EN3212 Modernist Literature: Making It New?

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 9

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

3.00 pm - 5.00 pm Thu

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr C M Alt

Dr C M Alt
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Christina Alt (CMA7)

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module will survey a representative sample of modernist fiction and poetry, providing an opportunity for the in-depth study of key conceptual shifts and formal innovations in modernist literature. Thematically, it will take as its central focus the question of how the modernist desire to break with the past and ¿make it new¿ existed alongside an on-going interest in tradition and the past. We will consider topics such as Imagism and classicism; modernist uses of myth; the modernist pastoral; modernism and memory; exile and imagined return; and the anticipatory nostalgia of the 1930s. Authors considered will include W B Yeats, Ezra Pound, H D [Hilda Doolittle], T S Eliot, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and W H Auden. (Group E)

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS EN2003 AND PASS EN2004

Assessment pattern

2-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%

Re-assessment

exam = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

1 x 1-hour lecture and 1 x 1-hour seminar, and 2 optional consultative hours.

Scheduled learning hours

20

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

280

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Display a detailed knowledge and critical appreciation of poetic and prose texts of the early twentieth century
  • Demonstrate an understanding of these texts within their historical and cultural contexts
  • Demonstrate a knowledge of recent critical and theoretical approaches to these texts
  • Demonstrate skills in the critical reading and evaluation of primary texts and relevant secondary material
  • Demonstrate oral skills tested via group discussion
  • Demonstrate written skills tested by means of essays and end-of-semester examinations