Identifying Data 2019/20
Subject (*) English Literature and Literary Criticism Code 613G03032
Study programme
Grao en Inglés: Estudos Lingüísticos e Literarios
Descriptors Cycle Period Year Type Credits
Graduate 2nd four-month period
Third Optional 4.5
Language
English
Teaching method Face-to-face
Prerequisites
Department Letras
Coordinador
Gomez Blanco, Carlos Juan
E-mail
carlos.gomezb@udc.es
Lecturers
Gomez Blanco, Carlos Juan
Simal Gonzalez, Begoña
E-mail
carlos.gomezb@udc.es
begona.simal@udc.es
Web
General description Estudo das escolas de crítica literaria máis relevantes aplicadas a literatura inglesa.

Study programme competencies
Code Study programme competences
A1 Coñecer e aplicar os métodos e as técnicas de análise lingüística e literaria.
A2 Saber analizar e comentar textos e discursos literarios e non literarios utilizando apropiadamente as técnicas de análise textual.
A3 Coñecer as correntes teóricas da lingüística e da ciencia literaria.
A10 Ter capacidade para avaliar criticamente o estilo dun texto e para formular propostas alternativas e correccións.
A11 Ter capacidade para avaliar, analizar e sintetizar criticamente información especializada.
A14 Ser capaz para identificar problemas e temas de investigación no ámbito dos estudos lingüísticos e literarios e interrelacionar os distintos aspectos destes estudos.
A15 Ser capaz de aplicar os coñecementos lingüísticos e literarios á práctica.
A16 Ter un coñecemento avanzado das literaturas en lingua inglesa.
B1 Utilizar os recursos bibliográficos, as bases de datos e as ferramentas de busca de información.
B3 Adquirir capacidade de autoformación.
B5 Relacionar os coñecementos cos doutras áreas e disciplinas.
B7 Ter capacidade de análise e síntese, de valorar criticamente o coñecemento e de exercer o pensamento crítico.
B8 Apreciar a diversidade.
B9 Valorar a importancia que ten a investigación, a innovación e o desenvolvemento tecnolóxico no avance socioeconómico e cultural da sociedade.
B10 Comportarse con ética e responsabilidade social como cidadán/á e profesional.

Learning aims
Learning outcomes Study programme competences
Be acquainted with the basic schools of literary theory A1
A2
A3
B8
C6
Be aware of the importance of behaving fairly and correctly. B8
B9
B10
C6
C7
C8
Improve Spoken and Written English skills A6
Be aware of the importance of research C6
C7
C8
Learn to relate sources of different kinds A1
A2
A3
A10
A11
Improve selfteaching skills. A15
B3
Value diversity A15
Be more critical and aware concerning discourse. A2
A10
A11
A15
A16
Learn to use literary competence skills with texts. B1
B2
B3
B7
Learn more about English Literature. A16
B5
B8
Learn to analyse and comment on literary and nonliterary discourse using literary analysis techniques properly. A1
A2
A15
B7
To know and apply the methods and techniques of linguistic and literary analysis A1
A2
A15
Be aware of the importance of behaving fairly and correctly. B10
use of information assets with this subject. A14
B1
B3
B7
B9

Contents
Topic Sub-topic
1. Concepts
1.1 What is literature? And English literature? 1.2 What is Literary Theory? What is it for?1.3 Writers and critics: who does the text belong to? 1.4 Validation: the literary canon. 1.5 Mediation agents (audiences, publicity, translators, critics, scholars, etc). 1.6 Centre and periphery: standards y alternatives. 1.7 A brief view of the history of literary theory: from Matthew Arnold, the Cambridge critics and the New Critics up to ecocriticism.
2. Text, author and reader 2.1 "Meaning" and "significance" (Hirsch)
2.2 Objectivity: authorial intention and reception. Is the author dead?
2.3 Open / closed (Eco).
2.4 Related sources: I. A Richards, Hirsch, Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, W. Iser, Wayne C. Booth, Estructuralismo, Stanley Fish.
3. The authorial persona 3.1 Implied authors and narrators. A study of the processes of communication. Tellability. Identity. Narrators and narratees. Voice and point of view.
3.2 Poetic voice and alter ego.
3.3 Playwrights and their characters (the problem of satire in the theatre)
3.4 Drama and the theatre: performance texts.
3. 5 Sources: E. M. Forster and E. Muir on the novel; Wayne C. Booth and the Chicago School; Speech Act theories (Grice and M- L- Pratt in particular); Chatman's and Genette's studies on narratology.
4. Form and content. The literary language 4.1 Does a literary language exist?
4.2 Does form mean? Is literature useful? Fiction/Non fiction.
4.3 Semiotics: Saussure and Peirce.
4.4 Metaphor, metonymy: a structuralist explanation of modernism and realism.
4.5 Phonocentrism: from Structuralism to Poststructuralism. Text as communication or pleasure.
4.6 Sources: Liberal humanists, Formalists and Marxists, Fowler, Lodge, Deconstruction, Barthes.
5. Text, history, culture and nature 5.1 Historiography and the historical novel.
5.2 The universal versus the contextual.
5.3 The concepts of culture and ideology.
5.4 Gender: theories and evolution. Gay studies.
5.6 Power and subversion: Foucault and the discursive surveillance of the State. Historicism and Cultural Materialism.
5.7 National/linguistic identity. Postcolonialism versus Eurocentrism.
5.8 Nature: ecocriticism.
5.9 Hayden White, Eagleton, Dollimore, Bakhtin, Said.
6. Literary analysis from different perspectives. 6.1 Reading Aphra Behn's The Rover
6.2 Reading Conrad's Heart of Dakness
6.3 Various extracts from a few sources (photocopies or pdfs)

Planning
Methodologies / tests Competencies Ordinary class hours Student’s personal work hours Total hours
Guest lecture / keynote speech A1 A2 A3 A15 A1 A2 A3 A10 A11 A14 A15 A16 B8 B9 B10 B1 B3 B5 B7 B8 B9 B10 C6 C8 12 11 23
Workbook A1 A2 A3 B3 B5 B7 C6 C7 C8 0 35 35
Supervised projects A1 A2 A3 A6 A15 A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 B7 B8 B9 C6 C7 C8 1 11 12
Oral presentation A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A15 B1 B2 B3 B5 B7 B8 B9 B10 4 10 14
Mixed objective/subjective test A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 0 4 4
Document analysis A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A15 10 7 17
Directed discussion A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A15 B5 B7 2.5 3 5.5
 
Personalized attention 2 0 2
 
(*)The information in the planning table is for guidance only and does not take into account the heterogeneity of the students.

Methodologies
Methodologies Description
Guest lecture / keynote speech The teacher will introduce basic concepts, and data about Schools and authors.
Workbook Reading primary sources through photocopies, website pages and books from the library. As far as the two literary texts (Behn e Conrad), there exist copies in the library.
Supervised projects An academic essay in between 6 and 8 pages long (double spaced, works cited list included). The subjects will be indicated during the course.
Oral presentation A a brief oral presentation done by one-three students concerning a) the two main literary texts, b) a literary theory question or source
Mixed objective/subjective test An evaluatory test that may include two or three different kinds of exam such as a multiple choice test, a textual commentary and a brief essay on one of the two literary texts.
Document analysis The students work with sources of different kinds.
Directed discussion Debate in class. Always after an oral presentation. Often done when analysing texts in class.

Personalized attention
Methodologies
Oral presentation
Supervised projects
Description
The students will be guided in order to write or present orally an essay. They'll be in touch by EMail or UDC Moodle when necessary.

Assessment
Methodologies Competencies Description Qualification
Oral presentation A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A15 B1 B2 B3 B5 B7 B8 B9 B10 Oral presentation done alone or in a small group (2 or three people). 1 point.
Should it be impractical or impossible to do (too many students, for example),
the written essay will be worth 3 points instead of 2.
10
Mixed objective/subjective test A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 Evaluation at the end of the course. 50 per cent (5 points). Students must obtain a minimum of two points in the exam to pass (and the average must be 5). 50
Document analysis A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A15 Commentaries done in class (2 points) 20
Supervised projects A1 A2 A3 A6 A15 A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 B7 B8 B9 C6 C7 C8 An essay done individually. It must be original and personal, and any borrowings quoted correctly. 2 points
From 6 to 8 double-spaced pages. The essay must be delivered before the classes are over.
20
 
Assessment comments
  • In this subject, what is evaluated is the student´s literary competence at analysing texts using various literary perspectives. A general knowledge of the literary schools is also valued, but to a lesser degree.
  • The final mark must be 5 or more to pass . Also 2 out of 5 in the exam, and 2 out of 5 in the continuous evaluation are required.
  • Essays must be original, not copied. We can use "Turnitin" to check them for wrong
    citations, plagiarism or any other type of fraud. Should this occur, the rules
    for plagiarism will be applied. (Normas de avaliación, revisión e reclamación das
    cualificacións dos estudos de grao e mestrado universitario). "Turnitin"recognises papers previously turned in by other people (or the student
    him/herself) at this university or other universities, as well as other
    material found on Internet. 
  •  Those students that do not do commentaries in class, essays etc, have no continuous evaluation marks, so they will have to recover at least two out of 5 points in the second opportunity examination. They may obtain 5 out of 5 in the first opportunity exam (not easy to do), but they would not pass the subject yet.
  • English is the only language used in class and exams.  Mistakes must be avoided. Plagiarism is also forbidden. Borrowing ideas from the teacher and books is understandable, but students must try to do their own research. Their input is essential.
  • When a student for whatever justified reason (illness, exemption, etc) cannot do the continuous evaluation pratices he or she must tell the teacher in advance, otherwise he or she will have to wait for the second opportunity evaluation to make up for such parts. He/she may submit a second piece of written work before the first opportunity exam so that the activity can count as 2 points out of 10.
  • Those
    students who attend and participate in the continuous assessment activities
    will be eventually considered "No Presentados" (absent from
    examination) only if they have done less than 25% of the required activities.



  • Those students that have  been officially given a dispensation (exemption), in accordance with the regulations of this university, must tell the teacher in advance, during the first two weeks of the course. Such students will be assessed in either of the opportunities according to the criteria for the July opportunity.
  • In July the second opportunity evaluation takes place. Those students that have not done or passed the continuous evaluation parts will be given the chance to do so by doing the essays or commentaries necessary. A second 5 point exam is also done at that time for those that failed it earlier or did not take it. That is, the second (July) opportunity will consist of a 50% final exam and 50% activities repeating or replacing the continuous assessment work. 
  • Those students sitting the December exam (final exam brought forward) will be assessed according to the criteria for the July opportunity.

  • Sources of information
    Basic

    Photocopies will be provided during the course when necessary. For further reading, see the list below.

    The following literary texts must be read:

    Aphra Behn, The Rover.

    Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.


    POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES, CRITICAL RACE STUDIES, ECOCRITICISM:
    • Helena María Viramontes, "The Cariboo Cafe" (short story)
    • A selection of poems (Kipling, Divakaruni, Hong...)
    • Excerpts from Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger
    • Excerpts from Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rainforest 
    Complementary

     


     Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. (1992). A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press
     Barry, Peter (2002). Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995 (2002).
     Culler, Jonathan (2000). Breve introducción a la teoría literaria. Barcelona: Crítica. Literary Theory: A very Short Introduction, Oxford 1997)

     Tyson, Lois (2006). Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. London: Routledge

     Ryan, Michael (2010). Cultural Studies: A Practical Introduction. UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
     Eagleton, Terry (1996). Literary Theory. Oxford: Blackwell

      Elam, Keir (1979). The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. London: Routledge.
     Bertens, Hans (2014). Literary Theory: The Basics. . London: Routledge. Third edition.
     Lodge David, ed. (2000). Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader . London: Longman
     Belsey, Catherine (2002). Post-Structuralism: A Very Short Introduction.. Oxford: OUP, 2002.
     Peck, John, and Martin Coyle, eds (1995). Practical Criticism. (How to Study Literature series). Basingstoke: Macmillan
     Selden, Raman, Peter Brooker and Peter Widdowson (1997). Practising Theory and Reading Literature. Hempstead: Prentice Hall Europe
     Pearce, Lynne (1994). Reading Dialogics . London: Edward Arnold
     Eagleton, Terry (1998). The Eagleton Reader . Oxford: Blackwell
     Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm (1996). The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology.. Athens: The U of Georgia P.
     Leich, Vincent B. ed., et al (). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton 
     Kermode, Frank & John Hollander eds. (1973). The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. London: OUP.
     Said, Edward W (1983). The World, the Text, and the Critic. Cambridge (MA): Harvard UP
     Gates, Henry Louis, ed. (1986). “Race,” Writing and Difference. Chicago: The U of Chicago P



    Recommendations
    Subjects that it is recommended to have taken before
    Introdución aos Estudos Literarios/613G03005
    Literatura Inglesa 1/613G03010
    Literatura Inglesa 2/613G03017
    English Literature (16th and 17th Centuries)/613G03021

    Subjects that are recommended to be taken simultaneously

    Subjects that continue the syllabus

    Other comments


    (*)The teaching guide is the document in which the URV publishes the information about all its courses. It is a public document and cannot be modified. Only in exceptional cases can it be revised by the competent agent or duly revised so that it is in line with current legislation.