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Approaches to Criticism

Module description

This module will introduce you to a broad range of theoretical approaches to reading texts. Such approaches, developed throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century and deployed by English Studies scholars, are intended to be both worthy of historical study in their own right and useful to your own research at university. Over the course of the module you will explore a range of ways in which you might approach familiar and unfamiliar texts, and be encouraged to question exactly what a text might be and why it is worth our critical attention.

Module aims - intentions of the module

• To cover a significant range of critical and theoretical approaches to literary and film studies in the context of English Studies, including work on authorship, texts and reading, ideology and power, gender, sexuality, race, place and postcolonialism The module encourages you to recognise dialogue and dissent within the field, and introduces the ground rules for scholarship in the discipline of English Studies.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate an appreciation of a range of important problems in textual interpretation
• 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the broader context for and history of English Studies
• 3. Demonstrate a capacity to apply a variety of methodologies and theoretical approaches to literary and film texts
• 4. Demonstrate a basic appreciation of the concepts of 'authorship', 'textuality', 'ideology', 'discourse', 'subjectivity', 'performativity' and 'space and place' and of their role in our study of texts

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 5. Demonstrate a basic ability to understand and analyse theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts
• 6. Demonstrate a basic ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history
• 7. Demonstrate a basic ability to analyse contemporary debates in light of the history of the discipline

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 8. Through seminar work, demonstrate basic communication skills, and an ability to work both individually and in groups
• 9. Through writing assessments, demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, a basic capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose
• 10. Through research for seminars and essays, demonstrate basic proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
• 11. Through sitting their final examination, demonstrate basic proficiency in the use of memory and in the development, organisation, and expression of ideas under pressure of time

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

Term 1:

• Theory: Why it matters; what it's for; and what's required of you.
• Marxism, Ideology, Power & Discourse (3 weeks)
• Structuralism
• Poststructuralism
• Authorship
• Feminism/Feminism II/Gender (3 weeks)
• Film Screening

Term 2:

• Psychoanalysis
• Queer
• Bodies
• Race
• Postcolonialism
• Transnational/Transcultural
• Historicism/New Historicism
• Cultural Studies
• Modernism/Post-Modernism
• The Digital Human
• Commons Discussion: The Student

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

Basic reading:

• Module Pack available to students at the beginning of term (from Print Services).

Secondary Reading:

• Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, 3rd edn. Manchester, 2000.
• Catherine Belsey. Critical Practice. Routledge, 1980.
• Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle. Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory. 3rd edn. Pearson, 2000.
• Eagleton, Terry. The Function of Criticism. London; New York: Verso, 2005.
• — Literary Theory: An Introduction. Anniversary edn. Blackwell, 2008.
• Vincent B. Leitch, William E. Cain, Laurie Finke, and Barbara Johnson, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. W.W.Norton, 2010
• Philip Rice and Patricia Waugh, eds, Modern Literary Theory: A Reader. 4th edn. Arnold, 2001.
• Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
• Peter Widdowson. Literature. Routledge, 1999

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1838

Key words search

Critical Theory, Theory, Criticism, Marxism, Ideology, Hegemony, Poststructuralism, Discourse, Postmodernism, New Historicism, Cultural Studies, Authorship, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Gender, Queer Theory, Body Studies, Disability Studies, Race, Masculinity, Transnationalism, Postcolonialism, The Student