Module Information

Module Identifier
EN31620
Module Title
Contemporary Queer Fiction
Academic Year
2017/2018
Co-ordinator
Dr Natasha Alden
Semester
Semester 1
Other Staff
 

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Seminar 10 x 2 Hour Seminars
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Exam 4 Hours   30 minute group oral presentation  40%
Semester Assessment 1 x 2500 word essay  60%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit or resit failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. 

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate a detailed knowledge of a range of queer novels from 1980's-present day;

2. articulate this knowledge in the form of reasoned critical analysis of particular texts;

3. locate the texts studied in appropriate literary, historical, and theoretical contexts;

4. explain, and engage with, relevant aspects of recent scholarly and/or critical debates about the texts studied;

5. articulate some of their findings in the form of an oral presentation.

Brief description

This module focuses on the field of contemporary queer fiction, examining queer sexuality and gender issues and placing them in their historical and cultural contexts. In particular, it asks how the authors studied have experimented with both content and form in their exploration of the changing issues faced by queer writers over the last twenty-five years. We will use both queer fiction and queer theory to analyse how sexuality and gender are understood in society and how tensions around issues of assimilation and radical otherness have evolved since the 1980s. The module asks students to look at how these factors shape the novels under discussion and how, in turn, the novels respond to the particular challenges the debates present.

Aims

This is a new option developed to fill a gap in the portfolio of modules currently available. It will focus on novels dealing with sexuality and gender issues written between 1980 and the present day, and will explore litrary and cultural issues relevant to the topic.

Content

_1. Inscription: Narrating lives (coming out stories)
  • Introductory: ways of reading: gay and lelsbian fiction post Stonewall. Texts: 'Coming Out Story' (Alison Bechedel, 1993) [very short, provided as handout];
  • Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson, 1985);
  • A Boy's Own Story (Edmund White, 1986);
  • Fun Home (Alison Bechdel, 2006)
  • The Blackwater Lightship (Colm Toibin, 1999)
_2.Reinscription, reclamation: historical lives
  • The Swimming Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst, 1988)
  • Tipping the Velvet.The Night Watch (Sarah Waters, 1998/2006)
_3.Reinscription, rewriting: gender, queerness, language
  • Written on the Body (Jeanette Winterson, 1992)
  • Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002)
  • Girl Meets Boy (Ali Smith, 2007) plus one short story from Dahlia SEasons (Myriam Gurba, 2007) [provided as handout]

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number N/A
Communication Through group discussions and presentations
Improving own Learning and Performance Through independent reading and research.
Information Technology Through powerpoint presentations.
Personal Development and Career planning By critical self reflection and through the development of transferrable communication and research skills.
Problem solving By developing evaluative analysis and critical skills and by formulating and conducting a detailed arguement.
Research skills By relating literary texts to hstorical contexts and by synthesising information in an evaluative argument.
Subject Specific Skills Detailed critical/theoretical analysis of literary texts and evaluation of broad intellectual concepts.
Team work Through group presentations.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6