LENGL6259 North American Narratives/ Counternarratives Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course examines some of the dominant narratives that have accompanied settlers and later societies in colonial America, the U.S., and Canada, between the late sixteenth century and the present, as revealed through the history of North American literature; and it situates these in the context of alternative voices and methodologies, including those that have arisen from minority communities in advocating for recognition and change. Postcolonial and deconstructive perspectives, together with narrative discourse analysis, are brought into play in analysing and assessing canonical narratives and attendant ideologies. Particular emphasis is given to African-American, Native American and Chicana/o/x perspectives, and the social change they have brought and continue to envision. 

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/labs/studios/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.

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

The presentation will ask students to identify and respond to a North American Narrative which has relevance to the present, and to analyse its narrative construction, contingencies and contexts. The written assignment requires students to employ analytical and theoretical frameworks, including narrative discourse analysis and theories of human difference, in tracing the evolution of a particular narrative within North American texts and society.

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.

• Allen, Theodore W., The Invention of the White Race (New York: Verso, 2012)
• Cisneros, Sandra, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (New York: Vintage Books, 1992)
• Keene, John, Counternarratives (New York: New Directions, 2015)
• Lott, Eric, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Michaels, Walter Benn, Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1997)
• Thornborrow, Joanna, The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2011)

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.

• The Jeremiad
• Manifest Destiny
• Slave Narratives
• Afrofuturism
• Contemporary Chicana/o/x literature