Syllabus Information

5.1. Methodological overview

The learning process for this subject is based on the following:

All subjects in the discipline Literatura inglesa (English Literature) in the Grado en Estudios Ingleses (Degree in English Studies), including the subject described in this guide, comprise a theoretical and a practical part. In agreement with this, some classes will be specifically devoted to introducing conceptual and theoretical contents while some others will be practical classes devoted to the analysis of the literary texts included in the syllabus, from various critical perspectives and making use of relevant text analysis tools.

As already explained, during the course, students are offered the possibility of writing an optional individual essay, aimed at improving their skills and acquire new ones. This  is particularly important given that the students will have to write a Trabajo fin de Grado (Undergraduate Dissertation) during the second term of the same academic year. Students will count on the help of the teacher in the form of tutorials aimed at the supervision of this essay. The teacher will also be available during office hours to help students to carry out their autonomous learning process and solve the doubts and difficulties encountered by students with a view to the preparation for the final exam.

5.2. Learning tasks

Learning activities distributed according to hours and credits:

Teacher-directed activities:

-Lectures (30 hours/ 1,2 credits): introduction to the socio-cultural and historical context, the main subgenres, works andauthors and key concepts and critical tools necessary for their understanding and analysis.

-Practice sessions and group seminars (30 hours/ 1,2 credits): devoted to the analysis and commentary of compulsory readings.

Supervised activities:

Individual and group tuition during teacher's office hours (2,5 hours/ 0,1 credits), especially, but not exclusively, for those doing the optional essay.

Autonomous activities:

a) Personal study of topics dealt with in class, reading of compulsory texts and reference to basic and complementary bibliography (70 hours/ 2,8 credits)

b) Essay writing (15 hours/ 0,6 credits)

Assessment (2,5 hours/ 0,1 credits):

Final written exam comprising theoretical and practical points. See the Assessment section for more details. Handing in of optional essays.

5.3. Syllabus

(27837) English Literature V

UNIT 1. English literature in the 1960s and 1970s. Its connection with the literature of the previous decades. New paths of development.

Compulsory readings: The Collector (novel by John Fowles, 1963) and excerpts from The Fench Lieutenant's Woman (novel by John Fowles, 1969)

UNIT 2. Postmodernism and the novel: Parody, (historiographic) metafiction and intertextuality.

Compulsory reading: Hawksmoor (novel by Peter Ackroyd, 1985)

UNIT 3. The New Poetry. The world of primitivism, folk-tales and myth. Postcolonial and gender issues.

Compulsory readings: Selection of poems by Ted Hughes, Carol AnneDuffy and John Agard .

UNIT 4. The feminist movement and the development of women's fiction.

Compulsory readings: "The Bloody Chamber" (short story from a collection entitled The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, by Angela Carter, 1979) and The Passion (novel by Jeanette Winterson, 1987)

UNIT 5. From the 1990s onward: Tapping the contemporary, grappling with trauma.

Compulsory reading: "Micha" (novella from The Dark Room, by Rachel Seiffert, 2001)

5.4. Course planning and calendar

Planning and calendar

On the first day of the course students will be provided with a detailed calendar of lessons for them to organise their reading of compulsory texts.

Those students doing the optional essay must hand in an essay proposal during week seven of the course. The deadline for handing in essays is the date of the June final exam.

5.5. Bibliography and recommended resources