guia litingl III2014-2015.pdf

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA

2014-2015

Dídac Llorens Cubedo Ana I. Zamorano Rueda (Coordinadora)

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES: LENGUA, LITERATURA

Y CULTURA

Ana I. Zamorano Rueda Dídac Llorens Cubedo

Isabel Castelao Gómez

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA 2

GRADO

GUÍA DE ESTUDIO DE LA ASIGNATURA:

LITERATURA INGLESA III: PENSAMIENTO Y CREACIÓN LITERARIA EN LA PRIMERA MITAD DEL SIGLO XX 2ª PARTE | PLAN DE TRABAJO Y ORIENTACIONES PARA SU DESARROLLO




1. PLAN DE TRABAJO/ WORK PLAN Each Course Unit of the Course is developed in a matching chapter of the manual

The Need to Make It New: English Literature and Thought in the First Half of the

20th Century (NMN hereafter).

This subject is divided into five Course Units, which make up five ECTS credits.

Each credit corresponds to 25 hours of work on the part of the student, involving

study and practice time. Thus the total number of hours the student will have to

devote to this subject is 125. This is one of the subjects in the Degree that are

specifically oriented towards the critical approach to literary texts in English,

which implies that a great part of the hours will have to be invested in reading

literary works and exercising text analysis.

STUDY BLOCK UNIT ONE: The Discourse Between or the Need to “Make It New”: Literature in an Ever-changing World.

UNIT TWO: “The White Man’s Burden”: Different Approaches to Imperialism in Literature

UNIT THREE: Disil lusion as Never Told in the Old Days”: Literature and War

UNIT FOUR: “Life is a Luminous Halo”: The Novel in the Twentieth Century

UNIT FIVE: Tales of the City, Landscapes of the Mind: Modernist Geographies and the Beyond




As stated in the “Guía de la Asignatura-Parte I,” UNED’s distance-learning

methodology distributes formative activities in autonomous work and interactive

work (online or in-class contact with tutors and teaching team). All Units share a

similar structure, containing the following sections and types of work which the

student should distribute according to the schedule in the following table (please

bear in mind that some Units may take you longer, or you might need to read the

set texts several times):

W O R K S E C T I O N S F O R E A C H

U N I T

A C T I V I T I E S I N E A C H U N I T S E C T I O N

A P R O X . T I M E F O R E A C H U N I T

S E C T I O N

Presentation

- Reading introductory sections of each Unit in NMN

1 hour

Approaching the text

- Reading “APPROACHING” sections in NMN - Getting prepared for the text’s difficulties

2 hours

Reading the text

- First reading of set literary text 10 hours

Revisiting the text

- Reading “REVISITING” sections in NMN - Subsequent readings of set literary text - Answering micro-exercises as you read along

2 hour

Exercises - Doing “Test yourself” questions (on set text and Unit) in NMN - Doing “Explore questions” (further analysis) in NMN - Working on “Key terms” (glossary) in NMN - Doing online multiple-choice exercises

2.5 hours

Further study - Reading recommended texts in NMN - Reading material posted on virtual course - Relating above material to the Unit’s

1.5 hours




contents

Interactive work

- Making/answering questions online - Making/answering questions in class - Proposing and debating ideas with mates/teachers/tutors regarding set texts

2 hours

Mock exam/PEC - Practicing skills/contents learned in the Unit

2 hours

TOTAL: 25

HOURS

2. ORIENTACIONES PARA EL ESTUDIO DE LOS CONTENIDOS/ ORIENTATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THE COURSE CONTENTS This course is intended to develop the student’s interaction with the literary text.

The learning outcomes for each Unit are specified at the beginning of each

chapter of NMN.

Please note that most of the titles included in the compulsory reading of the

course can be found in The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume II

(2000). The ones not included in The Norton Anthology are:

Foster, E.M., [1924] 1989 A Passage to India. London & New York: Penguin Books.

Lawrence, D. H. [1913] (2000). Sons and Lovers. London & New York: Penguin Twentieth Century Classics.

Woolf, Virginia Mrs Dalloway [1925] (1992) London & New York: Penguin Modern Classics.




Please note that these editions are the ones used as reference in the textbook

NMN, yet, as long as the text is complete and not an abridged version, you are

free to choose your own editions.

Below you can find the main contents, learning outcomes, and time schedule for

each Unit included in the course 2012-2013.

UNIT 1

THE DISCOURSE BETWEEN OR THE NEED TO “MAKE IT NEW”: LITERATURE IN AN EVER-CHANGING WORLD (NMN: Unit 1, The Discourse Between or the Need to “Make It New”: Literature in an Ever-changing World)

1. I Introduction 1. II The Crisis of Victorian Positivism 1. III The Interpretation of an Ever-changing World 1. IV What Does Woman Want: The Rise of the New Woman 1. V The Dystopian Earnestness to Break Free.

Compulsory Reading: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest Due date: October 29th

Learning outcomes Aims and Objectives:

• This Unit sets out to establish the historical and theoretical background behind the need felt by many writers and artists during the first half of the twentieth century to find a new mode of expression.

• The many changes that took full form in this period had been emerging during the latter half of the nineteenth century, when a general disillusionment with the self assertive optimism of Victorian positivism provoked a




crisis that had its artistic manifestation in the different avant garde movements of the twentieth century.

• This crisis was particularly intense for those Victorians living at the turn of the century who were, however, unable to explore it with the required perspective, and passed it on to the generation coming to maturity in the years following the First World War.

• The First World War, or Great War, as it was called at the time, was, in many ways, the expression of this crisis in its most terrible, extreme and incomprehensible form.

• Whilst the course subject for study this year is generally devoted to literature and the interconnection between literary discourse and other discourses present in the social milieu, it is the aim of this Unit to make students aware that literature and literary creativity are not isolated entities but, as critic Terry Eagleton suggests, form part of the social and political concerns of the period in which the literary work is produced.

• In this sense, literature not only reflects the world but contributes to the debates that surround its participants, and helps produce thought. In order to achieve this aim, we shall study Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest as a literary example of a text that takes part in the debates of the period.

• The main aim of this Unit is to make students not only aware of, but also to participate in, the various discourses that informed the consciousness of the people inhabiting Great Britain in the first half of the twentieth century.

Study Guidelines:

Perhaps the most immediate issue that will be encountered when studying this chapter is that the student will confront fields of knowledge such as political and philosophical thought, psychology and psychoanalysis, anthropology, and scientific or medical discoveries that may seem




unfamiliar and off-putting. It has to be said that although this Unit is dealing with complex issues, it is not expected that the student should have a profound knowledge of these subjects. Yet it is important to become familiar with the social and intellectual background that surrounds the literary scene of the first half of the twentieth century. Ideally, the best way fully to understand the many issues raised here is to go to the sources and read some of the treatises and manifestos mentioned. In so doing the student will realise that, apart from the struggle to understand the theoretical and critical ideas presented in these writings, there is also pleasure to be gained by reading them. In many cases, as for example in the cases of the works of Darwin or Freud works, the narratorial component of these writings helps to demystify the complexity of later explanations. It is too challenging to try to collate the multiple sources that would be needed to approach this subject. The Norton Anthology provides a selection of texts dealing with some of the issues discussed here. A good source of background material not only for this Unit but for the course at large is Modernisms: An Anthology of Sources and Documents (2000) edited by Vassiliki Kolocotroni et al.

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Norton 2000: 1761-1805) constitutes the compulsory reading for this Unit.

It is important to read The Importance of Being Earnest after the theoretical sections of this Unit have been read and understood, and before undertaking the study of section 1.v ‘The Earnestness to Break Free’. During their reading, students should write down any connections they see between what has been discussed up to that point and what happens in Wilde’s play. They then should compare their notes with the discussion that follows.

The best way to approach the contents of this Unit is by trying to enter into the frame of mind of the ordinary citizen of the period. In this manner, students should analyze their own responses to the different topics explored. It is a good idea to write down these impressions and to draw imaginatively a general picture of the many changes that the people of the era went through. The questions at the end of the Unit will help students to pin down the most important ideas and help them to understand the relationship between these and the literature of the time.

UNIT 2




“THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN”: DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO IMPERIALISM IN LITERATURE. HEART OF DARKNESS AND PASSAGE TO INDIA (NMN: Unit 2, “The White Man’s Burden”: Different Approaches to Imperialism in Literature. Heart of Darkness and Passage to India)

2. I Joseph Conrad and the Congo experience: Heart of Darkness 2. II E.M. Foster's Journey to India: Passage to India

Compulsory Reading: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and E. M. Forster’s Passage to India

Due date: November 17th




Learning outcomes Aims and Objectives:

• This Unit sets out to explore the relationship between empire and literature, elaborating on the question of Empire put forward in Unit 1.

• The aim of this Unit is to discern the way in which narratives written in England have shaped, supported or undermined the concept of British imperialism. To do so two different accounts of British imperial experience will be explored.

• Written in different moments in time and focusing on different locations, Africa and India, both narratives show concerns surrounding notions of home, nation, race, identity, and belonging. In doing so, other objectives brought up by topics related to fiction, such as language and form, will come to the fore, as will nationality, subjectivity, history, sexuality, gender, and social class.

• In dealing with Empire and colonial issues it is always important to acknowledge the engrossing contribution made by the so-called Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies, particularly, but not necessarily exclusively, by thinkers such as Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Stuart Hall, who have intensively criticised European and American imperialism.

• There are many others, such as Frantz Fanon or Kuan-Hsing Chen, who, instead of looking at outside powers of colonialism, have focused on individuals and on language to detect the particular and complex questions raised by colonialism and post-colonialism as well as culture.

• Whereas the contribution of these authors and many others is acknowledged and generally supports the main line of the argument presented here, it is impossible in a course such as this to deal in depth with the difficult and complex sets of ideas each presents. Therefore those interested in specific subjects should use the bibliography to find further information.

Study Guidelines:




Read carefully the texts proposed for study before approaching the critical sections dealing with them. These texts are:

Joseph Conrad, 2000 [1902], Heart of Darkness, in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Volume II (includes an introduction to the text).

E.M. Forster, 1989 [1924], A Passage to India, London and New York: Penguin Books (this is the edition that has been used for this Unit. It contains a good introduction by the editor, Oliver Stallybrass. It also contains Appendix I ‘Forster’s Prefatory Note (1957) to the Everyman Edition’, Appendix II ‘Peter Burra’s Introduction to the Everyman Edition’ and Appendix III ‘Forster Programme Note to Santha Rama Rau’s Dramatized Version’. Here students will also find some author’s ‘Notes’ that appear in the Everyman edition as well as a ‘Glossary’.

Bear in mind that language is not straightforward and that there is always a meaning other than the immediate one suggested. It is important to read with a critical and open mind, allowing for the experience of ‘the other’ to take place in oneself.

Be prepared to make an effort as neither of the texts proposed for study in this Unit is easy. They are as dense and as complex as poetry. For this reason the student should not just study the plot (which is not the essential issue at work in these novels) but should also be aware of elements such as silences, gaps and the unsaid that contribute as much to the text as what is actually said.

These texts participate in the different discourses that have been studied in relation to the period, particularly seen in Unit 1 but also examined in Units 2 and 3. They are also active participants in an intertextual space produced by the many literary texts dealing, directly or indirectly, with the British Empire. It is, therefore, useful always to have in mind the student’s literary background and knowledge. So, while new literary devices and ways of expression will be introduced, it is important that the student should be prepared to participate in the debate by adding his/her own knowledge and wisdom when relating this knowledge to the issues in question.

As has been pointed out above, one of the main difficulties encountered in fully understanding this Unit is the specific use of both language and words in the texts to be studied. It is important for this reason always to have a good dictionary to hand by to be prepared to look up words whenever it is felt necessary. When doing this the student should always remember that the most immediate meaning provided will not always be the most accurate




within a particular context. Therefore, it is important to have an open mind that allows for other possible meanings and to understand the ambivalence a word or phrase might give to a text.

Perhaps one of the main challenges in this Unit is the need to overcome ourselves so we can fully understand the issues related to empire and colonialism in relation to literature. Accepting that each of us, whether as individuals or in groups, is always an ‘other’ to ‘others’ might be the first step in the right direction. In doing so, from the experience gained when reading these texts, we shall, it is hoped, engage in the difficult and discomfiting act of living differently by living difference.




UNIT 3

“DISILLUSION AS NEVER TOLD IN THE OLD DAYS”: LITERATURE AND WAR (NMN: Unit 3, “Disillusion as Never Told in the Old Days”: Literature and War)

3. I Introduction 3. II The Georgian Poets: The Changing Effect of Experiencing War 3. III Women Writing the War

Compulsory Reading: Rupert Brooke’s 'The Soldier', Wilfred Owen’s 'Dulce et Decorum Est', Jessie Pope’s ‘The Call’ and Rose Macauly’s ‘The Picnic’ (The last two are not in The Norton Anthology but both are easily available on the internet) Due date: December 5th

Learning outcomes

Aims and Objectives

• The main aim of this Unit is to study the relationship between war and literature.

• Given the period of literature covered in the course the Unit will concentrate (albeit not exclusively) on the First World War.

• This was the major event that changed European civilization as it had been known up to this conflict.

• The Unit will also deal mainly with poetry, although some prose relating to war will also be considered.

• The general objective of the Unit is to chart the strategies through which poets and writers in general developed original techniques and learnt from their predecessors to convey their experiences of war. In doing so we shall explore the ethical considerations underlying war poetry as it attempts to transform atrocity into art.

• Therefore, this Unit will consider both aesthetic and ethical questions such us: for whom does the poet speak, and for what purpose? How might the poet write about violence without exploiting or cheapening it? Does the




combatant-poet have rights that are denied to civilian poets? What should the emotional stance of the poet be? How and in what detail must the horror of war be described? We will see that these and similar questions are always posed implicitly, and often directly, by war poets.

• In the process, debates about war writing as experiential or non-experiential writing will be examined, as will the relation between history and the imagination; war and Empire; gender in war writing; war poetry and popular culture; and identity and nationality in war literature.

• Through the comparison of texts, students will heighten their awareness of the complex and controversial debates surrounding the genre of war writing itself, and examine the extent to which the production and interpretation of war poetry is conditioned by cultural, social and political factors.

• The relationship between women writers and war is also an important objective of this Unit.

• The writers studied in this Unit are by no means the only ones who could be studied in relation to war and literature. Choosing these writers in preference to other authors means not that they are better writers but that they provide an adequate amount of insight into the subject as to give an accurate idea of the main aim and objectives described here.

Study Guidelines

To read carefully the poems and texts proposed for study before approaching in depth the critical section dealing with each of them. Apart from the quotations of poems and texts included in this Unit, there are some that have not been fully quoted because they are published in the Norton Anthology of English Literature such as ‘The Soldier’ or ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’ These poems and the texts and fragments quoted here are compulsory reading for this Unit.

To bear in mind that poetic language is condensed and that its meaning reaches far beyond the straightforward and immediate one. In this sense, it is imperative to note the importance of the use of the poetic technique and poetic devices, and even the absence of these, for they are always used consciously and are part of the process of signification.




To take into account the possible intertextual connections present in the poems. It is important to understand that poetic intertextuality is not merely a possible influence of a particular text on a poem. By recalling earlier or contemporary texts the poet adds new meanings to the poem. For this reason, it is essential that the student read the poems with the literary background acquired in previous years and previous Units in mind. Should this literary background be lacking the student must look for this knowledge in manuals or notes taken from other subjects whenever it is felt necessary. The Norton Anthology of English Literature is a good source in this respect, as is any history of English literature. It should be taken into account that the background necessary for the optimal understanding of a text might fall outside the time span of this course.

To read the poems aloud so that the student experiences how poetic language conveys meaning not only in the actual significance of the words but also in the impediments, difficulties in the breathing, cacophonies, alliterations and other devices obvious through the audible pronunciation of the words.

It is essential always to have a good dictionary always to hand and to look up words whenever their meaning seems unclear or is unknown. Allowing for an ambivalence in meaning and for other possible meanings apart from the obvious one is always a good idea.

To make notes of the first impressions gained from your particular reading of the poems, and to compare these impressions with the information provided in the Unit. First impressions are often the most accurate and they are in any case what the poets and writers had in mind to begin with. After having studied the critical background provided, go back to the poem, read it again, and notice whether and how these first impressions have changed.

This Unit has a particular and specific theme in that it deals with literature and war. It is important to bear in mind the context in which the literature proposed for study was produced. Make notes about the relationship between literature and other social or political discourses and be aware of the interaction between them. Decide whether literature is merely a reflection of the world or whether it is actively participating in its construction.

UNIT 4




“LIFE IS A LUMINOUS HALO”: THE NOVEL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. SONS AND LOVERS (NMN: Unit 4, “Life is a Luminous Halo”: The Novel in the Twentieth Century. Sons and lovers)

4.I Social Consciousness Narrated: D. H. Lawrence New Otherness in Context 4.II Reality is in the Word: The Poetics of Narrative 4.III Discovering Newness and Otherness D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers

Compulsory Reading: D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers

Due date December 22nd

Learning outcomes

Aims and Objectives

• This Unit deals with the work of one of the greatest English writers of the twentieth century, D.H. Lawrence.

• By the end of the Unit students should be familiar with the life and works of this writer as well as proficient in the major themes of his oeuvre.

• Special attention is devoted to his novel Sons and Lovers and, through reading and studying it, students should become aware of different issues that are common to many other writings and writers of the period.

• These issues are, for example, the writing of Bildungsroman, writing and war, changing concepts in the relationships between the sexes, the narration of sexuality, literature and censorship, literary experimentation and techniques, and the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature.

Study Guidelines




Read and study sections 4.I and 4.II of NMN taking notes and writing your

own summaries of what you read. Then read or re-read the novel before you go to section 4.III devoted to the reading of Sons and Lovers.

It is important when you read the novel to write a short paragraph summarising the plot and your own first impressions of the novel.

Take notes of the way in which characters develop, the backgoround of the setting, and of the many symbols that appear.

Then you can read section 4.III. After reading and studying this section, you can move then to complete

your notes by contrasting your own plot summaries, character development and use of symbolism with what you have learned so far.

Finally, go to the activities provided and try to answer the questions.




UNIT 5: TALES OF THE CITY: VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MODERNIST GEOGRAPHIES OF THE MIND (NMN: Unit 5, Tales Of The City: Virginia Woolf’s Modernist Geographies Of The Mind)

5.I Introduction to Virginia Woolf 5.II The Bloomsbury Group Aesthetics 5.III A Room of One’s Own and Other Essays 5.IV Mrs Dalloway and the Woman’s Sentence

Compulsory Reading: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and A Room of One’s Own Due date January 18th

Learning outcomes

Aims and Objectives

• This Unit sets out to explore the impact of Modernism in the literature of the period, with particular reference to the writer Virginia Woolf as a modernist woman writer.

• The aim is to study Woolf’s fictional and non-fictional writings in order to provide a framework that allows the understanding of Woolf’s creative process within the context of the period.

• For this purpose we shall concentrate mainly on two of her works, her essay, A Room of One’s Own, and her novel, Mrs Dalloway, although references to other novels and essays as well as to the socio-historical world that surrounded the writer are included.

• In our ‘Introduction to Virginia Woolf’ we focus on those aspects of her life relevant to her creative process and her literary thought. In ‘The Bloomsbury Group’ we place Woolf within the intellectual and social environment that formed a great deal of her intellectual endeavor. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Woolf’s literary production, what makes her unique and interesting, is that in her writings she was in constant search of what could be termed ‘the woman’s sentence’.




• The main goal of this unit is to explore the train of thought behind Woolf’s search and her literary achievements. In doing so we will project into the future and explore the reasons behind the impact her writing had on the feminist movement from the nineteen-sixties and early seventies onwards.

Study Guidelines

To be aware that Woolf’s work is not the product of an isolated mind

but that it is described within the socio-historical context of the writer and influenced by her personal history. Woolf was living in a society that witnessed multiple and profound changes, social and political convulsions, and literary debates, in which she was an active participant.

To remember that Woolf’s wide range of reading and knowledge is always present in her use of language and in her modernist aesthetics. Her continuous references to contemporary and historical writers and thinkers requires that the student should always bear in mind a knowledge of English literature from previous courses as well as that so far acquired in this course.

To be prepared to undertake the intellectual effort that presupposes Woolf’s complex use of language and narrative technique and her experimental approach to fiction. It is a good idea to be prepared to widen your vocabulary by looking up difficult words in a dictionary whenever necessary.

To be gender-conscious in order to understand that Woolf’s commitment to the women’s struggle, what today is called Woolf’s feminism, is intrinsically linked to her artistic output.

To discern the importance of the visual effect of language in Woolf’s work. The use of images and poetic language in her writing is intended to create an emotion similar to the one we may gain while contemplating a painting on a wall.

The main challenge in this Unit is, paradoxically, the amount of information available. This implies that any approach to Virginia Woolf




will necessarily be biased. This is so because, as Jennifer Smith has pointed out in her edition of A Room Of One’s Own, “biographers and critics have wanted to sum her up in many different ways” (Smith 1995: 119) and, it should be added, to serve their own purposes.

Before undertaking this study and in order fully to understand the contents presented here it is advisable to read beforehand the works that constitute the compulsory reading for this Unit: (see below)

When reading these texts, make a mental note of your expectations in relation to the literary works and what the titles suggest.

After reading the texts, re-evaluate those expectations: Has the book fulfilled them? What has been left out and why? Has the book surpassed them? It is also a good idea to jot down your impressions of the book while reading it. In doing so you will start to engage with the intellectual exercise the writer tries to extract from her/his readers.

Indeed, these and other possible questions are intended to stimulate the student into the questioning frame of mind necessary for understanding the subtleties and ambivalences in Woolf’s writing.

3. ORIENTACIONES PARA LA REALIZACIÓN DEL PLAN DE ACTIVIDADES/ ORIENTATIONS FOR CARRYING OUT THE EXERCISES

3.1 STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH TO THE COURSE UNITS

As stated above, every Course Unit is outlined in the same way. This means you

will also learn how to study this subject progressively, so you will soon “get the

knack” of how to approach the set literary texts. Although NMN already contains

precise instructions on how to use the textbook, here we suggest you proceed

with each Course Unit in accordance with the first table in this Guide:




- Presentation: Read the program, learning objectives and “Presentation” in NMN. Situate yourself in historical, social and cultural context. Try to connect the information you get with other subjects you have taken.

- Approaching the text: Read the section of the same name in NMN. It prepares you to face the set literary text. It contextualizes your reading and makes you acquainted with the pre-text. Pay particular attention to the “Bear in mind…” suggestions: they anticipate difficulties and make you focus on the specifics of each literary text.

- Reading the text: This is your first contact with the literary text, unbiased by the manual or by your lecturer’s/tutor’s understanding of it. This first reading is useful to get acquainted with the main characteristics of the work (main ideas, characters, plot, tone, prosodic features…). You may want to take down notes concerning style, theme, etc. It is highly recommendable to underline those passages or sentences that most impressed or interested you and to make a brief annotation of the page and the idea suggested by the passage(s) outlined.

- Revisiting the text: It’s time to go back to the text in a more academic way. This section involves going through the literary work and dissecting the whats, hows, and whys. NMN will help you to focus on diverse features of the text, to understand how each of them works, what they are called, how they intertwine with each other, and what their effect is. This section also involves micro-exercises to make you find answers for yourself, and to investigate particular examples or characteristics of the work.

- Exercises: The course comprises a battery of different exercises for individual or group work. NMN includes, as the table above explains, self-evaluation exercises, questions for discussion and glossary tasks. You will find multiple-choice questions on line. It is recommendable to do self-evaluation exercises first, since they will settle your knowledge of the work and its context. “Explore questions” are designed for reflection and can be used for debate in face-to-face sessions or at the course’s online forums.

- Further study: They will complement your study with web-pages, Power-Point presentations, etc.

- Interactive work: Distance education is not designed for autonomous work exclusively. You will be interacting with your teaching team or tutor even when you ignore you are doing so: reading this Guide is, for instance, an exercise of interactivity between the teaching team and you! You can use the means established in the Guía de la Asignatura-Parte I to contact your teachers at the Sede Central or the Centro Asociado for doubts or queries. Also, interaction with your course mates will prove highly productive: exchange ideas and impressions on the literary texts for this reason it is very important your active participation on the online Course as well as your attendance, if possible, to the tutorials in the Centro Asociado.

- Mock exam/PEC: In the virtual Course will appear a set of exercises called “Mock exams.” The final exam will be similar to these exercises, so they provide further testing material: you can test yourself by trying to answer the short questions and write the essay required in two hours. The point of this kind of exercise is to make you reflect on an excerpt from a literary text and write a comment on it, using the skills and terms you will have learned so far.




3.2 EVALUATION TYPES AND CRITERIA

The student’s successful achievement of the course’s learning objectives will be

assessed by the continuous evaluation as well as by the final exam.

3.2.1 Continuous evaluation

Continuous evaluation includes the self-evaluation exercises in the Course Units

(NMN and online course), the feedback provided by teachers and tutors, as well

as the PEC. The PEC is an exercise marked by the tutor and its mark counts a

20% of the final grade. There will be one along the semester, properly announced

at the online course, and will follow the format you will be practicing with the

“mock exams.”

3.2.2 Final evaluation

The final evaluation consists of one written exam, accounting for 80% of the final

grade. You will be expected to put theory into practice answering a battery of

short questions and making an essay heavily based on your academic reading of

the literary texts. The essay will be relational so that you have the opportunity to

provide your overall knowledge of the literature produced on the period covered

by this course. As with the PEC, you will be marked according to the following

criteria:

- Focus on the questions themselves (irrelevant information will be considered very detrimental).

- Accurate use of critical terms (hence the importance of building a glossary and looking for examples in texts).

- Good organization and development of ideas (you are expected to write an essay, not a list of features, and to answer the questions of the exam).

- Suitable examples from the texts to support the essay’s arguments (textual references show your command of the literary work).

- Legible, coherent, proficient English (if we cannot read it well, we cannot evaluate it well).




4. GLOSARIO/ GLOSSARY We do not include a glossary as such in this Guide. The terms that the student

needs to work with are already listed and defined in the Course Units, designed as

part of the course work. The student is expected to work on the elaboration of

his/her own glossary of terms, with specific examples from the literary texts.