Important dates 2012-13 autumn term monday 1 October

Francisco Goldman, The Art of Political Murder

Gelhorn, Martha; The Face of War

Cercas, Javier; The Anatomy of a Moment

Hersey, John; Hiroshima

Verbitsky, Horacio; Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior

Feitlowitz, Marguerite; A Lexicon of terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture

Vuillamy, Ed; Amexica: War along the Borderline

Gourevitch, Philip and Morris, Errol; Standard Operating Procedure: A War Story

Sontag, Susan; Regarding the Pain of Others

Arendt, Hannah; Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

Moorehead, Caroline; Human Cargo

Roy, Arundhati, The Algebra of Infinite Justice

Toolis, Kevin, Rebel Hearts

Levi, Primo, The Drowned and the Saved

Duras, Marguerite, The War

Zephania, Benjamin, Too Black, Too Strong

 

Fiction

Klima, Ivan, My Golden Trades

Kundera, Milan, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Brink, Andre, A Dry White Season

Kemal, Yashar, Memed My Hawk

Vasquez, Juan Gabriel, The Informers 

Figueras, Marcelo Kamchatka

Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, One Day in the Life…

Ibuse, Masuji Black Rain

Llosa, Mario Vargas, The Feast of the Goat

Vasquez, Juan Gabriel, The Informers
Assessment

For the MA in Writing: Either an essay of 10,000 words on a topic arising from the module, agreed with the tutor; or a piece of original biographical writing, 8,500 words in length, on a topic agreed with the tutor, with a 1,500-word commentary on the aims and processes involved (45 CATS).

For the MA in English: Either an 8,000 word portfolio (36 CATS) or a 6,000 word portfolio (30 CATS) 50% creative work/50% essay.

For the MA in Philosophy and Literature: a 5,000 word portfolio (20 CATS) 50% creative work/50% essay

For the LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights and LLm in Advanced Legal Studies: a 2500 word critical essay on a topic of the student’s choice relating to the module; and a 2500 creative work on the same topic.


WRITING PLACES

Tutor: Sarah Moss

Term 1 Wednesday 10-1 (venue TBA)
This module aims to teach students how to write contemporary non-fiction prose about place, based in an understanding of cultural and natural histories specific to particular places and a critical awareness of contemporary British writing about nature and place. The practice of this kind of writing requires both traditional research skills and the ability to identify and respond to present places, so some teaching will take place outdoors and off-campus, and students will be required to demonstrate both literary/historical research and immediate experience in their assessed writing. Writing excursions need not be far-fetched or exotic and may involve no more than stepping through the nearest door; the set texts model informed attentiveness to a wide range of contemporary environments. In the writing they do for class each week, students will be encouraged to challenge the idea that there are innately 'inspiring' and 'uninspiring' places.
Week 1: Introduction: Kathleen Jamie, Sightlines

Week 2: Edgelands

Week 3: London Orbital

Week 4: The Plot

Week 5: Passage to Juneau

Week 6: Sea Room

Week 7: A Book of Silence

Week 8: Waterlog

Week 9: Wanderlust

Week 10: field trip

Roger Deakin, Waterlog: a swimmer's journey through Britain (Vintage, 2009)

Madeline Bunting, The Plot (Granta, 2010)

Sara Maitland, A Book of Silence (Granta, 2010)

Iain Sinclair, London Orbital (Granta, 2002)

Adam Nicolson, Sea Room (Harper Collins, 2001)

Jonathan Raban, Passage to Juneau (Picador, 2000)

Kathleen Jamie, Sightlines (Sort Of Books, 2012)

Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley, Edgelands (Jonathan Cape, 2011)

Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: a history of walking (Verso Books, 2006)

Jonathan Raban, For Love and Money (Picador, 1988)

Granta 102, The New Nature Writing (Summer 2008)

Jan Morris, Pleasures of a Tangled Life (Arrow Books, 1990)

Rachel Hewitt, Map of a Nation (Granta, 2010)

William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness (http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html)

Assessed portfolio of 10,000 words (45 CATS), or 8,000 words (36 CATS) 6,000 words (30 CATS) or 5000 words (20 CATS). Students on the MA in Writing must submit a portfolio of 70% creative work and 30% essay; students on the MA in English Literature, Philosophy and Literature, Pan-Romanticisms or World Literatures may choose to submit a portfolio of 70% creative work and 30% essay OR 100% essay.

While the Foundation Module is compulsory students may choose particular pathways and their own combination of options. Unfortunately, it may not be possible for students to take their first choice options in every case, and we may need to make changes in the programme in the event of unforeseen circumstances. If students from outside the department wish to take one of the English modules they should inform Cheryl Cave as well as your own Graduate Secretary by the Wednesday of week 1.

You will be asked to give 1st and 2nd choices for your option modules, as upper and lower limits may be placed on numbers.