Place, Region, Empire
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| ENGL4151 | English | 4 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- ENGL4151
- School
- English
- Level
- 4
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
This module will explore the relationship between literary texts and cultural concepts of place. Students will be introduced to a selection of texts that can range from the 16C to the present, and a range of approaches deriving from recent interdisciplinary convergences between disciplines including literary criticism, cultural geography, literary history and theories of nationalism and postcolonialism. Topics for discussion might include: maps and cultural cartographies; urbanism and the literature of cities; travel and literary tourism; regional and provincial literature; nationalism and cosmopolitanism; colonialism and the postcolonial; the literature of empire; ideas of community and dwelling; the relation between literary and spatial forms. Writers to be considered will vary from year to year.
Target Students
Only available to on-site postgraduate students in the School of English.
Classes
- One 2-hour seminar each week for 10 weeks
One 2 hour seminar per week
Assessment
- 100% Coursework 1: One 4,000-word essay
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
To introduce students to some of the ways in which ideas of place and identity are co-implicated and jointly explored in literary textsTo study these ideas as they relate to the work of a diverse range of authors within a selection of historical and cultural contexts; To prepare and equip students for independent research in this areaLearning Outcomes
(a) Knowledge and understanding of
- a range of literary representations of space and place across several genres
- the historical development and variation of literary conceptions of region, nation, and empire
- relevant concepts and critical positions drawn from spatial theory, literary geography, and postcolonialism
(b) Intellectual skills
- the ability to think independently while giving due weight to the arguments of others
- the ability to relate texts to their appropriate historical and literary-historical contexts
- the ability to discuss and apply relevant critical or theoretical concepts and terms
- the ability to identify patterns of influence and recurrent themes in a comparative context
(c) Professional practical skills
- the ability to communicate effectively in writing
- the ability to present a logical and sustained argument
- the ability to conduct research, evaluating and employing secondary sources in a scholarly manner
(d) Transferable skills
- the ability to learn independently and reflectively
- the ability to communicate in writing at an advanced level.