Culture and Politics in the Contemporary British Novel

ENGL32302 Culture and Politics in the Contemporary British Novel 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 3 John Roache Unit coordinator English and American Studies 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 This course asks how the contemporary British novel has engaged with, and helped to shape, a host of important cultural and political debates since around the turn of the millennium. Focusing on four key novels from the period, for two weeks at a time, the course will require students to develop a rigorous understanding of how this particular literary form has dealt with issues including: neoliberalism; debates around ‘British national identity’, devolution, and multiculturalism; and new configurations of gender and sexuality. Students will also be expected to read widely in related critical and theoretical literature so as to develop a detailed, confident, and sophisticated approach to the question of how the British novel might enable us to better understand the contemporary intersection of cultural and political discourse.   <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:-webkit-left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">This course asks how the contemporary British novel has engaged with, and helped to shape, a host of important cultural and political debates since around the turn of the millennium. Focusing on four key novels from the period, for two weeks at a time, the course will require students to develop a rigorous understanding of how this particular literary form has dealt with issues including: neoliberalism; debates around ‘British national identity’, devolution, and multiculturalism; and new configurations of gender and sexuality. Students will also be expected to read widely in related critical and theoretical literature so as to develop a detailed, confident, and sophisticated approach to the question of how the British novel might enable us to better understand the contemporary intersection of cultural and political discourse.   • to introduce students to a series of important and influential British novels and their cultural and political contexts since the turn of the millennium; • to consider the development of the contemporary novel as a political form; • to consider how the contemporary British novel engages with issues such as class, gender and sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion; • to develop skills of critical thought, speech, and writing in relation to the study of contemporary literature.  By the end of this course, students will be able to: • think in an independent and rigorous way about the relationship between culture and politics in the contemporary British novel; • draw on a range of historical, critical, and theoretical materials in forming arguments about this relationship;  By the end of this course, students will be able to: • advance persuasive, well-structured, and critically-informed arguments, both orally and in writing. • think carefully about the relationships between contemporary British literary/cultural production, socio-political identity, economic conditions, and ideology.   By the end of this course, students will be able to: • interpret and discuss an important contemporary literary form; • carry out independent research that links this form to a range of related political and historical contexts; • work effectively as an individual and as part of a small group; • write persuasively and rigorously about a set of crucial cultural and political debates.   • initiative: students will be expected to work on their own initiative in order to read and research texts/topics.  • leadership: there will be opportunities for students to take the lead in seminar discussions.  • organisation: students will need to develop methods for mapping out and managing their time in an effective way.  • teamwork: students will be required to work effectively as part of small groups.  • oral communication: there will opportunities for students to develop their skills of oral presentation and public speaking.   • written communication: students will be expected to submit written work that is lucid, well-structured, and persuasive.  • creativity/innovation: students will be encouraged to think in innovative, original ways about their approach to literary and cultural texts.  • research: students will need to retrieve, scrutinise, sift, evaluate, summarise, and synthesise large amounts of information in preparing for classes and assignments.   Other This course enhances student employability by giving students a range of transferable skills. These include skills of: self-organisation, research, evaluation, and analysis; written and oral communication; leadership and self-motivation; logical and critical thinking; teamwork; and creativity.  • 1 x one-hour lecture per week: lectures will introduce students to key arguments, texts, and contexts. • 1 x two-hour seminar per week: seminars are an opportunity for students to engage with the weekly text in an open, collaborative way. Active participation is expected from all students on the module.  • Weekly office hours: students will have a weekly opportunity to meet the module leader on a one-to-one basis. Office hours are also a chance to discuss ideas and plans for assignments, as well as any feedback pertaining to those assignments.  • Canvas: relevant information and reading materials will be uploaded to the module’s Canvas shell on a regular basis.   0 Other 100% <table class="Table" style="width:373px; margin-left:7px; border-collapse:collapse" width="373"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; width:241px; padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; height:20px; border-top:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black" valign="top">Assessment task  </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; width:132px; padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; height:20px; border-top:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-left:none" valign="top">Weighting within unit (if summative) </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; width:241px; padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; height:20px; border-top:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black" valign="top">Close reading essay </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; width:132px; padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; height:20px; border-top:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-left:none" valign="top">40% </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; width:241px; padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; height:20px; border-top:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black" valign="top">Research essay </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; width:132px; padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; height:20px; border-top:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-left:none" valign="top">60% </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table aria-rowcount="4" border="1" data-tablelook="480" data-tablestyle="MsoNormalTable"> <tbody> <tr aria-rowindex="1" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Feedback method  </td> <td data-celllook="4369" role="columnheader">Formative or Summative </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="2" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Oral feedback during office hours (upon arrangement) </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Formative </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="3" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Written feedback on close reading and research essays </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Summative </td> </tr> <tr aria-rowindex="4" role="row"> <td data-celllook="4369" role="rowheader">Oral feedback on essay plans and essays (upon arrangement) </td> <td data-celllook="4369">Formative/summative </td> </tr> </tbody></table> N Indicative Primary Reading (students will need to purchase all texts): Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty (2004) Zadie Smith’s NW (2012) Ali Smith’s How to be both (2014) Anna Burns’ Milkman (2018) Selected Course Preparatory Reading: Caroline Magennis, Northern Irish Writing After the Troubles: Intimacies, Affects, Pleasures (London: Bloomsbury, 2021)  Daniel O’Gorman and Robert Eaglestone, eds, The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction (London: Routledge, 2019) David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005) Len Platt and Sara Upstone, eds, Postmodern Literature and Race (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015) Nick Bentley, Contemporary British Fiction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2008) Roger Luckhurst and Peter Marks, eds, Literature and the Contemporary: Fictions and Theories of the Present (London: Routledge, 1999) Wendy Brown, Edgework: Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005) C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings (electronic access available via library) Lectures 11 Seminars 22 0 170