Imperfect Murder: Reading Crime and Punishment
| Module title | Imperfect Murder: Reading Crime and Punishment |
|---|---|
| Module code | MLR1025 |
| Academic year | 2019/0 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Professor Muireann Maguire () |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
Module description
Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a formative text in modern literature. It’s also a murder mystery with a real detective, a psychological thriller, a waking dream, a portrait of haunted St Petersburg – and a cautionary tale about student debt. The hero, Raskolnikov, kills the old pawnbroker because he has no money to pay his university fees. What happens next is even more mysterious…
In close readings and seminar discussions of this fascinating novel, you will critically analyse literary style, identify subtexts, subplots, and character archetypes, and gain confidence accessing and evaluating secondary critical texts. No prior knowledge of Russian required.
Module aims - intentions of the module
To introduce you to essential skills in literary study, including close reading, critical analysis, and recognition of key subtexts. To analyse the functions of plot, narrative, and style within a literary text. To analyse literary texts in their intellectual, social, and political context.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate familiarity with and understanding of selected texts and key aspects of their historical, literary and cultural context
- 2. Describe and evaluate under guidance from course tutor(s) key critical responses to the topic and apply standard critical approaches to the material
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Recognise the existence of differing critical responses to the material
- 4. Prepare an argument in an appropriate register applying basic textual evidence
- 5. Gain confidence accessing and evaluating secondary critical texts
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Plan and write an essay to a specified deadline and length, showing awareness of basic academic conventions, and showing evidence of engagement with secondary material
Syllabus plan
The initial lecture will introduce the background to the novel Crime and Punishment, including Dostoevsky’s biography and Russian culture and society in the mid-nineteenth century. Later lectures will give an overview of the novel’s structural and stylistic features, section by section, with a conclusion lecture in Week 12.
In weekly seminars, students will analyse and discuss previously studied chapters of the novel.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | 134 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 10 | Seminars |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 5 | Lectures |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 1 | Conclusion |
| Guided independent study | 134 | Private study |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 500 words | 1-6 | Written and oral |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 100 | 2000 words | 1-6 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | Essay | 1-6 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (preferably the 2014 Penguin translation by Oliver Ready)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=7577
- @RodionTweets Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/rodiontweets?lang=en
- Mapping Crime and Punishment : http://www.mappingpetersburg.org/site/?page_id=36 (from Dr Sarah Young’s Mapping St Petersburg website)
Indicative learning resources - Other resources
- Bird, Robert. Fyodor Dostoevsky . Critical Lives Series. London: Reaktion Books, 2012.
- Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.
- Kelly, Catriona. Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction . Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 2001. Leatherbarrow, W. J. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevskii . Cambridge: CUP, 2002.
- Scanlan, James P. Dostoevsky the Thinker . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010.
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 4 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 01/02/2018 |
| Last revision date | 04/02/2019 |
