Postgraduate Course: Mystery and Horror (ENLI11074)
Course Outline
School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | The course covers popular fiction of the late 19th and late 20th centuries, look both at genre and history. The course compares texts from both periods, focusing on the figures of the detective, the spy, the serial killer and the scientist. Texts include, for example, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Dracula, The Secret Agent, The Silence of the Lambs and Jurassic Park. In class we will discuss issues of ideology, genre, gender, the unconscious, and the history of surveillance. An element of the course includes Scottish mystery fiction (Conan Doyle, Ian Rankin, R. L Stevenson) and is suitable for students taking a degree including Scottish literature.
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Course description |
The course covers popular fiction of the late 19th and late 20th centuries, look both at genre and history. The course compares texts from both periods, focusing on the figures of the detective, the spy, the serial killer and the scientist. Texts include, for example, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Dracula, The Secret Agent, The Silence of the Lambs and Jurassic Park. In class we will discuss issues of ideology, genre, gender, the unconscious, and the history of surveillance. An element of the course includes Scottish mystery fiction (Conan Doyle, Ian Rankin, R. L Stevenson) and is suitable for students taking a degree including Scottish literature.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
The course introduces students to the study of popular fiction as it both contributes to and is produced by ideology. The comparison of generically-linked texts from either end of the twentieth century encourages discussion of the changes in social history of the period.
The chosen texts guide students into a basic understanding of important theoretical ideas: the unconscious, post-Marxist concepts of ideology, Foucauldian ideas about surveillance and power. The course encourages discussion of a wider range of film and general reading and an understanding of students' own cultural environment.
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Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
Additional Class Delivery Information |
1 hour(s) per week for 10 week(s). |
Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
Course organiser | Prof Penny Fielding
Tel: (0131 6)50 3609
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Kara McCormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: |
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