(BA) (4-year-programme) - The University of Hong Kong

44ENGL1038.Practice of criticism (6 credits)This course introduces students to the development of criticism as a literary genre and as a space ofengagement with creative literature. By studying a selection of key critical texts in conjunction withworks of imaginative literature, the course will discuss the creative uses of criticism in the history ofliterature and the role criticism has played in our understanding of literature. There will be weeklylectures and workshops, in which we will discuss, and participate in, some of the most significantdebates among major critical thinkers and to relate these debates to our own studies of literary texts.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL1039.Realism and representation (6 credits)In this introductory course we will examine and explore one of the most dominant modes of literaryrepresentation. We will begin by situating realism as a movement in literary history and investigate itstheoretical and material underpinnings and the literary conventions that characterize it. We willconsider different ways of defining realism and situate them in relation to different arguments aboutthe nature and role of literary representation. With close attention to texts from different times, wewill try to trace how realism distinguishes itself from other forms of writing and how it persists incontemporary literary practice alongside and even within movements against realism in art andliterature. We will also consider the conventions of realistic representation in different genres, artforms and media, and their role and relevance in non-fictional discourses and genres. Finally, we willalso examine and discuss the relevance of arguments about realism to the writing and rhetoric ofcritical essays.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL1040.Rewriting and writing back (6 credits)In this introductory course, we will study and explore the ways in which literary creativity and thepractice of writing are motivated and shaped by the reading of other texts. With close attention totexts from different times and places, we will identify some of the major acts of rewriting by whichauthors have sought to distinguish themselves ever since Virgil chose Homer as his model.Distinguishing between different modes of rewriting such as allusion, translation, parody, andcounter-discourse, we will examine their role in specific contexts of literary production. Apart fromconsidering the importance of rewriting in the formation and critique of a literary canon, we will alsodiscuss the value of rewriting in the critical study of literature and the forms it may take in the writingof essays, including summary, paraphrase, and plagiarism.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL1041.Subjectivity in literature (6 credits)Literary Modernism has often been characterized as an inward turn: as a growing preoccupation withthe workings of consciousness; the nature of subjective experience; and the constitution, anddefinition, of the subjective self. In this introductory course we will examine depictions of subjectivityin modernist literature, discussing topics such as the unconscious and psychic conflict, impersonality,sexual and racial difference, the role of the body in consciousness, and the dynamics of fantasy andmemory. We will contextualize our close readings in contemporary psychological and scientificresearch, the rise of urbanism and cosmopolitanism, colonialism and post-colonialism, technologicaladvancements and the World Wars. Through response papers, presentations, and class discussions,students will learn to analyze textual details and techniques and organize their observations withincogent arguments.Assessment: 100% coursework.