Module overview
This unit investigates how cultural texts have been produced, disseminated and consumed across national boundaries within transnational cultural flows since the mid-20th century. Looking at fiction, literary, documentary and theoretical essays, memoirs and photography produced by artists and thinkers from across the world, the unit examines theoretical concepts that engage with transnational models of hybridisation, cultural migration and the idea of place and displacement. Throughout, we will engage closely with critical approaches that consider the implications of class, ethnicity, race, gender and cultural translation. We shall also look at the role of centres and peripheries in the formation of transnational identities and communities.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- communicate complex concepts in both written essays and in seminar discussions of the weekly readings.
- participate effectively in group discussions.
- skilfully employ presentation skills.
- analyse complex critical texts with careful reference to relevant secondary material.
- demonstrate an ability to work from a variety of primary and secondary materials.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- critical concepts of diaspora, hybridity and marginalisation in the cultural domain.
- various and competing definitions of the concept of transnationalism and their relationship to specific cultural texts
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Analyse challenging material
- make connections between various hypotheses.
- manage large amounts of secondary material in your independent research.
- demonstrate some originality in your research and writing.
- assess the relevance and usefulness of a wide body of scholarly work.
- critically interpret a generically diverse range of theoretical and cultural texts in translation.
- Deploy reading strategies for working on multidisciplinary material from critical, cultural and social theories as well as written and visual texts
- write a scholarly paper in which you can offer some intervention into current knowledge and thinking in this field.
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Give a ten minute PP presentation and lead ensuing 10 minute Q and A session on it
- evaluate a range of critical approaches to transnational literature and culture
- select and use relevant secondary sources in independent research project
- generate research questions and construct a research project appropriate to the study of transnational literature and culture
Syllabus
This module investigates how cultural texts - primarily writing, but also visual arts - have been produced, disseminated and consumed across national boundaries within transnational cultural flows from the mid 20C to the present day. Looking at fiction, memoirs, art, photography and documents from a range of fields produced by artists and thinkers from a range of locations, the module examines theoretical concepts that engage with transnational models of hybridisation, cultural migration and the idea of place and displacement. We will consider the transnational cultural processes resulting from global movements of people and culture, and the impact of this on the production and consumption of cultural texts. We shall consider how political and economic migration, exile and relocation and models of self-other relations are produced as aesthetic texts that are told and re-told in a variety of genres for different audiences. Throughout, we
will engage closely with critical approaches that consider the implications of class, ethnicity, race, gender and cultural translation. We shall also look at the role of centres, borderlands and peripheries in the formation of transnational identities and communities. Ethical issues raised by the representation of displaced and marginalized people will also be discussed.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- one weekly double session seminar
- individual consultations with course tutor
Learning activities include
- independent reading, study and research for weekly seminars
- accessing print and online scholarly resources
- preparation of weekly reading for group seminar discussions
- workshop for student presentations on work
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 24 |
| Independent Study | 126 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Besemeres, M. (2002). Translating One’s Self: Language and Selfhood in Cross-Cultural Autobiography. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Balibar, E. (1991). Race, Nation, Class: ambiguous identities. London: Verso.
Hannaford, Ivan (1996). Race: the History of an Idea in the West. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
Gilman, Sander (1985). Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race and Madness. Ithaca: Cornell UP.
Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: the New Mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute Foundation.
Aciman, A. (1999). Letters of Transit. New York: The New Press.
Kellman, S. (ed.) (2003). Switching Languages: Translingual Writers reflect on their Craft. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback
- tutor guidance on student presentations
- pre and post-essay tutorials on essay writing
- reaction paper with feedback from tutor and peers
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Oral presentation | 30% |
| Written report | 70% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Coursework | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External