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MLAC2021: World Literatures

Please ensure you check the module availability box for each module outline, as not all modules will run in each academic year. Each module description relates to the year indicated in the module availability box, and this may change from year to year, due to, for example: changing staff expertise, disciplinary developments, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback.

Type Open
Level 2
Credits 20
Availability Available in 2025/2026
Module Cap None
Location Durham
Department Modern Languages and Cultures

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • To explore and analyse themes, topics, and texts in world literatures.
  • To give students insight into critical debates about the study of world literatures.
  • To further familiarise the students with landmark literary works as studied in a comparative and global perspective.
  • To develop transferable skills in engaging with and communicating about world literatures and the critical tradition that informs their study.

Content

  • This module is aimed at students who have already been introduced to the study of literature in one or more language and wish to explore:
  • the comparative study of world literatures from the medieval period to the present day
  • literary works and critical (philosophical, theoretical, methodological) texts from the Global Middle Ages to the twenty-first century and across a range of distinct linguistic and literary traditions.
  • Set texts/themes/topics may vary from year to year in accordance with the research specialisms of the tutors each year, since this is a team-taught, research-led module. Students will gain an overview of historically crucial periods and culturally significant developments in the history of world literatures and the critical tradition that informs their study.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • an awareness of the breadth and diversity of world literatures, building on and broadening their knowledge of national literatures acquired at Level 1
  • critical knowledge of a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural range of literary works
  • historical, contextual, and cultural understanding of traditions of world literary scholarship
  • historical, contextual, and cultural understanding of the concepts of literature, world literature, comparative literature, (post) colonialism, decolonization, and globalization
  • an interest in dissertation topics at L3 on cross-cultural literary texts and using world-literary, comparative, intersectional, and decolonizing approaches.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • the ability to make effective intercultural connections and comparisons
  • the ability to gather, sift, process, synthesise and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources.

Key Skills:

  • their ability to formulate arguments coherently on the basis of appropriate and relevant evidence, and, where appropriate, to present them in written or oral form
  • their fluency and expression in written and spoken English
  • their ability to pursue a guided programme of self-directed study, leading to the production at L3 of extended pieces of written work which demonstrate engagement with relevant critical literature.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • The module will be taught by means of 10 lectures and 10 seminars. Weekly reading in preparation for lectures and seminars will foster the acquisition of the relevant subject-specific knowledge. Seminars will aid acquisition of the relevant critical tools, and oral presentations by students will help them develop skills in organising arguments and presenting them fluently. Summative assessments are designed to test students' subject-specific knowledge and their ability to use their subject-specific skills in order to evaluate this knowledge: by the middle of the teaching term a commentary in English of 1,500 words (worth 40% of final grade), analysing an example or examples of writing related to the study of world literatures; by the beginning of the term that follows the teaching term an essay in English of 2,500 words (worth 60%) on key texts and topics studied. Teaching will take place either in Term 1 or in Term 2. The forms of assessment chosen will support the broad educational aims and intended learning outcomes of the programme for Durham students. For students coming from elsewhere, on e.g. Study Abroad programmes, they will offer the attraction of an authentic Durham-based educational experience.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures10Weekly10 
Seminars10Weekly10Yes
Preparation and Reading180 
Total200 

Summative Assessment

Component: AssignmentComponent Weighting: 40%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Commentary1,500 words100
Component: AssignmentComponent Weighting: 60%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Essay2,500 words100

Formative Assessment

More information

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