EN5504 Reading the Modern

Academic year

2026 to 2027 Semester 1

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 11

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

To be arranged

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

Module Staff

Team taught

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 explores attempts by writers to find new literary subjects and forms in the opening decades of the twentieth century when, as Adorno later observed: ‘It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident anymore, not its inner life, not its relation to the world, not even its right to exist’. The module explores the pursuit by a number of influential modernists from Britain, America, continental Europe and the Global South to develop modes of representation compatible with a newly urban, industrialised, mass-oriented age.

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2 hour seminar

Scheduled learning hours

18

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.

EN5504 Reading the Modern

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 1

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 11

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

To be arranged

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

Module coordinator

Prof E S Sutton

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

Module Staff

Team taught

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

Module description

Responding to what Pericles Lewis has termed the 'crisis of representation' in the opening decades of the twentieth century, this module explores attempts by writers to find new literary subjects and forms. In tandem with module EN5503, which considers the impact of political, social, scientific, technological and cultural revolution on literary traditions and techniques, this module explores the pursuit of a number of influential British, American and French modernists to develop modes of representation compatible with a newly urban, industrialised, mass-oriented age

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2 hour seminar

Scheduled learning hours

18

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.