Reading Critically in English for the Contemporary Humanities
Code: 45368 ECTS Credits: 5| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 3500084 English Studies: Linguistic, Literary and Sociocultural Perspectives | OT | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jordi Coral Escola
- Email:
- jordi.coral@uab.cat
Teachers
- Maria Rosa Garrido Sardà
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Apart from fulfilling the general requirements of this MA programme, in particular as regards linguistic and academic skills, registering for this subject entails the need to take an active role in class and demands intense intellectual curiosity about the way in which textual meaning is established, transmitted and debated.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This course offers an introduction to the critical analysis of academic texts and analytical arguments in English literature, criticism, and linguistics.
Specific objectives:
- Understand the key concepts in critical literacy.
- Select relevant, up-to-date and reliable texts for research projects in English linguistics and literature.
- Analyse the structure, argumentation and ideological positioning of academic texts.
- Reflect upon reading and subjective processes.
- Communicate, orally and in writing, complex ideas in English at C2-level.
Learning Outcomes
- CA18 (Competence) Critically analyse academic texts selected by students and related to their research interests.
- CA19 (Competence) Design actions for the improvement of the comprehension of academic texts through group analysis of the structure of arguments and rhetorical patterns.
- KA19 (Knowledge) List the main theoretical currents in the field of academic writing.
- KA20 (Knowledge) Identify the differences between corpus-based and non-corpus-based text analysis.
- KA21 (Knowledge) Distinguish the main types of academic writing in the fields of language, literary and cultural studies in the English language.
- SA27 (Skill) Critically analyse the linguistic features that are typical of academic writing based on texts from various sub-disciplines within the field of English studies.
- SA28 (Skill) Identify types of argumentation and implicit political-ideological positions in academic texts selected from the field of English Studies.
- SA29 (Skill) Produce written texts at an advanced level that address key aspects of academic writing and correspond to the rhetorical requirements of such texts.
Content
This introduction to critical reading skills in English literature and linguistics analyses a variety of creative and academic texts centrally concerned with the impact of capitalism on human relations, language and culture.
As such, it is divided in two different chronological periods: early modernity (16th and 17th centuries) is covered in Part I; and the post-modern period (contemporary society and culture) is examined in Part II.
PART 1: Reading early modern texts critically (25th September-28th October)
Dr Jordi Coral
1. Introduction: Early modern discourses of worth and value
2. Lyrical poetry and the emergent marketplace in recent literary criticism
3. Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets critically
4. Academic reading circles: The afterlife of the Sonnets (Oscar Wilde’s “The Portrait of Mr W.H.”)
PART 2: Reading critically in English (socio)linguistics (30th October-2nd December 2024)
Dr. Maria Rosa Garrido Sardà
1. Introduction: Key concepts and theories
2. Academic reading strategies: Evaluating sources
3. Critical reading: In-depth analysis of texts
4. Academic reading circles: Neoliberal discourses and subjectivities
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Practical exercises | 16.25 | 0.65 | CA18, CA19, KA20, SA27, SA29 |
| Presentation of theoretical concepts | 15 | 0.6 | KA19, KA21 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Critical analysis of texts | 10 | 0.4 | CA18, CA19, KA21, SA28, SA29 |
| Discussion of academic texts | 15 | 0.6 | SA27, SA28 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Project preparation | 30 | 1.2 | CA19, SA27, SA28, SA29 |
| Reading academic texts | 38.75 | 1.55 | KA19, KA20, KA21 |
This course methodology will be predominantly dialogical. Students are expected to contribute actively to in-class discussions and to do all the preparatory reading.
We will use Academic Reading Circles as a methodology for students to engage deeply with academic texts. Groups of 5 students will read the same text and each of them will be assigned a different role for preparation.
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.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active participation | 20% | 0 | 0 | CA18, CA19, KA20, SA27, SA28 |
| Essay (Part 1) | 40% | 0 | 0 | KA19, KA21, SA27, SA28, SA29 |
| Portfolio (Part 2) | 40% | 0 | 0 | CA18, CA19, SA27, SA28, SA29 |
ASSESSMENT of the module is based on the following PERCENTAGES:
- Class attendance, participation and group work (debates, etc.): 20%
- Essay (first part of the module): 40%
- Portfolio (second part of the module): 40%
The minimum pass mark is 5 for all essays and activities.
- Continuous assessment applies to this subject. This means that all exercises are compulsory. The minimum mark for any exercise or exam to be considered for the average final mark is 5. The minimum average pass mark for the subject as a whole is 5.
- Students have a right to review their exercises with the teacher in a personal tutorial, on the set dates, after the marks have been made available. The student loses this right if s/he fails to collect the exercise/essay within the period announced by the teacher.
NOT ASSESSED AS FINAL GRADE
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items, that is to say, provided that they have submitted neither an essay nor the portfolio corresponding to the second part of the module.
(ITEM-BY-ITEM) RE-ASSESSMENT:
a) Students who fail both the essay and the portfolio of the second part of the module are not eligible for re-assessment; those who have failed one of the two parts are eligible provided that their marks for this part are higher than 3,5. Students who have failed one of the two parts must retake it even if the provisional average mark of the course were 5 or higher.
b) Students whose re-assessment is successful will get, in all cases, a final grade of 5. Students who have passed cannot opt for re-assessment as a way of upgrading their average mark.
c) Class attendance and participation will not be re-assessed.
SINGLE-ASSESSMENT OPTION:
Students will be assessed on the basis of the following components:
(1) An essay corresponding to the first part of the module (40%)
(2) A portfolio of tasks corresponding to the second part of the module (40%)
(3) Oral presentation (20%)
Re-assessment: The same re-assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.
PLAGIARISM:
In the event of astudent 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.
Irregularities refer, for instance, to copying in an exam, copying from sources without indiacting authorship, or a misuse of AI such as presenting work as original that has been generated by an AI tool or programme. These evaluation activities will not be re-assessed.
Bibliography
Course Bibliography:
During the semester detailed bibliographical references will be provided for each of the major topics analysed in class.
GENERAL REFERENCES
DiYanni, Robert and Brost, Anton (2017). Critical Reading Across the Curriculum: Humanities. Wiley.
Wallace, Mike and Wray, Alison (2021, 4th Ed). Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates. Sage.
https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/critical/reading
(*) Accessible through our library webpage (Biblioteca d'Humanitats (UAB))
FIRST PART
Barkan, Leonard (2022). Reading Shakespeare Reading Me. Fordham University Press.
Crawford, Hannah et al (2016). On Shakespeare's Sonnets: A Poets' Celebration. Bloomsbury.
Kingsley-Smith, Jane (2019). The Afterlife of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Cambridge University Press. (*)
Newstock, Scott (2020). How To Think Like Shakespeare. Princeton University Press.
Patrick, Cheney (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Poetry, Cambridge University Press. (*)
Post, Jonathan F.S. (2007). Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Smith, Emma (2020). This is Shakespeare. Pantheon Books.
Vendler, Helen (1999). The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets. The Belknap Press.
Wells, Stanley and Edmondson, Paul (2004). Shakespeare's Sonnets. Oxford Shakespeare Topics, OxfordUniversity Press.
Wilde, Oscar (2010). The Complete Short Stories, ed. John Sloan, Oxford World's Classics. Oxford University Press.
SECOND PART
Day, Trevor (2023, 3rd. Ed). Success in Academic Writing. Bloomsbury.
Fairbairn, Gavin and Winch, Christopher (2011, 3rd. Ed.). Reading, Writing and Reasoning: A Guide for Students. Open UniversityPress.
Freire, Paolo (1987). The Importance of the Act of Reading. In Paolo Freire and Donaldo Macedo (Eds.), Literacy: Reading the Word and the World (pp.29-36). Bergin & Garvey.
Gee, James P. (2015). Discourse, Small d, Big D. In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction. Wiley.
Gee, James P. (2023). Discourse and “the New Literacy Studies”. In Michael Handford and James P. Gee (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (2nd Ed.). Routledge. (*)
Martín Rojo, Luisa & Del Percio, Alfonso (Eds.) (2019). Language and Neoliberal Governmentality (pp. 1–26). Routledge.
Software
No specific software will be required.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TEm) Theory (master) | 1 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |