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EL40KF: VULNERABLE BODIES, PRECARIOUS LIVES (2022-2023)

Last modified: 31 May 2022 13:24


Course Overview

What does it mean to inhabit a vulnerable body, or to embrace and celebrate ideas of vulnerability more generally? How can literature help us understand the precarity and uncertainty that seem like an inherent part of contemporary life? This course offers an overview of twenty-first-century women’s fiction from a variety of traditions, and centres on themes of embodiment, community, fragmentation, and environment. Examined together, these texts highlight the generic and thematic diversity of contemporary women’s writing, and the way the self must always be reconstructed through literature in new ways.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 4
Term First Term Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Timothy Baker

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Any Undergraduate Programme
  • Either Programme Level 4 or Programme Level 5
  • English (EL)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

What does it mean to inhabit a vulnerable body, or to embrace and celebrate ideas of vulnerability more generally? How can literature help us understand the precarity and uncertainty that seem like an inherent part of contemporary life? This course offers an overview of twenty-first-century women’s fiction from a variety of traditions, and centres on themes of embodiment, community, fragmentation, and environment. Examined together, these texts highlight the generic and thematic diversity of contemporary women’s writing, and the way the self must always be reconstructed through literature in new ways. The course emphasises the diversity of women’s experience and writing; authors to be studied may include Jesmyn Ward, Sara Baume, Aminatta Forna, Valeria Luiselli, and Sarah Moss. Some of the material in this course contains discussions of sensitive themes and topics; students with any concerns are encouraged to contact the course coordinator.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 45
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback

Written feedback will be provided in comments on the essay, with complementary verbal feedback available on request.

Word Count 3500
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualEvaluateStudents completing the course will be able to evaluate current debates and research in contemporary women’s fiction.
ConceptualUnderstandStudents completing the course will be able to demonstrate understanding of contemporary theories of embodiment, precarity, environment, and formal aesthetics.
FactualUnderstandStudents completing this course will be able to think and speak cogently about parallels and differences in selected contemporary texts.
ProceduralAnalyseStudents completing the course will be able to reflect on and analyse dominant trends in contemporary’s women fiction, orally and in writing.

Tutorial/Seminar Participation

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 10
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback

Written feedback will be provided via e-mail; oral feedback will be provided in seminar.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualUnderstandStudents completing the course will be able to demonstrate understanding of contemporary theories of embodiment, precarity, environment, and formal aesthetics.
FactualUnderstandStudents completing this course will be able to think and speak cogently about parallels and differences in selected contemporary texts.
ProceduralAnalyseStudents completing the course will be able to reflect on and analyse dominant trends in contemporary’s women fiction, orally and in writing.

Report: Individual

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 10
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback

Written feedback will be provided via e-mail, with complementary verbal feedback available on request.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualUnderstandStudents completing the course will be able to demonstrate understanding of contemporary theories of embodiment, precarity, environment, and formal aesthetics.
ProceduralAnalyseStudents completing the course will be able to reflect on and analyse dominant trends in contemporary’s women fiction, orally and in writing.

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 35
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback

Written feedback will be provided in comments on the essay, with complementary verbal feedback available on request.

Word Count 2500
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualEvaluateStudents completing the course will be able to evaluate current debates and research in contemporary women’s fiction.
ConceptualUnderstandStudents completing the course will be able to demonstrate understanding of contemporary theories of embodiment, precarity, environment, and formal aesthetics.
ProceduralAnalyseStudents completing the course will be able to reflect on and analyse dominant trends in contemporary’s women fiction, orally and in writing.

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Resit Assessments

Take Home Exam

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 100
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback

Written feedback will be provided in comments on the essay, with complementary verbal feedback available on request.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ProceduralAnalyseStudents completing the course will be able to reflect on and analyse dominant trends in contemporary’s women fiction, orally and in writing.
FactualUnderstandStudents completing this course will be able to think and speak cogently about parallels and differences in selected contemporary texts.
ConceptualUnderstandStudents completing the course will be able to demonstrate understanding of contemporary theories of embodiment, precarity, environment, and formal aesthetics.
ConceptualEvaluateStudents completing the course will be able to evaluate current debates and research in contemporary women’s fiction.

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