EAS3195 - Acts of Writing: From Decolonisation to Globalisation
2022/3 Module description
| Staff | Dr Chris Campbell - Convenor |
|---|---|
| Credit Value | 30 |
| ECTS Value | 15 |
| NQF Level | 6 |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Co-requisites | None |
| Duration of Module | Term 1: 11 weeks; |
Module description
Acts of Writing focuses on the processes of decolonisation, the decline of Empire, and the move to a globalising and interconnecting world, which have shaped the mid-20th to early- 21st century. The module allows you to consider key cultural and critical debates responding to these events. You will engage in detail with texts that consider questions of nationhood and community, revisionist historiography, the ethics of representation, collective guilt and responsibility, identity politics, new subjectivities and art’s relationship with economic and cultural globalisation.
Module aims
- On Acts of Writing you will engage with a range of literatures and films from the African continent, Britain, the Caribbean, Ireland, and South Asia.
- The module is grouped around several major thematic blocks that will allow you to explore colonialism and its aftermath; the creation of national myths; neo-colonialism; productions of race, class and gender identities; postcolonial historiography; representing the margins; and globalisation.
- You will be invited to consider whether literature and film have developed new modes of expression and aesthetics to accommodate the socio-historical realities resulting from processes of decolonisation, nation building, transnational cooperation and globalisation. You will be expected to read literary and filmic texts in light of key postcolonial political and ethical debates and theories.
ILO: Module-specific skills
- 1. Identify and discuss at an advanced level literary and film form
- 2. Engage at an advanced level with current debates in postcolonial, critical, cultural and world literary theory and relate these to the modes of writing and film production
- 3. Confidently relate these literary modes to the relevant socio-political and historical contexts
- 4. Identify and discuss at an advanced level continuities and discontinuities with earlier debates in literary studies, particularly from the first half of the twentieth century
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
- 5. Demonstrate an advanced ability to analyse the literature and film of different cultures and genres and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical context
- 6. Demonstrate an advanced ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history
- 7. Demonstrate an advanced ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary and film texts
ILO: Personal and key skills
- 8. Through session work and presentations, demonstrate advanced communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups
- 9. Through essay-writing, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, an advanced capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose
- 10. Through research for sessions, essays and presentations demonstrate advanced proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
- 11. Through sitting their final examination, demonstrate advanced proficiency in the use of memory and in the development, organisation, and expression of ideas under pressure of time
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
- From Colonialism to Decolonisation and Independence
- Imagined Communities, Nationalism and Neo-Colonialism
- Race, Class and Gender identities
- New subjectivities in post-millennial global contexts
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | 255 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 22 | Seminars |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 11 | Lectures |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 8 | Film screenings |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 4 | Workshops |
| Guided independent study | 33 | Study group preparations and meetings |
| Guided independent study | 70 | Seminar preparation (individual) |
| Guided independent study | 152 | Reading, research and essay preparation |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | 45 | 10 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 45 | 3000 words | 1-4, 5-7, 8-9 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Examination | 45 | 2 hours | 1-4, 5-7, 11 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Seminar Participation | 10 | Ongoing | 1-7, 8, 10 | Opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | Essay | 1-4, 5-7, 8-9 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Examination | Examination | 1-4, 5-7, 11 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Seminar participation | Repeat Study/Mitigation | 1-8,10 | N/a |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Core reading:
- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958)
- Bessie Head, A Question of Power (1973)
- Salman Rushdie, Shame (1983)
- My Beautiful Laundrette, dir. Stephen Frears (1985)
- Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother (1996)
- Ivan Vladislavic, Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked (2006)
Module has an active ELE page?
Yes
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
Indicative learning resources - Other resources
- Vivek Chibber, Postcolonial Theory and the Spectre of Capital (2013)
- Paul Gilroy, After Empire (2004)
- C. L. Innes, The Cambridge Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures in English (2007)
- Neil Lazarus (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies (2007)
- Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)
Available as distance learning?
No
Origin date
01/10/2011
Last revision date
27/07/2020
Key words search
Film, literature, Britain, Ireland, South Asia, Africa, Caribbean, diasporic writing, post-colonies, contemporary cultures
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