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2022/2023

Scottish Literature and Culture

Code: 100236 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500245 English Studies OT 3 1
2500245 English Studies OT 4 1

Contact

Name:
Andrew Monnickendam Findlay
Email:
andrew.monnickendam@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
english (eng)
Some groups entirely in English:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

This is an optional course for third- and fourth-year students.

A C1(advanced or C2(proficiency), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment is required. C1 allows the student to: understand a wide range of long and/or complex texts; express themselves fluently and spontaneously without having to search around for words or expressions; use language efficiently in various social, academic, and professional contexts; demonstrate skill in the structure of their writing, particular in the use of connectors and other forms of relating ideas. C2 allows the student to understand practically any text, whether oral or written, with as little additional effort as possible; to summarise information from a wide variety of sources, articulate facts and discussion, presenting them in a coherent fashion; to express themselves fluently and accurately, including nuances in the most complex of situations.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The principal aim of this course is to give students an overview of Scottish literature and culture in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Please refer to the section “continguts” where you will find a list of the eleven topics we will cover.

 

Competences

    English Studies
  • Critically assessing the scientific, literary and cultural production in the English language.
  • Demonstrate a comprehension of the relationship between factors, processes and phenomena of linguistics, literature, history and culture, and explaining it.
  • Develop critical thinking and reasoning and knowing how to communicate effectively both in your mother tongue and in other languages.
  • Distinguish and contrast the various theoretical and methodological models applied to the study of the English language, its literature and its culture.
  • Identify the main literary, cultural and historical currents in the English language.
  • Produce clear and well structured and detailed texts in English about complex topics, displaying a correct use of the organisation, connection and cohesion of the text.
  • Rewrite and organize information and arguments coming from several sources in English and presenting them in a coherent and summarised way.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing and interpreting in an advanced level secondary texts about the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  2. Applying appropriate secondary academic sources to text comments and argumentative essays about contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  3. Carrying out oral presentations using secondary academic sources in relation to the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  4. Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  5. Comparing and relating in an advanced level various topics and texts of the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  6. Comparing in an advanced level the methodologies of literary criticism applied to contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  7. Demonstrate a master of the specific methods of individual academic work that prepare the student for a postgraduate specialised education in the same or a different field of study.
  8. Describing in detail and in an academic way the nature and main traits of the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  9. Distinguishing the main ideas from the secondary ones and summarising the contents of primary and secondary texts about contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  10. Drawing up academic essays of medium length, using secondary academic sources in relation to the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  11. Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
  12. Explaining in detail and in an academic way the diachronic and synchronic evolution of the topics and texts of the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  13. Localising secondary academic sources in the library or on the Internet related to the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  14. Mastering the advanced knowledge and scientific methodologies related to linguistics, literature, history and culture that prepare the student for a postgraduate specialised education in the same or a different field of study.
  15. Students must be capable of comprehending advanced academic or professional texts in their own language or the another acquired in the degree.
  16. Students must be capable of precisely arguing ideas and opinions in their own language or another acquired in the degree.
  17. Students must reflect on and give their opinion about primary texts of the contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).
  18. Summarising the content of academic primary and secondary sources about contemporary English literature (United Kingdom, United States, and other territories).

Content

This course is divided into two sections. The first focuses on the Scottish Renaissance and the second on contemporary Scotland.

The Scottish Renaissance is the name given to the literary revival of the 1920s and 1930s, so we will begin the course studying its most significant novel, Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song (please consult the bibliography).

It focused its attention on the following issues:

  • Scottish history and identity
  • Social class
  • Scottish literary language
  • Scotland and the English canon
  • The narrative voice
  • The Gaelic tradition
  • Gender and nation

 

The second module focuses on the recent decades. All the abovementioned topics reappear in a new context modified by recent historical and political changes. In addition to these, we will add:

  • Post-industrial Scotland
  • Devolution and post-devolution
  • Revising the Gaelic tradition
  • New forms of desire

 

 

Please note:

Students wishing to take the course should bear in mind that although much Scottish literature is written in standard English, a considerable portion of it is not, as is the case of the first novel and much vernacular poetry. Students should therefore be prepared to tackle texts of this nature which will require the occasional use of a Scots dictionary. In addition, Scottish texts focus (naturally) on Scottish history, a subject that is only touched upon in the degree. Hence, secondary reading will be required at certain moments. We will spend approximately 75% of our time on prose and the rest of the time on poetry.

Primary reading:

Prose

Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Sunset Song (Canongate).

Jessie Kesson. Another Time, Another Place. (Black and White)

Alsadair Gray. Unlikely Stories, Mostly (Canongate).

Kirsty Logan. The Gloaming (Vintage).

Poetry

(ed) Watson, Roderick. Three Scottish Poets: MacCaig, Morgan, Lochhead (Canongate).

Methodology

Studying literature involves a deep reflective reading  of primary sources
 
Lectures will be based on in class discussion and analysis of the historical, cultural and literary background of Scotand fromd the first half of the 20th century until the present day. Texts will be discussed in class and this is why students should have read them well in advance.
 
 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classroom based activities 50 2 7, 8, 3, 12, 11, 4, 17
Type: Supervised      
Supervised activities 25 1 2, 16, 15
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous activities 50 2 1, 6, 13, 10

Assessment

1. Written assignments
Mid-term paper (45%)
Exam (45%)
The student will write academic texts expressing a critical judgement on the literature and culture of Scotland.
 
2. Class participation = 10%  (in-class debates and forums).
 
3. PLEASE NOTE: 
-All the subjects in this degree follow continuous assessment.
-Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 45% of the assessment items.
-The student’s command of English will be taken into account when marking all exercises and for the final mark. 

-Re-assessment conditions: 

Re-assessment for this subject requires a content-synthesis test, for which the following conditions are applicable:

-The student must previously have submitted a minimum of two-thirds of the course-assessment items.

-The student must previously have obtained an average overall grade equal to or higher than 3.5.

-The student must previously have passed 45% of the subject’s assessment requirements.

-The maximum grade than can be obtained through re-assessment is 5.

-The following activities are not eligible for reassessment: forums and class participation

Students can't attend the reàssessment to improve their marks. If the student can't attend the exam because s/he is sick, they will have to agree on an alternative date with the teacher.

-Procedure for Reviewing Grades Awarded: On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place. 
 
PLAGIARISM: In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
 PLAGIARISING consists of copying text from unacknowledged sources –
whether this is part of a sentence or a whole text– with the intention of passing it off as the student’s own production. It includes cutting and pasting from internet sources, presented unmodified in the student’s own text. Plagiarising is a SERIOUS OFFENCE. Students must
respect authors’ intellectual property, always identifying the sources they may use; they must also be responsible for the originality and authenticity of their own texts.
 

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
student participation 10% 8 0.32 1, 16, 15, 8, 3, 12
written assignment 1 45% 15 0.6 1, 2, 16, 6, 5, 15, 14, 7, 8, 9, 12, 11, 4, 13, 10, 17, 18
written assignment 2 45% 2 0.08 1, 2, 16, 5, 15, 14, 7, 8, 9, 12, 11, 4, 13, 10, 17, 18

Bibliography

PRIMARY

Prose

Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Sunset Song (Canongate).

Jessie Kesson. Another Time, Another Place. (Black and White)

Alsadair Gray. Unlikely Stories, Mostly (Canongate).

Kirsty Logan. The Gloaming (Vintage).

 

Poetry

(ed) Watson, Roderick. Three Scottish Poets: MacCaig, Morgan, Lochhead (Canongate).

 

SECONDARY

Brief bibliography:

 

Dictionaries.

 Ross, David & Smith, Gavin (eds). Scots-English, English-Scots Dictionary. (Humanitats- 2a planta 809.16 Sco)

Robinson, Mairi (ed). The Concise Scots Dictionary. (Humanitats- 2a planta 809.16 Con)

 Dictionaries of the Scots Language. https://dsl.ac.uk

 

History and social history

Brown, Ian. From Tartan to Tartanry. Scottish Culture, History and Myth. (online)

Devine, TM.

Chadwick, Nora. The Celts. (Humanitats- 1a planta 936.4 Cha)

Durkacz, Victor Edward. The Decline of the Celtic Languages. (Humanitats- 2a planta 809.16 Dur)

Harvie, Christopher. No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Scotland 1914-1980. (Humanitats- 1a planta 941.108.2 Har)

Smout, TC. A Century of the Scottish People, 1830-1950. (Humanitats- 1a planta 941.105 Smo)

 

Literature

Brown, Ian. The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature. (Humanitats- 2a planta 820(411)(091) Edi)

Crawford, Robert and Nairn Thom (eds) The Arts of Alasdair Gray. (Humanitats- 2a planta 820(411)"19"(Gra) Art)

Gifford, Douglas & McMillan, Dorothy. A History of Scottish Women’s Writing. (Humanitats- 2a planta 820(411)(091) His)

Lyall, Scott (ed). The International Companion to Lewis Grassic Gibbon. (online)

Murray, Isobel. Jessie Kesson: Writing her Life. (Humanitats- Dipòsit)

Schoene, Berthold (ed). The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature. (Humanitats- 2a planta 820(411).09 Edi

Witschi, Beat. Glasgow Urban Writing and Postmodernism: A Study of Alasdair Gray’s Fiction. (Humanitats- 2a planta 820(411)"19"(Gra) Wit)

Young, Douglas F. Beyond the Sunset: A Study of James Leslie Mitchell. (Humanitats- 2a planta 820(411)"19"(Gib)

 

Software

Not applicable.