Undergraduate Course: Contemporary Scottish Fiction (ENLI10280)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | English Literature |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course seeks to acknowledge and explore the tremendous wealth of contemporary Scottish writing, understood as that which has been produced since the mid 1980s. The course takes as its starting point the formal innovations of James Kelman=s fiction, on the basis that his work makes available a range of strategies which liberate Scottish writing from many of the concerns which had dominated most of the twentieth century. However, while the course aims to luxuriate in that new formal and thematic freedom, it will also seek to link it to a consideration of the restructuring of the field of literary production in the period, which threatens to domesticate such strategies. The course will aim to give a flavour of the contemporary literary field in Scotland, looking at bestselling and less celebrated works, examining texts whose narrative strategies push the psychological and pathological dimensions of the novel to its limits, but also novels which conform to generic expectations. Does capitulating to generic demands negate the critical potential of the writer, as Kelman has argued? Or does the blurring of boundaries between literary and genre fiction represent the liberation of both writer and audience from literary convention? |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: 15 |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Seminar | | 1-11 | | 11:10 - 13:00 | | | |
| First Class |
Week 1, Tuesday, 11:10 - 13:00, Zone: Central. Room 6.11, David Hume Tower |
| Additional information |
1 hour(s) per week for 10 week(s): attendance for one hour per week at Autonomous Learning Group - at time to be arranged. |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
| By the end of the course students should expect to be able to demonstrate their familiarity with a range of contemporary Scottish writers and to critically evaluate their work considered against its social and cultural background. Students should be able to discuss the political and ethical dimensions of narrative technique and genre, and suggest why particular works adopt specific formal strategies. |
Assessment Information
One coursework essay of 2,500 words (25%)
One take-home exam essay of c. 3,000 words (75%) |
Special Arrangements
| Numbers are limited and students taking degrees not involving Enlgish or Scottish literature need the written approval of the head of English Literature. |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Alex Thomson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3058
Email: Alex.Thomson@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Catherine Williamson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3620
Email: Catherine.Williamson@ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh - 16 January 2012 6:06 am
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