spring 2019 ENG-3194 Contemporary Fiction - 10 ECTS

Application deadline

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 June for the autumn semester and 1 December for the spring semester.

Exchange students and Fulbright students: 15 April for the autumn semester and 1 October for the spring semester.


Type of course

This course is intended for students in the master's programme in English literature and students in the master's programme in education year 8-13 (lektorutdanninga, studieretning engelsk). This course may be taken as a single course by students who meet the admission requirements for the MA programme in English Literature.

This course fulfils the Studies in Genre requirement for the MA in English Literature.


Admission requirements

Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS), or equivalent qualification, in English literature, or a degree combining English literature and a closely-related discipline (minimum 80 ECTS in English). An average grade equivalent to C or better (in the Norwegian grading system) in the English coursework (80 ECTS) is required.

Application code: 9371 - Enkeltemner på masternivå (Nordic applicants).


Course content

This course reflects on the fictional themes and genres of the present in their relationship to contemporary issues. During a particular semester, the course emphasizes one or more of the following themes: how fiction can provide new perspectives on the complexities of contemporary politics (e.g., poverty, refugee crisis, world terrorism, globalization), how fiction reworks or engages with earlier works of literature and film, and/or how boundaries of national literature become challenged on the globalized literary market. The course focuses on these or closely related themes by looking at recently published fiction which also contests earlier understandings of fictional genres. Thus, the questions of the dominant literary forms of the 21st century are also at stake, as the course scrutinizes how the ephemera of the web (i.e., blog posts, fan fiction etc.) challenge earlier ways of writing fiction.

Objectives of the course

Knowledge

The student has:

  • an advanced working knowledge of contemporary narratives in relation to the questions the course addresses, both from a national and global perspective.
  • a strong understanding of how fiction today can provide new perspectives on the complexities of contemporary politics
  • profound insight into how earlier fictional genres have been challenged/ modified /developed in the 21st century

Skills

The student can:

  • articulate the broader ways in which issues in the selected 21st century narratives are relevant to their own culture, global culture, and their own lives
  • appreciate the interdependence of literary and other aesthetic issues, contemporary politics and histories, and the role of the reader in interpreting and making meaning in 21st century fiction.
  • demonstrate their ability to relate to theoretical concepts both orally, through class participation, and in written form, in their responses and papers
  • locate, cite, and intelligently incorporate several sources into their final paper and shorter essays.


Language of instruction and examination

Language of instruction and examination: English.

Teaching methods

The course meets once a week for 13 weeks for two hours of lecture and discussion.

Quality assurance:

All courses will be evaluated once during the period of the study program. The board of the program decides which courses will be evaluated by students and teacher each year. 


Assessment

Coursework requirements:

The following coursework requirements must be completed and approved in order to take the final exam:

Each student is required:

  • to give an oral presentation or a discussion of a topic (10 minutes).
  • to write a mid-term paper (up to 6 pages, double line spacing, submission after approximately nine weeks).
  • to attend 80% of the class sessions (after registration closes).

Assessment method:

The exam will consist of: A research-based term paper of approximately 12-15 pages. The paper must be significantly different from the mid-term paper. In other words, it cannot focus on the same texts.

The exam will be assessed on an A-F grades scale. Grades are A-E for passed and F for failed. A re-sit exam is offered in in the beginning of the following semester in cases of grade F/fail. A postponed exam is offered in the beginning of the following semester if the student is unable to take the final exam due to illness or other exceptional circumstances. The registration deadline for re-sit/postponed examination is January 15 for courses offered in the autumn semester and August 15 for courses offered in the spring semester. In the event of a re-sit/postponed examination, the student is allowed to submit a revised version of his/her term paper within a given deadline.


Recommended reading/syllabus

Pensumliste for ENG-3194 Contemporary Fiction

Recommended reading/syllabus

5-7 longer works or a variety of shorter works, and accompanying theoretical and secondary material.

To be announced.

Error rendering component

  • About the course
  • Campus: Tromsø |
  • ECTS: 10
  • Course code: ENG-3194