Module Identifier
ENM7020
Module Title
NEW THEORIES, NEW PRACTICES: DEVELOPMENTS IN LITERARY THEORY AND PRACTICE SINCE 1995
Academic Year
2008/2009
Co-ordinator
Professor Peter T Barry
Semester
Intended for use in future years

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Seminars / Tutorials 5 weekly two-hour 'workshop' sessions
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment A WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT OF 5000 WORDS  100%
Supplementary Assessment RESUBMISSION OF THE FAILED ELEMENT  Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected.  100%

Learning Outcomes

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

1. Identify key areas in literary theory since 1995 and discuss the causes and effects of some of the main shifts in interest since the high point of theory in the 1980s.

2. Demonstrate the ability to apply these recent developments to selected literary works.

3. Show that they have developed an area of personal specialism within this body of work.

Aims

Most students on the MA in Literary Studies have taken a basic literary module at undgraduate level, but the content of such courses mainly concerns the 'classic' theorists of the 1970s and 80s. This module introduces developments which have taken place since the mid 1990s .

Brief description

The module reflects the recent tendency for theory to become more specific and localised in range and application. It takes as its foci four areas of theoretical interest which have emerged since the heyday of poststructuralism in the 1980s and considers them in the context of a selection of relevant literary works. The first session will introduce developments in theory since 1995, and the remaining four will each focus on one specific area.

Content

_Week 1: Introduction to developments in literary theory since 1995.

_Week 2: Spectrality
Theory Text: Nicholas Royle, The Uncanny: an Introduction (MUP, 2003)
Literary Text: Ghost Stories of Henry James, ed. Martin Schofield (Wordsworth Classics)

_Week 3: New Narratologies
Theory Text: An Introduction to Narratology, Susana Onega, ed (Longman, 1996)
Literary text: Henry James, as before

_Week 4: Ecocriticism
Theory Text: The Green Studies Reader: from Romanticism to Ecocriticism: ed. Laurence Coupe (EUP, 2000)
Literary Text: The Island Princess, John Fletcher (1621), (Nick Hern Books/RSC, 2002)

_Week 5: New Aestheticism
Theory Text: The Radical Aesthetic, Isobel Armstrong (Blackwell, 2001)
Literary text: John Fletcher, as before.

Students will be asked to purchase the two literary texts. Copies of the theoretical texts will be on short-loan in the library, but students will be expected to have their own copies of the theory texts most relevant to the area selected for their assignment. The weekly set reading for seminar discussion will nominate specific chapters or sections of the theoretical works for detailed discussion.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Information Technology Only word processing
Subject Specific Skills Evaluating the practical applications and implications of broad intellectual concepts.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7