2008/09 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3356 Postcolonial Emergencies

20 creditsClass Size: 20

School of English

Module manager: Dr Stuart Murray
Email: S.F.Murray@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2008/09

This module is not approved as an Elective

Objectives

This module is deliberately designed as a post 9/11 module which seeks to offer students the opportunity to contrast contemporary attitudes towards emergency, terror and violence with previous manifestations of the same as they are found in postcolonial contexts. It aims to question the degree to which violence in postcolonial settings has transformed since the original decolonising era of the 1950s and 1960s. The module will ask students to consider the extent to which Empires display continuities, and the ways in which our contemporary moment might rehearse conflicts of the past. The texts chosen for the module will provide specific but also overlapping examples of the ways in which different postcolonial cultures have experienced emergencies, and by engaging with them in detail the students will develop not only skills in literary and film criticism, but also a critical approach to a vital form of contemporary cultural history.

Learning outcomes
Students will have developed:
- the ability to use written and oral communication effectively;
- the capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse;
- the ability to manage quantities of complex information in a structured and systematic way;
- the capacity for independent thought and judgement;
- critical reasoning;
- research skills, including the retrieval of information, the organisation of material and the evaluation of its importance;
- IT skills;
- efficient time management and organisation skills;
- the ability to learn independently.

Skills outcomes
Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
Critical reasoning.
Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
IT skills.
Time management and organisational skills.
Independent learning.

Syllabus

This module will look at the representations of rebellion, violence and terror in a range of postcolonial narratives from the 1960s to the present, and from differing cultural contexts - Kenya, the Caribbean, South Africa, Indigenous protest in New Zealand and Canada, Pakistan, the U.S., and Israel/Palestine. Its focus will be on moments of crisis, trauma and social upheaval, and the way such moments are conveyed through prose fiction and documentary film. Its chief subjects are ideas of terrorism, armed resistance, organised protest, the state responses with which these are met, and the individual and collective consequences that flow from moments of emergency. The module aims to look at current fears about terrorism, especially in the wake of 9/11, and to contextualise them in similar events in the past. The model of the postcolonial the module uses is broad, seeing the climate of terror and fear in which we currently live as being one that can be understood through ideas of Empire and resistance.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Meetings	5	1.00	5.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			185.00
Total Contact hours			15.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Teaching will be through weekly seminars (10 x 1 hour) plus up to 5 additional hours (content to be determined by the module tutor). The 5 additional hours may include lectures, plenary sessions, film showings, or the return of unassessed/assessed essays.

Private Study: Reading, seminar preparation, essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Seminar contribution.
1st assessed essay.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1,700 words	33.30
Essay	2,750 words	66.70
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 24/04/2008

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