Module overview
This module explores the relationship between digital culture and contemporary fiction. It gives you the opportunity to critically examine how the digital world in which you may, or may not, interact with everyday appears in both online and offline literary culture. We will focus on how contemporary fictional forms shape the understanding and perception of digital culture and, in turn, how digital culture influences fiction. Fictional forms to be considered include the novel, interactive web comics, narrative games, film and television episodes. For your assignments, you will have the opportunity to craft your own commentaries and produce and the option of creating a digital output.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- critically analyse the aesthetic, economic, affective and poetic factors that give rise to digital culture
- evaluate the role of literary and textual objects in digital culture
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- how literature forms narratives and myths influencing the perception of digital culture
- literary debates in relationship to digital media technologies
- specific media that engages with digital and literary cultures
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- carry out independent research and analysis in a variety of forms
- navigate and analyse a range of digital media and platforms
Syllabus
This module allows you to explore several key issues within digital culture through the lens of contemporary fiction. We will begin by thinking about the ideas surrounding the development of digital culture by looking at a variety of different media. You will then have the opportunity to read a range of literary texts alongside new media theory, and science and technology studies. Indicative topics include exploring the representation of the status of fiction, literary controversies online, the experience of life with old and new media, interactivity, posthumanism, cyberfeminism, online conversations, online written forms and social media practices.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include:
- Seminars, Lectures and workshops
- Individual guidance sessions in advance of the final assessment
- Office hours for individual feedback on the assessment
Learning activities include:
- Preparatory reading and research prior to contact hours
- Individual study and research
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Independent Study | 10 |
| Wider reading or practice | 50 |
| Completion of assessment task | 30 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 30 |
| Tutorial | 10 |
| Seminar | 20 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
N. Katherine Hayles (1999). How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. University of Chicago Press.
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (2016). Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media.
Sadie Plant (1998). Zeros and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture.
Zara Dinnen (2018). The Digital Banal: New Media and American Literature and Culture.
Ruha Benjamin (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code.
Janet Abbate (1999). Inventing the Internet. MIT Press.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Final Assessment | 60% |
| Critical commentary | 40% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Written essay | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Critical commentary | 40% |
| Final Assessment | 60% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External