Module Information
Course Delivery
Assessment
Due to Covid-19 students should refer to the module Blackboard pages for assessment details
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Assignment 1: A response piece on any text studied in the first 2/3rds of the module. (1,500 words) | 25% |
| Semester Assessment | Assignment 2: Comparative essay on at least two texts studied on the module. (2,500 words) | 75% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Assignment 1: A response piece on any text studied in the first 2/3rds of the module (1,500 words).Students who fail the module will be required to pass any failed coursework elements during the supplementary exam period. | 25% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Assignment 2: Comparative essay on at least two texts studied on the module (2,500 words).Students who fail the module will be required to pass any failed coursework elements during the supplementary exam period. | 75% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of contemporary texts in light of their medieval forebears;
2. Demonstrate an ability to engage with the concept of medievalism;
3. Write confidently and fluently about the texts on the module in a focused and conceptually nuanced manner;
4. Engage in sustained critical self-reflection in order to further develop their critical skillset.
Aims
This option developed to fill a gap in the portfolio of modules currently available. It will focus on novels dealing with sexuality and gender issues written between 1980 and the present day, and will explore literary and cultural issues relevant to the topic.
Brief description
This module focuses on the field of contemporary queer fiction, examining queer sexuality and gender issues and placing them in their historical and cultural contexts. In particular, it asks how the authors studied have experimented with both content and form in their exploration of the changing issues faced by queer writers over the last twenty-five years. We will use both queer fiction and queer theory to analyse how sexuality and gender are understood in society and how tensions around issues of assimilation and radical otherness have evolved since the 1980s. The module asks students to look at how these factors shape the novels under discussion and how, in turn, the novels respond to the particular challenges the debates present.
Content
1. Inscription: Narrating lives (coming out stories)
• Introductory: ways of reading: gay and lelsbian fiction post Stonewall. Texts: 'Coming Out Story' (Alison Bechedel, 1993) [very short, provided as handout];
• Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson, 1985);
• A Boy's Own Story (Edmund White, 1986);
• Fun Home (Alison Bechdel, 2006)
• The Blackwater Lightship (Colm Toibin, 1999)
2.Reinscription, reclamation: historical lives
• The Swimming Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst, 1988)
• Tipping the Velvet.The Night Watch (Sarah Waters, 1998/2006)
3.Reinscription, rewriting: gender, queerness, language
• Written on the Body (Jeanette Winterson, 1992)
• Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002)
• Girl Meets Boy (Ali Smith, 2007) plus one short story from Dahlia Seasons (Myriam Gurba, 2007) [provided as handout]
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | N/A |
| Communication | Through group discussions and presentations; |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Through independent reading and research; |
| Information Technology | Through power-point presentations; |
| Personal Development and Career planning | By critical self-reflection and through the development of transferrable communication and research skills; |
| Problem solving | By developing evaluative analysis and critical skills and by formulating and conducting a detailed argument. |
| Research skills | By relating literary texts to historical contexts and by synthesising information in an evaluative argument. |
| Subject Specific Skills | Detailed critical/theoretical analysis of literary texts and evaluation of broad intellectual concepts; |
| Team work | Through group presentations; |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 5