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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2017/2018

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : English Literature

Postgraduate Course: Neo-imperialisms (ENLI11137)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThe course will invite students to look at various ways in which life is made fragile and precarious by what might be called the 'neo-imperialisms' of the contemporary globalized world. It will include writing and film from and/or about South Africa, Ghana, India, the UK, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay.

*This course is taught jointly with undergraduate students and consequently postgraduate places are limited
Course description 1.Introduction
2.Waiting for the Barbarians, JM Coetzee
3. Poems by Brian Turner / Imtiaz Dharker / Guantanamo Detainees (on Learn)
4. A Certain Maritime Incident / Asylum Monologues / Asylum Dialogues (plays provided on Learn)
5. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Ayi Kwe Armah
6. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid
7. Love in the Kingdom of Oil, Nawal El-Sadaawi
8. Animal's People, Indra Sinha
9. 'Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha', Mahasweta Devi (on Learn)
10. The Wind-Up Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi

According to Michel Agier, ¿the world today is confronted with the sustained evidence of precarious lives¿. This course will look at various ways in which life is made fragile and precarious by what might be called the ¿neo-imperialisms¿ of the contemporary globalized world, and will include writing and film from and/or about South Africa, Ghana, India, the UK, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. The emphasis will be on creative responses to oppression and marginalisation¿the role of the imagination (such as constructing fantasies of ¿the other¿) in propagating forms of violence, and also in marking out ¿other passages¿ (in Judith Butler¿s words) out of cycles of oppression and injury. In particular, the course will ask students to consider the extent to which the various positions and theories offered by postcolonial studies can provide a viable frame for thinking about representations of current or recent geopolitical situations, such as conservation and environmental stress, increased people movement, the 'war on terror', the power of international corporations, and the postcolonial city.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  15
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) One 4,000 word essay (100% of the final mark).
Feedback Students will receive feedback on written work within 15 working days of submission.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Deploy an appropriate critical vocabulary for the discussion of film
  2. Articulate (in written and oral forms) a considered, informed sense of the breadth and range of postcolonial writing, theory and contexts
  3. Evaluate a range of key concepts in postcolonial studies, particularly in terms of their relevance to current neo-imperial contexts and their application to the primary texts;
  4. Demonstrate the ability to work with interdisciplinary material in addition to literature and film, such as theoretical, historical and sociological sources
  5. Reflect constructively on good learning practice.
Reading List
1.Introduction
2.Waiting for the Barbarians, JM Coetzee
3. Poems by Brian Turner / Imtiaz Dharker / Guantanamo Detainees (on Learn)
4. A Certain Maritime Incident / Asylum Monologues / Asylum Dialogues (plays provided on Learn)
5. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Ayi Kwe Armah
6. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid
7. Love in the Kingdom of Oil, Nawal El-Sadaawi
8. Animal's People, Indra Sinha
9. 'Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha', Mahasweta Devi (on Learn)
10. The Wind-Up Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Special Arrangements

KeywordsNI
Contacts
Course organiserDr David Farrier
Tel: (0131 6)50 3607
Email: David.Farrier@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Kara Mccormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: Kara.McCormack@ed.ac.uk
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