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Contemporary Literature

Module description

Writers and artists have produced some extraordinary work over the past four decades—literature that is engaged, politically charged, and experimental. This module introduces a range of late 20^th Century and 21^st Century texts that raise questions about literature’s role in the conflicted political present. During the module, you will compare and contrast literary trends, artistic styles, ideologies and cultural tendencies in work published in America, Britain, and South Africa. You will also explore how contemporary writing opens onto global concerns about identity, place and inheritance that subvert national literary identities and dominant cultural centres. The module will increase students’ familiarity with texts that have responded to oppressive conditions in the nation state, late modernity and global capitalism, terrorism, postcoloniality. It will attend to experimental and mainstream literatures, and will cover a range of genres, including fiction, short stories and poetry.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module will introduce a range of contemporary prose and poetry published in America, Britain, and South Africa. The aim of this module is to explore:

• The meaning of the term ‘contemporary literature’, and its development out of earlier literatures
• The aesthetic, historical and socio-political dimensions of writing post-1970, and the predominating issues and themes that inform it
• The prevailing climate in the publishing world today, and its relation to questions to literary value
• Current critical and theoretical writings that will foster research-enriched readings of contemporary literary texts
• A diverse range of fiction and poetry that provides insights into the social transformations in late 20^th century and early 21^st century manifestations of nationality, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, community, class

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Cogently interrelate literary movements and literary styles across the 20th to 21st century
• 2. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of the aesthetic, historical and socio-political dimensions across a range of specific works of contemporary literature
• 3. Analyse the historical and geographical contexts of contemporary literary works effectively, including their publishing contexts and interactions with popular culture
• 4. Conduct critical interpretations that engage intelligently with the ‘real world’ context of the discipline (the place and mode of publication, a text’s intersections with different media – art, film, broadcast, live events)

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate effective skills in creative and critical thinking; written and verbal communication, debate and argument; and close textual analysis and research in written and oral work
• 6. Persuasively interlink the concerns and modes of expression of contemporary literatures with issues in the contexts of global culture and intellectual history
• 7. Cogently to analyse relevant theoretical ideas through creative pairings of literary texts with theoretical or philosophical works

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Ability to work both individually and in groups, demonstrating effective communication skills
• 9. Appropriate research and bibliographic skills, a capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and an ability to write clear and correct prose
• 10. Seminars and written work, demonstrate proficiency in information retrieval and analysis

Syllabus plan

The module will begin with an Introductory seminar entitled: ‘What is Contemporary Literature?’ In it you will explore points of similarity and difference between the contemporary era and earlier writing in the 20C using specific literary examples - some experimental, some more traditional. We will also explore the question: ‘Where is Contemporary Literature?’ in the context of global/world literature. The first week will also form an introduction to the relevant critical theory informing the study of contemporary literature. Your readings for the module will progress in a chronological fashion, starting with the literary and cultural issues of the 1970s, and ending at the present day. You will focus on novels, poetry, short stories and (some) film. The module will direct attention to literatures from America, Britain and Ireland, and South Africa. A provisional sample of the shape of the course is outlined (readings are likely to change from year to year):

• Introduction: What (and When) is Contemporary Literature? - Vladimir Nabokov, short stories     
• Memory and Time - Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
• Race and Gender - Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
• British, Irish and American Poetry: Speaking to You – W.S. Graham; Paul Muldoon; John Ashbery
• Politics and the Imagination - Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
• South Africa: Voices & Spaces - selection of poetry & Zoe Wicomb, The One that Got Away (short stories)
• ‘Black British Poetry’ – including Linton Kwesi Johnson; Jackie Kay, Imtiaz Dharker; Daljit Nagra
• Betweeness: Forms and Persons - J.M. Coetzee, Diary of A Bad Year
• Sex(ualities) and Structure - Ali Smith, selection of short stories
• ‘Trans-local’ Fiction - Anne Enright, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch
• Contemporary Literature selections published in magazines and journals this fortnight

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

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

Books to buy and read ahead. Try Amazon secondhand or Abebooks online – don’t order as a ‘print on demand’ or facsimile – these are often both expensive and unreliable:

• Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (1972; London: Harcourt, 1974)
• J.M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year (London: Harvill Secker, 2007) **
• Anne Enright, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2002) **
• Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (London: Faber, 1989) **
• Vladimir Nabokov, The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (Knopf/Vintage) OR Collected Stories (Penguin) OR any collection containing the 5 short stories on the reading list for week 1
• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (London: Vintage, 1994) **
• Ali Smith,  The First Person and Other Stories  (London: Penguin 2009)
• Zoe Wicomb, The One that Got Away: Short Stories (Cape Town: Umuzi, 2008)
• Other primary material (primarily poetry) will be made available on ELE

** longer fictional works that will require reading ahead

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=6482
• JSTOR Project Muse
• www.modernamericanpoetry.org  
• www.poetryfoundation.org
• www.archiveofthenow.com

Key words search

English Literature, Contemporary literature, British, American, South African, Coetzee, Anne Enright, Paul Muldoon, John Ashbery, David Foster Wallace, Ishiguro, Toni Morrison, twentieth-century literature, twenty-first-century literature, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, Modernism