Course Details in 2023/24 Session

Module Title	LC Theory for English Literature
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 33542
Module Lead	Matt Hayler
Level	Certificate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module will introduce students to the questions and arguments, events and vocabularies that shape study in our discipline and which will come up again and again throughout your undergraduate degree. It has two aims: i) to ensure that when you undertake your own research and read technical books and journals in your field that you will find the language less daunting (i.e. you’ll have a good understanding of what “hegemony,” “intersectionality,” “postmodernism,” or “historicism” mean and why they might be important) and ii) to help you to build and use your own vocabulary for discussing art, identity, culture, and politics. The module will focus on theoretical texts and the ways in which writers have tried to describe the effects of culture and society, but it will also emphasise how these ways of thinking have specifically used literary, filmic, and other artistic texts as subjects, examples, and evidence. For as long as artworks have been studied there have been critics and theoreticians who have tried to explore and explain their effects: how and why does a text make us feel this way? What role does art play in shaping society? What role does society play in shaping art? What makes something a novel, or a poem, or beautiful? Can we learn more about a time or place by exploring the works produced then or there? Can we learn something about what it means to be a human being from the texts that we read and watch and play? What does art and culture do to me?Topics may include: Psychoanalysis Feminism and Queer Theory Marxism and Materialism Postcolonialism Reader Response Theory Disability Studies Digital Studies Poetics, Aesthetics, and Narratology Animal Studies Ecocriticism
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of and ability to use a range of significant theoretical terms; Demonstrate a basic knowledge of some of the debates in contemporary research in the Humanities; Demonstrate an understanding of how theoretical insights can assist in their writing across their degree; Demonstrate an awareness of the applicability of theory to literary study.
Assessment	33542-01 : 22-23 Submission : Coursework (100%) 33542-02 : 23-24 Submission : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	1,000 word essay (30%) 2,000 word essay (70%) Reassessment: Resubmission of failed component(s)
Other
Reading List