MODULE OUTLINE
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 1 2015
LA 2007 Utopia and Tragedy
Monday/9.00 – 11.30/Holm Lodge 5
Derek Bunyard
Module Learning Outcomes
Show engagement with primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives
Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with utopias and tragic societies
Introduction
This module is the second in the Modern Liberal Arts programme to take tragedy as its
central theme. In the first year, the approach to classical tragedy emphasised its ethical
import; in this second module attention shifts to the inventive use of metaphor and
figuration to establish alternative conceptions of civil society. The basic idea here is that
each metaphor operates as a potential ‘narrative’ about possible social relations, and
authors deploy these in order to suggest their favoured modifications to an existing social
formation. To a greater or lesser extent, these authors have been generally understood as
employing this specialised form of rhetoric in order to encourage or warn others, i.e., these
texts have been received as being more political than philosophical in intent.
Although each of the texts studied offers an account of the results of such acts of redescription, there is a common tragedy associated with this genre of representation which
tends to undercut any manifest political message: attempts at realising positive conclusions
typically result in failure; and equally, avoiding negative outcomes is equally futile since they
will already exist in one form or other elsewhere – as the histories of Russia, China, France,
America, Britain, Germany, France, etc. all testify – and as does the on-going ‘experiment’
that is ISIS. But if this is the most familiar ‘reading’ of utopianism – essentially a strategy of
dismissal and re-coding of the texts as mere ‘entertainments’, there is also a second form of
recognition: of there being a distinct form of tragedy which can be called ‘utopian’; the
second half of the module develops this less familiar idea, but as a back-marker from the
first module, consider Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War.
What may be at stake is suggested by Francis Bacon’s phrase – ‘the ‘idols of the tribe’
(although this is not to exclude idols of the cave, market place, or theatre!). Bacon’s idols of
the tribe are those common and over-simplified conceptions of the way the world works
that most of us employ when trying to avoid thought. It is, largely, these pictures of the
world which are ‘worked up’ into utopian (or dystopian) fictions by the simple procedure of
de-coupling familiar narrative relations and inventing new ones. But although the resulting
content is colourful, and the lack of familiar constraints can be exhilarating, our ultimate
quest remains the same as it was for the first module on tragedy: what are the archai – the
founding principles, the well-springs, the rules, or the grounds of these examples of reimagining, and what do they tell us, ultimately, about human experience? In other words, is
this really a study of a specific form of rhetoric as philosophy? (i.e., are these vastly
extended versions of Aristotle’s enthymemes?)
(If you are still in Shakespearean mode after finishing Ancient ‘Canonic’ Tragedy, you may
recall that the link text suggested for the first year module was Macbeth; now, the
equivalent taking-off point is The Tempest. Apart from the play itself, you may find Peter
Greenaway’s film, Prospero’s Books intriguing. There was also a version prepared for TV a
year ago, called The Tempest, featuring Helen Mirren as Prospero’s widow – with much of
the script being left largely unchanged. The director took the opportunity to use various
digital effects that produce some striking renditions of, for instance, Ariel – available now on
YouTube.)
Principal theory texts:There are three in particular that repay careful reading, although in each case the authors
identified are better known by other titles (also mentioned here): Louis Marin’s Utopics, but
also his On Representation; Frederic Jameson’s Archaeologies of the Future, but also his The
Political Unconscious; and Susan Buck-Morss’ Dreamworld and Catstrophe, but also her The
Dialectics of Seeing. However, for the first assignment question, and much discussion within
the lectures, a good knowledge of the texts themselves is of greater importance and so
make your selections of favoured utopian texts, make sure you have the time to read them,
and make even more sure that you know them well enough to be able to answer almost any
question on utopian thinking generated within the MLA programme using them as a source
of illustration. (Good luck!)
Module Programme
Week 1: Lecture: Introduction
Theme – Utopia – when, where and why is it there, and what is it anyway?
Readings:Plato: Republic, Shakespeare: The Tempest
Additional readings:(N.B. This relatively extensive list is intended to suggest a number of background secondary
texts which may help you in constructing an overview of the entire topic area.)
Bloch, E. (2000) Geist der Utopie (in English, The Spirit of Utopia) Stanford, CAL: Stanford
University Press.
Bloch, E. (1970) A Philosophy of the Future New York: Herder & Herder.
Burwell, J. (1997) Notes on Nowhere: Feminism, Utopian Logic, and Social Transformation
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Christie, G. (2011) Philosopher Kings? The adjudication of conflicting human rights and social
values Oxford: Oxford University Press
Claeys, G. & Sargent, L. eds. (1999) The Utopia Reader New York: New York University Press.
Claeys, G. (2010) The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Claeys, G. (2011) Searching for Utopia: the history of an idea London: Thames & Hudson
Ferns, C. (1999) Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature Liverpool:
Liverpool University Press.
Goodwin, B. (1982) The Politics of Utopia: a Study in Theory and Practice London:
Hutchinson.
Halpin, D. (2002) Hope and Education: the Role of the Utopian Imagination London:
Routledge.
Horowitz, I. (1977) Ideology and Utopia in the United States, 1956-76 Oxford: Oxford
University Press
James, S. (2012) Maps of Utopia: H. G. Wells, modernity, and the end of culture Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Kumar, K. (1991) Utopianism Buckingham: Open University Press.
Lasky, M. (1977) Utopia and Revolution: on the Origin of a Metaphor, or some Illustrations
London: Macmillan.
Levitas, R. (1990) The Concept of Utopia Syracuse, NY.: Syracuse University Press.
Midgley, M. (2000) Science and Poetry London: Routledge
Midgley, M. (2004) The Myths We Live By London: Routledge.
Moyn, S. (2010) The Last Utopia: human rights in history Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press
Newman, J. (2013) Utopia and Terror in Contemporary American Fiction London: Routledge
Papastephanou, M. (2009) Educated Fear and Educated Hope: dystopia, utopia, and the
plasticity of humanity Rotterdam: Sense Publishing
Spencer, N. (2006) After Utopia: the rise of critical space in Twentieth Century American
fiction Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press
Wegner, P. (2002) Imaginary Communities: Utopia, the Nation, and the Spatial Histories of
Modernity Berkeley, CAL: University of California Press.
Week 2: Lecture: More’s Utopia in its historical context
Theme - What experiences were the Philosopher Kings meant to be the solution for, and
how might this be translated into Sixteenth Century European culture?
Readings:More: Utopia – various selections, but try to work through as much of his text as you can.
Additional readings:Adams, R. (1992) Utopia: a revised translation, background, criticism New York: Norton
Baker-Smith, D. (1991) More's Utopia London: Harper Collins.
Bauman, Z. (2009) Socialism: the Active Utopia London: Routledge
More, T./Adams, R. (1992) Utopia: a revised translation, background, critique London:
Norton
Olin, C. (1989) Interpreting Thomas More's 'Utopia' New York: Fordham University Press.
Olin, C. (1994) Erasmus, Utopia, and the Jesuits: essays on the outreach of Humanism New
York: Fordham University Press
Sylvester, R. (1977) Essential Articles for the Study of Thomas More Hamden, Conn., Archon
Books
Walicki, A. (1995) Marxism and the Leap to the Kingdom of Freedom: the rise and fall of the
Communist utopia Stanford: Stanford University Press
Week 3: Lecture: The rhetorical construction of More’s Utopia
Theme: the utopian text as a literary form facilitating the play of ideas
Readings:Marin: selected aspects of his analysis, matched by More: Utopia – selections from the
description of Utopia
Marin, L. (1984) Utopics: the semiological play of textual spaces New York: Humanity Books
Additional readings:
Baker-Smith, D. (1987) Between Dream and Nature: essays on utopia and dystopia
Amsterdam: Rodopi
Barthes, R. (1986) The Semiotic Challenge Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1.
Barthes, R. (1987) Michelet Oxford: Blackwell, the Introduction
Coleman, A. (1985) Utopia on Trial: vision and reality London: Shipman
Week 4: Lecture: Ensuring the security of the State: knowledge and power.
Theme: Human nature and the nature of the world.
Readings:Bacon: selections from his New Atlantis and Novum Organum
Hobbes: selections from his Leviathan
Additional sources:
Bacon, F. (2013) Physical and Metaphysical Works: including the Advancement of Learning
and Novum Organum London: ULAN Press
Bird, A. Philosophy of Science London UCL Press
Claeys, G. (ed.) (1994) Utopias of the British Enlightenment Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Couvalis, G. (1997) The Philosophy of Science London: SAGE
Eliar-Feldon, M. (1982) Realistic Utopias: the Ideal Imaginary Societies of the Renaissance
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
McNeilly, F. S. (1968) The Anatomy of Leviathan London: Macmillan
Murphy, P. (2003) Evidence, Proof, and Facts: a book of sources Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Nozick, R. (1999) Anarchy, State, and Utopia Oxford: Blackwell
Price, B. (ed.) (2002) Francis Bacon's 'The New Atlantis': New Interdisciplinary Essays
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Schmitt, C. (2008) The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: meaning and failure
of a political symbol Chicago: university of Chicago Press
Sorrell, T. & Foisneau, L. (2004) Leviathan after 350 Years Oxford: Clarendon
Springborg, P. (2007) The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’ Leviathan Cambridge:
University of Cambridge Press
Urbach, P. (1986) Francis Bacon’s Philosophy of Science: an account and a reappraisal La
Salle: Open Court
Week 5: Lecture: on metaphor.
Theme: The analysis of the forms of metaphor and related rhetorical strategies. Most of our
discussion will feature utopian texts, but since this topic has applications beyond the
module, there is an extensive additional reading list which will be sent to you.
Readings:Selections from Max Black, Andrew Ortony, I. A. Richards, and Sarah Kofman – an extensive
set of notes accompanies these – again to be sent nearer the time.
Additional sources:-
Bath, M. (1994) Speaking Pictures London: Longman
Black, M. (1972) Models and Metaphors, Ithaca, Cornell University Press
Cameron, L. & Low, G. eds. (1999) Researching and Applying Metaphor Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Daly, P. (1979) Literature in the Light of the Emblem Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Doughty, C. (2006) Prometheus London: Routledge
Draaisma, D. (2000) Metaphors of Memory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; useful
illustrations of the involvement of metaphors and figurative thinking in the development of
our understanding of memory.
Empson, W. (1991) Seven Types of Ambiguity London: Hogarth Press
Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (2002) The Way We Think: conceptual blending and the mind's
hidden complexities New York: Basic Books
Forceville, C. (1996) Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising London: Routledge.
Freeman, R. (1970) English Emblem Books London: Chatto & Windus.
Gibbs, R. (1994) The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language and Understanding
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodman, N. (1978) Ways of Worldmaking Hassocks: Harvester Press.
Griffiths, E. (2006) Medea London: Routledge; imagery of witchcraft, child-murder, and a
wronged 'everywoman'.
Heartfield, J. (1977), Photomontages of the Nazi Period by John Heartfield London: Gordon
Fraser Gallery.
Jenks, C. (ed.) (1995) Visual Culture London: Routledge; just the introduction.
Kofman, S. (1993) Nietzsche and Metaphor London: Athlone Press, chs. 1, 2, and 3.
Lakoff, G. (1980) Metaphors We Live By Chicago: Chicago University Press; the first
introductory work to Lakoff and Johnson's project.
Lackoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1999) Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind and its
Challenge to Western Thought New York: Basic Books.
Lavin, M. et al., (1992) Montage and Modern Life 1919 - 1942 Cam. Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 60
- 81.
Lyn, D. et al. (1997) Mathematical Reasoning, Analogies, Metaphors and Images New York:
Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc
Manning, J. (2003) The Emblem London: Reaktion.
Mitchell, W.J.T. (1986) Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mitchell, W.J.T. (1995) Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Nietzsche, F. (1993) The Birth of Tragedy London: Penguin.
Ortony, A. (ed.) (1986) Metaphor and Thought Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pinker, S. (2007) The Stuff of Thought London: Allen Lane.
Plato, The Phaedrus - although the line of argument is consistent with the Gorgias, this text
is better known for its extended use of imagery.
Richards, I. A. (1965) The Philosophy of Rhetoric Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ricoeur, P. (1978) The Rule of Metaphor London: Routledge and Keegan Paul; a re-reading of
Aristotle's Rhetoric.
Sperber, D. & Wilson, D. (1995) Relevance: Communication and Cognition Oxford: Blackwell,
an alternative to semiotic analysis
Willett, J. (ed.) (1998) Bertolt Brecht: War Primer London: Libris
Week 6: Lecture: Satire as the first form of truly ‘utopian’ tragedy?
Theme: Reviewing Marin’s argument in the light of 18th. Century satirical texts – does his
argument survive in these new contexts – and/or should it now be supplemented by other
forms of analysis?
Readings:Selections from Voltaire – Candide
Swift – A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms (and also his A Modest Proposal)
And then …
Butler’s Erewhon – ‘The Musical Banks’
Additional sources:
Aldridge, A. O. (1975) Voltaire and the Century of Light Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press
Appelbaum, R. (2002) Literature and Utopian Politics in Seventeenth Century England
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fox, C. (2003) The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Jacobs, E. (1987) Voltaire on Tragedy Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey
Keener, F. (1983) The Chain of Becoming: the philosophical tale, the novel, and a neglected
realism of the Enlightenment: Swift, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Johnson, and Austen New York:
Columbia University Press.
Thatcher, C. Ed. (1995) Voltaire: selected writings London: Everyman
Voltaire (1994) Letters to the English Nation Oxford: Oxford University Press
Zizek, S. (2009) First as Tragedy, Then as Farce London: Verso
Week 7. Lecture: Biology (or science) as fate – a second form of utopian tragedy?
Theme: the imperilled imagination – the threatened soul.
Readings:Shelley – Frankenstein, or a New Prometheus
Selections from Shelley’s Frankenstein – I would prefer to stick to the first edition, if this is
possible, but various amalgamations with the second have now been published which
makes this more difficult to achieve than it used to be.
Selections from Wells: The Island of Dr. Moreau, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Zamyatin’s
We.
Additional sources:
Albinski, N. (1988) Women's Utopias in British and American Fiction London: Routledge.
Armitt, L. (1996) Theorising the Fantastic London: Arnold
Baker, S. (1993) Picturing the Beast: animals, identity and representation Manchester:
Manchester University Press
Baker-Smith, D. (1987) Between Dream and Nature: Essays on Utopia and Dystopia
Amsterdam: Editions Rodolpi.
Bann, S. ed. (1994) Frankenstein: creation and monstrosity London: Reaktion
Botting, F. (1995) Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Basingstoke: Macmillan
Bellin, J. (2005) Framing Monsters: fantasy film and social alienation Carbondale, Ill:
Southern Illinois University Press
Donawerth, J. (1997) Frankenstein's Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction Syracuse,
NY: Syracuse University Press.
Forry, S. (1990) Hideous Progenies: dramatizations of Frankenstein from Mary Shelley to the
present Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Linehan, K. (2003) Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: an authoritative text,
backgrounds and contexts, performance adaptations, criticisms New York: Norton
Midgley, M. (1983) Animals and Why They Matter Athens: University of Georgia Press
Mulhall, S. (2003) On Film London: Routledge; chapter 4, which features an analysis of Alien
Resurrection
Seymour, M. (2000) Mary Shelley London: John Murray
Thepan, M. (1997) Embodiment: essays on gender and identity Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Vallone, L. & O’Farrell, M-A. (1999) Virtual Gender: fantasies of subjectivity and embodiment
Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press
Veeder, W. (1986) Mary Shelley and Frankenstein: the fate of androgeny Chicago: University
of Chicago Press
VHS Recording Channel 4, 1992/3 Mary Shelley: maker of monsters
Weiss, G. (1999) Perspectives on Embodiment: the intersections of nature and culture
London: Routledge
Week 8. Lecture: The realities of collective life – a third form of utopian tragedy?
Theme: theorising social relations as ‘damaging’.
Readings:Selections from Debord, G. (1983) The Society of the Spectacle Detroit: Black & Red
Additional sources:
Albinski, N. (1988) Women’s utopias in British and American Fiction London: Routledge
Beecher, J. (1986) Charles Fourier: the visionary and his world Cambridge: Berkely
Berman, M. (1983) All That is Solid Melts into Air: the experience of Modernity London:
Verso
Caygill, H. (2013) On Resistance: a philosophy of defiance London: Bloomsbury Academic
Coverley, M. (2006) Psychogeography Harpenden: Pocket Essentials
D’Eramo, M. (2001) The Pig and the Skyscraper: a history of our future London: Verso
Ford, S. (2005) The Situationist International: a user’s guide London: Black Dog
Ford, S. (1995) The Realization and Suppression of the Situationist International: an
annotated bibliography, 1972 – 1992 Edinburgh: AK Press
Gaskell, I., Conway, D. & Kemel, S. (1998) Nietzsche, Philosophy and the Arts Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Guarneri, C. (1991) The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Harvey, D. (2000) Spaces of Hope Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; very useful analysis
of designed community.
Holloway, M. (1966) Heavens on Earth: Utopian Communities in America, 1680 - 1880 New
York: Dover.
Lefebvre, H. (1999) Writings on Cities trans. and ed. Eleonore Kofman & Elizabeth Lebas
Oxford: Blackwell
Plant, S. (1992) The Most Radical Gesture London: Routledge
Rosenau, H. (1983) The Ideal City: its Architectural Evolution in Europe, 3rd. edtn. London:
Methuen.
Sadler, S. (1999) The Situationist City Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press
Zizek, S. (2012) The Year of Dreaming Dangerously New York: Verso
There are also multiple sites presenting extracts from the writings of the various utopian
socialists – these are included in the list of e-sources that will be sent.
Week 9. Lecture: Science Fiction and Dystopia – why is this the principal emerging form of
utopian tragedy throughout the Twentieth century?
Theme: is the nature of literary production ‘connected’ to an economic or cultural ‘base’ –
or something else entirely?
Readings:Readings: Selections from Wells’ A Modern Utopia, The War in the Air, and The War of the
Worlds – from The Time Machine: ‘The Sunset of Mankind’ (chapter 6), Explanation
(chapter 8), ‘The Palace of Green Porcelain’ (chapter 11).
Additional sources:
James, S. (2012) Maps of Utopia: H. G. Wells, modernity, and the end of culture Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Kalin, M. (1975) Utopian Flight from Unhappiness: Freud Against Marx on Social Progress
Totowa, N.J.: Littlefield.
Kemp, P. (1982) H. G. Wells and the Culminating Ape: biological themes and imaginative
obsessions London: Macmillan
Parrinder, P. (2005) The Reception of H. G. Wells in Europe London: Continuum
Partington, J. (2003) The Wellsian: selected essays on H. G. Wells Oss: Equilibrium
Partington, J. (2003) Building Cosmopolis: the political thought of H. G. Wells Aldershot:
Ashgate
Scheik, W. (1995) The Critical Response to H. G. Wells London: Greenwood
Wells, H. G. (1902) Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon
Human Life and Thought, 8th. editn. London: Chapman & Hall
Wolf, M. (1997) Shaw and Science Fiction University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press.
Week 10. Lecture: continuation from week 9 – with student contributions
Initial Reading: J. D. Bernal: ‘The World, The Flesh, and the Devil’ - available at
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Bernal/
Week 11: Student selection of topics. Review point for second assignment. Please notify me
of your interests by week 8.
Week 12: Review and Conclusion – Reading from Wells 1939 text, The Fate of Homo
Sapiens. (Group and individual tutorials on throughout the week as requested.
Assessment 1: (50%)
…. (2000-2250 words; deadline: (Monday, week 6) given to
Catherine in the Office by 3.30pm).
Refer to ‘The Book of the Machine’ from Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (chapters 23, 24, 25).
Indicate what you consider to have been the point of Butler’s apparent warning to his
Victorian peers, and the extent to which this sketch of humanity’s Darwinian future is still
relevant.
Assessment 2: (50%)
…..
(2000-2250 words; deadline (Monday week 1, Semester 2)
given to Catherine in the Office by 3.30pm).
What do you think are the utopian or dystopian implications of the quote given below (pay
particular attention in your response to what may be termed ‘tragic’).
I walk among men as among fragments of the future: of that future which I scan. And it is all
my art and aim to compose into one and bring together what is fragment and riddle and
dreadful chance. And how could I endure to be a man, if man were not also poet and reader
of riddles and the redeemer of chance!
To redeem the past and to transform every ‘It was’ into an ‘I wanted it thus!’ – that I alone
would call redemption.
(Nietzsche, F. (1992 [1886]) Ecce Homo, trans. R. J. Holingdale London: Penguin; section 8 on
Thus Spake Zarathustra, p. 80, italics from original.)
Use Harvard Referencing
We attempt always to return work within 3 working weeks (15 days working days).
MODERN LIBERAL ARTS MARK SCHEME
We want you to be very clear about how we will mark your work and that means you must know with each
assessment what you are expected to do. We hope that this does not mean you will feel that you have to write
to a formula. We are trying to build in considerable freedom to your assessments; but as the term ‘liberal arts’
conveys, in every freedom there is a discipline, and in every discipline there is a freedom; together, we hope,
they constitute the struggle of learning.
There are (often but not always) two types of essays in MLA: the first assessment title in a module will most
often be set by the tutor and will be restricted to texts explored in the first weeks. The second assessment title
can be tutor-led, or chosen from a list of titles, or can be negotiated individually; this varies according to the
tutor and the module. This assignment can explore wider issues, employ wider reading, or explore a single
issue in depth. Students will bear some responsibility for the references consulted in the second essay,
increasing through years 1, 2 and 3.
Tutor-set assessments (disciplina)
Student/tutor-set assessments (libertas)
1st module essay
2nd module essay
Marks for
 depth of understanding specialist
terminology
 depth of understanding of set texts
 depth of understanding of ideas/concepts
 evidence by quotation
 answering the question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Marks for
 depth of understanding of texts
 depth of understanding and application of
ideas/concepts
 evidence-based critical arguments
 depth/breadth of reading (depending on
the question)
 answering your own question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Note the difference between essays 1 and 2: the first one is marked only on your understanding of texts; the
second one is marked on understanding, on your own reading, and your emerging critical voice. Be careful
here; being critical does not mean just giving your opinions. It means making a case based on evidence from
your reading, using ideas and concepts from texts. It does not mean you have to fight for one side of an
argument or another… ambivalence will be treated with great respect. But for every essay, remember this: if
we (and you) get the title right, then by answering the question you will be doing exactly what is required.
Over years 1, 2 and 3 the levels of your work are raised by using increasingly challenging texts, ideas, concepts
and writers, and by the way you are able to employ ideas, concepts and writers from other modules across the
degree in increasingly sophisticated ways.
For all essays, then
Depending on the question you will need to



Demonstrate reflection on module material and the wider contexts from across the degree which
might impact upon it
Communicate experiences of texts and ideas as appropriate
Show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology

Demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including
proficiency in referencing and academic conventions.
For essay 1
Depending on the question you will need to





Show careful reading of primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives
Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as
appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with issues raised in the module.
For essay 2
Depending on the question you will need to




Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues
Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate
Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools
Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as
critique.
 Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the module
It is often hard to explain in generic terms how any particular essay could have been improved. But, cautiously,
we can say the following:
In general,
a 3rd (40-49%) may have ignored the question, may have not given much evidence of reading, may have clumsy
sentence structure, but will still have made a bona fide attempt at the work.
a 2.2 (50-59%) will have provided evidence of reading, quotations where appropriate, clear sentence structure,
attended to the question or title, but not related the material in ways which synthesise more developed and
complex thinking.
a 2.1 (60-69%) will have evidence of reading through effective selection of quotation, being able to make
specific points, and to relate material together to make broader and/or deeper and more complex
observations. At the higher end, it may have been able to relate material from across modules, or across the
degree as a whole, to synthesise separate ideas and issues into more holistic comments, ideas and problems.
The questions addressed will be getting ever more difficult and important, including those that are asked
without being answered.
a 1st (70-100%) will make a little go a long way. Quotations may carry implications beyond their precise
content; sentences will be clear but able to refine complex ideas succinctly; most importantly, it will be able to
combine the microcosm of its subject matter with the macrocosm of its place in the wider context, and these
contexts will be drawn form the overall, experience of the degree, growing obviously from years 1 to 3. No
inaccuracies of grammar or sentence construction, and no referencing mistakes are expected here. The voice
of the essay will be in control of difficult material throughout. Above all the questions asked and addressed will
be compelling in their difficulty and import.
Module Evaluations (previous year)
The module was generally well received with many students finding the approach to literary
analysis employed interesting. There was less enthusiasm for the emphasis on developing a
contextual understanding of the author’s situation, since this was seen to add to the burden
of reading for a course that was already intensive. For this year more time will be spent on
fewer examples.
Catalogue summary
This module follows on from the level 4 module, Ancient ‘Canonic’ Tragedy, and continues to explore the
theme of tragedy, but now the focus turns away from mythical and heroic figures to tragic states of society.
The specific focus of this module is, therefore, utopias and dystopias as sites for ideological investigations of
what counts as the socially normal and the socially deviant, and how this tension is played out through the
experience of the tragic within a social collective. The media texts chosen are selected on the basis of their
capacity to develop a reflective analysis of present states of sociality. As with the level 4 module, theoretical
and philosophical components are split: in this case between the political philosophy of the state, and the
aesthetics of collective and mass representation.