EN3RR-Routes and Roots: Migration and Displacement in Contemporary World Literature

Module Provider: English Literature
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2020/1

Module Convenor: Dr Yasmine Shamma

Email: yasmine.shamma@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

The crisis of migration is currently considered a global emergency, but has been arguably unfolding throughout the 20th century, or, what theorists refer to as “the century of the camp.” How has literature from around the globe reckoned with the movement and ultimate perpetual displacement of large bodies of people? How has it asked questions to the humanitarian within its readers before the policy makers have? What does literature /the arts stand to promote understanding of what migration means?

These questions and others will be grappled with throughout this course. We will read across genres and regions in pursuit of what transnational literary critics are advocating as a “whole world approach” to  understanding “whole world” emergencies. We will ask questions about the implications of roots and routes, human movement, refugees, asylum seekers, migration, displacement, diasporas, resettlement, longing and belonging, and we will seek answers through engagements with primary texts written from South Africa, the Caribbean, Vietnam, the Middle East, America, and, lastly, England, and secondary readings from the field of postcolonial theory.

Aims:

This course will familiarize students with the global crises of migration, while turning their attention to the ways in which literature engages with emerging crises, and evokes an engagement from its implicitly global audience. Students will develop an understanding of a world crises, while working through a survey of contemporary (post 1950) readings from throughout the world, and theory that speaks to these readings and the crises explored therein. As a subtext of this module, these Part 3 students will also be working to understand the crises of the humanities, and how an explicitly literary engagement with public-facing crises may turn the attention of readers outwards towards contemporary and critical engagements with the world beyond the book—pivotally through the book itself.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of this module they will be able to:

-Closely read poetry and prose for the political implications of formal innovation

-Engage in conversations around migration

-Construct cogent bifocal responses to political writing

-Develop arguments that showcase critical mindedness about literary form, literary theory, and the importance of story-telling

-Showcase awareness (in writing and disc ussion) of the intricacies and complexities of contemporary political movements

-Develop digital eloquence, which will be a highly transferable skill beyond their coursework.

-Cogently construct arguments reflecting sophisticated understanding of migration and displacement in critical theory, and aware of a developing canon of world literature.

-Engage in informed debate

Additional outcomes:

This module will introduce students to a variety of literary genres, and make the close reading of innovative texts possible and accessible through the lens of contemporary political moment.

Oral communication skills  will be developed, along with close-reading skills.

Outline content:

Content will be organized by genre, with the term’s materials divided into five basic units: Fiction, Oral History, Testimony, Poetry, and Manifestos.

Furthermore, students will be lead through close readings of works from established and emerging international authors, who may include Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees, Justin Toress’s We the Animals, Ramon Perez’s The Diary of an Undocumented Immigrant,  Poetry Anthol ogies American Hybrid, Splinters of a Mirage Dawn, I am a Migrant Too, Hinterland, Derek Walcott’s Omeros, Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior, Etel Adnan,  Mahmoud Darwish, Khaled Mattawa, Naomi Shihab Nye, Fady Joudah, and contemporary UK based poets Anthony Anaxagorou and Vidyan Ravinthran (who will hopefully participate in a poetry reading presented alongside the module). 

Global context:

This module is derived with the intention of enhancing global awareness and give students of English literature a larger global sense of the international and literary context of a contemporary cultural trend. Readings will not be restricted by region, and students will be actively encouraged to consider the ways in which regional texts speak from or to global discourse. These texts from around the world will be organized by genre rather than region, to encourage transnational approaches to appreciation of their constructed meanings and implications.

In what ways are these texts in conversation with one another, across time and place? What are the political implications of migration at large, and what does it mean for these implications to be registered as extra-national? What about “the state”? Such questions will inform the term’s ongoing dialogue. 

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

This module is taught through structured seminar discussions, for which students are required to read the set texts in advance, and comment on our class blog in advance of seminar meetings. This module focuses on reflective learning methods, with students required to complete the equivalent of a Learning Journal entry (a blog entry) each week before each class, in which they will respond to the ongoing process of reading, analysis and discussion, while also feeling as though they are part of an ongoing and unfolding contemporary critical debate surrounding this particular political moment. The class blog will be linked on blackboard, and students will be required to turn in 3 blog comments to Blackboard via turnitin for summative assessment. Throughout the term, their comments will receive formative assessment as well. At the beginning of term students will receive instruction on how these blog “comments” differ from other forms of assessable output (eg. coursework, exam s), and on how to compose them in a mode that reflects on the medium while also utilizing it to engage, often uniquely, in contemporary theory.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Tutorials		30
Guided independent study:
Wider reading (independent)		35
Wider reading (directed)		100
Preparation for presentations		5
Completion of formative assessment tasks		10
Essay preparation		20
Total hours by term	0		0
Total hours for module	200

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written assignment including essay	50
Portfolio	50

Summative assessment- Examinations:

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Assessed essay of 2500 words (50%), to be submitted at the end of week 11, Spring Term.

Portfolio (learning journal derived from blog entries, submitted through Turnitin) (50%), consisting of 3 blog commentaries.

Formative assessment methods:

Feedback on blog comments will be offered throughout the course.  Formative feedback on the critical engagement with secondary texts will be provided following a formative presentation.

Students will also be offered tutorial sessions to workshop the introductions to their final essays.

Penalties for late submission:

The Module Convenor will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day[1] (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/qualitysupport/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

A mark of at least 40% overall

Reassessment arrangements:

Students will be provided with the opportunity to write an essay on a different topic for reasssemnt.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

Cost	Amount
Required text books	About £60
Specialist equipment or materials
Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear
Printing and binding
Computers and devices with a particular specification
Travel, accommodation and subsistence

Last updated: 4 April 2020