EN4406 Contemporary Fiction

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

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 10

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.

Availability restrictions

Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable

Monday 11.00-13.00

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

Module coordinator

Dr J J Purdon

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

Module Staff

Dr James Purdon (JJP5)

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

Module description

The aim of this module is to introduce some of the most interesting and innovative work in contemporary fiction, and to give you the knowledge and the tools to read it, judge it, and write about it with pleasure and with critical insight. You'll be asked to think rigorously about the idea of the 'contemporary', and how that term might relate to other literary and cultural categories. Spanning the last twenty years or so, the set texts don't attempt any sort of representative cross-section of fiction of the period; rather than seeking such a survey, we will concentrate on how certain writers have used fictional form to think about what is old and what is new: what is current, or anachronistic, or ahead of its time. (To think, that is, about the structure of contemporaneity itself.) (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 lecture and 1 seminar, and 2 optional consultative hours.

Scheduled learning hours

22

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

Guided independent study hours

278

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

Intended learning outcomes

  • Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the set texts
  • Identify and explore key themes and concerns in contemporary fiction
  • Close read literary texts paying attention to language, rhetoric, form and structure
  • Demonstrate theoretical literacy, that is, a working knowledge of the critical and theoretical context of contemporary fiction and its academic study
  • Examine texts within their political, historical and social context
  • Show evidence of wider fictional, critical and theoretical reading