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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2011/2012
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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : English Literature

Postgraduate Course: Contemporary Scottish Fiction (ENLI11061)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Course typeStandard AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) Credits20
Home subject areaEnglish Literature Other subject areaNone
Course website None Taught in Gaelic?No
Course descriptionThis 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?
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs Essential course texts
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
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
1 coursework essay of 4000 words (100%)

Special Arrangements
None
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
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Alex Thomson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3058
Email: Alex.Thomson@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs June Haigh
Tel: (0131 6)50 3612
Email: j.haigh@ed.ac.uk
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