English

English

Past and Present 2 (TRU1503)

Staff	Professor Marion Gibson - Lecturer
Credit Value	30
ECTS Value	15
NQF Level	6
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
Duration of Module	Term 2: 11 weeks;

Module aims

This module provides an introduction to modes of reading and critical analysis broadly informed by an attention to questions of history, intertextuality and theory. The module deals with major conceptual themes including geographical and political space, nationhood, colonialism, genre, identity and subjectivity. It covers material from the eighteenth century to the present, involving close comparative study of written texts and films, demonstrating the development and transformation of key ideas and thematic concerns over time and across different media.

ILO: Module-specific skills

1. To demonstrate an informed appreciation of specific texts, written from the eighteenth century to the present time
2. To demonstrate a knowledge of the development of English literary history
3. To demonstrate a capacity to identify and analyse inter-relationships between texts

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

4. To demonstrate a basic ability to analyse the literature of an earlier era and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context.
5. To demonstrate a basic ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history.
6. To demonstrate a basic ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts.

ILO: Personal and key skills

7. Through seminar work and the group presentation, to demonstrate basic communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups.
8. Through essay-writing, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, to demonstrate a basic capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose at a level appropriate to a foundational degree year.
9. Through research for seminars and essays, to demonstrate basic proficiency in information retrieval and analysis.

Syllabus plan

The module consists of a weekly one-hour lecture, sometimes delivered as a video-lecture, a two-hour weekly seminar and a one-hour study group. Lectures are designed to convey general historical and theoretical material, and students are helped to develop skills at listening and retaining information. The seminars are designed to encourage students to participate in guided group discussions. The (tutorless) study group session is designed to help students develop skills in group work and to become more confident in debate and argument with their peers. These formal learning structures will be supplemented by an interactive course web-site

(Film screenings are listed in brackets)

Week 1 William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, selections from Lyrical Ballads (Pandaemonium)

Week 2 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Bladerunner)

Week 3 Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (Rebecca)

Week 4 Christina Rossetti and Alfred Tennyson, selected poems, from the Norton anthology ( Pan’s Labyrinth)

Week 5 James Joyce, Dubliners (The Dead)

Week 6 T.S. Eliot, selected poems and W.B. Yeats, selected poems, from the Norton anthology( The Fisher King)

Week 7 William Golding, Lord of the Flies (if)

Week 8 Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (The Piano)

Week 9 Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’sTale (The Stepford Wives)

Week 10 Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

Week 11 Jim Crace, Being Dead (A Zed and Two Noughts)

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
33	267	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning activity	11	11 x one hour lecture
Scheduled learning activity	22	11 x 2 hour seminars
Guided independent study	267	Private Study

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
40	40	20

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	40	2000 words	1-6, 8,9	written
Exam	40	2 hours	1-6, 8,9	written
Seminar participation	10	ongoing	7	verbal
Presentation	10	10 minutes	1-6, 8,9	verbal

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	Essay	1-6, 8,9	Refer/Defer period
Exam	Exam	1-6, 8,9	Refer/Defer period
Presentation	Presentation	1-6, 8,9	Refer/Defer period
Seminar participation	Report	7	Refer/Defer period

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Students should purchase

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8

^{th edition, volume 2, ed. M.H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt,}et. al., (New York and London: W.W. Norton, 2006) in which will be found:

Wordsworth & Coleridge, selections from

^{^{Lyrical Ballads and other poems;}}

Rossetti, selected poems;

Tennyson, select poems;

Yeats, selected poems;

and Eliot, selected poems.

Students should also purchase:

Mary Shelley,

^{^{Frankenstein ed. J.Paul Hunter (Norton, 2004)}}

Charlotte Brontë,

^{^{Jane Eyre ed. Richard Dunn, 3rd edition (Norton, 2001)}}

James Joyce,

^{^{Dubliners, ed. Margot Norris (Norton, 2006)}}

William Golding,

^{^{Lord of the Flies (Faber, 2002)}}

Jean Rhys,

^{^{Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin, 2000)}}

Margaret Atwood,

^{^{The Handmaid’s Tale (Vintage, 2007)}}

Tom Stoppard,

^{^{Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ((Faber, 1973)}}

Jim Crace,

^{^{Being Dead (Penguin, 2000)}}

Note: Dates of modern editions may vary.

^{^{The Norton Anthology will also be used for other English modules. The Norton Critical Editions also contain substantial critical materials.}}

Module has an active ELE page?

Yes

Available as distance learning?

Origin date

April 2010

Last revision date

March 2012