Ethical Criticism
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| ENGL4352 | English | 4 | N/A | April Full Year UK, Full Year UK, January Full Year UK |
- Code
- ENGL4352
- School
- English
- Level
- 4
- Credits
- N/A
- Semesters
- April Full Year UK, Full Year UK, January Full Year UK
Summary
This pod provides an overview of Ethical Criticism, with its blend of moral philosophy, politics, and literary analysis, through the lens of two twentieth-century writers: Henry James and Samuel Beckett. Ethical critics have been attracted to the work of these two very different modernist authors, something which has been demonstrated by the ethical turn in literary theory from the 1990s onwards. Students will analyse literary texts with the theoretical frames supplied by practising ethical critics such as Martha Nussbaum and J. Hillis Miller, who bring, respectively, Neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics and Deconstructionism to the study of late Henry James; and cultural critics Theodor Adorno, David Cunningham and Steven Connor, among others, who interrogate the aesthetic and ethical concept of “meaning” in their readings of the novels and plays of Beckett.
Target Students
Students registered on the School of English online masters scheme.
Assessment
- 100% Participation: Participation
Assessed by end of designated period
Educational Aims
This module comprises an optional component in the following pathways: Applied English, English Literature, and Modern and Contemporary Literature. As such, it contributes in its specific aims to the programme-level coverage of these pathways.Learning Outcomes
Demonstrate an understanding of different strands of ethical criticism in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Perform close analysis of literary texts, explaining how features such as structure, language and style contribute to aesthetic and ethical systems of meaning-making.
Critically discuss examples of ethical criticism as they are applied in published research on Henry James and/or Samuel Beckett.
Demonstrate knowledge and skills acquired to the appropriate disciplinary and professional standard.
Assimilate and present subject-specific material in an appropriate format (assessed within the ‘Assessment Portfolio’ 1, 2 or 3).