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ENG32200

Academic Year 2026/2027

Sexuality & American Modernism (ENG32200)

Subject:
English
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
English, Drama & Film
Level:
3 (Degree)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Dr Katherine Fama
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

This module will explore American literary modernisms and modernity through changes in courtship, marriage and divorce, sexuality, race, and gender identity in the first fifty years of the twentieth century. We will cross the century’s early decades, following its lovers through rural towns, Greenwich Village bohemia, expatriate Paris, modernist Harlem, and the American south. We will explore the diversity of modern and modernist love, from courtship to the marital home and beyond—to divorce capitals, queer liaisons, utopias, and friendships. Readings will include novels and short stories; speeches and essays; readings in early sexology; local newspapers and legal history; and contemporary queer, gender, and sexuality studies. Course readings may include works by Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Nella Larsen, Kate Chopin, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, and Richard Bruce Nugent. The course will take shape around weekly discussions, close readings, and a final essay.

This module is a part of a partnership with Lucy Collins's "Women's Poetry" module. (Fiction) students from this module will work with peers (in poetry) to develop a collaborative final, creative module project: The Book of Embedded Subjects. This collaborative book will respond creatively to final essay titles (on labor, intimacy, race/culture, and mothering) through visual, material, and textual explorations. Students will work together— offering peer review and support—before generating their own individual book page (and creative reflection) for inclusion in a course book that will be bound and published online at the end of term.

No previous experience in visual arts practice or bookbinding is necessary. Grading will be based on research, literary analysis, and work with literary form (not artistic excellence).

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

● Perform close-reading of texts leading to nuanced analysis
● Work with key texts and ideas in critical race theory, social history, narrative theory, gender & sexuality.
● Write and present on the form of American literary modernisms (prose)
● Explore, and analyse modernist forms and themes through a creative-critical artist book project

Indicative Module Content:

The course will explore the effects of world wars, depressions, feminism, and changing cityscapes upon the form and range of narrated relationships. We will cross the century’s early decades, following its lovers through rural towns, Greenwich Village bohemia, expatriate Paris, modernist Harlem, and the American south. The course will take shape around weekly discussions. Readings from magazines, novels, and short fiction will be placed in dialogue with the journalists, psychologists, sexologists, activists, and reformers of the era. The course will proceed in three parts, “Courtship to Altar: The Evolution of Modern Marriage,” “Broken Bonds: Adultery, Divorce, Violence,” and “Beyond the Marriage Plot: Queer, Free Loving, and Single.” We will explore the diversity of modern and modernist love, from courtship to the marital home and beyond—to divorce capitals, queer liaisons, utopias, and friendships.

Course readings may include works by Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Nella Larsen, Kate Chopin, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, and Richard Bruce Nugent.

We will explore this content through a critical creative final project.

UNESCO highlights a set of key competencies that support individuals in their development and support society in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UCD has adapted these competencies and is combining them with others to form a general framework of learning competencies. This module will help you develop the competencies below to the levels specified. 
Learning Competency Additional Information Level

Collaboration

 The ability to learn from others; to understand and respect the needs, perspectives and actions of others (empathy); to understand, relate to and be sensitive to others (empathic leadership); to deal with conflicts in a group; and to facilitate collaborative and participatory problem solving. Advanced Beginner

Critical Thinking

 The ability to question norms, practices and opinions; to reflect on one’s own values, perceptions and actions. Proficient

Systems Thinking

 The ability to recognize and understand relationships; to analyse complex systems; to think of how systems are embedded within different domains and different scales; and to deal with uncertainty. Advanced Beginner

Strategic

 The ability to collectively develop and implement innovative actions that further sustainability at the local level and further afield. Not addressed

Integrated Problem Solving

 The overarching ability to apply different problem-solving frameworks to complex sustainability problems and develop viable, inclusive and equitable solution options that promote sustainable development, integrating the competencies in this list. Not addressed

Self-awareness

 The ability to reflect on one’s own role in the local community and (global) society; to continually evaluate and further motivate one’s actions; and to deal with one’s feelings and desires. Novice

Normative

 The ability to understand and reflect on the norms and values that underlie one’s actions; and to negotiate values, principles, goals, and targets, in a context of conflicts of interest and trade-offs, uncertain knowledge and contradictions. Not addressed

Anticipatory

 The ability to understand and evaluate multiple scenarios for the future – possible, probable and desirable; to create one’s own visions for the future; to apply the precautionary principle; to assess the consequences of actions; and to deal with risks and changes. Not addressed

Digital Literacy and Judgement

 The ability to access, evaluate, create and communicate information in digital environments; to engage critically, ethically and responsibly with digital technologies and digital information; to understand their opportunities, limitations, risks and impact on individual’s digital identities; and to exercise informed judgement in digital participation and decision-making. Novice

AI Literacy & Agency

 The ability to understand, critically evaluate and responsibly engage with artificial intelligence; to recognise how AI systems are shaped by human values; to assess their ethical, social and environmental implications; and to exercise human judgement, agency and accountability in AI-related contexts. Novice

Wellbeing

 Wellbeing is having the resources and skills to meet life's challenges, including attributes such as personal development skills, resilience, stress management, strengths, lifestyle skills, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, alcohol/substance use, academic skills, time management, goal setting, interpersonal skills, group work, communication. Novice

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

80
Autonomous Student Learning

104
Lectures

20
Total

204

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
The course will take shape around weekly discussions, close readings, and a collaboration with peers from a poetry module.

Actual assessments will be structured through a creative-critical workbook that offers:
3 short exercises, a creative book page assignment and a creative reflection.
Cross-module collaborations will offer insight, peer review, and comparisons of poetry and prose but work will be independently generated and assessed.

We keep very carefully to the intended learning and classroom hours but students should note that 2-3 meetings with a single student from the other module and work on the creative project does replace the work of an essay and requires flexibility about meeting outside of class.

**AI is not permitted in this module
**Grading in the module is moderated and reviewed by an extern.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Close Reading Exercise Week 4 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
20
 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Short Exercise 2 : Critical Research Analysis (Work with Primary Source, Literary Theory, etc) Week 6 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
15
 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Workshop Exercise: Articulate and Apply Workshop Learning Week 10 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
15
 No
Individual Project: Creative Book Page, Critical Reflection Writing, & Thoughtful Workbook Completion
Due Date Depends on Registrar's Scheduling.		 Week 11, Week 12, Week 14, Week 15 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
50
 No

As part of UCD's student support, under the Additional Consideration policy, extensions may be available for the following assessments in the module: Assignment (including essay/poster), Portfolio, Reflective Assignment, Report(s), and Individual Project.


Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Draft

Indicative Course Texts:

John D’Emilio, Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters (3rd Ed.)

Printed texts will still be required (in a paginated format), for weekly class meetings.
Nella Larsen, Passing
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood

* ( This fee is WAIVED in 2026-2027 through grant funding)
We charge enrolled students a materials fee of 15 euro, to be paid at the start of term. This fee pays for shared art kits and consumable materials for the final projects. We reduce costs as much as possible by reusing materials annually.

Name Role
Assoc Professor Lucy Collins Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Maria Stuart Lecturer / Co-Lecturer

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Spring Seminar Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Wed 10:00 - 11:50
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