Postgraduate Course: Poor Things: Capitalism, Reification and 20th Century Literature (ENLI11038)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course begins in the modernist area familiar from second year, tracing patterns of reification and personification as they appear in literary fiction - and extend later in the twentieth century into cyberpunk, science fiction, and perhaps some film - relating these to the nature and presentation of character and the self. These issues will be considered against a background of developing capitalist industry and technology, with some Marxist theory used where appropriate, especially in the first weeks of the course, to illumine the questions involved.
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| Course description |
The course begins in the modernist area familiar from second year, tracing patterns of reification and personification as they appear in literary fiction - and extend later in the twentieth century into cyberpunk, science fiction, and perhaps some film - relating these to the nature and presentation of character and the self. These issues will be considered against a background of developing capitalist industry and technology, with some Marxist theory used where appropriate, especially in the first weeks of the course, to illumine the questions involved.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Introduction; T S Eliot, 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night'; Willa Muir 'Clock-A-Doodle-Do'; Metropolis (dir. Fritz Lang); Modern Times (dir. Charlie Chaplin)
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (1907)
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1956)
Thomas Pynchon, V (1963)
Alasdair Gray, Lanark (1981)
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984) / The Matrix (dir. Wachowski Brothers)
Extracts from: Kamau Brathwaite, X/Self (1987) Middle Passages (1992); Cecilia Vicuņa, Precario/Precarious (1983)
Karen Tei Yamashita, Through the Arc of the Rainforest (1990)
Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods (2007)/ Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, directors cut)
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Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Gain knowledge or arrange of twentieth-century fictions, and of their significance - as reflections, symptoms, analyses, etc - of a range of key social and political pressures.
- Gain knowledge of Marxist readings of these pressures, and of their literary transmutations, along with an ability to read literature within historical contexts, and as a revelation of their nature.
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Reading List
Introduction; T S Eliot, 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night'; Willa Muir 'Clock-A-Doodle-Do'; Metropolis (dir. Fritz Lang); Modern Times (dir. Charlie Chaplin)
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (1907)
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1956)
Thomas Pynchon, V (1963)
Alasdair Gray, Lanark (1981)
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984) / The Matrix (dir. Wachowski Brothers)
Extracts from: Kamau Brathwaite, X/Self (1987) Middle Passages (1992); Cecilia Vicuņa, Precario/Precarious (1983)
Karen Tei Yamashita, Through the Arc of the Rainforest (1990)
Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods (2007)/ Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, directors cut)
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
Jointly taught with undergraduate students (ENLI10178)
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| Keywords | PTCRL |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Aaron Kelly
Tel: (0131 6)50 3071
Email: Aaron.Kelly@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Kara McCormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: Kara.McCormack@ed.ac.uk |
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