Scottish Teachers' Update Course: Literary Theories and Concepts (P02367)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 8 ? Acronym : LLC-P-P02367

The course is designed to offer teachers particularly of Higher or A-Level English an opportunity to re-engage with the study of English literature at university level, and to be brought up to date with recent developments in the field. The first semester of the course will review recent developments in literary theory, explored and exemplified through discussion of texts from a range of historical periods. The second semester will look at modernist and postmodernist texts and consider formal and thematic developments in these periods, as well as looking at theoretical material that supports a greater understanding of twentieth century literature. The course is designed to renew the enthusiasm of participants for study at this level, and to provide them with a new repertoire of skills and ideas, rather than to provide specific strategies for teaching these texts in the classroom.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : Current or Intending Secondary Schoolteachers

? Costs : Essential course texts.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

English Literature, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Full Year (Blocks 1-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 18 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

- grasp the basic concepts that make up the major movements of literary theory from 1960 to the present
- relate these theories to primary texts in a meaningful way that develops their understanding of and enthusiasm for those texts
- offer working definitions of the terms "modernist" and "postmodernist" in relation to literature
- identify thematic and stylistic traits that help to define a work as modernist or postmodernist
- understand the problems involved in labelling literary work in this way
- discuss with confidence the theoretical material that aids an understanding of modernist and postmodernist literature
- approach modernist and postmodernist texts from a knowledgeable position with regard to the theories and contexts relevant to those texts