPORARY WRITING  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Richard J Marggraf-Turley  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Caroline Bate, Mrs Carol M Marshall, Mr Ian Davidson, Iona Italia, Julia H M Reid, Marie Hockenhull Smith, Dr Matthew R Jarvis, Mr Michael J Smith  
Course delivery Lecture   20 Hours (20 x 1 hour lectures: two per week for 10 weeks)  
  Seminars / Tutorials   10 Hours (10 x 1 hour seminars)  
Assessment Semester Exam   2 Hours (Answer two questions on a two hour examination paper)   50%  
  Semester Assessment   Continuous Assessment: 2 essays (1,500-2,000 words)   50%  
  Supplementary Assessment   Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements.    

Learning outcomes

On the completion of this module students should typically be better able to:

- read literary texts in an informed and critical way;
- discuss literary texts coherently;
- write about literary texts in a well-structured and well-argued manner.

Brief description

This module introduces a range of contemporary writing in English covering a wide variety of forms, styles, and linguistic registers: tales, short-fiction, poetry, drama, film-adaptations, elements of pulp fiction, modernist and post-modernist fiction. The set texts raise a number of critical issues concerning literary form and language, cultural positioning and social identity. They are arranged under four thematic headings: 'Class', 'Negotiating Identities', 'Sexual Dissidence' and 'Travelling Generations'. This approach will enable students to engage with the sort of theoretical work they will encounter at a higher level in Part Two.

Aims

to introduce students to key aspects of contemporary writing in English through a wide range of forms, style, and linguistic registers in poetry, short fiction, drama, and film;
to introduce students to a range of current issues and debates in English Studies and contemporary writing;
to increase the reading range of students and encourage them to become reflective and responsive readers.

Content

There will be two lectures each week. Each topic will be introduced in a general lecture, and each of the set texts will be examined in two lectures, one specifically on the text, the other on a wider range of issues raised by the text.

In the seminars, students can present and investigate their own ideas on the meaning and worth of the set texts. What has the text communicated to you personally, and how does your opinion relate to those of other students and critics?

Set Texts
Class:
Tony Harrison, Selected Poems (Penguin, 1995)
A.S. Byatt, Elementals, 1998

Negotiating Identities:
Karen McCarthy (ed.) Bittersweet: Contemporary Black Women's Poetry (Two Women's Press, 1998)
Caryl Phillips, The Nature of Blood (Faber, 1997)

Dissident Desires:
Jonathan Harvey, Beautiful Thing (Methuen, 1996)
Jeanette Winterson, The Passion (Vintage 1996)

Travelling Generations:
Zadie Smith, White Teeth (Penguin 2001)
Alex Garland, The Beach (Penguin, 1996)
(Subject to release of videos, we shall also consider the new film adaptations of both titles)

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Tony Harrison. (1995) Selected Poems. Penguin
A.S. Byatt. (1998) Elementals. Vintage
Karen McCarthy (ed). (1998) Bittersweet: Contemporary Black Women's Poetry. Two Women's Press
Caryl Phillips. (1997) The Nature of Blood. Faber
Jonathan Harvey. (1994) Beautiful Thing. Methuen
Jeanette Winterson. (1996) The Passion. Vintage
Zadie Smith. (2001) White Teeth. Penguin
Alex Garland. (1996) The Beach. Penguin