2021/22 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3024 Modern Literature

20 creditsClass Size: 132

School of English

Module manager: Dr Tracy Hargreaves
Email: T.Hargreaves@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2021/22

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.

This module is mutually exclusive with

ENGL3012

Modern Literature

Module replaces

ENGL3012

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

The modern literature of the first half of the twentieth century included a self-conscious Modernism that consisted in remarkable revolutions in literary form. This was a period of intellectual and social transformations, of political violence and war. The module encourages detailed study of selected texts from each of the first four decades of the century, in poetry, drama and prose fiction. It aims to draw attention to ideas of Modernism in some key critical texts and to invoke cultural discussions of gender and sexuality, questions of the self and of changing national identities. Such relevant contemporary contexts as the World Wars, the crisis of Empires and the Irish Literary Revival may also be discussed.

Objectives

On completion of this module students should be able to articulate a critical understanding of a range of literary texts and genres produced in British and Irish contexts after 1900, up to the period preceding World War II. The module enables students to gain insights about these texts in terms of their aesthetic achievements, and in terms of their emerging historical and cultural contexts. Texts will be discussed in relation to revolutionary modernist ideas about the construction of the sexual, gendered and social self, and issues of city, nation and empire.

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

The aim of this core module is to introduce students to the modern literature of the first half of the twentieth century, which is frequently approached in relation to ideas of Modernism. Modern literature is distinguished by a commitment to the radical re-evaluation and development of new literary forms, to new conceptions of selfhood, gender and sexuality as these were developed in intellectual movements such as psychoanalysis and in relation to the social and cultural changes of modernity preceding and following the First World War and into the 1930s. The radical impact of the new cultural technology of cinema is an especially significant feature of this period with wide-ranging international implications for issues of culture and representation. You will study some key works of English and some more international early twentieth-century prose fiction and poetry and a remarkable single film text from the period, along with literary responses to it. These works will be discussed in relation to four key critical writings by F.T. Marinetti, Virginia Woolf, Walter Benjamin and Raymond Williams and in relation to key module’s themes: modernism and modernity, self and sexuality and writing in a time of social and cultural change.

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 essay.

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: 11/08/2021 15:25:39

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