MODULE SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE
1. The title of the module: Places and Journeys
2. The Department which will be responsible for management of the module: English
3. The Start Date of the Module: 2010
4. The cohort of students (onwards) to which the module will be applicable:
5. The number of students expected to take the module: 16
6. Modules to be withdrawn on the introduction of this proposed module and consultation with
other relevant Departments and Faculties regarding the withdrawal: none
7. The level of the module (eg Certificate [C], Intermediate [I], Honours [H] or Postgraduate [M]):
H
8. The number of credits which the module represents
Note: undergraduate full-time students take modules amounting to 120 credits per year and
postgraduate full-time students take modules amounting to 180 credits per year for a Masters
award
9. Which term(s) the module is to be taught in (or other teaching pattern) Tbc
10. Prerequisite and co-requisite modules: none
11. The programmes of study to which the module contributes: BA in English; BA in English and
Creative Writing
12. The intended subject specific learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to
programme learning outcomes
1. Students will reflect on the ‘factual’ status of narrative ‘non-fiction’ and interrogate distinctions
between fictional and non-fictional prose forms.
2. Students will consider the ideological and formal challenges of travel writing, nature writing and
memoir in relation to such critical discourses as post-colonialism, eco-criticism and histories of
place.
3. Students will learn to write critically aware prose descriptions of landscape and the built
environment.
4. Students will question and perhaps resolve the following precepts in relation to non-fictional
writing about places and journeys:
That there is no representation without interpretation
That there is no description without voice
That there is no voice without character
That there is no character without story
5. Students will develop their skills as close readers and will learn to relate these skills to their
practice as writers of narrative non-fiction prose.
6. Students will understand some of the connections between literary and cultural history and
their own subjectivities as writers.
13. The intended generic learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to programme
learning outcomes
i.
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iii.
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vii.
application of the skills needed for academic study and enquiry
ability to synthesise information from a number of sources in order to gain a coherent understanding
of theory and practice; ability to synthesise material from a number of sources in a coherent
creative whole
the ability to frame oral criticism of creative work sensitively and constructively and to digest it to
good effect
develop powers of communication and the capacity to argue a point of view, orally and in written
form, with clarity, organisation and cogency
enhance confidence in the efficient presentation of ideas designed to stimulate critical debate
competence in the planning and execution of essays and project-work and in the conception,
planning, execution and editing of individual creative work
enhanced skills in collaborative intellectual or creative work, including more finely tuned listening
and questioning skills
the ability to understand, interrogate and apply a variety of theoretical positions and weigh the
importance of alternative perspectives
14. A synopsis of the curriculum
This is essentially a module about describing things and about the consequences of doing so,
and the expectation is that students will be able to apply insights derived from the close reading
of set texts to their own practice as writers. The course is organised thematically. Weekly set
readings, as well as offering examples of literary approaches to places and journeys, will
encourage students to reflect on the cultural constitution and history of place and space,
facilitating writing that is alert to its own conventions and constraints. The set readings are
intended to strike a particular note to which students are invited to respond, rather than
epitomising all there is to say about a given topic. Students will also be encouraged to visit
places or simulacra of places they wish to write about, and to reflect on the difference between
writing about visited and unvisited landscapes and buildings.
15. Indicative Reading List
1.Mountains: extracts from Wordsworth’s 1805 Prelude and from Robert MacFarlane’s Mountains
of the Mind.
2. Sea: essays by Jonathan Raban and Orhan Pamuk
3. Islands, uninhabited: extracts from Robinson Crusoe and from Adam Nicolson’s Sea Room.
4. Rivers: Jonathan Raban, Old Glory
5. The City: extracts from Henry Mayhew, London’s Underworld;; Joan Didion ‘New York’ in
Sentimental Journeys
6: Reading Week
7. Museums: Jan Morris, ‘On Looking at Things’; ‘People of the Potlatch’ and ‘Art of the British
Columbia Indian’ from Solitary Raven: The Selected Writings of Bill Reid
8. Roads: Jack Kerouac, On the Road; Ian Parker, ‘Traffic’
9. Trains: Jenny Diski, Stranger on a Train
10. Sky: Esther Woolfson, ‘Of Flight and Feathers’ from Corvus; ‘Ice and Light’ from Barry Lopez,
Arctic Dreams; William Fiennes, The Snow Goose.
11. Home: extracts from the Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, extracts from Sara Maitland’s A
Book of Silence.
All extracts will be provided in a course pack. The books students are asked to purchase are
readily available in paperback.
16. Learning and Teaching Methods, including the nature and number of contact hours and the
total study hours which will be expected of students, and how these relate to achievement of
the intended learning outcomes
There will be 10 2 hour seminars, during which students will work together to make close
readings of the set texts and to extrapolate from these readings points for discussion in
relation to their own writing (SSLOs 1 and 2; GLOs 2 and 3). Students may be invited to
bring alternative passages on the same theme to the seminar and to explain how such texts
contradict or interact with those set (SSLOs 1 and 2; GLOs 1 and 2). Some seminars may
also include ‘still life’ exercises, where students are asked to write a brief description of an
object or image provided either by the seminar leader or by another student.
17. Assessment methods and how these relate to testing achievement of the intended learning
outcomes
As formative assessment, and to give an opportunity to write without “credit risk”, students will
submit one picture postcard each week. The relationship between the image (which could be
illustrated, customised or otherwise designed by the student) and the text will form part of the
assignment, and the postcard should include 100 – 300 words demonstrating literary engagement
with the week’s theme, however broadly interpreted. The seminar leader will provide a brief
written response to each card. At the end of term students will submit one 4,000 word piece of
narrative non-fiction prose demonstrating understanding of the learning outcomes and assessment
criteria.
The 4,000 word creative writing piece will carry 90% of the total grade and 10% will be given for
seminar performance.
18. There are no particular implications for learning resources, including staff, library, IT and
space.
19. As far as can be reasonably anticipated, the curriculum, learning and teaching methods and
forms of assessment do not present any non-justifiable disadvantage to students with
disabilities: