LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY Course Specification BA (Hons) English Literature 2017-18 (ENLIT) www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk
Faculty of Arts, Environment & Technology School of Cultural Studies and Humanities Award and programme title: BA (Hons) English Literature Level of qualification: Level 6 Interim awards available: Award Title Level BA English Literature 6 DIPHE English Literature 5 CRTHE English Literature 4 Length and status of programme and mode of study Programme Length (years) Status (FT/PT/SW) Mode (campusbased / DL or other) BA (Hons) English Literature 3 Years FT Campus-based BA (Hons) English Literature 6 Years PT Campus-based Course Specification Overview and Aims We offer a modern and accessible course that reflects the range and diversity of English as a global literature and reinterprets the literature of the past, making it relevant to the present day. In the first year we help students make the transition to advanced level study, focussing on the development of critical and analytical skills. We engage students in the close reading of a variety of texts including novels, poems, and plays, and encourage discussion and debate over the different ways they can be interpreted. In the second year, we take students on a journey around the various worlds of English Literature, from the British Isles and the literatures of Romanticism and the Victorian period, to the British and American Literature of the twentieth century and the postcolonial literatures of the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and Australia. We study literary texts in relation to their historical contexts, and introduce
students to a range of theoretical approaches and debates within the subject of literary studies, including feminism, cultural materialism, psychoanalysis, and postcolonial theory. In the third year, students choose specialist modules informed by the research interests of our widely published staff, as well as working on a guided research topic of their own choosing for the English Dissertation. We aim to give our students a solid grounding in the subject of English Literature, deepening their knowledge and understanding, and expanding their intellectual and personal horizons. The course also allows students to identify and develop the skills of independent thought, collaborative working and effective communication that will make them employable. Course Learning Outcomes 1 appreciate and evaluate the range and diversity of English as a global literature 2 understand literary texts in relation to specific historical contexts and cultural values 3 use an appropropriate critical vocabulary to analyse a variety of texts from the main literary genres of fiction, drama, and poetry 4 produce interpretations of literary texts using coherent arguments with appropropriate evidence 5 evaluate literary texts in relation to theoretical approaches and debates at the leading edge of the discipline 6 identify the enterprise skills of evaluation, initiative, creativity, independent thought, collaborative working, and effective communication that, along with digital literacy, can make them employable Course Structure Level 4 The focus at Level 4 is on developing students critical and analytical skills across literary genres (narrative; drama; poetry), and on helping them to make the transition to study at a more advanced level. Students are given instruction and guidance on key academic skills: using Library resources, the conventions of academic writing, organization and motivation, working collaboratively, and making presentations. Students are introduced to both traditional aspects of the English Literature curriculum and to examples of the range of global literatures studied in more depth at levels 5 and 6. In addition to their modules, students are also offered opportunities to undertake study skills activities with our Writing Development Lecturer these include skills workshops and drop-in individual sessions, and amount to a further 2 hours per week of possible activity.
Semester 1 Core (Y) Semester 2 Core (Y) Critical Reading I Y Texts & Theories Y Eighteenth-Century Fictions Y Early Modern Comedy Y Haunted Narratives: Reading the Ghost Story Y Poetry Y Level 5 The focus at this level is on developing students knowledge of historical context, theory, and of English as a global literature. The curriculum becomes wider and more challenging, as students are required to engage in more depth with particular genres (Romantic poetry), periods (the Victorian age), literary movements (romanticism, modernism, postmodernism), and theoretical concepts and approaches. Students examine literary texts alongside a range of intellectual, social, cultural, and political contexts, developing an awareness of the contingency and relativity of cultural ideas about race, gender, class, and sexuality. All modules require students to begin using a more advanced critical vocabulary and to develop confidence in using concepts derived from particular intellectual traditions and methodologies such as psychoanalysis, feminism, cultural materialism, and postcolonialism. As in other years, in addition to the modules students are able to access advance writing skills workshops and drop in sessions which amounts to a further possible 2 hours per week of activity. Semester 1 Core (Y) Semester 2 Core (Y) Literatures of Romanticism Y Twentieth and Twenty-First Y Century Literature: Alienation and Dystopia The Victorian Novel Y Theory into Practice Y Writing America Y Postcolonial Writing Y Level 6 Students at this level are required to reflect in more depth on specialized topics they have encountered on the first two years of the course by choosing module options closely related to the research interests of teaching staff. Option modules require students to take a consistently analytical and critical approach to a specialized topic, to engage with more recent theoretical approaches and scholarly debates, to reflect on the complexity of contextual knowledge and cultural value, and to consider the wider social and ethical implications of reading and interpreting literary texts. Option modules place an increased
emphasis on both independent and collaborative learning in the writing of longer essays and making of seminar presentations. The core module English Literature Dissertation requires the ability to define a project s scope and aims, to gather, analyse, and assess information and ideas from a wide range of sources; the construction of a cogent and convincing argument; a clear and fluent presentation that follows scholarly conventions accurately and consistently, and an ability to solve problems and suggest new approaches and interpretations. The process of positioning students to make informed choices on the dissertation topic begins with a meeting of all Level 5 students at which staff discuss their expertise and approaches to framing a research question. The process is completed with the submission by each student of a formal application to be supervised by a particular member of staff. Students choose TWO options in each semester. If successful in their application to join the module, students may substitute ONE option in Semester 1 with Creative Writing. To support the most advanced levels of learning, our writing development lecturer offers a series of tailored sessions for level 6 study, which includes presentations in groups and alone; dissertation planning and writing; and writing for different audiences. This amounts to a further possible 2 hours per week of additional study time. Semester 1 Writing in a Time of Violence: Literature and Politics in Northern Ireland Core (Y) Semester 2 Atlantic Slavery: Nineteenth- Century Representations Core (Y) The Postcolonial City The Gothic: Literature, Culture, Theory Gothic Contemporaries Cultural Crossings: Race, Writing and Resistance Twentieth-Century Women Novelists: Gender and Genre Creative Writing Masculinity and the Long Eighteenth Century Shakespearean Tragedy Modern American Drama Life Writing English Literature Dissertation (40 credits) (CORE)
Learning and Teaching Details relating to contact hours and other key information sets (KIS) are available on the course page of our Online Prospectus on our website. Learning and Teaching Approaches The course adopts a student-centred approach to learning, recognizing that the key to engaging students is to use a mix of structured discussions, tasks, projects, and assessments that develop students critical, analytical, and reflective skills as well as curiosity, problem solving, active learning, and team-working. We place a high value on learning by discussion, on structured but open seminars where all students are encouraged to contribute and engage in debate. We encourage discussions that are inclusive, so that agreeing and dissenting voices are recognized and heard. We seek to develop academic writing skills of clarity and fluency in expression, coherence and persuasiveness in argument, and the effective marshalling and citation of supporting evidence. We emphasize independent learning: time spent outside the classroom in the careful reading of primary texts and of suggested supporting material. Seminar preparation tasks are regularly set which provide students with an opportunity to prepare thoroughly for seminar discussion, to absorb and reflect on the topic, and to begin to formulate their own ideas. We encourage students to be imaginative in their approach to their learning, using creative writing tasks and assessments that require them to adopt differing viewpoints and registers of language, and to grasp and explore the contextualized and situated aspects of literary meaning and expression. The English Literature team are all are active researchers who are well-published and making significant contributions to the development of the discipline. We offer third year student opportunities to share in and learn from this expertise, and to be inspired by it in their own research and writing. We value our students not simply as learners or candidates for assessment, but as people, and we are concerned for their development and future. We recognize that students need to develop enterprise skills and enhance their employability so as to navigate career paths in a labour market where employment is precarious and new occupational roles are being created all the time. The course takes a rigorous and consistent approach to the embedding of graduate attributes of global awareness, digital literacy and enterprise, and develops employability skills at each level. Learning and Teaching Activities The course is delivered primarily through weekly lectures and seminars, although there is considerable variation in the ways in which individual modules may deploy these formats:
Lectures are typically of an hour s duration and introduce students to key concepts and topics, provide analysis of critical approaches and historical contexts, and suggest ways of interpreting texts, framing issues and intervening in debates. Lecturers make use of PowerPoint slides, images, maps, video clips and other visual material and provide detailed module guides which allow students to identify the learning activity for each week and provide suggestions for seminar preparation and secondary reading. Lecture notes and other learning materials are made available to students via VLE. Seminars are normally of two hours duration and may involve close reading and discussion of prepared passages; small group discussion of selected passages, topics, or secondary source; a plenary or feedback sessions with reports from small groups; student-led discussion through the presentation of short papers or the setting of learning tasks; and assessed student presentations. Independent learning may involve the close reading of primary sources and suggested secondary sources; reading from the learning resources suggested by the module tutor; independent research using books, journals, websites, and electronic databases; completing seminar preparation tasks; keeping a reflective learning journal; collaborative work with other students on prepared topics; and both assessed and informal presentations. Coursework may involve a short analysis of a text; the preparation of an essay plan; a literature search; the compilation of a bibliography; the compilation of an anthology of sources; an essay written in response to a question set by the tutor; an essay written in response to a question or topic devised by the student; a piece of creative writing. Other less frequently used assessments include formal examinations and seen exams. Graduate Attributes (UG only) Global Awareness The course introduces students to the values and practices of a wide range of cultures through the study of English as a global literature. It develops an awareness of how bias, stereotypical thinking, and prejudicial opinion have both shaped literary expression and been challenged by it. The course enables students to understand how identities and practices are historically specific and culturally constructed. At Level 4: The modules Critical Reading I and II develop students global awareness by introducing them to texts from Britain, the Caribbean, and South Asia. Shakespearean Comedy requires students to engage with issues of homophobia, anti-semitism, sexism, and religious intolerance, and to consider the historically contingent character of cultural ideas about race, class, gender, and sexuality. Students demonstrate an awareness of global contexts in Eighteenth-Century Fictions through engagement with questions of empire, slavery, and European politics. At Level 5:
In Literatures of Romanticism, students are required to critically assess the construction of the literary canon and its exclusion of Black, working class, and women writers. The Victorian Novel requires students to engage with issues of class, gender, and empire, and to reflect on the impact of diverse cultural and global contexts on their discipline. Writing America provides an opportunity for students to examine examples of cultural interaction, syncretism, and hybridity in both popular and literary forms. Twentieth and Twenty First Century Literatures requires students to engage with the international origin and impact of key literary movements and ideas (modernism, utopia, and dystopia). Postcolonial Writing requires students to develop readings informed by an awareness of a wide range of historical and geographical locations including Kashmir, Pakistan, and Palestine. At Level 6: In The Gothic: Literature, Culture, Theory, students are required to theorize and reflect on psychological accounts of identity and difference, and position the concepts of abjection and the uncanny in a range of national and global contexts. Atlantic Slavery: Nineteenth-Century Representations advances students global outlook with a synoptic and comparative view of four centuries of Atlantic slavery, and requires them to reflect on how slavery has been memorialized in the present day. Twentieth-Century Women Novelists encourages students to consider their own subjective position in relation to issues of readership, authorship, and gender. Writing in a Time of Violence explores sectarian notions of national identity in Northern Ireland. Modern American Drama requires students to reflect critically on the key components of the national ideology of the United States. On Reading the African Diaspora students critically examine the global impact of slavery and the slave trade, European colonialism, plantation culture, and patterns and cultures of migration. The Postcolonial City requires students to engage critically with questions of multiculturalism and cultural diversity, the intersections of gender politics, race, ethnicity, and class in a range of global settings. Digital Literacy The course has a strong element of digital information retrieval and digital scholarship, and requires students to critically evaluate material from a range of on-line sources. It also develops skills of digital life planning. At Level 4: In Texts and Theories students are given tutor-led Information Technology sessions in searching on-line databases and accessing digital sources. Poetry requires students to critically evaluate web-based sources. Haunted Narratives requires students to keep a learning Log using the VLE VLE platform, and develops the following digital literacy capabilities (JISC, 2011): ICT/computer literacy (critical thinking, academic communication and presentation) Information literacy (independent retrieval of reliable and relevant information from WWW) Media literacy (use of VLE as a critical and reflective medium) Digital life-planning (reflection, and personal and professional development planning).
At Level 5: Literatures of Romanticism develops media literacy by making use of a student-led discussion forum on VLE. In Postcolonial Writing students access digital recordings of poetry performances online and reflect on the impact of digital media on the dissemination of creative writing and their own discipline. At Level 6: Writing in a Time of Violence extends and consolidates students media literacy, requiring them to conduct research on the Troubles in Northern Ireland using the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). Four options (Twentieth-Century Women Novelists; Postcolonial City; Reading the African Diaspora; and Modern American Drama) refine students ICT skills by requiring presentations to a professional standard using PowerPoint. The Creative Writing option requires students to make a podcast and provides an opportunity to submit a blog and participate in an on-line discussion forum using VLE. The Dissertation module consolidates media literacy by requiring students to make use of a wide range of databases in conducting a literature search, including JSTOR, Academic Search Complete, and the MLA International Bibliography. It also consolidates digital life planning by requiring students to use the use the online Careers Tools Prospects Planner and Target Careers Report, and the EROL CV-writing resource. Enterprise For the purposes of this course, enterprise refers to skills of initiative, independent thought, and creative problem solving. The course develops analytical and investigatory skills, as well as an ability to work with others and to be critically reflective. At Level 4: Critical Reading I and II help students develop strategies for time management, motivation, and collaborative and self-directed learning in the making of small group seminar presentations. Eighteenth-Century Fictions requires students to lead seminar discussions, developing independence, initiative, team-work, and resilience. At Level 5: In Literatures of Romanticism, students are required to choose their own topic for the first assignment and research it independently. The exam for Victorian Novel requires students to marshal an argument under time-constrained conditions using carefully identified resources. Writing America develops and assesses skills of research, team work and organization in weekly seminar presentations. The creative writing task in Postcolonial Writing develops and assesses students skills in using different linguistic registers and being aware of how the expectations of particular audiences shape expression. Theory into Practice encourages students to confront their own habits of reading and develops skills in using different styles of interpretation. Literature of the Twentieth and Twenty First Centuries requires students to devise their own research question and generate their own arguments rather than responding to those already provided. At Level 6:
The first assessment for The Gothic: Literature, Culture, Theory, requires students to demonstrate initiative, creativity, and independence in the editing of an anthology of sources relevant to a topic of their own choosing. Reading the African Diaspora, Modern American Drama, Twentieth-Century Women Novelists, and The Postcolonial City require students to work collaboratively and independently in generating arguments and interpretations. The English Literature Dissertation consolidates a range of enterprise skills of independent research, initiative, and creativity. Students are required to undertake a literature search and produce a plan of work; to attend and reflect on an employability day event on researching professional knowledge and practice in the workplace; and to construct a CV and skills profile adapted to identified career path(s). Use of the Virtual Learning Environment All modules use VLE to provide students with up to date module information, including a module guide, lecture notes, and additional learning tasks and materials. At Level 4, Haunted Narratives requires students to keep a Learning Log using the VLE VLE platform and develops the digital literacy capabilities specified in Field 40: Graduate Attributes. At Level 5, Literatures of Romanticism develops media literacy by making use of a student-led discussion forum on VLE, and this facility is also offered at Level 6 in Creative Writing. The Dissertation module requires students to use the use the EROL CV-writing resource delivered via VLE. As VLE moves to a new platform the CDT will explore the possibility of posting critical essays, journal articles and relevant web links. Use of Blended-Learning Not applicable Assessment Strategy At Level 4 the focus is on developing key skills of close reading and academic writing. Students complete three shorter assessments based on detailed textual analysis and three longer essays. There are two presentations which enable students to gain confidence in presenting their own arguments and in working collaboratively. Digital literacy and research skills are developed through a literature review, and skills of reflection through a VLE learning log. At Level 5, students complete four longer essays which refine skills of research and argument, along with two critical analyses and a presentation. Research skills are consolidated in a literature review; an assessment that combines the framing of a research question, an essay plan, and bibliography; and a critical reflection on theoretical approaches. These three assessments contribute to the development of skills required for the Level 6 dissertation. At Level 6, students write longer essays based on extensive secondary reading, reflecting the more specialized, research-based content of the modules. Five options require students to collaborate on small group seminar presentations that consolidate students understanding of the module aims and provide opportunities for feedback informing students approach to essay assessments. The dissertation assessments, which include a research in the workplace
assessment reflection and a skills profile, allow students to both consolidate the subjectspecific skills they have developed over the course, and to identify employability skills. Feedback on Assessed Coursework Feedback to students takes a variety of forms: guidance and direction in advance of assessments; generic feedback in lectures on areas where students were doing well or finding difficulty; comments and responses to students in seminar discussion or conversation; detailed comments and suggestions for improvement on the assignment assessment form; marginal comments, questions, and corrections in coursework submitted by students; individual tutorials in advance of an assessment to allow students to clarify ideas and receive guidance; individual tutorials involving review of submitted coursework and dialogue with the student. Module Assessment Methods Module Titles Critical Reading I Level 4 Eighteenth-Century Fictions Level 4 Haunted Narratives: Reading the Ghost Story Level 4 Texts & Theories Level 4 Early Modern Comedy Level 4 Poetry Level 4 Literatures of Romanticism Level 5 The Victorian Novel Level 5 Core (Y) Critical Analysis Essay Presentation Exam Literature review Learning Log Y 50 50 Y 50 50 Y 50 50 Y 60 40 Y 40 60 Y 30 70 Y 50 50 Y 25 75 Essay plan Critical Reflection Bibliography Anthology Creative Writing Dissertation CV and skills profile
Writing America Level 5 Literatures of the 20 th and 21 st Centuries Level 5 Theory into Practice Level 5 Postcolonial Writing Level 5 Atlantic Slavery The Gothic Masculinity and the Long Eighteenth Century Shakespearean Tragedy 20 th Century Women Novelists Creative Writing Writing in a Time of Violence The Postcolonial City Gothic Contemporaries Cultural Crossings: Race, Writing and Resistance Modern American Drama Life Writing Dissertation Level 6 (Core) Y 70 30 Y 70 30 Y 70 30 Y 50 50 75 25 50 50 60 40 100 60 40 75 25 30 70 70 30 100 70 30 70 30 20 80 Y 100
Employability and Professional Context Equipped with the transferable skills learned on English Literature courses, graduates can enter a wide range of careers. Occupations associated with English Literature are those where skills of communication, research, and creative, independent thinking are at a premium, such as education (teaching in schools, colleges, and universities, teaching English as a foreign language); the media (journalism, publishing, TV and radio, copy writing, events management); advertising, marketing, and PR; information services (librarianship, curatorial, archival and research roles); and public sector administration (civil service, health service, local government). English is also associated with the professions of law, HR, banking, accountancy, and insurance. English Literature graduates are well-placed to pursue postgraduate study on academic or vocational courses. The value added element of this course is an employability strategy that links academic, enterprise, and employability skills, helping students to gain both an awareness of their own aptitudes, skills, and talents, and the ways in which the course develops them. Central to this delivery is the university-wide Futures Fest. This two week festival provides students with the opportunity to attend skills sessions, workshops and presentations from industry professionals, academic experts and employability specialists. Futures Fest is structured around 4 main themes:- Employability skills Getting a job Be your own boss Further study/work experience English Literature students, at all levels of study, may book to attend most of the hundreds of events that run in Futures Fest. The School of Cultural Studies and Humanities provides events geared toward the 4 main themes from the perspective of the disciplines that it comprises. The English literature course builds upon student activities in Futures Fest, while also providing training in employability and professionalism skills as part and parcel of the course. Examples include: At Level 4 students create eportfolios in which they reflect on their learning over the crucial first six weeks of study at university (Haunted Narratives). As as part of the Poetry module they are trained in and deliver presentations which in previous years have taken the form of a public forum on a special theme organised by students using social media. While at level 4 training is closely tied to modular assessment, at levels 5 and 6 students are encouraged to take a more holistic view of their employability skills as developed by the course. In Literatures of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century, students must write a reflective statement on their learning over the academic year. This work helps them to prepare for the extra-modular preparatory training which takes place in Semester Two, level 5, for the level 6 module The Dissertation, in which students write a formal letter of application to a tutor outlining their chosen dissertation topic and detailing the knowledge and experience they have gained on the course. Key skills continued to be reaffirmed at level 5, in for instance the presentation training given in Writing America.
The focus of the strategy at Level 6 is on researching a body of knowledge and practices in a professional context. In Semester 1, as part of The Dissertation, careers advisors and professional practitioners run workshops involving practical advice and the researching of knowledges and practices through work-related learning. Students also attend a dissertation day for which they present to small groups of peers their work on the module to date. As a separate part of this process students write a CV adapted to a specific career and a reflective statement on how their enterprise skills have developed over the course and how particular skills might be transferred to chosen career paths. The statement must make reference to at least two of their own employability or other-career related initiatives including but not limited to Futures Fest events they have participated in. This work is submitted with the dissertation and carries 10% of the module marks. Embedded at each level of the course, the employability strategy enables students to gain increasing awareness of, and confidence in, their employability and enterprise skills. Work-Related Activities Students are provided with a minimum of five days in work-based learning through Futures Fest, which is partly provided by the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities. In addition to, and in dialogue with, the festival, students engage in numerous work-related activities, example of which follow: At level 4 provision is closely tied to taught content and assessment of modules. For example, the eportfolio Learning Log in Haunted Narratives gives a grounded in self-reflection on training and an introduction to study in Higher Education, while the presentation in Poetry calls upon enterprising and creative delivery of critical thinking. While the kinds of training undertaken at level 4 continues at levels 5 and 6, at level 5 students are encouraged to extract from their learning and assessment evidence of their proficiency for work. This takes the form of reflective statements (C20 and C21 Literature), and the extramodular formal letter of application for a choice of dissertation topic, which hones enterprise, networking, and presentation skills. At Level 6, as part of The Dissertation, careers advisors and invited professional practitioners will make presentations and organize tasks involving the researching of knowledges and practices through work-related learning. The emphasis is upon allowing students to become more aware of the transferable skills they have developed on the course. Students write a 1000 word reflection on these skills, making reference to a minimum of two Work-Related Learning activities they have undertaken (which may include participation in Futures Fest), alongside a CV tailored toward a career, for submission alongside their dissertation, bearing 10% of module marks. They also present to peers at a dissertation day, which provides the opportunity for informal feedback on their development of employability skills during the third year. Placement or Work-Related Activity Level:
N/A Placement or Work-Related Activity Length in Weeks: N/A Type of Placement or Work-Related Activity: N/A Reference Points used in course design and delivery All our courses leading to Leeds Beckett University awards have been designed and approved in accordance with UK and European quality standards. Our courses utilise the Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) and relevant subject benchmarks (where these are available) and professional, statutory and regulatory body requirements (for professionally accredited courses). We review our courses annually and periodically, responding to student feedback and a range of information to enhance our courses. Our University is also subject to external review by the Quality Assurance Agency. Our latest report can be found on the QAA website at http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews-and-reports We appoint External Examiners to verify that our University sets and maintains standards for awards which adhere to relevant national subject benchmark statements and the FHEQ (UK), ensure standards and student achievements are comparable with other Higher Education Institutions in the UK, with which they are familiar, and ensure that assessments measure achievement of course and module learning outcomes and reach the required standard. External Examiners may also provide feedback on areas of good practice or potential enhancement.
Record of Enhancement No. Detail of modification (Provide a brief description of the modification and where the Course Specification has been updated) 1 Level 6 Module, Masculinity and The Long Eighteenth Century: Change to assessment weighting from Presentation 30%, Essay 70% to Presentation 40%, Essay 60% Date Effective (Indicate the academic year of entry and course level(s) to which the modification will apply) September 2016