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Criticism and Theory: Current Debates

Module description

This module aims to clarify and refine your individual position as a critic and theorist. It will immerse you in recent and current debates and help you understand what is at stake in each.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to clarify and refine your individual position as a critic and theorist. It will immerse you in recent and current debates and help you understand what is at stake in each. You yourself will devise the syllabus at the first class meeting (whether online or on campus), based on The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (ed. Leitch Third edition 2018), and recent topics have included: digital desire, biosocial identities, capitalist realism, environmentalism, gender identities, surveillance capitalism, auto-theory. The module will prepare you, especially those going on to the PhD or into employment in the culture industries, with critical self-consciousness, sophistication and confidence, whatever your specialist medium, period, or genre. We shall read wide-ranging selections to prepare for group discussion, but your research papers will be intensively researched according to your individual interests.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an advanced ability to apply a number of methodological frames to literary and other cultural forms
• 2. Demonstrate an advanced capacity to assess the scope and limits of each method
• 3. Demonstrate an advanced ability to clarify and refine your individual positions as critics and theorists

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary and other cultural forms
• 5. Demonstrate an advanced ability to digest, select, and organise interdisciplinary material and to trace the development of debate across disciplinary boundaries
• 6. Demonstrate an ability to make a contribution to the study of literature and culture
• 7. Demonstrate an ability to devise, research, and execute a programme of critical research

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Through group discussion, demonstrate advanced communication skills, and an ability to articulate your views convincingly both individually and in groups
• 9. Through essay-writing, demonstrate advanced research and bibliographic skills, an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and to write clear and correct prose
• 10. Research for group discussion, essays, and presentations demonstrate an advanced proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
• 11. Through research, group discussion, and essay writing demonstrate an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to question assumptions and to reflect critically on their own learning process
• 12. Through the planning and organisation of independent research projects, demonstrate independence of thought and confidence in developing ideas and formulating questions

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Collective Construction of the syllabus: Below is simply an example of possible content.
• Postcolonial Theory/ World Literatures
• The Humanities in the public university
• Digital Desires
• Deep Ecologies
• The Novel as a Genre
• Presentations (whether online or on campus)
• Genders and Sexualities
• Marxian Theories
• Genomics and Biotechnologies
• Presentations (whether online or on campus)

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Core reading:

• Vincent Leitch, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (2010).

In addition to assigned selections, all headnotes and bibliographies are useful and strongly recommended. Excerpts other than from Norton will be provided.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11547
  

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Reading for week 1:

• Familiarise yourself with the resources of the Norton, so that you are prepared to express your particular critical and theoretical queries and interests during the first class meeting (whether on campus or online).

Key words search

Criticism, theory, critical theory