EL6016 - Neo-Victorianism: Contemporary Literature and Culture

You will learn through a mixture of lectures / seminars / workshops / practical classes etc. The seminar will provide you with the opportunity to explore the texts discursively through small-group exercises, presentations, and debate. Key themes, theories, topics, etc., will be introduced in lectures, supported by seminars that allow group working and further discussion /debate. Workshops/practical classes will allow the development of practical skills and module outcomes. All learning materials, tasks and readings will be posted on the eLP (Blackboard) to enable participation within the seminar programme. You will learn by participating in formative assessment activities and receiving feedback, and you will be responsible for your own guided and independent learning. Summative assessment will complete the learning against the learning outcomes for the module.

Academic support is provided through group/individual tutorials which allow specific issues to be addressed and to promote progress in academic development. Academic learning materials are provided through eLP. Formative feedback will be ongoing throughout seminar/workshop activities and through assessment tasks. The module tutor(s) will be accessible within publicised office hours and via email.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

1. an enhanced understanding of issues raised by contemporary texts and contexts;


Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
1. augmented intellectual skills in employing theoretical and critical material in relation to literature;
2. developed abilities in close and interdisciplinary textual analysis;


Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
1. an improved awareness of contemporary and nineteenth century debates around class, race, gender, religion, nationality and sexuality and contemporary writer’s intervention in those debates;
2. enhanced skills conforming to relevant standards of good academic conduct in the expression of an informed argument in written forms through completing the various activities prescribed.

The assessment for the module will be in two parts.
1) Formative (practice)
There will be a formative presentation to be delivered during the seminars. You will receive formative feedback immediately after the presentation from the lecturer and from your peers by way of comments and questions. This formative assessment will aim to ensure you organise your ideas and material for the summative assessment, by selecting relevant primary and secondary resources to help you answer the question chosen. Feedback on this presentation will be reinforced by one-to-one meetings during the semester. The rationale for this is to enable you to garner informal feedback on your ideas before committing yourself to an argument or position. This assessment addresses MLOs in Knowledge and Understanding and Intellectual/Professional skills & abilities.

2) Summative (graded)
a) 1x 500 word assessment for web-based/digital communication (10%). Online material will be assessed via Twitter or WordPress blog, and peer responsiveness will be encouraged. You will be encouraged to engage in a dialogue with your students, and will be invited to evaluate critically the material presented. You will be asked to think about texts and contexts, and identify original examples from history and culture which inform our ideas about the Victorians. This assessment addresses KU 1 and PVA 1 and provides you with a low-risk assessment in which to test out your ideas.

b) x 1,500 word short review essay (30%) where you will be asked to review two critical articles. You are asked to provide a critical analysis of the articles, detailing your understanding of the central argument and how this can be applied to literary and cultural texts. This exercise will require you to respond to critical scholarship in detail, while also prioritising the contexts and histories they think are important for understanding that text. As such, this assessment tests key skills in identifying and assimilating research, and expressing a critically reflexive view in a form of prose different to a standard essay. Feedback will be provided using the Departmental template and comments on the script, and before the submission date for the second summative piece, allowing ‘feed forward’. This assessment addresses KU 1, IPSA 2 and PVA 1 & 2.

c) 1 x 2,500 word project essay (60 %). For this task you will have to write an essay in response to a set of questions, using two primary texts, as well as referencing critical material appropriate to third-year study, and produce a solid bibliography to support your argument. The aim here is to ensure you get to are familiar with a range of Neo-Victorian texts and contexts, theoretical positions and concepts, while expressing you arguments in a format with which you should now be familiar. This assessment tests your skills in written expression, research, close textual analysis, and contextualisation.
Feedback will be provided using the Departmental template and comments on the script. This assessment addresses all five MLOS. Feedback will encourage and facilitate reflective learning.

N/A

N/A

Please find details of this module in the other sections provided.