Module Identifier |
EN10520 |
Module Title |
CONTEMPORARY WRITING |
Academic Year |
2007/2008 |
Co-ordinator |
Dr Jonathan Shears |
Semester |
Semester 2 |
Other staff |
Mrs Kirsten Allen Bartels, Katharine E Wright, Mr Michael J Smith, Dr William G Slocombe, Miss Megan Owen, Mrs Nicky Cashman, Dr Natasha Alden |
Course delivery |
Seminars / Tutorials | 10 Hours. (10 x 1 hour seminars) |
|
Lecture | 20 Hours. (20 x 1 hour lectures: two per week for 10 weeks) |
Assessment |
Assessment Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
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 | 2 Hours Resubmit or resit failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. | 100% |
|
Learning outcomes
On the completion of this module students should typically be better able to:
1. read literary texts in an informed and critical way;
2. discuss literary texts coherently;
3. write about literary texts in a well-structured and well-argued manner.
Aims
This module aims:
1. 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;
2. to introduce students to a range of current issues and debates in English Studies and contemporary writing;
3. to increase the reading range of students and encourage them to become reflective and responsive readers.
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', 'Sexualities' and 'Cultures in Contact'. This approach will enable students to engage with the sort of theoretical work they will encounter at a higher level in Part Two.
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'
-
A.S. Byatt, 'Elementals'
Negotiating Identities:
-
Charlotte Williams, 'Sugar and Slate'
Jeff Noon, 'Vurt'
Sexualities:
-
John Sam Jones, 'Fishboys of Vernazza'
-
Jeanette Winterson, 'The Passion'
-
Jackie Kay, "Trumpet"
Cultures in Contact:
-
Zadie Smith, 'White Teeth'
-
Alex Garland, 'The Beach'
(Subject to release of videos, we shall also consider the new film adaptations of both of these latter titles.)
Reading Lists
Books
** Should Be Purchased
A.S. Byatt (1998) Elementals
Vintage
Alex Garland (1996) The Beach
Penguin
Charlotte Williams (2002) Sugar and Slate
Planet
Jeanette Winterson (1996) The Passion
Vintage
Kay, Jackie (1999) Trumpet
Picador 9780330331463
Noon, Jeff (2001) Vurt
Pan Macmillan 0330338811
Tony Harrison (1995) Selected Poems
Penguin
Zadie Smith (2001) White Teeth
Penguin
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 4