MA Postmodernism, Royal Holloway

MA IN POSTMODERNISM, LITERATURE & CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

| Entry Requirements |Teaching | Structure of Programme | EN5401 | EN5402 | EN5404 |EN5405 | EN5001 | Methods of Assessment |Course Teachers | Handbook |

Please Note: From September 2006 this MA will be merged with the MA in Modernism & Modern Writers, and will incorporate Postcolonialism, to form a brand new MA entitled MA in Literatures of Modernity: Modernism, Postmodernism and Postcolonialism. Click here

Part-time students registering in September 2005 will be registered for the new MA - Literatures of Modernity: Modernism, Postmodernism and Postcolonialism. Full-time students registering in September 2005 will be registered for the MA in Postmodernism, the MA in Modernism or the new MA in Literatures of Modernity: Modernism, Postmodernism and Postcolonialism, as they wish.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Normally at least an upper second-class BA in Single or Joint Honours English, or a suitable related discipline, is required of UK applicants, and a degree of equivalent standard of overseas applicants, who must have a high level of competence in spoken and written English.

TEACHING

The teaching for the examined elements will normally be confined to three days a week over the first two terms. Part-time students will usually attend only two of these days. Seminars are timetabled as far as possible for late afternoon or early evening, to permit part-time students in employment to attend. Preparation is assigned by the tutor, and includes regular class presentations by students.

STRUCTURE OF PROGRAMME

The programme lasts for one year (50 weeks), beginning in September, or two years (102 weeks) for part-time students. It consists of five elements, the first four of which are assessed:

Postmodernism and Contemporary Theory - Core course
Postmodern Literature (Fiction and Poetry)
One of the following:

(i) Contemporary Women's Narratives and the Idea of the Self or

(ii) Postcolonialism
Dissertation
Methods and Materials of Research

Part-time candidates will normally take Postmodernism and Contemporary Theory (Core course) and one other course in the first year; Dissertation and one other course in the second year.

EN5401B Postmodernism and Contemporary Theory:
Attention focuses on (a) theory of the postmodern, with reference to the work of a variety of different theorists (for example Haraway, Jameson, Braidotti and Vattimo); (b) the relationship between postmodernism and selected topics in contemporary literary and critical theory.
EN5402A Postmodern Literature (Fiction and Poetry):
The course examines the most characteristic features of postmodern fiction in relation to a variety of specific genres and different novelists (e.g. Nabokov, Pynchon, Rushdie et al.). It also explores recent developments in English and North American poetry, with reference to the work of poets from O'Hara to Perelman and Allen Fisher.
EN5405A Contemporary Women's Narratives and the Idea of the Self:
This course aims to explore the relationship betwen feminist and postmodern theories of selfhood, and the ways in which contemporary women writers have tried to tell stories about the self. Works studied may range from novels by Carter, Winterson and Morrison to popular fiction.
EN5409A Postcolonialism

This course aims to explore some of the key issues and debates in the broadly ramifying fields of postcolonial writing, theory and criticism. The first term will investigate leading approaches and topics in the area, ranging from passive resistance and subalternity to mimicry and transnationalism. We will focus in particular on how postcolonial activism has shaped theory. In the second term we will be looking in more detail at these approaches through the lenses of two issues which impact on our postcolonial times: migration, and terror.

EN5001 Methods and Materials of Research:
A compulsory, non-examined course, taught in ten weekly one-hour seminars in the first term. Topics include:use of library resources, footnoting and bibliography, and literary and linguistic computing.

METHODS OF ASSESSMENT
Each student will be examined in elements 1, 2, 3 and 4. Element 5 is not examined. There are no traditional examination papers. Instead, all course in elements 1, 2 and 3 will be examined by a portfolio of two term papers, totalling between 7,000 and 9,000 words, one paper to be submitted by the first day of the second term, the other by by the first day of the summer term. In addition, students will be required to submit a dissertation of 12,000-15,000 words (excluding bibliography and appendices) on an approved topic related to any one element of the course, to be submitted at the end of the year's study. Part-time students will submit the dissertation at the end of their second year.

COURSE TEACHERS

The Course Director is Dr Robert Eaglestone, who works on contemporary and twentieth century literature, literary theory and philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. His publications include Ethical Criticism: Reading after Levinas (Edinburgh University Press 1997), Doing English (Routledge 1999, 2nd ed 2002), Postmodernism and Holocaust Denial (Icon 2001), The Holocaust and the Postmodern (Oxford University Press 2004) and articles on Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Samuel Beckett, Angela Carter, Imre Kertész, J. R. R. Tolkien, ethics, science, the Holocaust, archaeology and historiography. He is currently working on three projects: The Holocaust in Culture, on how the Holocaust is represented in contemporary culture; Postmodernism, on the current state of postmodern literature, thought and culture; and the Cambridge University Press Introduction to Literary Theory. He has written for the THES, TLS, The Independent and The Guardian. He is a Literary Advisor to the British Council. He is Treasurer of the Forum for European Philosophy and Deputy Director of Royal Holloway's Research Centre for the Holocaust and Twentieth Century History. He is the series editor of Routledge Critical Thinkers. He is a member of the English Reform Group.

Internationally known for her research in postcolonial writing and theory, feminism and the literature of empire, Elleke Boehmer (BA(Hons), MPhil(Oxon), DPhil(Oxon)) currently works on cross-border and transnational questions in contemporary postcolonial literature, in particular of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Australia. She is the Hildred Carlile Professor in Literatures in English, in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London. Elleke Boehmer's main research and supervisory interests include anti-colonialism since 1850; migrancy, asylum and terror; modernism, masculinity and empire; and the cross-overs between feminism and nationalism in colonial and postcolonial writing. Interested in the possible conjunctions between postcolonial resistance ethics and women's aesthetics, she is investigating in particular state violence in relation to leadership cults in postcolonial societies and autobiographies. She is developing a comparative project looking at interrelations between colonial, postcolonial and migrant writing in English and Dutch in conjunction with colleagues in the Netherlands and Britain. Elleke Boehmer has published the internationally cited Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors (Oxford UP, 1995), and an acclaimed monograph investigating transnational links between anti-colonial movements, Empire, the National, and the Postcolonial, 1890-1920 (Oxford UP, 2002). Empire, the National and the Postcolonial will appear in paperback at the end of 2004. She has edited the anthology Empire Writing, 1870-1918 and, more recently, the British bestseller Scouting for Boys, Robert Baden-Powell's primer of the Scout movement (2004; pb 2005), as well as Cornelia Sorabji's 1934 India Calling (with Naella Grew: Trent Editions, 2004). In 1999 she produced a special centennial edition of the journal Kunapipi on the writings of the Anglo-Boer War. She has co-edited collections of essays on transnationalism, the new South Africa (1990 and 2005), and on questions in postcolonial aesthetics. In 2005 Elleke Boehmer's study of the influential intersections between nationalist and feminist thought Stories of Women: Gender and Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation (Manchester UP) appears, along with, in the same year, a fully updated and expanded second edition of Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Elleke Boehmer has published three well-received novels, Screens Against the Sky (1990: shortlisted David Higham Prize); An Immaculate Figure (1993), and Bloodlines (2000), as well as a number of short stories in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her work has been translated into Chinese, German, and Italian. She is currently working on a new novel, her first set in contemporary Britain. She is the General Editor of the new Series, Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures. The first four titles, including The Indian Novel in English, by Priyamvada Gopal, and Postcolonial Poetry by Rajeev Patke, are to debut in 2006. Professor Boehmer currently supervises PhD students working on space and class in migrant South Asian writing; experimentalism in African women's literature; migrancy in Dutch and English postcolonial women's writing; and Victorian travel writing. She is the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Redell Olsen Redell graduated in English Literature from New Hall, Cambridge University in 1993. She subsequently studied for an MA in visual art, during which time she specialised in multi-media photographic and textual installations. With the help of British Academy funding she completed a PhD in contemporary poetry, women's writing and its relationship to the visual arts in 2003. From 2002-2003 Redell was a Lecturer in Writing at Dartington College of Arts in Devon. She has taught as a visiting lecturer at the London Institute, Camberwell (MA in Bookarts), at Leeds Metropolitan University, at Oxford Brookes University, and she has been teaching as a visiting lecturer in the English Department at Royal Holloway since 1998. While Redell has been at Royal Holloway she has developed a third year module and an MA in Poetic Practice. Redell Olsen's main area of research is in contemporary poetry. She is interested in the relationship between theory and practice. Her Phd thesis was entitled "Scriptovisualities: Contemporary Women's Writing and the Visual Arts". It examines the cross-overs between writing strategies in the visual arts and contemporary poetry. Her study focuses on innovative and experimental writers, many of whom were associated with the journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E during the1980's. She is managing editor of the journal How(2) and she is currently researching the development of digital poetics and its relationship to recent experimental writing. In addition to traditional poetry and poetics, she is interested in installed texts, live and site-specific writing, performance writing, bookarts and writing for multi-media. Redell Olsen has exhibited and performed her own work both in Britain and the United States. Her publications include Book of the Insect (London: allsingingalldancing, 1999) and Book of the Fur (Cambridge: Rem Press, 2000). Her poetry has appeared in Britain and in the United States, in such journals as: Parataxis, Shark 4, Onedit 1, Pom2 3, Jacket, CCCP10 and Rampike. A collection of her new work is forthcoming from Reality Street Editions in 2004.

Dr Steven Morrison will also be teaching on the course.

Dr Anita Gnagnatti is currently finishing her PhD on Winterson and the use of the mythic and the fabular by contemporary female writers at Birkbeck. Her main research interests apart from the latter are in nineteenth and twentieth century literature, especially by women.

[APPLY ONLINE HERE]

MA in Postmodernism, Literature
and Contemporary Culture

Student Handbook

Academic Year 2004/2005

1. Content and Structure

The course lasts for 50 weeks (102 weeks for part-time students). It has five elements, four of which are assessed. Each of the four assessed elements is weighted equally at 25%. The five elements are as follows:-

1. EN5401 Theory of the Postmodern (25%)
2. EN5402 Postmodern Literature (Fiction and Poetry) (25%)
3. One of the following: EN5405 Contemporary Women's Narratives and the Idea of the Self or EN5409 Post colonialism (25%)
4. Dissertation (25%)
5. Methods and Materials of Research

Normally part-time students take two courses (including 1) in their first year, and a third course and the dissertation in the second year.

Elements 1-3 are taught in a series of weekly two-hour seminars through the first two terms. In Theory of the Postmodern attention focuses on the relationship between postmodernism and contemporary cultural and critical theory. The course on Postmodern Literature a) examines the most characteristic features of postmodern fiction in relation to a variety of specific genres and different novelists; b) explores recent developments in English and North American poetry. Contemporary Women's Narratives and the Idea of the Self explores the relationship between feminist and postmodernist ideas of selfhood. Postcolonialism focuses on postcolonial thought, criticism and literature. For element 4 Dissertation the topic is proposed by the student after discussion with her or his Academic Adviser and must be approved by the Programme Director. Methods and Materials of Research is taught by a series of ten weekly one-hour seminars in the Autumn Term: it is designed to inform students about Library and computing resources and to introduce some of the skills required for graduate work. The course is supplemented by 'Methods and Resources of Research', a series of seminars at the Institute for English Studies, Senate House. Attendance at this course is optional, but recommended for students who wish to proceed to a PhD. Students are also expected to attend the Department's Research Seminar, and are encouraged to attend other relevant seminars held at the Institute of English Studies at Senate House and elsewhere in central London.

2. Aims and Objectives

The principal aim of this programme is to examine and debate a range of different theories of the contemporary and different forms of contemporary literature and culture. The programme will pay particular attention to the meanings and uses of the term 'postmodernism'. But the term will not be accepted uncritically, and it is intended that there be ample scope for discussion of its relevance and limitations. The programme will increase students' knowledge of recent developments in various aspects of the subject, such as Cultural Studies, Literary and Cultural Theory, Feminist Theory and Postcolonial Theory.

3. Entry Requirements

The entry requirement for the programme is a degree in English or Combined Honours English or a suitable related discipline. An equivalent level of achievement is expected in applications from overseas candidates, who should possess a high level of competence in spoken and written English. Non-standard applicants and applicants from disciplines other than English will be considered on their merits, but they should bear in mind that an ability to follow the course demands some familiarity with both contemporary theory and literature and the practices of literary study.

4. Teaching and Learning Methods

Teaching is mainly by two-hour seminars during the Autumn and Spring Terms. Seminars are timetabled, as far as possible, for late afternoon or early evening, to permit part-time students in employment to attend. Seminars are cooperative ventures which require students to share and debate issues which they have considered in advance, or which are raised in the course of discussions by the tutor or by fellow students. Preparation will be assigned by the tutor, and will include regular class presentations. These will require students to research issues and present conclusions, or raise questions for further discussion, in an organised fashion, and to defend or develop arguments in response to points made in the seminar.

Students are normally required to write one term paper per term for each course they take (see section 5 below). They will subsequently receive individual feedback on their particular problems and strengths in relation to the term papers, and in relation to the drafting of their dissertation. The course in Materials and Methods of Research will teach good scholarly practice and research skills, which will be applied in term papers and the dissertation.

5. Assessment Regulations for Students Entering in 2004

All courses are examined by a portfolio of two term papers totalling between 7,000 and 9,000 words. The portfolios normally develop out of work done during the course; students are expected to give seminar presentations, and these may form the basis of the term paper. Topics for papers will be negotiated between the student and the course tutor.

Term papers for elements 1, 2 and 3 must be handed in by the following deadlines: one by the first day of Spring Term; the other by the first day of Summer Term. Feedback will be offered on the first of the two essays, including an indication of level of performance. In the light of this evaluation, students will have the option of either confirming their submission of the first essay at that time or submitting a revised version of the first essay together with the second essay by the first day of Summer Term. These essays will not be returned to students, but will constitute the submission of the portfolio. Students should submit two typed copies of all written work, and must also sign and attach a Declaration of Academic Integrity. The word limit includes quotations and footnotes but excludes bibliography and appendices.

All students are required to submit a dissertation of 12000-15000 words (excluding bibliography and appendices) on an approved topic by Friday, 8th September, 2006. See Appendix B: Dissertation for further details.

Element (v) Materials and Methods of Research is not formally examined, but it is a compulsory course and a register will be taken to ensure satisfactory attendance. To meet the requirement of satisfactory attendance, students must normally attend at least 7 of the 10 seminars. Failure to meet this requirement may be taken into account by the examiners when adjudicating borderline cases; it may also be reflected in references which require an assessment of the student's suitability for doctoral research or eligibility for research grants. Students are assessed on their knowledge of research methods, on the scholarly presentation of their portfolio essays, and on their production of a satisfactory annotated bibliography for their Dissertation. Part-time students will normally take this course in their first year. See Appendix C: Style Sheet.

Students are warned that anyone who fails to meet the deadlines for submission set out above will incur the following penalties for late submission, unless there are exceptional mitigating factors, which will usually be medical. Failure to submit the first portfolio essay by the specified deadline will result in the student's receiving no feedback beyond an indication of level of performance. The procedure relating to the first essay is designed to give you guidance as to the kind of work and quality of work expected at MA level. In order to benefit from this, it is important that you meet the deadline. Failure to submit the second portfolio essay or the Dissertation by the specified deadline will result in the deduction of 5 marks for the first day overdue, and a further 1 mark for every subsequent day overdue. Habitual late submission without good cause (and failure to present class papers) may also have an adverse impact upon references written on the student's behalf. Any application for a postponement of submission on medical grounds should be submitted to the Programme Director as early as possible and in any case before the deadline. For applications to be considered, documentary evidence of any extenuating circumstances will normally be required.

If students encounter problems during the course which necessitates suspension of studies or change of status from full-time to part-time, this should be done by the end of the Spring term. Students will need to discuss any such change with the Programme Director, before approaching the Student Service Point at FW141. Advice on the procedure is available from the Department Administrator.

Candidates at MA level should require little warning about plagiarism. All material cited or paraphrased must be acknowledged carefully in footnotes or endnotes, and the adoption of another critic's arguments or scholarship must also be scrupulously acknowledged. Whenever possible, critics should be cited in their own words, and any attempt to conceal one's sources in the hope of making the work submitted appear more original and resourceful than it really is should be avoided. If someone else's words are used without acknowledgement, this constitutes a breach of copyright, and to adopt or paraphrase another's ideas without acknowledgement is alien to the spirit of literary study. Plagiarism in term papers or Dissertations has severe consequences, and can lead to various
Penalties. See 'Regulations Governing Examination and Assessment Offences', which can be accessed via the Web at www.rhul.ac.uk or obtained on request from the Student Service Point (FW141) or the Registry Liaison Office (FW132) or the College Library.

6. Methods of Assessment

Two methods of assessment are used. The portfolio is based largely on work submitted during the course, which may be altered after it has been commented on by teachers. The object is to give credit for work done as part of the course. The Dissertation is designed to test the student's ability to handle a complex topic at some length, and it may also be revised in the light of the supervisor's comments. The aim of the Dissertation is to encourage individual research.

Candidates' results will be determined after discussion with the External Examiner in October or early November. In order to pass the programme a student must have achieved a mark of 50% or above (Pass) in all course elements which count towards the final assessment. The sub-Board of Examiners may at its discretion and with the agreement of the External Examiner condone a failure mark of between 40-49% in elements constituting up to one quarter of the final assessment, apart from the dissertation which must achieve a pass mark.

Where a candidate has achieved a mark of 50% (Pass) in all course elements which count towards the final assessment and a weighted percentage score in the range of 65%-69%, the candidate may be considered for the award of Merit for the degree.

Where a candidate has achieved a weighted average of at least 70% with no mark falling below 60% in any of the course elements which count towards the final assessment, the candidate may be considered for the award of Distinction for the degree. A distinction would not normally be awarded if a student has re-sat any elements of the degree. See Appendix D: Assessment Criteria.

Any element which has been failed may be retaken the following year, and elements passed one year may be carried forward to the next. Likewise, any individual essay(s) of a Pass standard within a portfolio which has failed as a whole may be carried forward to the following year. If a part-time candidate fails one or both elements taken in the first year, then it or they may be retaken in the following year, and the candidate has the choice of attempting all four elements in the second year, or of deferring two second-year elements until a third year.

All assessed work is anonymously marked by two internal examiners, who mark the scripts blind, that is without knowing the other marker's marks or comments. A proportion of the assessed work is sent to the Visiting Examiner for moderation and to provide external validation of internal marking.

7. Supervision

Students who would like comments on drafts of portfolio essays should submit their work to the relevant teacher and make an appointment to see her or him well before the submission date for the essay. Feedback on the first portfolio essay cannot be offered later than Consultation Week in the second term. Students normally receive 1 hour of supervision on each portfolio essay; the maximum they may receive is 1½ hours.

The Dissertation is designed to test the student's ability to handle a complex topic and to display research skills at some length. It may develop work done for any element of the course, or be on any relevant topic approved by the Programme Director. Students will be assigned a supervisor for their Dissertation. In the event of the supervisor's absence for any substantial period during the writing of the Dissertation, a second supervisor will be appointed from among the members of the programme team. The topic for the Dissertation should be approved before the end of the Spring Term. Thereafter students are expected to submit a draft of their Dissertation for constructive comment. Students normally receive 2 hours of supervision on their Dissertation; the maximum they may receive is 4 hours. See Appendix B: Dissertation and Appendix C: Style Sheet.

8. Academic Welfare and Programme Development

The Programme Director stays in close touch with all students in order to deal with any problems that arise and to ensure that the course runs smoothly. Termly records of the progress of each student are kept on file in the Department. Students are assigned an Academic Adviser at the start of the course and should consult her or him about any problems they may have. Students are also encouraged to consult other members of staff as appropriate. All teachers on the course and the Head of Department are available for consultation by individual students: their contact hours are posted on their office doors. For further information, see 'Academic Welfare of Students on Taught Courses', which can be accessed via the Web at www.rhul.ac.uk or obtained on request from the Student Service Point (FW141) or the Registry Liaison Office (FW 132) or the College Library.The programme is monitored annually by the College to ensure that it sustains the highest academic standards. Students' evaluation of the courses plays a vital part in this process, and towards the end of the Spring Term all students are invited to complete a questionnaire about the programme as a whole. In addition, students are invited to select a representative to put their views forward on the Department's Postgraduate Staff/Student Committee, which meets regularly throughout the year.

9. Further Study

Staff are always available to offer advice on applications for study at doctoral level (at Royal Holloway or elsewhere), on AHRB applications, funding opportunities and related issues. It is increasingly important that research proposals are planned carefully and co-ordinated, and students are recommended to seek advice before making any application, and to do so well before the AHRB deadline of May 1. Students thinking of studying in the USA should make plans even earlier.

10. Notes on Teaching Staff

APPENDIX A

Outline of Programme

Contents of Course and Responsible Staff

(i): Theory of the Postmodern
This course is divided into three sections. It begins with an introduction to the ideas from which postmodernism came. It then covers the rise of various versions of the 'postmodern'. The Spring term is made of up detailed case studies of selected postmodern thinkers (this year: Derrida) and on particular issues. The course finishes by considering what might be 'after the postmodern'.

Autumn Term:

Introduction
Week 1: From Cahoone: 23. Venturi; 26l Hassan. 21. Jenks.

Origins of Postmodernism
Week 2:From Cahoone: 1. Descartes; 3. Kant; 8. Nietzsche.
Week 3: From Cahoone: 14. Wittgenstein; 19. Horkheimer and Adorno; 11; Weber
Week 4: From Cahoone: 18. Husserl; 21: Heidegger.

Versions of Postmodernism
Week 5: From Cahoone: 32:Lyotard + handouts
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: From Cahoone: 35: Jameson + handouts; 28: Bell
Week 8:From Cahoone: 29: Baudrillard; 27: Deleuze and Guattari
Week 9: 30: Irigaray; 38: Harding; 39: Bordo
Week 10: Donna Haraway 'A cyborg Manifesto: Science, technology and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century'; Rosa Bradotti, 'By way of Nomadism'
Week 11:From Cahoone: 36: Rorty; 37: Habermas

Spring Term:
Issues in Postmodernism
Weeks 1- 3: Derrida and interpretation
Week 4-5: History.
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7-9: Ethics, truth and moral traditions.
Week 10-11: After the Postmodern?

(ii): Postmodern Literature (Fiction and Poetry)
(a) Postmodern Fiction 1) Metafiction: Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire; 2) Paranoia: Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49; 3) J G Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition; 4) Don DeLillo, White Noise; 5) Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters; 6) Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale; 7 & 8) Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses; 9) Vikram Chandra, Love and Longing in Bombay; 10) Angela Carter, Wise Children. For most of these, any edition will do and all are currently in print: for the J G Ballard, the most recent edition (London: Flamingo, 2001) is preferable, since this is a revised version with the author's own annotations.

(b) Postmodern Poetry 1) Introduction: Roy Fisher, Poems 1955-87; 2) Projective Verse: Charles Olson; 3) Urban Poetics (i): Frank O'Hara, Selected Poems, Personism: A Manifesto; 4) Urban Poetics (ii): Allen Fisher; 5) L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry (i): Steve McCaffery, Theory of Sediment, Bruce Andrews; 6) L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry (ii): Charles Bernstein; 7) Feminist Writing: Out of Everywhere (i); 8) Visual Poetry: Out of Everywhere (ii); 9) Twenty-First Century Poetry: younger contemporary writers; 10) Discussion Session. The classes will be taught by Professor Hampson.

(iii): Contemporary Women's Narratives and the Idea of the Self

The course looks at identity and the notion of the self through: religion; race; class; gender; mass culture, popularity and the gothic romance; the bildungsroman; fictional autobiography; the 'coming out' novel; the experience of black women; consumerism, ecology and the nation state; power and survival; food, consumption and the body; madness, shattered selves and the disintegration of subjectivity; history and historiographic metafiction; myth and fabulation; technology, science and the body; and, taboos and the unspeakable.

Term One:
(1) Du Maurier, Rebecca, (1938); (2) McCullers, The Member of the Wedding, (1946); (3) Winterson, Oranges are not the only fruit, (1985); (4) Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, (1982); (5) Morrison, The Bluest Eye, (1970); (6) Walker, The Color Purple, (1982); (7) Andersen Dargatz, The Cure for Death by Lightning, (1997); (8) Atwood, Surfacing, 1972; (9) Plath, The Bell Jar, (1963); (10) Schreiber, Sybil, (1973).

Term Two:
(1) Prager, Eve's Tattoo, (1993); (2) Donoghue, Slammerkin, (2001); (3) Weldon, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, (1983); (4) Carter, Nights at the Circus, (1984); (5) Byatt, Possession, (1990); (6) Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior, (1976); (7) Russ, The Female Man, (1975); (8) Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, 1976); (9) Homes, The End of Alice, (10) Smith, White Teeth, 2000.

iv): Postcolonialism

This course aims to explore some of the key issues and debates in the broadly ramifying fields of postcolonial writing, theory and criticism. The first term will investigate leading approaches and topics in the area, ranging from passive resistance and subalternity to mimicry and transnationalism. We will focus in particular on how postcolonial activism has shaped theory. In the second term we will be looking in more detail at these approaches through the lenses of two issues which impact on our postcolonial times: migration, and terror.

FIRST TERM: Postcolonial writing and theory
Week one:
M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, ed. A.J. Parel (Cambridge)
Sister Nivedita, Aggressive Hinduism (extracts)
Aurobindo, The Doctrine of Passive Resistance
Week two:
Steve Biko, I write what I like (Heinemann)
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Penguin)
Week three:
Frantz Fanon, Black skin, White Masks (Pluto)
Bessie Head, A Question of Power (Heinemann)
Week four:
Edward Said, Orientalism (extracts)
Tayib Salih, Season of Migration to the North (Penguin)
Week five:
Neil Lazarus, from Nationalism and Cultural Practice (Cambridge)
Nadine Gordimer, Jump and other Stories (Bloomsbury)
Week six:
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincialising Europe (Princeton)
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic (Verso)
Week seven:
Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land (Granta)
Week eight:
Gayatri Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (extracts)
J.M. Coetzee, Foe (Penguin)
Week nine:
Benita Parry, extracts from Postcolonial Studies: A Materialist Critique
Rudyard Kipling, 'Lispeth', Plain Tales from the Hills
Week ten:
Stuart Hall, 'Culture and Diaspora' and 'What is this "black" in black popular culture?'
Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (Routledge)

SECOND TERM: Migration and Terror
Week One:
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (Longman)
Week Two:
Hanif Kureishi, My Ear at his Heart: Reading my Father (Faber)
Week Three:
Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh (Vintage)
Week Four:
Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
Week Five:
Andrea Levy, Small Island (Random House)
Week Six:
Ngugi, Matigari (Heinemann)
Week Seven:
V.S. Naipaul, Guerrillas (Penguin)
Week Eight:
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (Bloomsbury)
Week Nine:
Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist (Vintage)
Week Ten:
Gillian Slovo, Every Secret Thing (Abacus)

v): Dissertation. See Appendix B.

(v): Methods and Materials of Research

A non-examined element. The first five weeks will be taught by Dr Roy Booth and will include lectures on researching and writing critical MA essays and dissertations, including use of footnotes, bibliography and using criticism. The second five weeks will be taught by the Computer Centre and will include an introduction to information technology, essay formatting, and advanced information retrieval, with special emphasis on journals and individual MA specific web-sites.

APPENDIX B
Dissertation

An important dimension of the MA is to give students the opportunity to begin serious work on a topic that might lead to a PhD. The Dissertation is a crucial element in this preparation. It will be researched and written mainly in the third term and the summer vacation without the distraction of other course work.

All students will be supervised for their Dissertation by a member of staff teaching on the programme. Students should contact appropriate members of staff for advice and subsequently for supervision.

If the supervisor is absent and not contactable for a significant period, the Programme Director will appoint another supervisor for that period from among the members of staff teaching on the programme. Supervisors are expected to inform the Programme Director and their students as soon as possible of any such periods of absence in order that alternative arrangements may be made.

DISSERTATION DEADLINES

By May 26: (1) All students should have had initial consultations with supervisors.

(2) All students should have received from the Programme Director a form on which to enter the provisional title of the Dissertation and the name of the supervisor.

By June 2: The form should be returned to the Programme Director for formal approval of the title.

By June 16: (1) Students should have seen their supervisors to draw up a detailed plan of chapters and receive advice on the writing of the first draft.

(2) Supervisors should have received a final title plus a detailed plan of chapters. Supervisors should pass the final title to the Programme Director.

(3) Students and supervisors should have arranged a timetable for (a) receiving and returning the first draft; (b) supervisions during the summer vacation.

September 8: Submission deadline. Two copies of the Dissertation should be submitted to the Departmental Office, each with a cover sheet and a signed Declaration of Academic Integrity form (obtainable from the Department Office), which students will receive together with the formal approval of their title.

APPENDIX C

MA STYLE SHEET

The aim of this Style Sheet is to advise you on the preparation and presentation of dissertations, portfolio essays (term papers) and library papers.

While the subjects of portfolio essays and library papers will often arise directly or indirectly from seminar work done earlier in the course, the dissertation encourages more independent study. It may be helpful to note that University regulations define a dissertation as 'an ordered and critical exposition of existing knowledge in any field or part of a field of study.... There should be evidence that the field has been surveyed thoroughly. A full bibliography and references would normally be required.'

As this implies, the dissertation does not have to meet the strict requirement of a research degree that it makes a contribution to knowledge, but it does have to be thorough and well informed. In literary studies, moreover, it is to be expected that 'critical exposition' will incorporate individual insight into the theory and /or literature itself.

Candidates should consult their course tutor or any other appropriate member of staff about possible topics and approaches. Once the subject of the dissertation has been approved, the Programme Director will allocate the candidate a supervisor. When the dissertation chiefly expands work discussed and evaluated during the course, supervision will normally be confined to meetings in which to discuss topics such as: the choice of texts and editions; the bibliography; the manner of treatment and structure of the argument; and problems of scholarly and critical method. (See above, section 7. Supervision.)

Presentation
The dissertation, portfolio essays and library papers should all be typed on one side of the paper. Double spacing should be used for the text, and single spacing for footnotes and inset quotations. The left-hand margin should be at least 1 inch wide. Be sure to number the pages consecutively.

Put your candidate number (NB: not your name) and the title at the head of the essays and the dissertation, and the word-count at the end.

The essays and the dissertation should not be bound in hard-back, but the pages should be securely attached to a stiff folder, or comb-bound. You are required to submit two copies of all essays and your dissertation.

Be sure to keep a copy of all the written work you submit, since we cannot guarantee to return essays and dissertations to candidates.

Scholarly Style
All material should be presented in a consistent, scholarly style. Candidates are expected to observe the following basic conventions in setting out quotations, footnotes and bibliographies. Your course tutor will be happy to clarify anything you do not understand and advise you on how to set out your references correctly.

Editions
Standard editions should be used, especially for passages essential to the argument of the essay. References to the same work should be to the same edition, unless differences between editions are relevant to the argument.

Quotations
Quotations in the body of an essay should be strictly accurate and clearly identified. Short quotations (up to two lines of verse or forty words of prose) should be incorporated into your own prose, introduced by a colon (:) and enclosed within single quotation marks. Quotations within quotations should be enclosed within double quotation marks. Longer quotations should be introduced by a colon, begun on a new line, and indented (i.e. set several spaces in from the left-hand margin). Indented quotations do not require enclosure within quotation marks. Any words omitted from a quotation should be indicated by three single-spaced dots ( . . . ), or four if the omitted words follow a full stop. Short verse quotations should indicate clearly with an oblique (/) where the lines end; longer ones should be written out as verse, with a new line for each new line of the poetry.

Titles
Always underline or (if you use a word-processor) italicise the titles of books: that is, novels, plays, critical works and poems long enough for publication separately in book form (The Waste Land, at 433 lines, is probably the lower limit). For example: 'There is more to Hamlet than Hamlet.' For shorter poems, give titles in capital letters within single quotation marks (e.g. 'To Autumn'). Identify untitled poems by citing the opening words or line, in lower case and within quotation marks: e.g. 'They flee from me that sometime did me seek…'

References to Texts
Accompany every quotation or citing of evidence with as precise a reference as possible. For plays, give an act, scene and line reference in brackets after the quote, e.g.: (Hamlet, II.iii.10). For poems, give line numbers and, where appropriate, the book or canto number in brackets after the quote, e.g.: ('Tintern Abbey', 24-36); (Paradise Lost, IV. 326-33). For a long poem in stanzas, the stanza-number is usually sufficient, e.g.: (The Faerie Queene, III.vi.35). When quoting from a work of literature in prose, give as precise a reference as you can, including the chapter number as well as the page number in the edition you are using, e.g.: (Great Expectations, Ch. 32, p. 279). The title of the work cited need not be included in the bracketed reference if it is self-evident from the context in which you quote from it that this is the work to which you are referring.

Footnotes
When you quote from a text, you need to insert a numbered footnote, either at the foot of the page or at the end of the essay, giving full details of the edition you have used, as follows:

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, ed. Robert Hampson (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995).

William Shakespeare, The Tempest, ed. Virginia Mason Vaughan and Alden T. Vaughan, The Arden Shakespeare, third series (Walton-on-Thames: Thomas Nelson, 1999).

If you are going to quote more than once from the same edition, simply add to the footnote attached to the first quotation the statement: 'Subsequent references are to this edition.' From then on you need only give the bracketed reference after each quotation within the body of your essay, as explained above.

References to Secondary Works
When you quote from, or refer to, critical works and other kinds of secondary literature, you also need to supply a footnote, either at the foot of the page or at the end of the essay.

The footnote format in the case of books is:

1. Andrew Gibson, Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel: From Leavis to Levinas (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), p. 34.

2. Kiernan Ryan (ed.), New Historicism and Cultural Materialism: A Reader (London: Edward Arnold, 1996), pp. 47-56.

3. Warwick Gould, John Kelly and Deirdre Toomey (eds), The Collected Letters of W.B. Yeats, Vol. II: 1896-1900 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), p. 207.

The footnote format in the case of essays in books is:

4. Ruth Kennedy, 'Re-creating Chaucer', in Writing the Lives of Writers, ed. Warwick Gould and Thomas F. Staley (London: Macmillan, 1998), p. 58.

The footnote format in the case of articles in journals is:

5. Roy Booth, 'Shylock's Sober House', Review of English Studies, 50 (1999), p. 28.

The footnote format for electronic publications on the World Wide Web is:

6. Jerome J. McGann, The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Hypermedia Research Archive (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/rossetti/index.html)

(See Using the Internet below.)

If you quote from the same work again later on, you need only give the footnote reference in a shortened form, as follows:

7. Gibson, Postmodernity, p. 59.

8. Ryan (ed.), New Historicism, p. 196.

9. Kennedy, 'Re-creating Chaucer', pp. 59-60.

10. Booth, 'Shylock's Sober House', p. 31.

If you have just given the full or shortened version of a reference in a footnote and the footnote immediately following refers to the same work, use the term 'Ibid.', which is short for the Latin word 'ibidem', meaning 'in the same place'. For example:

10. Booth, 'Shylock's Sober House', p. 31.

11. Ibid., p. 34.

Bibliography
Every essay should conclude with a bibliography, which lists all the editions you have used and all the critical and scholarly work that you have consulted and found useful. Items in the bibliography should be listed in alphabetical order and set out in a consistent style, providing precise details of the author, the title, the editor (if any), the publisher, the place and date of publication, and (in the case of essays and articles) the first and last page numbers of the item. Note that in the Bibliography (as distinct from footnotes) the author or editor's surname is given first.

It is advisable to divide your bibliography (even when it is not a long one) into primary and secondary sources. Under Primary Sources should be listed all the works of literature which you have discussed, quoted from or consulted; under Secondary Sources should be listed all the critical books and articles, works of literary theory, social and historical studies, etc, which you have discussed, quoted from or consulted.

The format when listing books is:

Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, ed. Robert Hampson (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995).

Gibson, Andrew, Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel: From Leavis to Levinas (London and New York: Routledge, 1999).

Gould, Warwick, John Kelly and Deirdre Toomey (eds), The Collected Letters of W.B. Yeats, Vol. II: 1896-1900 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).

Ryan, Kiernan (ed.), New Historicism and Cultural Materialism: A Reader (London: Edward Arnold, 1996).

Shakespeare, William, The Tempest, ed. Virginia Mason Vaughan and Alden T. Vaughan, The Arden Shakespeare, third series (Walton-on-Thames: Thomas Nelson, 1999).

The format when listing essays in books is:

Kennedy, Ruth, 'Re-creating Chaucer', in Writing the Lives of Writers, ed. Warwick Gould and Thomas F. Staley (London: Macmillan, 1998), pp. 54-67.

The format when listing articles in journals is:

Booth, Roy, 'Shylock's Sober House', Review of English Studies, 50 (1999), 22-31.

Note that references to articles in journals omit pp.

The format for listing electronic publications on the World Wide Web is:

McGann, Jerome J., The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Hypermedia Research Archive (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/rossetti/index.html).

(See Using the Internet below)

Word Count
The number of words specified as the maximum length for assessed written work is intended to include quotations and footnotes, but excludes bibliography and appendices.

Plagiarism
All material cited or paraphrased must be acknowledged carefully in footnotes or endnotes, and the adoption of another critic's arguments or scholarship must also be scrupulously acknowledge. Whenever possible, critics should be cited in their own words, and any attempt to conceal one's sources in order to make the work submitted appear more original and resourceful than it really is should be avoided. If someone else's words are used without acknowledgement, this constitutes a breach of copyright, and to adopt or paraphrase another's ideas without acknowledgement is alien to the spirit of literary study. Plagiarism in term papers or dissertations has severe consequences, and can lead to various penalties. See 'Regulations Governing Examination and Assessment Offences', which can be accessed via the Web at www.rhul.ac.uk or obtained on request from the Student Service Point (FW141) or the Registry Liaison Office (FW132) or the College Library.

Using the Internet
The Department encourages use of the Internet, which is a very useful resource for essays and dissertations. However, there are two significant drawbacks: the quality of information and the risk of plagiarism.

In many ways, the Internet is the same as a library. Just as there are good and bad books in a library, there are good and bad sites on the Internet. The key difference, however, is that even the less useful books in a library have been through a process of vetting (by editors, for example), whereas the Internet has no quality control at all. This means that the bad sites are very bad indeed. For example, a search on the name 'Toni Morrison' is as likely to turn up a less than illuminating essay from a first-year undergraduate's website as it is to uncover a really useful recent interview with the writer, which has been put onto the Net by the Washington Post.

There are ways to mitigate this lack of quality control. Some sites are moderated, at least to some extent: an example of this is the excellent Voice of the Shuttle links site (http://www.qub.ac.uk /english/humanitas_home.html ). Some are specifically constructed for academic use, like Fontes Anglo Saxonici: A Register of Written Sources Used by Authors in Anglo Saxon England at http://fontes.english.ox.ac.uk /. Other sites are more like course packs, made up of specifically chosen excerpts from books which are referenced on the site (an example of this is the Origin of English Studies page at http://www.humanitas.ucsb.edu/users/raley/englstud.html). Your reading lists may detail useful websites, just as they list useful books, but you should nevertheless exercise caution when using any website.

The serious problem of plagiarism can be made much worse by the Net. Some American Universities employ 'Net police' to ensure that students are not lifting material from the Net. The warnings against plagiarism stated above also apply to Net material, which you should never use without attribution. You should reference websites by their full URL address.

APPENDIX D

Assessment Criteria

The following is intended as a guide to the qualities typically exhibited by work assigned a mark or grade within one of the bands set out below. Its purpose is to outline the basic criteria employed by the examiners in assessing essays and Dissertations, and so give students both a clearer idea of what is expected of them and a means of measuring their progress. It should not be regarded as a complete or inflexible list of the qualities work is required to display in order to be placed in a given band.

The marking scheme sets the Pass mark at (50) and the mark for a Distinction at (70). For full details of criteria used to determine awards of Pass, Merit and Distinction, see Section 6. Methods of Assessment.

70-100%
Shows a full, precise grasp of the question or topic, addresses it directly and keeps it in focus throughout; displays a detailed, accurate knowledge of the texts under discussion, including (where appropriate) apt and exact quotation; develops an original approach to the material by questioning established views and advancing a fresh analysis or interpretation; demonstrates an ability to construct an exceptionally lucid and cogent argument, anchored in concisely adduced textual evidence; brings a broad range of secondary reading (critical, theoretical or historical) to bear on the texts under discussion; reveals an advanced command of the language by expressing ideas in clear, fluent prose, by using technical terms precisely, and by exhibiting an expert grasp of the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation. An overall performance in this range shows strong potential to proceed to research at doctoral level.

65-69%
Shows a sound understanding of the question or topic and tackles it effectively; displays a solid knowledge of the texts under discussion and quotes them (where required) accurately; provides a complex account of the material, demonstrates superior powers of analysis and interpretation, and reveals strong signs of independent thought; exhibits an ability to construct a clear argument backed up by relevant textual evidence; brings secondary reading (critical, theoretical or historical) to bear on the texts under discussion; reveals a sure command of the language by expressing ideas in lucid prose, by using technical terms properly, and by evincing a firm grasp of the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation. An overall performance in this range shows potential to proceed to research at doctoral level.

50-64%
Shows an adequate understanding of the question or topic and shows reasonable competence in addressing it, but prone to stray from the point or lose focus; displays basic knowledge of the texts under discussion and can quote them (where appropriate), though not always aptly or accurately; delivers an acceptable account of the material which demonstrates effective powers of analysis and interpretation, but does not do justice to the complexity of the issues; constructs arguments that fall short of full clarity and coherence and are not sufficiently supported by textual evidence; affords little evidence of secondary reading (critical, theoretical or historical) being brought to bear on the texts under discussion; reveals a fair but limited command of the language by expressing ideas with inconsistent lucidity and occasional clumsiness, by using technical terms imprecisely or not at all, and by evincing an imperfect grasp of the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation.

40-49%
Reveals an inadequate understanding of the question or topic and proves less than competent in addressing it and keeping it in focus; displays insufficient knowledge of the texts under discussion, quoting them (where required) only occasionally and seldom accurately; delivers a rudimentary or incomplete account of the material, which betrays poorly developed powers of analysis and interpretation; constructs arguments which tend to be muddled and incoherent, and which are rarely substantiated by textual evidence; affords almost no evidence of secondary reading (critical, theoretical or historical) being brought to bear on the texts under discussion; reveals an unsatisfactory command of the language by expressing ideas with habitual clumsiness and lack of clarity, by using technical terms incorrectly or not at all, and by evincing little grasp of the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation.

0-39%
Ranges from serious plagiarism to work seriously short in weight to work which displays the faults of the preceding category in a still graver form: the question or topic is poorly understood and not properly addressed; knowledge of the texts is plainly deficient and evidence of due preparation for the assignment slight; powers of analysis and interpretation are elementary and unreliable; arguments are badly muddled or consistently incoherent and not backed up by reference to the texts; secondary reading is sketchy or undigested and is not used to illuminate the texts; reveals a substandard command of the language by expressing ideas ineptly or obscurely, by displaying a general ignorance of critical terminology, and by failing to demonstrate a basic grasp of grammar, spelling and punctuation.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

The information on this web site is accurate at the time of being up-loaded, but tutors may be changed and/or courses may be withdrawn in the light of tutor availability and student numbers. While, therefore, the English Department makes every effort to run all listed courses, it cannot guarantee the availability of every course throughout the duration of each student's time on the MA course.