EN2CRI-Critical Issues

Module Provider: English Literature
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Autumn term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites: English Part 1 or A-Level (A*, A or B)
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2021/2

Module Convenor: Dr Stephen Thomson
Email: s.thomson@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

Critical Theory is the philosophy of literary study and this module opens up theoretical ideas connected with language, ideology, ‘structure’, sex and gender, and race. In addition to the range of theoretical arguments discussed, a literary text (George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four) is used throughout the module to consider how the ideas can be used to read text and enhance critical analysis.

Seminars discuss the ideas raised in the lectures and use them in relation to Orwell’s novel; debates include what language is and how it creates meaning; how literature may be understood within ‘structures’ and conversely how structures may conceal invested frameworks; how ideology is transmitted, circulated and absorbed ; how race has been constructed via discourses of power; how the postmodern troubles previous faith in concepts such as ‘the real’, ‘truth’, ‘logic’ and ‘reason’. Seminar debate is lively on this module and the ideas we discuss can challenge prior beliefs as well as attitudes towards text and meaning (‘what it says depends on how you look at it: nevertheless, how you look at it depends on what it says’). This module informs all subsequent work at Part 2 and at Part 3 level and is particularly helpful to dissertation work.

The essays used on the module are available on Blackboard. Students are also given weekly ‘seminar preparation’ notes to help guide their reading and their preparation for seminar debate.



Students who are keen to extend their skills in critical thinking, and who are ready to challenge their own ideas and beliefs, will find this module extremely rewarding.

Aims:

Building on the critical and theoretical work undertaken at Part 1 (‘Research and Criticism’), this module aims to develop students’ understanding of some of the most important concepts in modern literary study, through an examination of critical debates and the new perspectives initiated by them. The module also shows students how to use critical and theoretical concepts in reading a literary text; this is demonstrated throughout the module by intersecting the critical ideas with extracts from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of the module it is expected that students will be able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of key concepts, issues and debates in the contemporary study of literature


• offer detailed and comparative close analysis of texts studied on the module


• engage critically with the ideas presented in lectures, seminars, or secondary materials, and apply critical thinking to reading literary texts


• organize and articu late a coherent written argument in the summative Portfolio assignment (see below).

Additional outcomes:

Students will be encouraged to develop skills of oral communication and effective participation in group work. They will also enhance their IT competence through the use of relevant web resources and databases and in the presentation of assessed work. Students will also gain a more confident and discriminating awareness of their own critical procedures which should inform their subsequent study.Ìý

Outline content:

‘Critical Issues’ explores a range of critical debates which have proved formative to modern literary study. We will explore these through a selection of key essays written by contributors to these debates, such as Ferdinand de Saussure, Jean Baudrillard, Virginia Woolf, Hazel Carby, Franz Fanon, and Sojourner Truth. This material is supplemented by additional essays and ideas framed by Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle in An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory (which students are encouraged to buy). This reading will provide a valuable resource in itself, but also a jumping-off point for further research in Part 3.