CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE: POSTCOLONIAL FICTIONS - 2019/0

Module Overview

Focussing on a range of postcolonial fictions this module explores what it means to write today in a postcolonial context and how that context affects the content and forms of writing, and how the process of reading is altered. As such, the module addresses prominent global issues and uses these key areas as a way of understanding how contemporary literature engages with the major factors in world society today. 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

MCCORMACK Donna (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 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None.

Module content

Indicative content includes:

Week 1: Introduction to the history and uses of postcolonial theory and criticism

Week 2: Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

Week 3: Jhumpa Lahiri, selection of short stories including ‘Interpreter of Maladies’

Week 4: Hanif Kureshi’s The Buddha of Suburbia

Week 5: Monica Ali, Brick Lane

Week 6: Caryl Phillips, A Distant Shore

Week 7: Junot Diaz, ‘Negocios’

Week 8: Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema, and Barney Simon, Woza Albert!  

Week 9: Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

Week 10: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
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 global and postcolonial literatures and how literature engages with social and cultural issues; and cognitive/analytical skills in understanding how contemporary literature is contextualised in a global framework.

The essay and exam assess subject knowledge related to global and postcolonial literatures and how literature engages with social and cultural issues; cognitive/analytical skills in understanding how contemporary literature is contextualised in a global framework; 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 professional skills in 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 global and postcolonial literatures;
• increase knowledge and awareness of how literature engages with social and cultural issues;
• develop an understanding of contemporary literature in a postcolonial context;
• 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 global and postcolonial literatures  and how literature engages with social and cultural issues; and develop cognitive/analytical skills in understanding how contemporary literature is contextualised in a global framework. 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: ELI2022

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.