CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE: GENDER AND SEXUALITY - 2019/0

Module Overview

This module sets out to look at how a range of contemporary literature is constructed around issues of gender and sexuality. Using prose, poetry and drama written by men and women from Britain and North America it explores what it means to write about masculinity, femininity and desire and, indeed, how these concepts affect form and determine meaning. The module provides a theoretical underpinning that will enable students to construct links between contemporary texts and relevant theories.

 

 

Module provider

School of Literature and Languages

Module Leader

PALMER Beth (Lit & Langs)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None.

Module content

Indicative content includes:

Week 1: Introduction to key feminist, queer and gender theories

Week 2: Annie Proulx’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’

Week 3: Alice Munro’s Open Secrets

Week 4: Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory

Week 5: Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex.

Week 7:Grace Nichols, The Fat Black Woman’s Poems

Week 8: David Mamet’s Oleanna

Week 9: Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body

Week 10: Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty
Week 11: Overview

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate achievement of the module learning outcomes.

Seminar discussion with ongoing tutor feedback is designed mainly to assess transferable skills in group networking resources in an e-learning environment; oral presentation and written communication; self-reflexive enquiry based work; analysis and critical enquiry. It also assesses subject knowledge related to contemporary literature and how it engages with issues of gender and sexuality; and cognitive/analytical skills in understanding how relevant theories affect the way in which gender and sexuality are understood.

The essay and exam assess subject knowledge related to contemporary literature and how it engages with issues of gender and sexuality; cognitive/analytical skills in understanding how relevant theories affect the way in which gender and sexuality are understood; transferable skills in group networking resources in an e-learning environment; oral presentation and written communication; self-reflexive enquiry based work; analysis and critical enquiry, and time management.

 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

·         1500-word essay (deadline in Week 8)

·         2-hour exam

 

Formative assessment and feedback

·         Seminar discussion with ongoing tutor feedback in seminar

 

The deadline for the essay is normally in Week 8. Students receive both written feedback and verbal feedback in tutorials that informs the final summative assessment, i.e. the exam.

Module aims

• deepen and widen students' knowledge of contemporary literature;
• increase knowledge and awareness of how literature engages with issues surrounding gender and sexuality;
• develop an understanding of relevant theories;
• further students' skills in terms of IT competency, written communication and oral presentations;
• introduce students to self-reflexive Enquiry Based Learning;
• strengthen students' ability to undertake analysis and critical thinking;
• develop further skills in independent study and group work and the ability to work to deadlines.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to deliver subject knowledge, to develop cognitive/analytical skills, and to develop in-depth transferable, practical and professional skills. Specifically, the weekly lectures deliver subject knowledge related to contemporary literature and how it engages with issues of gender and sexuality; and develop cognitive/analytical skills in analysing how relevant theories affect the way in which gender and sexuality are understood. The weekly seminars offer student-led discussions that develop skills in group networking resources in an e-learning environment; oral presentation and written communication; self-reflexive enquiry based work; analysis and critical enquiry, independent study; and time management.

 

This relates to the programme learning and teaching strategy, which, at FHEQ Level 5, is designed to continue the delivery of subject knowledge through lectures and SurreyLearn and to develop in-depth transferable, practical and professional skills, with a greater emphasis on student-led involvement, critical analysis, discussion and rhetorical ability.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• 1-hour lecture per week x 11 weeks


• 1-hour seminar per week x 11 weeks

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: ELI2012

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2019/0 academic year.