LENGL5252 Criticism: Theory Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course introduces students to the rich and provocative world of literary and cultural theory. Each week, the lecture will introduce students to a key theoretical essay or critical thinker, or a wider theoretical field (including, for example Psychoanalysis, Queer Theory, or the works and ideas of Judith Butler and Roland Barthes). These lectures will be highly interactive, and students will be encouraged to apply the theoretical principles and insights to the analysis of literary texts encountered in other courses. This course builds upon Criticism Practice, but also provides a foundation for the work done by students in Levels 5 and 6 by introducing key concepts such as Postcolonial Theory and Ecocriticism. As part of the fulfilment of the Writing Intensive core attributes, students will be given opportunities to practice each of the stages of the writing process, from drafting to revising and editing, and write in a variety of forms including informal responses and reflective essays. 

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 students in their studies. 

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures/seminars 

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.

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. 

Summative Assessments

Students will be assessed by one Portfolio, which will include a variety of pieces of writing, for example informal responses and a reflective essay. They will work on this Portfolio throughout the semester, and be given opportunities to peer review the work of other students as well as to receive peer reviews of their own writing. Students will be required to test through practice – and to reflect upon – the strengths and limitations of a range of techniques and theories with which to interpret literary texts.

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.

•  Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (1995)
• Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (1967)
• Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1935) 
• Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (1994)
• Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990)
•  Terry Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism (1976)
•  I.A. Richards, Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment (1929)

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 are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Structuralism
• Postcolonialism
• Ecocriticism