EN3221 Stories at the End of the World

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

Lecture: Wednesday 12 noon Seminar: Wednesday 1pm

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

Module coordinator

Dr J S F Haddow

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

Module Staff

Dr Sam Haddow

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 conducts a survey of twenty-first century end-of-the-world fiction. Working across literature, television, film, graphic novel, theatre and video games, students will study stories that imagine the collapse of human (and non-human) life, and what these texts communicate about the fears and precarities of our time. Alongside primary texts, students will explore critical models designed to analyse these precarities. Examples may include eco-criticism, posthumanism, accelerationism, activism, vegetal philosophy, terrorism and war studies, genre studies and literatures of the Anthropocene. Historical precedents will also be included, but this is an explicitly contemporary course, designed to consider humanity’s unsettling proximity to the end-of-the-world and the role that our stories are playing in helping us to come to terms with this.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS EN2003 AND PASS EN2004

Anti-requisites

YOU CANNOT TAKE THIS MODULE IF YOU TAKE CO4036

Assessment pattern

100% Coursework

Re-assessment

100% Exam

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

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

Scheduled learning hours

20

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

Guided independent study hours

264

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

Intended learning outcomes

  • Demonstrate an enhanced understanding of key works and literary conventions of twenty-first century end-of-the-world fiction.
  • Apply core ideas from a range of critical models that explore twenty-first century end-of-the-world fiction.
  • Locate historical and contextual precedents for twenty-first century end-of-the-world fiction.
  • Work across literary and cultural forms in conducting their analyses.
  • Demonstrate oral skills via group discussion.
  • Demonstrate writing skills tested by means of written assessments.