Faculty of Humanities and Education (Postgraduate) - The University ...

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POSTGRADUATE REGULATIONS & SYLLABUSES 2012 - 2013
THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES & EDUCATION
YEAR: II
SEMESTER: II
COURSE CODE: LITS 6201
COURSE TITLE: WOMEN’S WRITING AND FEMINIST
THEORIES
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 4
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course examines a selection of
woman-authored texts across a range of historical periods,
ethnic, backgrounds and geo-political locations. This cross
cultural approach seeks to facilitate the exploration of common
or global concerns with the equality and the social status of
women. It also pays attention to the specificities of experiences
and histories that impact gender and sexuality politics, thereby
challenging notions of a homogeneous category called
“woman”. Literary strategies employed by women to tell their
stories and those of their communities are brought into focus.
The course will trace the key developments in thinking about
gender and sexuality from its modern foundations to current
positions offered by transnational feminism, post-colonial and
postmodern feminist theory.
ASSESSMENT:
Oral Presentations: 30%
Theoretical response paper (10 pages) 20%
Research Paper (15-20pages) 50%
YEAR: II
SEMESTER: II
COURSE CODE: LITS 6922 (NOT OFFERED 2012/2013)
COURSE TITLE: INTERSECTING FORMS:
LITERATURE AND FILM
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 4
CONTACT HOURS: 3 HOURS PER WEEK, PLUS SCREENING
TIME
PREREQUISITIES: LITS 6007 OR EQUIVALENT GRADUATE
COURSE
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course has been structured around
the idea that film has shaped modern literary discourse, texts,
drama and painting in very fundamental ways. The course thus
interrogates the potency of film forms, language and technique
in literature in particular. It focuses on film’s capacity to mirror
Interior and exterior reality, as well as film’s capacity to create
vehicles of affect and the seductive nature of such imaging. It
is designed to provide students in different disciplines with the
tools to conduct critical analyses of the processes through which
cinema manipulates and shapes human senses and perceptions
and thus shapes artistic responses. Students are also introduced
to critical discourses that have been constructed around the
idea of film and its effect on society. Students will also enhance
their understanding of film as being itself a vehicle for ideas and
debate. Graduate students will benefit from an understanding of
how film works, as film is studied within the context of advanced
reading of contemporary cultural and critical theories.
RATIONALE:
The course has as a basic requirement that students would
have passed the relevant theoretical courses offered in the
disciplines of catchment population, including but not limited
to Literatures in English, Cultural Studies and Gender Studies.
It has been designed to help students to understand at an
analytical level the ways in which film form and literary form
intersect within contemporary literature. It goes beyond this
to analyse the ways in which the film sense manifests itself in
the other arts. Thus students will come to understand the ways
in which film form and language help to shape the discourses
of literature and gender. The course will thus provide a basis
for interdisciplinary work in these areas. Knowledge will be
acquired within a cultural and critical framework that will
promote advanced analytical thinking and research.
PURPOSE
The course is intended to:
• help students develop a clear understanding of how film
works in terms of both cognitive and epistemological
perceptions in particular where filmic form is
incorporated into literature;
• enable students to apply cultural and ideological
frameworks to the analysis of the perceptual processes
involved in film narrative and literature; and
• enable students to engage in informed, critical thinking
on literature and its intersection with film and other art
forms and cultural practices.
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
• apply theories of perception that are informed by
psychological and phenomenological perspectives;
• analyse the vehicles through which film achieves
psychological and emotional effects;
• analyse the ideological underpinnings of film and literature,
deploying Cultural and Critical theoretical perspectives.
• develop theoretical frameworks to assess cinema and
cinematic form in literature and the visual arts and, in
particular, Caribbean literature.
CONTENT
• Theories of perception (sound and visual perception;
perception as a movement to consciousness)
• Debates about the image
• Theories of narration
• Point of view in literature and film: intersections.
• Sound-imagerelationsaspurveyorsofideologyinliterature
and film
TEACHING/LEARNING STRATEGIES
• Lectures
• Screenings and discussions;
• Projects