Module Information

Module Identifier
EN21620
Module Title
Contemporary Queer Fiction
Academic Year
2018/2019
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 Assessment 8 Hours   Essay Assignment  1 x 2500 word essay  60%
Practical Assessment 8 Hours   Group Oral Assessment  30 minute group oral assessment  40%
Supplementary Assessment Resit Essay Assignment  Resubmit failed or missing 2500 word essay  60%
Supplementary Assessment Oral Assessment  Submit slides and scripts of oral presentation via Turnitin  40%

Learning Outcomes

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

1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of contemporary texts in light of their medieval forebears;

2. Demonstrate an ability to engage with the concept of medievalism;

3. Write confidently and fluently about the texts on the module in a focused and conceptually nuanced manner;

4. Engage in sustained critical self-reflection in order to further develop their critical skillset.

Aims

This 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 literary and cultural issues relevant to the topic.

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.

Content

Module Programme:

1. Inscription: Narrating lives (coming out stories)
• Introductory: ways of reading: gay and lesbian fiction post-Stonewall. Text: 'Coming Out Story' (Alison Bechdel, 1993) [very short, provided as handout];
• Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson, 1985)
• 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 (Sarah Waters, 1998)
• Children of the Sun (Max Schaefer, 2010)

3.Reinscription, rewriting: gender, queerness, language
• Written on the Body (Jeanette Winterson, 1992)
• Physical (Andrew McMillan, 2015)
• Girl Meets Boy (Ali Smith, 2007)

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 power-point 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 argument.
Research skills By relating literary texts to historical 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 5