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.
|
| 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.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
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 Vicuña, 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)
|
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Construct original, clear, coherent and critically informed arguments about how twentieth-century literature offers symptoms and analyses of reification, alienation and personification.
- Evaluate how the representation of reification forms part of the social and political pressures placed on the imagination by the development of capitalist industry and technology through the twentieth century to the present.
- Demonstrate the capacity to examine literary works in historical contexts and to engage with critical, contextual and theoretical materials and debates that substantiate and illustrate those arguments.
- 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.
|
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 Vicuña, 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)
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
Jointly taught with undergraduate students (ENLI10178)
|
| Keywords | PTCRL |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Aaron Kelly
Tel: (0131 6)50 3071
Email: Aaron.Kelly@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Iain Harrison
Tel:
Email: iharriso@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage