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EL50C5: THE NOVEL: ENVIRONMENTS AND ENCOUNTERS (2023-2024)

Last modified: 23 Jul 2024 10:43


Course Overview

This module explores how the evolution of the novel form has allowed, and required, authors to find new ways of depicting spaces, places and interactions (between characters in particular environments, but also between characters and their environment). This chronologically wide-ranging course moves from the early days of the novel form through to contemporary fiction, allowing for an opportunity to study the many literary tactics that authors have employed to create the settings for their works – from vast historical backdrops, to natural spaces, to urban environments, to smaller domestic and private places. It also us to consider how different cultural moments have prompted authors to rethink how they represent characters’ encounters with the world around them, and with the other cultures, races, species and genders that inhabit that world. As well as narrative theories, students will have the chance to study canonical and less well-known texts from angles informed by current critical approaches such as ecocriticism, animal studies, postcolonial and queer theory.

Course Details

Study Type Postgraduate Level 5
Term First Term Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Helena Ifill

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • One of Mlitt In Film, Visual Culture & Arts Management (September Start) or Master of Letters in English Literary Studies or Master Of Letters In English Language And Literature or Master of Letters in the Novel or Master Of Letters In Literatures, Environments And Places or M Litt in Creative Writing

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

This module explores how the evolution of the novel form has allowed, and required, authors to find new ways of depicting spaces, places and interactions (between characters in particular environments, but also between characters and their environment). This chronologically wide-ranging course moves from the early days of the novel form through to contemporary fiction, allowing for an opportunity to study the many literary tactics that authors have employed to create the settings for their works – from vast historical backdrops, to natural spaces, to urban environments, to smaller domestic and private places. It also us to consider how different cultural moments have prompted authors to rethink how they represent characters’ encounters with the world around them, and with the other cultures, races, species and genders that inhabit that world. As well as narrative theories, students will have the chance to study canonical and less well-known texts from angles informed by current critical approaches such as ecocriticism, animal studies, postcolonial and queer theory.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 65
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback Word Count 3000
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ProceduralAnalyseTo identify and analyse the construction and operation of a diversity of encounters and environments in prose fiction

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 35
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback Word Count 2500
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ProceduralAnalyseTo identify and analyse the construction and operation of a diversity of encounters and environments in prose fiction

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ReflectionUnderstandTo understand a range of theoretical approaches to the novel and consider a number of primary texts in relation to them
ReflectionEvaluateHow the historical/cultural context in which novels are written influences their production, their reception within reading communities, critical communities/publishing markets
ProceduralCreateTo write correctly and to argue fluently, and to produce pieces of literary analysis at postgraduate level
ProceduralAnalyseTo identify and analyse the construction and operation of a diversity of encounters and environments in prose fiction

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