Module:  ENG5118-20 Transgressions

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Nicky Lloyd

Module Tutor Contact Details: n.lloyd@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

What is transgressive about literature? This module examines themes of deviance, otherness, revolt and experimentation. In this way it engages you in theoretical debates on violence, evil, law, crime, and the sacred, as we consider the ways in which literary texts explore and cross the limits of what can be represented. 

The module will introduce you to a range of texts from different periods, genres and cultures. You will explore the Gothic preoccupation with transgression in relation to ideas of science, identity, and monstrosity and the ways that crime fiction negotiates questions of right and wrong, good and evil, and guilt (or its absence), as well as literary and non-fiction texts that aim to represent extremities of evil and atrocity. In doing so, we will also consider the transgressions of literary form and convention inherent to these subversive and mutable genres. 

Utilising a variety of theoretical approaches, this module will examine relevant cultural, social and political contexts of transgression and literature, locating literary texts within the broader ethical, political and philosophical considerations of their particular historical moment. The module will also draw and develop many areas applicable to and interrelated to literature, encouraging you to analyse and explore representations of transgression in a range of cultural productions.

2. Outline syllabus

The syllabus of this module will interweave three key themes:

Gothic – an examination of the relationship between Gothic literature and transgression, focusing on (for example) science, monstrosity, and space. Emphasis will be placed on the subversive nature of the Gothic mode and its tendency to disrupt and transgress its own generic conventions. 

Crime – an exploration of literary depictions of criminal behaviour, considering ideas of guilt, law, punishment, justice, morality, power and responsibility.

Evil – a encounter with the aesthetic and ethical limits of representing acts of atrocity and genocide that raises questions about the capacity of literary and non-fiction narrative to bear witness to traumatic events as well as our own enduring fascination with the phenomenon of evil.

3. Teaching and learning activities

Seminars (individual, small group, and whole group working), lectures, one-to-one coursework tutorials. Preparatory worksheets and supporting teaching materials. 

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Coursework

• Description: Reading Theory Journal (2000 words) 

• % Weighting: 30%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Coursework

• Description: Portfolio Essay (3000 words). 

• % Weighting: 70%