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Undergraduate MAQ-ENGX3051-2023
Critical Approaches to Literature
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Duration
18 weeks
Study method
100% Online
Available loans
- HECS-HELP
- FEE-HELP
Assessments
100% online
Prior study
Required
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Subject details
At the completion of this subject students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding of a range of critical approaches to literature, shown through being able to identify, understand, and apply different questions and concepts to the interpretation of texts and to the creation of meaning
- Demonstrate an understanding of what is at stake in the way literature is understood and consumed by being able to approach and critique texts from a range of perspectives
- Demonstrate a well-developed capacity for rigorous and independent thinking, shown through being able to compare different points of view, and to generate new ideas, both in spoken and written contexts
- Demonstrate advanced research skills, shown through being able to locate, interpret, and, critically analyse published scholarship in English literary studies
- Demonstrate advanced skills in critical thinking and synthesis, shown through combining research findings and critical practice to support ideas about literary expression, textual meaning, and the social, aesthetic, and cognitive functions of literature
- Demonstrate advanced skills in persuasive argumentation, shown through being able to organise and present information efficiently and meaningfully
- Demonstrate advanced oral communication and academic writing skills shown through the production of reasoned, well-informed argument in written work and class participation
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- What is Literature For? What is Literary Theory For?
- Close Reading
- Structuralism
- Post-structuralism
- Reader Response theory
- Postcolonial theory
- Feminist approaches
- Queer theory
- New Formalism
- Narrative theory
- Cognitive narratology
- Emerging approaches
Equivalent subjects
You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:
- MAQ-ENGX3050-Critical Approaches to Literature (No longer available)
You must have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject:
one ofOthers
ENGX1001 or ENGX1002 or ENGX120; and 20cp in ENGX units at 2000 level or above
Additional requirements
- Other requirements -
Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.
This subject examines different critical approaches to analysing literature, including narratological, postcolonial, feminist, and cognitive. This range of perspectives will open up ways of considering what literature is, what kinds of knowledge it provides, and what is at stake — culturally, politically, aesthetically, and emotionally — in the way texts are understood and consumed. This subject will prepare students for research in literary studies by addressing questions concerning how we as scholars approach literary texts and the critical responses they have attracted; how we recognise and assess a literary approach; and what questions and access points we use to understand and critique literary texts. Practically, students will learn to identify, understand, and apply different questions and concepts to the interpretation of texts and to the creation of meaning.
- Participatory Task (20%)
- Academic Writing Task (30%)
- Major Project (50%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).