2023/24 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL32153 Refugee Narratives

20 creditsClass Size: 24

School of English

Module manager: Dr Samuel Durrant
Email: s.r.durrant@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 (or its non-UK equivalent).

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module is open to all students with an interest in the current refugee crisis. The focus is on literary narratives by and about asylum seekers and refugees and students should be prepared to read roughly a novel a week.Refugee Narratives affords students the opportunity to reflect on the current refugee crisis by looking at a wide range of writing by and about refugees, migrants and stateless people. While the module features contemporary narratives about people seeking asylum in the UK, it also looks at earlier narratives of Jewish and Palestinian displacement. While the module focuses on refugee experience and the process of seeking asylum, we will also study key theoretical work on statelessness, citizenship and the limits of the nation-state; humanitarianism and cosmopolitanism; the ends and limits of sympathy and compassion; and human rights.

Objectives

- To explore writing by and about refugees
- To explore issues of reception, hospitality, empathy and action in relation to the current refugee crisis
- To think about the ways in which writing itself may be hospitable and/or exclusionary.

Learning outcomes
- Broad understanding of how refugees are legally defined in international law
- Broad understanding of the process of seeking asylum in the UK and elsewhere
- In depth understanding of specific refugee narratives: how they are produced, by whom and to what effect.

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

Refugee Narratives affords students the opportunity to reflect on the current refugee crisis by looking at a wide range of writing by and about refugees, migrants and stateless people. While the module features contemporary narratives about people seeking asylum in the UK, it also looks at earlier narratives of Jewish and Palestinian displacement. While the module focuses on refugee experience and the process of seeking asylum, we will also study key theoretical work on statelessness, citizenship and the limits of the nation-state; humanitarianism and cosmopolitanism; the ends and limits of sympathy and compassion; and human rights.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lectures	3	1.50	4.50
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			185.50
Total Contact hours			14.50
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Reading, seminar preparation and essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Attendance at seminars
- Contribution to online discussion group

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3,000 word essay	80.00
Essay	1,000	20.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Compulsory unassessed work will include 100 words/week contribution to online discussion group. This does not form part of the assessment for this module, but it is a requirement and must be submitted. Students who fail to submit this unassessed work will be awarded a maximum mark of 40 for the module (a bare Pass). The short first essay builds on your contributions to your discussion group.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 28/04/2023 14:39:50

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