English Language Literature and Culture

Recommended Prerequisites

Solid knowledge of English culture and literature; advanced skills in English.

Teaching Methods

Some expository classes but in general close reading and discussion of texts. Doctoral students will be required to take part in all class discussions and will have to make an oral presentation in class of either a fictional text or a theoretical essay as well as some written exercises.

Learning Outcomes

The seminar aims to extend and deepen doctoral students' knowledge about British culture and literature; students should become familiar with theoretical models relevant to the study of British culture and literature and develop a critical awareness about the topics under discussion; students should acquire advanced and independent research skills.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

In order to reinforce the doctoral student's theoretical background, the seminar aims to familiarize him/her with some of the more relevant critical developments in the areas of culture and literature of the last few decades as well as with the work of seminal and pioneering figures in multiple fields of study. Reading and discussing critical texts from Cultural, Postcolonial, Feminist and Identity Studies will be the course's first priority. Studies on Postmodernism and other literary categories will also figure prominently in the course. These critical frameworks will then interact productively with the study of specific literary texts, chosen in terms of their representative value and as significant examples of new trends. Critical and literary texts may vary from edition to edition, depending on student's previous critical background.

Head Lecturer(s)

Adriana Conceição Silva Pereira Bebiano Nascimento

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Active participation in classes including the presentation of works : 25.0%
Research work: 75.0%

Bibliography

Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities. London: Verso.

Bhabha, H. K. (1990) (Ed.). Nation and narration. London: Routledge.

Hall, S. (2019). Essential essays. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hobsbawm. E., & Ranger, T. (1983). The invention of tradition. Cambridge: C U P.

Hower, J. S. (2019). ‘All good stories’: historical fiction in pedagogy, theory, and scholarship. Rethinking History. The Journal of Theory and Practice, 23, 3, 78-125.

Huggan, G. (2001). The postcolonial exotic. Marketing the margins. London: Routledge.

Hutcheon, L. (1988). A poetics of postmodernism. History, theory, fiction. London: Routledge.

White, H. (2005). Introduction: historical fiction, Fictional history, and historical reality. Rethinking History. The Journal of Theory and Practice, 9, 2-3, 147-157.

Williams, R. (1981). Culture. London: Fontana Paperbacks.

Young, R. J. C. (1995). Colonial desire. Hybridity in theory, culture and race. London: Routledge.