ENG5822 - Magical Realism in World Fiction

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the genre of magical realism in a range of twentieth-century magical realist texts, including Latin American fiction (to be studied in translation) and fiction originally written in English
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of themes and literary techniques characteristic of magical realist fiction, and present a detailed comparative analysis of the function and effects of magical realist techniques in a selection of individual texts
Discuss the relation of these texts to their relevant social, cultural and political contexts
Demonstrate awareness of the range of critical perspectives on the specified texts and the nature of recent critical debate surrounding them

Content:

Students will develop an overview of the magical realist genre through study of an appropriate selection of literary texts from Latin America alongside a selection of texts written in English. In the first half of the module, students examine the beginnings of the genre in Latin American fiction and its rise to prominence in the work of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende, Alejo Carpentier and Laura Esquivel. Students will analyse and reflect on the development of magical realism as a mode of representing the cultural, social and political extremes of Latin America reality, and will consider the genre in relation to relevant debates in postcolonial studies. Students then go on to examine magical realism as it has been developed and adapted by writers from a range of English-speaking cultures, and especially in postcolonial and postmodern fiction. Examples may include work by writers such as Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, Angela Carter, Jeannette Winterson, and Toni Morrison.

For each range of texts studied, students will develop knowledge and understanding of relevant social, cultural and political contexts, and will examine how the writers in question make use of magical realist techniques to represent and respond to these contexts. Students will also draw comparisons between works within and across different cultures, and engage with the critical tradition and recent critical debates surrounding each text.

Learning and Teaching Information:

The course will be taught in seminars which will make use of a number of teaching and learning methods, including: presentations by the tutor, exercises in groups, informal presentations by students, and plenary discussions.

Seminars
Contact hours: 40
intended group size: 25

Guided independent study
Hours: 160

Other relevant matters
Latin American fiction will be studied in published English translations.

Assessment:

001 Assessed essay 1x2000 words (end of sem 1) 50%
002 Assessed essay 1x2000 words (end of sem 2) 50%
003 Assessed essay 1 x 2000 words (end of sem 1) - Visiting students only 100%


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