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Semester 2

Scottish Literature 2B (ENLI08023)

Subject

English Literature

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

2

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed at least one English Literature course previously at grade B or above - we will only consider university/college courses towards this pre-requisite. Please see Additional Restrictions below.

Course Summary

This second-semester course introduces students to the history of literature in Scotland in English and Scots, covering two periods of its self-conscious revival: the Modernist 'Scottish Renaissance' between the world wars of the twentieth century, and the contemporary period, defined as beginning with the first Devolution Referendum and the election of Margaret Thatcher as British prime minister in 1979. It focusses on how questions of literary form relate to the social, political and intellectual context in which the text was written and read; that is, on how the text's formal achievement responds to changes in Scottish society and the wider world. The course will encourage students to extend their essay writing skills through engagement with critical material.

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to train you to read literature historically: that is, to ask, not only what a literary text says, but what it is doing by saying that in the social context for which it was written. It thus builds on your training in close reading and formal analysis in first year, and completes your preparation for more specialised study in the honours years of your degree. It does not however attempt a continuous survey of Scottish literary history across the centuries, but proceeds by a series of case-studies in particular periods, each marked by a particular flourishing of literary culture in Scotland. This reflects the historical reality of a culture forced to re-invent itself after various sorts of radical transformation (the aftermath of the First World War; de-industrialisation). But this will also help us focus on the relation of the literary text to its historical moment by taking that historical moment, a matter of a few decades in each case, in relative isolation, without assuming a continuous literary 'national tradition' in which these periods can all be connected up. Indeed, in the first half of Scottish Literature 2B we will think about the invocation of 'national tradition' by Hugh MacDiarmid and his collaborators. The second half, discussing literature from contemporary Scotland, will present you with the challenge of reading the present moment historically, helping us understand our own literary culture as conditioned by the historical forces that we've seen at work in other periods. **As just indicated, Scottish Literature 2B falls into two parts. The first part, weeks 1-5, introduces you to Scottish Modernism, the adoption of formal experiment in literary writing as part of a wider project of national and international cultural renewal after the First World War. The second half, weeks 6-11, will introduce you to the literary history of Scotland since 1979, to think about the relation of literary writing to social unrest and de-industrialisation in the Central Belt, the rise of political nationalism and the advent of Devolution, and the emergence of a more socially liberal and self-consciously diverse society at the same time. **Each week, you will attend two lectures, usually one relating that week's text to its social and historical context, and another exploring its internal organisation in relation to that. There will be a weekly tutorial, for which you will prepare in autonomous small-group work. The course will be assessed by two essays, one written in relation to each half, after the completion of that unit: Flexible Learning Week is set aside for the completion of the first essay, and the second essay will be completed in week 12.

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 1A/1B or Literary Studies 2A/2B.

view the timetable and further details for this course