ENG6593 - Experiments: Modernism and Postmodernism

Objectives:

Assessment tasks are designed to enable students to demonstrate the Learning and Employability outcomes for the relevant level of study. Level Learning Outcomes are embedded in the assessment task(s) at that level. This enables a more integrated view of overall student performance at each level.

Content:

In this module, students will study a diverse range of modernist and postmodernist literature from the early twentieth-century to the early twenty-first century. In the first half of the module, students will examine the modernist preoccupation with ‘newness’ and the development of literary forms that ‘break’ with earlier artistic conventions. In the second half, students will turn their attention to the forms of experimentation and innovation found in postmodern literature from the second half of the twentieth-century onwards. Literary texts will be examined in relation to social, political and cultural upheavals of the twentieth century.

Indicative list of themes covered by the module: the crisis of language, the city, war, technology, psychology and ‘stream-of-consciousness’ writing, modernism and race, modernism and gender, transnational modernism, postmodern indeterminacy, narrative unreliability and metafiction; postmodern forms of characterisation; the ‘open text’ and the role of the reader; labyrinths, puzzles and postmodern quest narratives; historiographic metafiction.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Seminars
Hours: 50
Intended Group Size: 25

Guided independent study
Hours: 250

Further details relating to assessment
Essay 1 will focus on earlier twentieth-century modernist texts.

The second assignment will focus on later postmodern texts but will also offer the opportunity for work comparing modernist and postmodern texts. This will be offered as a negotiated assessment, whereby students are invited to choose the format of their assessment (e.g. essay, presentation, podcast, digital artefact such as website, etc.) Full support will be given to students in choosing their assessment format.

Assessment support will be provided, including assessment unpacking exercises.

Formative feedback will be provided through peer and tutor review of presentation and essay plans. Feedback for Essay 1 will also include guidance for assessment 2.

Assessment:

001 Essay; 2,500 words; end of semester 1 50%
002 Negotiated Assessment; 2,500 words eqv.; end of semester 2 50%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Juliette Taylor-Batty
Level - 6
Credit Value - 30
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 6YL

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