Length: No less than 1000 words

Details

Students will undertake a close reading of one of the following readings (available for download from the Moodle website), which relate to Weeks 1-5 of the Unit, and answer the following questions:

1. What is the writer’s main idea/thesis/argument?
2. Why is the writer making their argument?
3. What reasons/evidence does the writer use to support his/her case?
4. How might this source be relevant to the school of thought they appear to be addressing, or to literary theory more generally?

Readings

• Barthes, R 1977 ‘Death of the Author’ – Week 3: Structuralism
• Barthes, R 1977, From work to text’ – Week 3: Structuralism
• Baudrillard, J ‘Simulacra and Simulations’ – Week 4: Postmodernism
• Belsey, C 2002, ‘Challenges to expressive realism’ – Week 2: Posthumanism
• Derrida, J 1978, ‘Structure, Sign and Play’ – Week 4: Poststructuralism
• Lacan, J 1980, 'The mirror stage’ – Week 6: Psychoanalysis
• McManus, P 2021, ’Parsing the particular’ - Week 1: What is Literary Theory?
• Mulvey, L 1989, ‘Visual Pleasure and narrative cinema’ – Week 7: Feminism
• Tyson, L 2011, 'Using concepts from Marxist theory’ Week 5: Marxism
• Zizek, S 1989, The sublime object of ideology – Week 5: Marxism

This assignment will be marked using the following evaluation criteria:

1. Evidence of appropriate critical thinking
2. Clear, succinct and correct written expression
3. The proper formatting of the references according to the Harvard (author-date) referencing style.

Please Note: Marks will be deducted for poor or inconsistent referencing.

Length

Details

You are expected to keep a ‘Notes and Queries Journal' (NQJ). The purpose of the NQJ is to provide you with an intellectual space where you can explore the concepts and ideas that are surveyed in this unit. As you listen to the weekly lectures, read the readings and engage with the assignment tasks, you are encouraged to jot down notes, questions, answers, problems, and anything else that springs to mind as a way of ‘thinking out loud’ about the unit material. The N&QJ will thus become an important learning tool.

Assessable component of Notes and Queries journal

The assessable component of the Notes & Queries journal is as follows:

1. Answer at least six of the weekly discussion questions as listed on the unit Moodle site chosen from weeks 4-11;
2. Demonstrate evidence of reading and research, appropriately referenced;
3. Each answer should be 400-500 words long;
4. All six answers should be submitted for assessment as a single Word document through the Moodle site by the Friday of Week 12. If you are submitting your entire journal, clearly identify which answers you wish to be considered as part of this assessment (e.g. simply write ‘Assessment Piece’ at the beginning of each answer).

Bonus marks

You are encouraged to post your answers each week to the relevant Moodle discussion forum and to respond to the posts of others. Students who provide evidence of engaging with the discussion forums and the posted NQJ entries of others will receive an automatic 5% bonus marks.

How to write your journal entries

This is your journal and you can write in any style that suits you. It is fine to use the first-person (i.e. to say ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ etc.). However, do keep in mind that what you write needs to be comprehensible to another reader (other students on the Moodle forums, as well as your marker), so use complete sentences and edit your work for typos and clarity of expression. You are expected to engage with written texts in your responses to the discussion questions (the set text, readings and any further research of your own, as well as the lectures and podcasts), and you will need to reference all sources you refer to appropriately.

This assignment will be marked using the following evaluation criteria:

1. Evidence of reflection and critical thinking;
2. Use of a range of academic sources to support ideas and arguments;
3. High level of engagement with the ideas and concepts explored in the unit;
4. Clarity of expression and proper acknowledgement of all sources using the Harvard (author-date) referencing style.

Length

Details

Students should prepare an essay on one of the following topics.

1. Culler tells us that literary theory comprises a way of thinking about the 'nature of literature and the methods for analysing it' (1997, p.1). Choose a literary theorist (or school) and test their rationale for how they go about analysing literature or literariness.
2. ‘Culture is both a means of domination, of assuring the rule of one class or group over another, and a means of resistance to such domination, a way of articulating oppositional points of view to the dominant hegemony.’ Discuss.
3. ‘Contemporary critical practice calls into question certain claims about literature and art’s ability to produce certain kinds of truths and values.’ Discuss.
4.  According to literary critic, Terry Eagleton (2007, p. 14), 'the mark of modernist thought is the belief that human existence is contingent – that it has no ground, goal, direction or necessity ... no unimpeachable foundation for what we are and what we do’. This may be seen as liberating or threatening (or both). He goes on to say that: ‘This may make our finest moments even more precious or it may serve to drastically devalue them.’ Discuss these issues in terms of relevant literary theory.
5. In the words of Whitla (2010, p. 217) literary theories 'challenge fundamental assumptions about how language works and about how we know about the world, [and] they also question deep-seated sites of political and intellectual authority.' This can be seen as both empowering and disconcerting for people in the contemporary world. Discuss.
   

Your essay should put forward an argument or position in relation to the question and support it by drawing on scholarly sources.

This assignment will be evaluated using the following assessment criteria:

1. Development of a convincing and coherent argument in response to the question;
2. High level of engagement with key ideas and concepts relating to literary theory;
3. Clear and correct written expression (effective use of essay structure, correct spelling, and grammar);
4. The proper acknowledgment of all sources (minimum of 6)using the Harvard (author-date) referencing style.