GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN CONTEMPORARY TEXTS AND CULTURES - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module explores how a culturally diverse range of contemporary texts negotiate issues of gender and sexuality. Using a variety of formats (novels, poems, graphic novels, films and even comedy) we will reflect on what writing about gendered experiences and queer desire entails and how these lived and embodied intimacies affect form and determine meaning. The module provides a theoretical underpinning that will enable you to construct links between contemporary texts and relevant trans-inclusive and anti-racist theories about intersectional identities and LGBTQIA2S+* literature and culture.

In this module, you will not just read about queer theory, you will hear directly from the theorists: The module provides podcast conversations with several prominent scholars from the field to enrich your reading of secondary literature with a digital research communication tool. You will be able to expand the knowledge of feminism, queer studies, and intersectional thinking that you have built in your first year of studies and reflect on how these discourses affect you and your peers in your day-to-day life, while also considering unfamiliar perspectives and cultures.

Module provider

Literature & Languages

Module Leader

MATTHEIS Lena (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

The module will introduce key feminist, queer and gender theories and will ask students to read texts by writers
of prose, poetry and drama whose work engages with issues of gender and sexuality. We will read about a range
of queer, trans and nonbinary experiences and listen to marginalised voices.

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 assesses 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:

• 2500-word essay

Formative assessment and feedback

• Seminar discussion with ongoing tutor feedback in seminar

Students will be encouraged to workshop essay plans in seminars and will receive peer and tutor feedback in these sessions.

In researching their essays, students will be encouraged to look beyond white heteronormative Western scholarship and take a more intersectional and global approach to research and writing.

Module aims

• The module aims to: deepen and diversify 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. In-depth small group and plenary discussions about a large and global variety of experiences that may be unfamiliar to students will allow them to step out of their knowledge structures and comfort zones and build resilience and empathy.

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:

• lectures


• seminars

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: ELI2045

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills and capabilities in the following areas:

This module will introduce students to queer, non-heteronormative and non-white texts, cultures and sub-cultures via global texts and contexts. Learners may be exposed to worldviews and experiences they had not previously considered and will have a safe space to discuss shifts in perception and cognitive dissonance in the seminar, after reflecting independently between the lecture and the seminar component. This will build their cultural capabilities as well as their resilience and resourcefulness. By reading about and situating the local knowledge produced about gender and sexuality in contexts such as Two-Spirit storytelling and trans* visual cultures, students will be invited to explore non-Western thinking and challenger their own biases.

Employability: Building subject knowledge in a field that is highly relevant to contemporary societies and cultures and practicing how to communicate about sensitive topics will build important skill sets for future work environments. Working with vastly different text types, from comics to series to podcasts to documentaries, will allow students to gain the type of multi-media literacy that is essential to most contemporary professional environments.

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 2025/6 academic year.