Course finder

<< return to browsing

Semester 2

Literary Studies 1B (ENLI08021)

Subject

English Literature

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

1

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Please see Additional Restrictions below.

Course Summary

Prose may appear so familiar as not to need any further introduction and yet it traverses the line between 'fact' and 'fiction,' encapsulates a wide variety of forms and fulfills a remarkable range of functions; for example, from a tag line through the short story to serial novels or from fantasy fiction to political polemic. Indeed, most critical debates within the field of literary studies, as well as the assessment of most of our courses, take place in prose form (usually essays). This course will explore the key terms and concepts needed to analyse prose texts critically and develop your own writing and bibliographical skills.

Course Description

On this course you will be encouraged to develop your close-reading skills in the genre of prose (fictional and non-fictional). You will be introduced to some key concepts in literary criticism (e.g., narration, intentionality, habits of reading) and acquire the associated specialist terminology needed to identify and explain how a literary text engages with accepted conventions. While some texts will be studied in full, lectures and tutorials will draw on a variety of examples by writers from diverse backgrounds to ensure you are encouraged to reflect on how diverse experiences and context affect the discussion of authorship and readership. Lectures will provide you with appropriate terminology and demonstrate how this is used in practice; to consolidate your understanding, you will undertake regular exercises both individually and in small groups to prepare for broader discussion in weekly hour-long tutorials and engage with quizzes that will test your acquisition of technical vocabulary. In your final assessments, you will be expected to demonstrate how you can reflect upon and apply what you have learned by producing a close reading of a prose extract, and an essay on the theory and practice of prose.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Visiting students can only take one of the following sets of courses during any programme of study: ‘Literary Studies 1A/1B’, ‘Literary Studies 2A/2B’ or ‘Scottish Literature 2A/2B’. Courses from these three sets cannot be combined during the same programme of study. This course therefore cannot be taken alongside Literary Studies 2A/2B or Scottish Literature 2A/2B.

view the timetable and further details for this course