Module Information

Module Identifier
WL20320
Module Title
Short stories: Grit and Candour
Academic Year
2025/2026
Co-ordinator
Semester
Semester 2
Reading List
Other Staff

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Coursework Assignment  short story OR comparative essay on one topic 3000 Words  100%
Supplementary Assessment Coursework Assignment  short story OR comparative essay on one topic 3000 Words  100%

Learning Outcomes

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

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a diverse range concepts and approaches to the contemporary short story.

Demonstrate an ability to carry out independent research and use this effectively in critical and creative work.

Demonstrate an awareness of individual, social and political approaches from a diverse range of writers and their work.

Make constructive critical responses to their own and other students’ writing, and engage in appropriate revisions of their own work.​

Brief description

This module engages with a wide range of everyday stories from readers, critics and writers’ perspectives. It is suitable for all students who have an interest in contemporary short fiction and stories that reflect the world that we live in. This is a dual assessment module. Students will study, write about and base their own stories set in today's world, contextualizing them within current literary, historical, political and social perspectives. They will engage with poignant everyday stories from a diverse range of cultures and communities from around the world, such as Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, Emma Donoghue's Kissing the Witch, James Kelman's 'That was a Shiver' and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 'Things Around your Neck'.

Content

Seminar 1. Introduction to reading and writing short stories that reflect our and other lives.

Seminar 2: Dirty Realism to Psychological Realism: 21st century. Urban voices from around the UK.

Seminar 3: Workshop: critical and creative pieces inspired Urban voices from Around the UK.

Seminar 4. Retelling and unworldly imaginings: Magic realism to Light fantasy.

Seminar 5. Workshop: Magic realism to fantasy

Seminar 6: Memories of childhood: colonial legacies and postcolonial concerns.

Seminar 7: Workshop: Memories of childhood and Writing Home

Seminar 8. Reality and the queer perspective:

Seminar 9: Workshop: LGBTQ+ and non-gendered writing

Seminar 10: Workshop. Round up discussion: culture and diversity in today's short story that responds to and reflects the worlds we live in.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Communication Through giving and receiving feedback; through writing the assignments.
Improving own Learning and Performance Engaging with and understanding a diverse range of cultural and social texts
Information Technology Use of digital resources for research.
Personal Development and Career planning The module directly engages with every day living and ways of writing and reading the real world. Reflecting upon the fictional responses to the real world.
Problem solving Through dealing with problems of research and writing.
Research skills Analyzing, evaluating and applying a range of approaches and concepts to critical and creative work.
Subject Specific Skills Use of analytic and evaluative skills in critical and creative modes in presenting oral and written argument.
Team work Workshopping with peers.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5