Undergraduate Course: Booker Prize Novels 5 (LLLG07076)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | THIS IS A FOR-CREDIT COURSE OFFERED BY THE OFFICE FOR LIFELONG LEARNING (OLL); ONLY STUDENTS REGISTERED WITH OLL SHOULD BE ENROLLED.
The Booker Prize is awarded annually for the best full-length novel written in English by a citizen of the UK, Commonwealth, Eire, Pakistan or South Africa. This course will look at winners of this prestigious literary prize and evaluate the merit of judging literature in this way. The Booker winners list presents a unique opportunity to explore the breadth and variety of literature from 1969 to the present. We consider popular winners such as Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question as well as winners like The Life and Times of Michael K and Staying On that offered critical commentary on the politics and ideologies of their time. |
| Course description |
Week 1 and Week 2: The upheavals of British society under Thatcher: AIDS and the 1980s.
Text: Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty
Week 3 and Week 4: Passive resistance: Coetzee's simple man against the unseen enemy.
Text: J. M. Coetzee: The Life and Times of Michael K
Week 5 and Week 6: Jacobson's Finkler Question: the first comic novel to win since Kingsley Amis' The Old Devils in 1986.
Text: Howard Jacobson: The Finkler Question
Week 7 and Week 8: The 'parochial' novel that beat Ballard's Empire of the Sun: Brookner's 'quite nice but unimportant' winner.
Text: Anita Brookner: Hotel du Lac
Week 9 and Week 10: Outstaying their welcome: the swansong of Scott's Raj novels.
Text: Paul Scott: Staying On
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
* discuss texts confidently;
* assess literature based, to a certain extent, on their own close reading;
* place literature in its historical context;
* explain the various issues which affect the awarding of literary prizes.
|
Reading List
Essential
Hollinghurst, Alan, 2005. The Line of Beauty. London: Picador.
Coetzee, J. M., 2004. The Life and Times of Michael K. London: Vintage.
Jacobson, Howard. 2011. The Finkler Question. London: Bloomsbury.
Brookner, Anita. 1994. Hotel du Lac. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Scott, Paul. 1999. Staying On. London: Arrow.
Recommended
Mullan, John 2008. How Novels Work. Oxford: OUP.
Taylor, Jonathan 2003. The Man Booker Prize: 35 years of the best in contemporary fiction. London: The Booker Prize Foundation. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
* Close critical reading of passages from texts.
* Small group working.
* Setting literature in historical, social and political context.
* Advance preparation of material for class including work for essays and class discussion.
* Wide reading. Students will be encouraged to work around the subject by reading other Booker Prize texts and relevant secondary material.
|
| Special Arrangements |
None |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Anya Clayworth
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Sabine Murdoch
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email: |
|
|
University Homepage