AT3CWF: Contemporary Canadian Women's Fiction

Module Provider:

English

Number of credits:

20 [10 ECTS credits]

Level:

H (Honours)

Terms in which taught:

Autumn

Module Convenor:

Dr MK Davies

Pre-requisites:

AT1ALF

Co-requisites:

Modules excluded:

Module version for:

2006/7

Aims:
This module is designed to provide students with knowledge and understanding of a range of contemporary Canadian women’s novels, and to develop critical awareness of issues related to multiculturalism, feminism and Canadian national identity. Students will acquire skills of critical analysis of contemporary Canadian literary and cultural phenomena.

Assessable learning outcomes:
By the end of the module students will be expected to:
• Demonstrate skills of close textual analysis and a critical understanding of the texts studied
• Contextualize these novels in wider theoretical frames of feminism and multiculturalism
• engage critically with ideas presented in seminars and secondary materials
• construct and express coherent critical arguments in writing

Additional outcomes:
Transferable Skills
Each module is designed to encourage you to develop skills of oral communication and effective participation in group work. Additionally, you will be encouraged to enhance your IT competence through the use of relevant web resources and library databases, and through the word-processing of assessed coursework.

Outline content:
This module will introduce some significant contemporary Canadian women’s novels written in English, and will provide a map of exciting new territory which represents Canadian women’s responses to their culture and to the wider issues of multiculturalism and feminism. These novels negotiate new possibilities for cultural change, introducing more heterogeneous narratives of identity in contemporary Canada. Most of the texts are very recent and reading them will give students an insight into new ways of thinking about Canada as a North American society. Texts potentially include Carol Shields’s Unless, AnnMarie MacDonald’s Fall on Your Knees, Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night, Anita Rau Badami’s Tamarind Men, Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s The Cure for Death By Lightning.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
Weekly two-hour seminar classes, with students contributing short discussion papers. Individual tutorial consultations are also scheduled prior to the Assessed Essay assignment.

Contact hours:

Assessment:
Coursework:
Students write one non-assessed essay of approximately 1500 words, and submit a single assessed essay (maximum 5000 words) in place of a formal examination.
Relative percentage of coursework:100%
Penalties for late submission
Ten marks (out of 100 on the normal University scale) will be deducted from a piece of work submitted up to one calendar week after the original deadline or any formally agreed extension of that deadline. Once this period has elapsed, a mark of zero will be recorded.
Examinations
None
Requirements for a pass
A mark of 40%
Reassessment arrangements
Resubmission by 1 September.