Undergraduate Course: Strangers to Ourselves: Post-war & Contemporary Writing (ENLI10332)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will aim to meet student demand for the opportunity to study post-war and contemporary British writing. In effect a survey of canonical and emerging writers of the period, the course will significantly contribute to the department's existing core provision of courses on mid-twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature. |
| Course description |
The course will use the figure of the stranger to introduce students to a range of post-war writing from the 1950s to the present. The stranger here takes many forms: ambivalent tricksters, aspiring immigrants, invading armies, or an unhiemlich sense of strangeness within as a constituent factor in the creation of identity. The course will include prose, poetry and drama forms, and touch upon some of the most significant social and political moments of the period including the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Thatcherism, the development of multiculturalism, the miner's strike, the second Iraq War, and the current environmental crisis. Thematically, our discussions will explore the boundaries of place, memory, literary form and identity (be it in terms of gender, sexuality, class, environmental relations, ethnicity or nationality).
Syllabus
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye
J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette
Jonathan Coe, What a Carve Up!
Jackie Kay, Trumpet
Gregory Burke, Black Watch
Imtiaz Dharker, The Terrorist at My Table
Jez Butterworth, Jerusalem
Olivia Laing, Crudo
In this course we will be discussing content that may be traumatising to some students. We believe in the importance of engaging with this material and so please rest assured that we will work with you to ensure you can participate fully and demonstrate your achievement of the learning outcomes of the course, without compromising your wellbeing or your academic development. If you have concerns at any point we invite you to approach the course organiser [Dr David Farrier (david.farrier@ed.ac.uk)] to discuss how we can best support you in your work on this course. We affirm that you will be treated with dignity and respect in all discussions and at every stage of the course.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 24 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
2000 word take-home close reading essay (30%) submitted mid-semester
- Students will be required to perform a close reading of an extract and demonstrate how it relates to relevant course themes or issues studied so far.
3000 word final essay submitted during the exam period (70%)
Mid-semester essay: LO1, LO2, LO3
Final essay: LO1, LO2, LO3
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate their understanding of critical issues in post-war and contemporary writing, such as identity, gender, sexuality, class, race and nationhood
- Understand a range of post-war literary theories and evaluate their application to course texts
- Produce clear, well-evidenced arguments that relate the primary texts on the course to the themes and socio-historical contexts in which they are embedded
- Orally present the results of research undertaken individually and as part of a small group, respond judiciously to such research undertaken by others, and critically evaluate the importance of such material for an understanding of the chief themes of the course.
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Reading List
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye
J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette
Jonathan Coe, What a Carve Up!
Jackie Kay, Trumpet
Gregory Burke, Black Watch
Imtiaz Dharker, The Terrorist at My Table
Jez Butterworth, Jerusalem
Olivia Laing, Crudo |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Katie Harling-Lee
Tel:
Email: k.harling-lee@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk |
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