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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2017/2018

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : English Literature

Postgraduate Course: Contemporary American Fiction (ENLI11022)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryContemporary American Fiction is an introduction to the American novel of the last twenty years; the course emphasises the unique cultural diversity of recent American writing, and seeks to promote its aesthetic value while understanding that value within debates about cultural politics: how does one assess the artistic merit of individual texts within a 'multicultural' context where the idea of 'American' national identity is profoundly contested.
Course description Contemporary American Fiction is an introduction to the American novel of the last twenty years; the course emphasises the unique cultural diversity of recent American writing, and seeks to promote its aesthetic value while understanding that value within debates about cultural politics: how does one assess the artistic merit of individual texts within a 'multicultural' context where the idea of 'American' national identity is profoundly contested.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs Purchase of essential texts as required.
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  9
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) One essay of 4,000 words.
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Will have acquired a good close textual knowledge of nine radically different recent American novels
  2. Have a knowledge of how these novels are situated in terms of arguments about American cultural politics (especially the heterogeneity of American society)
  3. Will have some understanding of contemporary debates and politics and aesthetics as those debates are given a focus by recent American fiction. The successful student will also have acquired transferable skills that are integral to this course
Reading List
E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime.

Don Delillo, White Noise.

Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country.

Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays.

Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping.

Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto.

David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Special Arrangements Postgraduate version of ENLI10172
KeywordsCAF
Contacts
Course organiserDr Ken Millard
Tel: (0131 6)50 8304
Email:
Course secretaryMiss Kara Mccormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email:
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