SFE10108 English: Culture Studies I (Autumn 2010)

The course is connected to the following study programs

Mandatory course in the one-year English programme. Optional in the bachelor programme Society, Language and Culture.

Lecture Semester

Autumn 2010

Content

The course focuses on the topics that can supposedly best create an understanding of typical British values and norms. An introduction is given to the development of national institutions, politics, society and culture.

The literature part of the course gives an overview of literary analysis and the literary-historical development from the 17^th century until today. Four novels are read as well as two plays and a selection of poetry and non-fiction from different epochs. The texts are studied from the perspective of the time and society they emerged from.

Forms of teaching and learning

The course is taught as lectures and seminars. The students are expected to participate actively in discussions and group tasks. Group work outside scheduled classes is encouraged, where the students will study the course reading and cooperate on coursework.

Coursework requirements - conditions for taking the exam

The students submit two papers and receive feedback on them. Using the feedback, the students then improve on the papers before submitting them for final approval. The last paper requires documentation that secondary literature is used. All coursework must be approved before a student may take the final exam.

Examination

A 5-hour written exam
Language use as well as content count in the assessment. The exam paper is assessed on the A-F grading scale, and both parts of the exam need to be passed.

Permitted aids: English-English dictionary (to be handed in the day before the exam).

Literature

• Knutsen, K & M Dypedahl, Culture Studies I. Compendium, local print.
• Alexander, M, A History of English Literature
• Peck, J & M Coyle, Literary Terms and Criticism
• Griffith, K, Writing Essays about Literature
• Oakland, J (2002), British Civilization: An Introduction. 5^th ed.
• McDowall, D, An Illustrated History of Britain. Longman, latest ed.

Novels

• Bali Rai, (Un)arranged Marriage
• Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Plays

• William Shakespeare: Hamlet
• Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The following prose, poetry and short stories are included in the compendium Culture Studies I:

Poetry

• William Shakespeare: 2 sonnets
• John Donne: ”Batter my heart”
• Wordsworth: “Upon Westminster Bridge”
• John Keats: “Ode to a Nightingale”
• Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess”
• William Butler Yeats: “Easter 1916”
• Wilfred Owen: “Anthem for Doomed Youth”
• Dylan Thomas: “Fern Hill”
• W.H. Auden: “Musée des Beax Arts”
• Seamus Heaney: “Punishment”
• Ted Hughes: “Night Ride on Ariel”, “Sam”

Prose and short stories

• Jonathan Swift: “A Modest Proposal”
• Katherine Mansfield: “The Voyage”
• Doris Lessing: “To Room 19”

CULTURE STUDIES

• McCormick, J, Contemporary Britain. Palgrave MacMillan (latest ed.)
• McDowall, D, An Illustrated History of Britain. Longman (latest ed.)
• Knutsen, K & M Dypedahl, Compendium: Culture Studies I (local print, to be bought in the local bookshop)

Additionally, all course material handed out in class and/or published on the learning platform Fronter.

All students must have an English-English dictionary such as Collins Cobuild Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, or another learner’s dictionary for non-native users of English.