ENG32650 Global Short Stories

Academic Year 2021/2022

This module focuses on contemporary gothic and horror short stories from Latin America, the UK, the US, and West Africa, written by women, that foreground weird metamorphoses, uncanny human-nature relations, and registrations of toxic life. We will initially explore how women’s speculative short fiction developed in the mid-twentieth century by authors like Silvina Ocampo, Angela Carter, and Shirley Jackson, and how it has transformed in response to contemporary local and global socio-ecological crises. Post-2000s writers to be examined may include Irenosen Okojie, Nana Nkweti, Carmen Maria Machado, Karen Russell, Mariana Enriquez, and/or Samanta Schweblin; and themes and topics to be covered include rewriting patriarchal mythologies; narrating the global women’s strike and reproductive movements; resisting violence; imagining environmental crises and the toxic gothic; and mediating (post)colonial extraction. Throughout you will be prompted to consider the nuances of the short story as a form; to apply comparative readings; and to engage relevant theoretical frameworks such as feminist and queer theory, ecofeminism, and/ or postcolonial-ecocriticism.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
• Demonstrate an understanding of the short story’s regional and global development from the mid-twentieth to the twenty-first century;
• analyse a range of short fictions and concepts, and relate their concerns and modes of expression to their cultural, political, social and theoretical contexts;
• demonstrate an advanced ability to perform close-reading of short stories leading to nuanced comparative analyses;
• enter into scholarly conversation with secondary work in the fields of ecofeminism, postcolonial-ecocriticism, and world literary studies;
• develop confidence in primary and secondary research skills – undertaking, applying, and transmitting research.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

24
Specified Learning Activities

76
Autonomous Student Learning

100
Total

200
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
The basis of this module is a 2-hour seminar that meets weekly. Seminars will focus on close reading of key passages from the set texts grounded by critical terms, to open out onto broader discussion of the themes of the module. Various assessments are designed to encourage students to evaluate short fiction in its cultural context with an eye to its formal specificity and broader theoretical framing, building towards a research focused essay over the course of the module. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: 3 discussion posts (300-400 words each, 1000 words in total) Varies over the Trimester n/a Graded No

20
Essay: End of semester essay (3000 words) Unspecified n/a Graded No

60
Assignment: Essay plan & annotated bibliography (1000 words) Unspecified n/a Graded No

20

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback will be provided on the essay plan and annotated bibliography before the final essay due date. Written feedback will be provided on continuous assessment components during the trimester, and on the final essay after term.

Name Role
Dr Sarah Dunne Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Sarah Dunne Tutor