Undergraduate Course: Gender and Culture (ELCC08010)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Gender concerns us all. It is also through gender, and its cultural representations, that we can develop critical thinking, re-evaluate our own views, and learn to see beyond stereotypes. This team-taught course on gender and culture offers a series of different forms of analysis through which we can 'read' gender. It is particularly suited to students who wish to develop their critical and analytical skills by learning more about specific gender-related issues and developing gender-specific approaches to engaging with a variety of cultural works across disciplines, genres and literary periods. All texts will be in English or in English translation.
If the quota for this course is full and you would like to be placed on a reserve list, please email the course secretary. If you have not received an offer of a place by Friday of week 1, you should assume that you will not be able to take the course. |
| Course description |
'Gender and Culture' is primarily a skills course. Its two main aims are: (1) to introduce you to themes and topics that have dominated (recent) gender discourse; and (2) to develop your skills in critical analysis by engaging with a variety of texts (in a broad sense). You will learn how to 'read' cultural representations of gender within different critical frameworks, thereby developing a complex understanding of the concerns raised by gender studies and debated well beyond it.
The course starts with a general introduction to the topics you will study and to some important aspect of gender studies. We will ask, for example, why we study gender; how we can study it; and what we can learn from studying gender more broadly. This is followed by a number of sessions taught by different tutors. Class discussions may focus on gender in relation to, for instance, popular culture, translation, history, gender roles and expectations, and masculinity. You will approach these themes by studying a number of different texts (such as images, prose texts, and film).
The course is taught in 10 two-hour seminars over one semester. As the course focusses on student-led learning, you will join an Autonomous Learning Group in which you will prepare for each seminar as well as your group presentation to be delivered in the final seminar. One seminar will be set aside for focussed preparation of the group presentation, and one seminar will be dedicated to individual feed-forward sessions with the relevant tutor. You will listen to brief lecture-style presentations on theoretical/methodological issues by the tutor when appropriate, but most of the class will centre on workshop-based discussion.
Please note the quota for this course will be raised to 25 once places have been allocated to Year 2 DELC students.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 24 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
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 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course is assessed on coursework only. There are two components:
1. Class participation, including reflective logs posted weekly on Learn. They are read, and commented on, by tutors, but not assessed. Students will then produce one reflective essay of 1000 words that builds on those logs. (60%)
2. A group presentation at the end of the semester. (An alternative assessment can be offered if schedule of adjustments is in place.) (40%) |
| Feedback |
General verbal feedback will be given regularly in class. Students will receive brief written feedback on their weekly logs. Students are also invited to schedule a feed-forward session in preparation of their group presentation. Students will receive feedback on their group presentations on the day and some written feedback shortly afterwards. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate knowledge and understanding of gender issues.
- apply critical analytical skills to a variety of texts and develop ideas with reference to other critics' work.
- write and speak about gender and culture using appropriate academic terminology and phrasing.
- carry out independent research, individually and as part of a group, under the guidance of the tutor.
- construct coherent arguments which show an awareness of the problems posed by the texts.
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Reading List
Essential
Cranny-Francis, Anne, Wendy Waring, Pam Stavropoulos, and Joan Kirby, Gender Studies: Terms and Debates (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
Evans, Mary, and Carolyn Williams, eds, Gender: The Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2013)
Von Flotow, Luise, Translation and Gender (Manchester: St Jerome, 1997)
Whitehead, Stephen M., Men and Masculinities, Key Themes and New Directions (Cambridge: Polity, 2002)
Recommended
Butler, Judith, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York and London: Routledge, 1999 [1990])
Castro, Olga and Emek Ergun, eds., Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2017)
Colebrook, Claire, Gender (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Connell, R.W., Masculinities (Cambridge: Polity, 2005 [1995])
Connell, Raewyn, and Rebecca Pearse, Gender in World Perspective, 3rd ed. (Cambridge: Polity, 2015)
Gill, Rosalind, Gender and the Media (Cambridge: Polity, 2007)
Halberstam, Judith, The Queer Art of Failure (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011)
Larkosh, Christopher, ed., Re-Engendering Translation: Transcultural Practice, Gender Sexuality and the Politics of Alterity (Manchester: St. Jerome, 2011)
O'Brien, Jodi and Arlene Stein, eds, Gender, Sexuality, and Intimacy: A Contexts Reader (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 2017)
Further reading
Butler, Judith, Undoing Gender (New York and London: Routledge, 2004)
Kosofsky Sedgwick, Eve, Epistemology of the Closet, Updated with a New Preface (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2008 [1990])
Phipps, Alison, The Politics of the Body: Gender in a Neoliberal and Neoconservative Age (Cambridge: Polity, 2014)
Reeser, Todd W., Masculinities in Theory: An Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, 2010)
Simon, Sherry, Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission (London and New York: Routledge, 1996) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will further develop graduate attributes, personal and professional skills in the following areas:
- Research and enquiry: problem solving; analytical thinking; critical thinking; knowledge integration and application; handling complexity and ambiguity.
- Personal and intellectual autonomy: self-awareness and reflection; independent learning and development; creative and inventive thinking.
- Personal effectiveness: planning, organising and time management; team working; assertiveness and confidence; flexibility.
- Communication: interpersonal skills, verbal and written communication, presentation. |
| Special Arrangements |
The quota for this course will be raised to 25 once places have been allocated to Year 2 DELC students. |
| Keywords | gender,culture,critical thinking,literature,visual culture |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Frauke Matthes
Tel: (0131 6)51 1483
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Alexandra Marie Aedo Mezeul
Tel: (0131 6)50 3702
Email: |
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