EN2WGI-Writing, Gender, Identity

Module Provider: English Literature
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites: English Part 1 or A-Level (A*, A or B)
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4

Module Convenor: Dr Stephen Thomson
Email: s.thomson@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module introduces students to a range of texts and critical approaches which address the relationship between writing and identity. Set texts cover a broad chronological sweep and include letters, novels, short stories and autobiographical works. We explore questions around the constructions of gender, sexuality, race and class in the set texts and more broadly. We discuss and debate assumptions embedded in the texts and our own assumptions as readers of these texts. We explore the power dynamics at play in a text and consider the implications. Lectures provide a contextual framing for the set texts and begin to open out critical questions around writing and identity; seminars are focussed on detailed analysis of the set texts and the recommended secondary reading.

Aims:

The module encourages students to: analyse texts through critical perspectives informed by ideas of gender, sexuality, race and class; explore, debate and articulate the relationship between writing and identity.ÌýÌý

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of this module it is expected that students will be able to:

• Read and discuss texts through critical perspectives informed by ideas of gender, sexuality, race and class


• Identify and analyse distinctive literary characteristics in the set texts to open out questions around the relationship between writing and identity


• Engage critically with set texts and secondary material, and with ideas presented in lectures, seminars and study groups


• Organize and articulate a coherent written argument, both in coursework essays and under timed examination conditions

Additional outcomes:

Oral and written communication skills will be developed, together with critical, interpretative and analytical abilities. Students will also enhance their IT competence through the use of relevant web resources in a critically informed manner.

Outline content:

This module works with a group of set texts, which could include: Lady Mary W. Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters (1720s); Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) and Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince (1831); Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847); Henry James, ‘The Beast in the Jungle’ (1903); D.H. Lawrence, The Fox (1922); Philip Roth, The Ghost-Writer (1979); Jackie Kay, Trumpet (1998); Meera Syal, Anita and Me (1996). In addition to the set texts, recommended secondary reading is required for seminar preparation. A specific critical essay is set each week, with an extensive secondary reading list provided for independent and further research.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
A combination of lectures and structured seminar discussion, for which students are required to do preparatory reading. Students are also entitled to a half-hour tutorial on their formative essay. With the consent of the module convenor, students may also undertake a placement, through which they will learn how to apply the knowledge and skills gained in studying for this module in a professional context outside the University.