2008/09 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3874 Writing the Caribbean

20 creditsClass Size: 20

School of English

Module manager: Dr John McLeod
Email: j.m.mcleod@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2008/09

Module replaces

ENGL3740 Caribbean Poetry

This module is not approved as an Elective

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to: critically understand different forms of representing the Caribbean from the nineteenth century to the present; think comparatively across different Caribbean representational genres (poetry, orature, literary fiction, travelogue, music); have an informed sense of the history, culture and politics of the Anglophone Caribbean region, as well as an ability to account for the impact of each on forms of Caribbean writing; possess a sophisticated knowledge of the critical and theoretical accounts of writing the Caribbean in contemporary scholarship; be converse with a number of important key concepts in Caribbean texts (home, identity, belonging, 'exile', memory etc.) and possess a sophisticated understanding of their history, presence and divergent definitions across writers, critics and genres; read, speak and write about Caribbean texts at an advanced level of expertise.

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

Remarkably for a region with a population of 33 million - half the size of Britain's - the Caribbean has become one of the most fertile, prolific and adventurous cultural locations in the English-speaking world. It boasts two winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature - Derek Walcott and V. S. Naipaul - while many of its poets, novelists, dramatists and musicians enjoy global popularity. This module invites students to explore the ways in which Anglophone Caribbeans have represented the history, society, culture and politics of the region, across a number of genres: literary fiction, poetry (both oral and written), travelogue, drama and popular music. The issues raised will include: home, place and 'exile'; the appropriation of English; colonial, postcolonial and transnational identities, history and memory; aesthetic forms of Caribbean cultural innovation; the identity of the Caribbean and 'Caribbean identities'.

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 and essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Contribution to seminars

1st assessed essay (submitted in Week 7 of the semester)

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1700 words	33.30
Essay	2750 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

Disclaimer

Browse Other Catalogues

• Undergraduate module catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
• Undergraduate programme catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team.PROD