Key facts

Details for course being taught in current academic year
Level 1  -  18 credits  -  spring and summer terms

E-learning links

Study Direct: Q3056 (09/10)

Resources

Timetable Link
Reading list

Course description

Course outline

Approaches to English is a series of lectures and seminars designed to explore various ideas of reading and criticism in contemporary studies in English. The course runs across the Spring and Summer terms of Year 1, with eight lectures in the Spring term and four in the Summer. You will attend one lecture per week and you will have, later in the same week, a one hour discussion in smaller seminar groups on the themes and topics raised by the lecture. Attendance at both lectures and seminars is compulsory.

The course is divided into two parts. In the first part, Scenes of Reading, you will revisit a selection of literary texts from ‘What is Literature’ as well as exploring a number of new novels, poems and short stories. Topics covered include: Literature and the University; The Time and Place of Reading; Reading and Ideology; The Shape of the Text; Reading and
Nationhood; and Reading and Sexuality. In the second part, you will engage with the work of some of the most important figures in structuralist, post-structuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist and postcolonial criticism.

At the end of the course, the successful student will be able to apply a range of theoretical approaches to literature; display an understanding of the ways in which literary theory has developed in relation to literary studies; be aware of areas of debate and contention within the discipline; apply theoretical methods to their reading of primary material; be able to communicate effectively in written and in oral forms.

The course builds upon your work in What is Literature’, Methods of Literary Study and Reading in the West. The course will provide you with the foundation in critical theory necessary for your subsequent work on your degree course.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the successful student will:

1) be able to apply a range of theoretical approaches to literature;
2) display an understanding of the ways in which literary theory has developed in relation to literary studies;
3) be aware of areas of debate and contention within the discipline;
4) apply theoretical methods to their reading of primary material;
5) be able to communicate effectively in written and in oral forms.

Assessments

View old exam papers

Resit mode of assessment

Timing

Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.

Weighting

Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.

Teaching methods

How to read the week pattern

The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.

Contact details

Dr Alistair Davies

Assess convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/english/profile655.html

Dr Vincent Quinn

Convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/gender/profile9037.html