| Unit name | Literatures of the Global South and its Diasporas |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGLM0088 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Stadtler |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
As a specialist MA option, this unit reflects the research expertise and enthusiasms of the convenor and teaching team, and offers students the chance to work directly with members of staff who have strong connections to the subject field. You will have the opportunity to engage in greater depth with a specialised theme or topic, pursue advanced discussions, and develop your own arguments and contributions. The unit may build directly on work introduced at an earlier stage of study, or branch out in a different direction. It may reflect some of your longstanding interests, or expose you to new and unexpected ideas. In all cases, MA options encourage students to think reflectively, creatively, and with increased independence about their identities and interests as scholars.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit complements and extends coverage on the MA in Victorian, modernist and contemporary literature, offering students the opportunity to specialise in Literatures from the Global South in anglophone, non-anglophone and transnational contexts. The unit also complements specialist subject options at Level 3 in Caribbean and South Asian Literatures, which are also offered to MA students. The unit has synergies with other MA programmes and can be cross-listed with the MA Black Humanities, MA Environmental Humanities, and MA in Comparative Literature. The unit teaching team will change from year to year based on staff availability, but it will consistently represent a full range of research strengths across expertise on Literatures of the Global South. This new unit forms part of a wider strategic initiative to support choice, curriculum diversification and decolonisation, and provide increased optionality as students progress through their programme.
Overview of Content:
This unit introduces students to key aesthetic, critical and theoretical approaches to the study of Literatures of the Global South and its Diasporas. You will engage with wide-ranging debates, from the emergence of anti-colonial resistance struggles, key theoretical paradigms of world and postcolonial inquiry, to recent theoretical-conceptual iterations, including world-systems analysis, materialist critiques and archival studies.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit:
On completion of the unit students will have had the opportunity to engage with a wide range of cultural production from the Global South, and have gained an increased understanding of critical, conceptual and theoretical paradigms with which to analyse these. The unit will refine your understanding of the politics of visibility and diverse ecologies of cultural and knowledge production in the Global South and their wider circulation in ways that connect to the content of this unit. They will be a valuable frame of reference and starting point for dissertation research and a meaningful consolidation as you progress through your programme.
Your learning on this unit:
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. have an understanding of the cultural, political, intellectual, historical, social, and economic factors of literary production in the Global South;
2. relate critical and theoretical paradigms to specific concerns articulated in literary texts;
3. differentiate between world literary, postcolonial, and other critical perspectives on the literature studied;
4. identify and present pertinent evidence to develop a cogent argument in written form appropriate to level M.
Teaching will involve synchronous elements, including group discussion, research and writing activities, and peer dialogue. Students are expected to engage with the reading and participate fully with the weekly tasks and topics. Learning will be further supported through the opportunity for individual consultation. The combination of these different learning activities will help students build confidence and practical skills when addressing key research problems associated with textual scholarship.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Written assignment, 1000 word t (33%) submitted mid-term
Essay, 3000 word (67%) submitted end of term
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the format or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are confirmed by the School/Centre shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ENGLM0088).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
