Digital Life: Myths, Social Media, And Artificial Intelligence

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 write an extended essay or create a digital output.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

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

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

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

Study time
Type	Hours
Completion of assessment task	30
Independent Study	10
Preparation for scheduled sessions	30
Wider reading or practice	50
Seminar	20
Total study time	140

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

N. Katherine Hayles (1999). How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. University of Chicago Press.

Sadie Plant (1998). Zeros and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture.

Ruha Benjamin (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code.

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (2016). Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media.

Zara Dinnen (2018). The Digital Banal: New Media and American Literature and Culture.

Janet Abbate (1999). Inventing the Internet. MIT Press.

Assessment

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Abstract and Presentation

Assessment Type: Formative
Feedback:
Final Assessment: No
Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Final Assessment	100%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
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.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Final Assessment	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External