Module: ENG7002-30 - Emergencies: Literature in Times of Crisis

Level: 7

Credit Value: 30

Module Tutor: Richard Stamp

Module Tutor Contact Details: r.stamp@bathspa.ac.uk

1.Brief description and aims of module

An essential aspect of literature’s contemporaneity lies in the ways writers have tried to make sense of, or intervene in the tumultuous times through which they live. In 1940 the German-Jewish Marxist critic Walter Benjamin situated the danger of that historical moment within a longer ‘tradition of the oppressed’: it teaches us, he argued, that ‘the “state of emergency” in which we live is not the exception but the rule.’ (‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’) This module begins from this observation that history is comprised of ‘emergencies’ in order to explore two thematic strands of literary-critical enquiry that may vary year by year, but share the aim of sparking imaginative and critical connections between literature, art, politics, philosophy and science in which issues of equality, justice and responsibility are always at stake.

These strands will involve you, for example, in urgent contemporary debates over the lived experience of place, ‘placelessness’, and globality informed by ecocriticism and environmental research and activism; or in the legacies of the events of ‘May ‘68’ in shaping subsequent cultural debates over equality, democracy and diversity in European, North African and American writing; or in the effects of the pan-European revolutions of 1848 on writers and artists who gave voice to the progressive and reactionary forces of the modern world; or in the precariousness of writing poetry during the civil unrest of the English Revolution; or in the contested space of the early modern stage in the shaping of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century conceptions of nationhood. Borrowing post-colonial critic Homi K. Bhabha’s epithet, ‘The state of emergency is also always a state of emergence’ (The Location of Culture), our aim in each of these thematic strands is to explore the formative role of literature and other forms of expression at these critical historical moments.

2.Outline syllabus

This module comprises two complementary strands, drawn from a range of possible thematic or period-based topics:

• Ecocriticism and environmental activism
• Afterlives of May ‘68
• 1789-1848: Revolution and counter-revolution
• Poetry, politics and the English Revolution
• The nation on the early modern stage

There is also an introductory week and specific weeks on combined assessment workshops and individual preparatory tutorials which will involve both thematic strands.

3.Teaching and learning activities

The activities on this module vary with the content of the thematic strand studied, but will include seminars and lectures; student-led introductions to key texts; invited speakers (remote or in person); screenings with discussions; ‘weather walks’; critical writing workshops.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: Independent Project (7,000 words or equivalent)

A negotiated project that will typically comprise two or more of the following elements that incorporates texts and/or ideas from both thematic strands,

• Analytical essay
• Proposal, rationale and design for an event, exhibition or intervention in a relevant contemporary debate or space
• Electronic resource
• Audio or visual presentation (e.g. podcast, video essay, poster presentation)
• Critical comparative reflection

Your choice of elements will be driven by a number of factors, including the conceptual focus of your project, the formal as well as thematic concerns of your chosen texts, and a consideration of the specific audience(s) for whom you are writing. It is intended that this flexibility will prompt you to experiment with and reflect on different modes of writing.

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