LCWRI6258 ‘Radical Writers’ Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course investigates and celebrates the work of radical writers: those one-of-a-kind artists whose work has pushed writing in exciting new directions. Students will look at  provocateurs, dreamers and antagonists from across different countries, political spheres and social climates – all united by having looked at their contemporary literary culture and asked what else it could do, how else it could be, or who else it could speak to or for. The reading will encompass a diverse range of writers, touch on significant literary movements such as the Oulipo group, Japanese ‘palm of hand’ stories, and contemporary multi-modal writing, and venture into experimental and online territory. Students will learn how notions of difference have shaped literature by comparing and analysing radical new developments across the globe and through time. In doing so, students will develop the ability to recognise and embrace diversity in literature, and to use their study of such works  to stimulate new possibilities for their own creative practice.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage you in your studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures and Workshops 

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR 

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

OR 

Directed study 

4-12 scheduled hours, the exact number varying according to the balance of 1:1s, 2:1s, or small groups. The plan will be confirmed by the start of the course, taking into account student numbers and the proposed topics, readings, and specific tasks.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE. 

The summative assessment gives students the opportunity to develop a work of innovative experimental writing. This is paired with a reflective critical commentary, investigating the evolution of at least two diverse forms of radical writing, and connecting this to the development of their creative work.

Summative Assessments

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours). 

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Armstrong, Julia, Experimental Fiction: An Introduction for Readers and Writers (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014)
• Barnard, Josie, The Multimodal Writer: Creative Writing Across Genres and Media (London: Red Globe Press, 2019)
• Dufresne, John, Flash! Writing the Very Short Story (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018)
• Hass, Robert, Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry (New York: Harper Collins, 2017) 
• Reed, Anthony, The Poetics and Politics of Black Experimental Writing (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2015)
• Shields, David & Vollmer, Matthew (eds.), Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, ‘Found’ Texts, And Other Fraudulent Artifacts (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2014)

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below is used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Historical experimental literature.
• Contemporary experimental literature and hybrid forms.
• Experimental creative practice.
• Cultural value of difference and diversity in literature
• Creative writing workshops
• Critical analysis