EL5010 - Historical Fiction

1 x weekly 1.5 - hour lecture
1 x weekly 1.5 - hour seminar

This module will be delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars. Each week, a 1.5 hour lecture will establish the critical and contextual framework for the text or texts under discussion, a framework which will be both reinforced and problematised in a 1.5 - hour seminar. The seminar will provide you with the opportunity to explore the texts discursively through small-group exercises, presentations, and debate.

In addition to learning during contact hours with the module tutor, you will be expected to undertake both directed and independent learning. Directed learning generally will take the form of preparation for seminars where you will be expected to contribute to discussion. Informal presentations will be used as well as group work to facilitate student engagement.

Independent learning generally will take the form of further reading and investigation, the consolidation of seminar notes, and revision/preparation for the assessment of the module.

Lectures, seminars and tasks for these will develop your academic skills as you engage with primary, secondary, theoretical and contextual materials to allow you to attain the module learning outcomes, and, more importantly perhaps, to enjoy reading and thinking about historical fiction in context. The module handbook provides details of lectures, seminars, reading lists and assessment criteria; lecture PowerPoint slides are made available on the e-learning portal. The module tutor will be available in lectures and seminars, as well as in office hours and on email/phone, to discuss any queries or concerns you have about how to excel academically on the module. Moreover, feedback on formative work (a 500 word plan for your essay including an indicative bibliography) will also serve as ‘feed forward’, giving guidance on how to improve during the module. In addition, you have a designated Guidance Tutor throughout the entire duration of your programme. The academic side of the Guidance Tutor’s role includes:
• monitoring your ongoing academic progress
• helping you to develop self-reflection skills necessary for continuous academic development
• directing you to further available services which can help you with your academic skills (e.g. Library’s Skills Plus)

You are advised to see your Guidance Tutor at least twice each semester to review your academic progress. The Guidance Booklet, which you receive at the start of your first year, includes structured materials designed to help you develop your self-reflection skills. These materials underpin the academic side of the regular Guidance meetings, helping you to learn how to best use the feedback you receive on your assignments, how to build on your strengths, and improve in the areas where you could perform better.

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.

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. a specialised knowledge of selected historical novels and their contexts, and an enhanced understanding of how historical fiction can both express and challenge dominant ideologies

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
2. an ability to analyse historical fiction, paying attention to thematic concerns and formal features;
3. an ability to identify and explore the structural form and key themes in historical fiction within the appropriate social, cultural, and political contexts


Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
4. skills conforming to relevant standards of good academic conduct in the expression of an informed argument in written and oral forms through completing the various activities prescribed.

Formative (practice) assessment
1. 500-word plan for the Essay.
Doing this plan and receiving oral feedback on it will help you to:
• identify the question you intend to answer
• identify the texts you plan to use to answer the question
• provide some description of how you intend to answer the question
• offer some detail about how you will structure your response
• present some examples of secondary material you plan to use
• ask your tutor for advice about any specific areas of concern or query

Oral feedback on this plan will be provided, as well as opportunities to ask the tutor questions during your tutorial. The rationale for this is to enable you to road-test ideas before committing yourself to an argument or position. This assessment addresses MLOs 1,2,4

Summative (graded) Assessments
1. 4000-word Essay (100%)
For this task you will have to write an essay referring to two historical novels we have studied on the module in response to a set of questions.

For this module, in addition to the set questions, you also have the opportunity to devise your own question, in discussion with your tutors (by email or in person, before you submit the plan in your tutorial.
Feedback will be provided using the Departmental template and comments on the script. MLOs 1-5

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