CREDIT POINTS: 20 / UNIT CODE: CMW312
FHEQ LEVEL: 6 / SCHOOL: Business, Law and Communications
Unit Designation: Traditional / Programme group: English and Publishing
Unit delivery model: CD Max & Min Student No: N/A
TOTAL STUDENT WORKLOAD
Students are required to attend and participate in all the formal timetabled sessions for the unit. Students are also expected to manage their directed learning and independent study in support of the unit.
PREREQUISITES AND CO-REQUISITES: None
UNIT DESCRIPTION
The practice of writing about writing is almost as old as writing itself. On this unit, students will explore a selection of the many schools of academic criticism on offer today, before encountering other approaches towards writing about writing, including reflections by professional writers, and metafiction (e.g. Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler, Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, McEwan’s Atonement). Is literary criticism fundamentally parasitic, destined to live always after the event? Or can it be an act of creativity in itself?
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and Understanding
K1 Recognise and understand a range of critical approaches and schools of thought from different schools of literary criticism, including self-reflexive writing practices not traditionally considered ‘criticism’.
Cognitive Skills
C1 Analyse developments in literary criticism and related practices in relation to their various socio-historical contexts, and interrogate and apply their insights not only to literary texts, but also to literary criticism itself.
Practical and Professional Skills
P1 Engage in drafting and redrafting texts to achieve clarity of expression and an appropriate register for theoretical essays.
P2 Locate, synthesise, evaluate and organise information, opinion and evidence to produce arguments that address issues and problems within the field of literary studies, and present these coherently both verbally and in writing.
Transferable and Key Skills
T1 Communicate ideas and interpretations clearly in a range of formats both written and verbal, and demonstrate skills of time-management, self-management and reflective evaluation.
AREAS OF STUDY
Liberal humanism; new criticism; Marxist criticism; postcolonial criticism; feminist criticism and écriture féminine; Barthes and creative-critical writing; metafiction and metadrama; reflections by professional writers.
LEARNING AND TEACHING STRATEGY
This seminar-only unit will explore a variety of approaches towards writing about writing through reading and discussion. For the first part of the unit, students will read texts each week from Barry’s Beginning Theory, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, or occasionally photocopies from other sources. They will use seminars as opportunities for discussion, clarification, reflection, elaboration, and interdependent learning. The second part of the unit will explore alternative forms of self-reflexive writing: the work of Roland Barthes, écriture féminine, metafiction, metadrama, and reflections by professional writers. Students will be encouraged to adopt a variety of creative approaches towards their critical writing.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGY
At the beginning of the unit, students will be assigned a presentation topic: either a ‘school’ of criticism, or a specific literary critic. They will undertake research into this topic and present this information to the class in the relevant seminar. In the essay, students will explore one of a selection of questions about literary criticism set by the unit leader; this may involve either an analysis of a literary text in the style of a particular ‘school’, or an analysis of the writings of that ‘school’ itself. Students will have the opportunity in the essay, if they wish, to explore less conventional modes of literary criticism (écriture féminine, metafiction, metadrama, etc.).
ASSESSMENT
AE1 weighting: 40%
assessment type: Presentation
length/duration: 10-15 minutes
AE2 weighting: 60%
assessment type: Essay
length/duration: 2500 words
AGGREGATION OF MARKS
The marks for each element of assessment will be aggregated to give an overall mark for the unit.
RE-ASSESSMENT ARRANGEMENTS
Assessment elements are aggregated to produce an overall mark. Where re-assessment is necessary (in the case of failure or deferral), students will be set a new essay in the case of AE2. For AE1, students will need to come in to deliver a new presentation on a notified date during the reassessment period.
Unit Author:
Dr. Stephen Purcell
Unit history:
Unit Approved/Year Implemented/Code / 2008 / 2008/9 / CMW312