Stephen Shapiro (convenor)

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Module Description

The module aims to provide a survey of recent American writing and culture, a period now roughly demarcated by the economic crash of 2008/11. It surveys different modes of American writing (fiction, poetry, social analysis, graphic narrative, video and digital/online media) and focuses on a variety of themes: the individual in a mediatized and information-saturated global market; the uncanny non-death of neoliberalism; state terror and mass incarceration; the return to overt forms of military imperialism; the family as focal point for registering global change, and as site for social reproduction of class struggle; and the (sociopolitical, aesthetic) problem of envisioning future alternatives to the status quo.

Syllabus for 2023-24 can be read hereLink opens in a new window:

Assessment

A packet of materials on writing essays (this is the reading for term 2, week 1 but you can start it now) is hereLink opens in a new window.

Intermediate years:

• 1st 3000-word essay, probably due in week 1 of term 2. Questions here: essay questionsLink opens in a new window. (40%)
• Citation/bibliographic exercise, due in week 10 of term 2 (20%). Rubric hereLink opens in a new window.
• Critical Graphic Essay, due in term 3 (40%) for rubric see below.

Finalists:

• 1st 3500-word essay, probably due in week 1 of term 2. Questions here: essay questionsLink opens in a new window (40%)
• Group video essay, due in week 10 of term 2. Rubric hereLink opens in a new window. (20%)
• Critical Graphic Essay, due in term 3 (40%). Rubric hereLink opens in a new window.

 

2023-24 deadlines:
Please see the Undergraduate English essay pages for deadlines.