This module is inactive in the selected year. The information shown below is for the academic year that the module was last running in, prior to the year selected.

2023/24 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3026 Contemporary Literature

20 creditsClass Size: 60

School of English

Module manager: Dr David Wylot
Email: d.wylot@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2023/24

Pre-requisite qualifications

Grade B at 'A' Level in English Language or Literature or equivalent or an achieved mark of 56 or above in a Level 1 module in English.

PLEASE NOTE: This module is restricted to Level 3 students and visiting students.

This module is mutually exclusive with

ENGL3014

Contemporary Literature

Module replaces

ENGL3014

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

- To what extent has recent British and Irish writing engaged with the contemporary? - Is there an aesthetics, as well as a politics, of contemporaneity, mirrored in a wide range of recent literary texts and forms? The module will ask these and other questions in the context of post-war British and Irish writing, enquiring into changing attitudes toward society and identity, new approaches to gender and sexuality, and the aesthetic/political dimensions of postmodernism, especially its twin impulses toward radical philosophical scepticism and the experimentation with fragmented literary form.

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should have acquired an understanding of a range of post-war and contemporary literary texts, across genres.

Students will examine recent literary texts and consider contemporaneous critical/theoretical debates relating to:
- regionality and national identities;
- modes of experimental writing in postmodern narratives;
- metafiction;
- the relationship between writing and forms of authority.

Learning outcomes
Skills outcomes and Graduate Attributes

In terms of Academic Excellence this module develops critical thinking, flexibility of thought and analytical skills. It supports and develops the ability to work autonomously, initiative, planning and organisational skills. Students will learn to analyse information, synthesise views and make connections; students will be critically aware of, and be informed by, current knowledge; and will develop research skills. In short:

- 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.

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 explores the range of literary production from the 1950s and '60s to the early 21st century. The texts are broadly representative of a diverse body of literature produced in British and Irish contexts. Examples of fiction, poetry and drama articulate several key matters in contemporary society and culture. These include the terminal crisis of literary meaning, literary innovation and the reaction against experimentalism, the postmodern and its discontents, nations and multiculturalisms, gender trouble and sexual revolution, popular cultures and post-culture, and the impact and aesthetics of shock. Throughout the module we consider the diverse literary positions and critical debates which characterize the contemporary period, and explore the ways in which contemporary literature often offers a vital critique of wider social and political standpoints.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	22	1.00	22.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			168.00
Total Contact hours			32.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Seminar preparation, reading, essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Contribution to seminars.
- Feedback on assessed work.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1,500 word essay	33.30
Essay	2,500 word essay	66.70
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Students must submit/sit and pass all elements of assessment. Students who fail any element (even as a result of penalties) will have to resit the failed element in order to pass the module.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 28/04/2023 14:39:49

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