Module ENGL3691: Nonsense Literature

Department: English Studies

ENGL3691: Nonsense Literature

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• Successful completion of either ENGL2011 Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism or ENGL2021 Shakespeare.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To introduce students to a selection of nonsense literature from a range of different historical periods, focusing in particular on the Victorian nonsense of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, but also examining earlier and later nonsense works.
• To assess the significance of nonsense writing within Victorian literature, and its place in the evolution of twentieth-century literature.
• To engage with critical and theoretical debates about nonsense literature.
• To consider ways in which nonsense writing troubles or disrupts familiar methods of literary and critical interpretation.

Content

• This module traces the development of nonsense literature and seeks to relate critical and theoretical debates about nonsense to particular literary texts. The module will begin by surveying precedents for Victorian nonsense in pre- and early nineteenth-century literature before moving to consider in detail the work of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. It will then turn to focus on the legacies of Victorian nonsense in twentieth-century literature. Texts will be a mixture of poetry and prose. In addition to Lear and Carroll, authors studied are likely to include Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, and Stevie Smith. Topics covered will include: nonsense and language; nonsense and childhood; nonsense and comedy; nonsense and play.

Learning Outcomes

• Broad understanding of the genre of nonsense literature and of how nonsense literature has developed and altered in different historical periods.
• Detailed knowledge of works by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll as well as twentieth-century texts which hold affinities with Victorian nonsense writing.

• Students' analytic, interpretive, critical and persuasive skills will be developed.

• Students on this course will be expected to exhibit independent thought and judgement in their essays. Critical reasoning, an ability to offer cogent arguments, as well as word-processing, time-management, electronic data access and information organizational skills, are all required for this module.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module is taught through seminars, which encourage collective responsiveness through interactive discussion as well as the development of independent, individual thought.
• The consultation session with the seminar leader before the first or second essay allows for further, guided exploration of individual ideas and arguments.
• Assessed essays give students the opportunity for focused independent study, permitting them to explore their own ideas and insights as well as demonstrating a requisite knowledge of the subject.
• The written feedback that is provided after the first assessed essay allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second essay.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Before the first essay, students will have an individual consultation session in which they are able to show their seminar leader a list of points relevant to the essay and receive oral comment on these points. Students will be encouraged to discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University