ENMMAT: Materiality and Textuality

Module code: ENMMAT

Module provider: English Literature; School of Humanities

Credits: 40

Level: Postgraduate Masters

When you'll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Professor Mark Nixon, email: m.nixon@reading.ac.uk

Module co-convenor: Dr Nicola Wilson, email: n.l.wilson@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 11 November 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module offers training in research methods, focusing in particular on the use of archival materials. It aids students with the practicalities of advanced literary research, including guidance on: using and constructing bibliographies; locating and using manuscripts; editorial practices; the nature of copyright. It also introduces students to the wider scholarly and intellectual debates over editing, copyright, and the archive. As such the module equips students, in practical and intellectual terms, to embark upon independent literary research. The module will raise awareness of the modes of literary production and consumption, and of how these may be traced and analysed in relation to specific resources. The module draws on the rich archival holdings at the University of Reading, in particular the Publishers’ Archives, the Beckett Collection, the Rare Book Collection, and the various authors’ papers held in Special Collections.  

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate advancedresearch skills, including using archives, formulating significant and rigorousresearch questions, and addressing these to a range of appropriately chosen texts.
2. Think critically, and engage questioningly with contemporary conversations about literary texts, and theoretical debates; question their own, and others’, assumptions and methodology.
3. Close read, analysing the form and content of language and, above all, the intersection of the two, and negotiate nuance and ambiguity.
4. Present the results of research (or reading, or critical thinking) lucidly and confidently, both orally and in writing.
5. Synthesize an original written argument, locating analysis of particular texts within a broader theoretical and contextual setting.

Module content

This module introduces MA students to the world of textual scholarship, a field related to but distinct from literary criticism. Changes in the theory and practice of literary production will be explored through a diverse range of material, drawn mainly from the modern and contemporary periods. Seminars will be dedicated to introducing students to archival research, working with manuscripts, book history, publishers’ archives, editorial theories, genetic criticism, notions of authorial intention, censorship and the digital humanities. Students will learn about bibliographic research and description; analysis and evaluation of editorial practices with reference to specific authors and texts; discussion of traditional and emergent publishing practices, in relation to different genres. Alongside instruction in the skills of describing and analysing diverse literary practices, the module will offer critical examples of shifts in the technologies and ideologies of the literary marketplace from the Modern period to the present day. Specific topics and texts will be determined, in part, by the current research projects of the staff involved and materials found in the University’s Special Collections. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module consists of eleven weekly seminars, each two hours in length. Each seminar will involve discussion of texts or special materials that have been set and prepared in advance. Some seminars will be taught in Special Collections, using material from the archives and rare book collections. The seminars will be taught by a number of different members of the Department, working as a team to provide a diverse range of materials and approaches. The convenors will be available for consultation with students on a one-to-one basis to discuss their coursework and their progress on the module as a whole. 

Study hours

At least 22 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• 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 (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/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.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Reassessment

Additional costs