Pirates, Princesses and the Politics of Romance

Module overview

Love stories powerfully shape many contemporary cultures. But ‘romance’ has a long and varied history and is not just-another-word for love. Indeed, romance does not always bring us together into a happily-every-after. Romance can be oppressive and divisive, and it can be intellectually challenging. Romance is politically weighted and charged. In this module, we will explore the many ways romance has fuelled both love and more than love, from the late 19th century to now. Our focus will be on narrative fictions that feature princesses and pirates—some of the oldest and still most popular of romance tropes. Through these stories, we will: •examine romance as ‘genre fiction’, as well as the genres of romance: quest, adventure, historical, gothic, young adult, ‘romantasy’, and more. •approach romance as a set of literary strategies deployed across an even wider variety of texts, and sometimes in unexpected places. •consider how fictions of the past 150 years draw upon texts and ideas dating back thousands of years. •analyse the aesthetic, political and economic power of romance.

Linked modules

This is a module to replace 15 Credit Year 2 UG modules that are not running next year or again.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

Romance as a critical and political idiom.
The significance of romance narratives and romance tropes to cultural history.
The importance of romance to the contemporary cultural economy.
The place of romance in modern cultural history.
Romance as a contemporary genre.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

Write with care, clarity and conviction.
Formulate and sustain a critical argument.
Research a popular topic of highly charged debate.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

Reflect on your own position as a scholar and as a 'consumer' of romance in relation to these debates.
Use this understanding to debate a variety of different theoretical, popular and political perspectives.
Understand, explain and critique romance as an influential cultural idea and form in the modern world.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include - lectures - seminars - individual consultations - feedback on written work and seminar presentations Lectures will provide an overview of the primary texts, including some historical or literary context, on which you will be expected to build in your personal study time. Seminars will focus on close textual analysis, and on understanding the primary texts in the light of selected secondary reading. Learning activities include - reading assigned texts - independent research - seminar discussion - writing essays This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible contact hour, 5 in total, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour will include (but is not be limited to) activities such as group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; one-to-one assignment consultations; one-to-one feedback and feed-forward sessions.

Study time
Type	Hours
Wider reading or practice	19
Assessment tasks	50
Follow-up work	10
Preparation for scheduled sessions	44
Lecture	11
Seminar	11
Workshops	5
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

'Romance' in the Oxford Encylopedia of Literature.

Textbooks

Barbara Fuchs (2004). Romance: The New Critical Idiom. London: Routledge.

Gillian Beer (1970). The Romance. London: Methuen.

Corinne Saunders (editor) (2004). A Companion to Romance. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Assessment

Summative

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

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Written assignment	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 assignment	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
Written assignment	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External