Gwybodaeth Modiwlau
Course Delivery
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Written Assignment English Literature: 1 x 5000 word comparative essay Creative Writing: 3000 words creative piece, 2000 word commentary | 100% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Written Assignment English Literature: 1 x 5000 word comparative essay Creative Writing: 3000 words creative piece, 2000 word commentary | 100% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Generate their own comparative critical and/or creative readings of Queer writing from the early 20th century to the present.
Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the literary, cultural and philosophical concerns of Queer writing from the long 20th century.
Engage meaningfully with relevant critical debates and developments in the fields of Queer literature and relevant areas of Queer Theory.
Discuss queer writing and queer theory in a critically-informed, focused, and well-structured manner.
Brief description
This module covers a wide range of queer writing from the early 20th century through to its end. It will also introduce students to the debates bookending this period, which our texts spring from and which they go on to shape. Beginning with late-Victorian sexology (such as Edward Carpenter’s philosophy of gender and its impact on E. M. Forster, and Havelock Ellis’ impact on Radclyffe Hall’s short story ‘Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself’, 1926), it traces a through line of resistance, threading through social satire of the 1920s (Lolly Willowes, 1926), intersectional depictions of the impact of mid-century misogyny, racism and poverty in James Baldwin’s Another Country (1962) and Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt (Carol) (1952). Moving on to poet and activist Audre Lorde’s ground-breaking memoir Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), which introduced us to American Black lesbian experience in the 50s-80s, we move to the writing of the Thatcher and HIV-AIDS era with Jeanette Winterson and Alan Hollinghurst’s early work, ending with Sarah Waters’ joyful, carnivalesque reworking of the Victorian sensation novel in Fingersmith (2002). Canonical and non-canonical authors are considered side by side, encouraging students to consider a wide range of issues around the politics of representation which are of crucial importance to understanding of contemporary debates.
Content
Contact time: 20 hours
Preparation for seminars: 20 hours
Reading of primary texts: 80 hours
Research for assignments: 80 hours
Content
Week 1 Introduction: Queer and Now
Week 2 E. M. Forster, Maurice (1913-14, revised 1939, 1959-60; published posthumously in 1971)
Week 3 Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes (1926) and Radclyffe Hall ‘Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself’ (short story, 1926)
Week 4 Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928)
Week 5 Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt (1952)
Week 6 James Baldwin, Another Country (1962)
Week 7 Audre Lorde Your Silence Will Not Protect You: selected poems and essays (2017)
Week 8 Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (1985)
Week 9 Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming Pool Library (1988)
Week 10 Sarah Waters, Fingersmith (2002)
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Adaptability and resilience | Students will be supported in developing independent learning patterns and skills, and hone their analytical skills. |
| Co-ordinating with others | Students will form a learning community within their seminar group. |
| Creative Problem Solving | Students will be required to write either an essay or a creative piece and commentary which develops their creative problem solving skills. |
| Critical and analytical thinking | Students will be supported in developing their critical and analytical thinking skills in seminars and in their written work. |
| Professional communication | Students will be supported in developing their communication skills in seminars and in their written work. |
| Real world sense | Students will be supported in applying the insights gained during the module to the world around them. |
| Reflection | Students will be encouraged to reflect on the texts studied, the critical and cultural contexts they were produced in and in which we are studying them, and on their own practice. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 7