Places and Journeys (TRU3033)

Staff
Credit Value	30
ECTS Value	15.00
NQF Level
Pre-requisites	120 credits at level 2
Co-requisites	None
Duration of Module	Term 2: 11 weeks;

Module aims

This is essentially a module about describing things and about the consequences of doing so, and the expectation is that students will be able to apply insights derived from the close reading of set texts to their own practice as writers. The module is organised thematically. Weekly set readings, as well as offering examples of literary approaches to places and journeys, will encourage students to reflect on the cultural constitution and history of place and space, facilitating writing that is alert to its own conventions and constraints. The set readings are intended to strike a particular note to which students are invited to respond, rather than epitomising all there is to say about a given topic. Students will also be encouraged to visit places or simulacra of places they wish to write about, and to reflect on the difference between writing about visited and unvisited landscapes and buildings.

ILO: Module-specific skills

1. Demonstrate an advanced critical understanding of the relationship between writing and the physical environment.
2. Demonstrate an advanced capacity to produce written descriptions of their experience of places and journeys.
3. Demonstrate an advanced ability to engage with the politics of travel writing.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

4. Demonstrate an advanced appreciation of formal techniques and imaginative expression in creative writing.
5. Demonstrate an advanced ability to produce pieces of creative writing, in agreement with specified forms and genres taught on the module.
6. Analyse and critically examine, at an advanced level, diverse forms of narrative nonfiction.
7. Present persuasive responses to and discussion of their own creative writing and the work of other authors, both peers and published authors.
8. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of a variety of critical positions.
9. Articulate a broad range of appropriate critical and professional terminology.

ILO: Personal and key skills

10. Through seminar work, demonstrate advanced communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups.
11. Through engaging with material culture and the physical environment in their creative work, demonstrate appropriate research and fieldwork skills, an advanced capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, advanced skills of creative expression, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose.
12. Through research for seminars and writing, demonstrate advanced proficiency in information retrieval and analysis.

Syllabus plan

1. Mountains. Robert MacFarlane Mountains of the Mind
2. Sea. Essays by Jonathan Raban and Orhan Pamuk
3. Islands, uninhabited. Adam Nicolson, Sea Room
4. Rivers. Jonathan Raban, Old Glory
5. The City. Extracts from Henry Mayhew's London's Underworld and Joan Didion's New York in Sentimental Journeys
6. Writing workshop
7. Museums. Jan Morris On Looking at Things, Bill Reid People of the Potlatch and Art of the British Columbia Indian
8. Roads. Iain Sinclair, London Orbital
9. Trains. Jenny Diski Stranger on a Train
10. Sky. William Fiennes The Snow Geese
11. Home. Madeleine Bunting, The Plot

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

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	11	Lecture (11x1hr)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	22	Seminar (11x2hrs)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	11	Study group (11x1hr)
Guided independent study	256	Private study

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
One-page experiments in writing on the week's theme	Approx. 500 words		Writing workshops

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Object description	30	1,500 words	All (except PKS a)	Essay feedback sheet and marker's annotations
Narrative nonfiction relating to a place or journey	70	3,500 words	All (except PKS a)	Essay feedback sheet and marker's annotations

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
Object description	Object description	All (except PKS a)	tbc
Narrative nonfiction relating to a place or journey	Narrative nonfiction relating to a place or journey	All (except PKS a)	tbc

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Primary texts

Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind (Granta, 2003)
William Fiennes, The Snow Geese (Picador, 2002)
Jenny Diski, Stranger on a Train (Virago, 2004)
Jonathan Raban, Old Glory (Picador, 1981)
Adam Nicolson, Sea Room (HarperCollins, 2002)
Madeleine Bunting, The Plot (Granta, 2009)
Iain Sinclair, London Orbital (Granta, 2002)

Module has an active ELE page?

Yes