The Novel after the Death of the Novel
About the course
This course is intended for students in the master's programme in English literature and students in the master's programme in education year 8-13 (lektorutdanninga, studieretning engelsk). This course may be taken as a single course by students who qualify for admission to the MA programme in English Literature.
This course fulfils the Studies in genre requirement for the MA in English literature.
The course will look at a number of novels that thematize the difficulty of writing novels after modernism and will question the relevance of the genre in contemporary literary discourse. Is the novel still a powerful literary form in the 21st century, or has it run its course? What are its defining conventions? The discussion will focus on current philosophical issues, such as the possibility of portraying subjective experience, the novel's Eurocentric past and the novel's shifting generic boundaries.
Admission requirements
Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS), or equivalent qualification, in English literature, or a degree combining English literature and a closely-related discipline (minimum 80 ECTS in English). An average grade equivalent to C or better in the English coursework (80 ECTS) is required.
Application code: 9371 - Enkeltemner på masternivå (Nordic applicants).
Objectives of the course
The students have the following learning outcomes:
Knowledge
The student has:
- Students will learn and become proficient in the primary and secondary texts assigned for the course.
- Students will gain knowledge of crucial concepts in postmodern and contemporary narrative poetics.
- Students will learn about the state of the novel in relation to the history of the genre.
Skills
The student is able to / can:
- Students will demonstrate an ability to analyse complex literary texts both orally and in writing.
- Students will demonstrate their ability to engage critically with theoretical and philosophical concepts, such as paranoid hermeneutics, paratextuality, metafiction.
- Students will be able to incorporate secondary sources into their final paper.
Teaching methods
The course will be taught over thirteen weeks of two-hour seminar meetings. There will be teaching-free periods for academic supervision.
Quality assurance: All courses undergo a halfway evaluation once in a 2-year period at the master`s level. The Programme Board determines which programme options will be evaluated per year, and which courses will be evaluated by the students and the teacher per year.
Language of instruction and examination
Language of instruction and examination: English.Examination
| Assignment | Hand in: 07.05.2025 14:00 |
Grade: A–E, fail F |
To take an examination, the student must have passed the following coursework requirements
| Written responses to one discussion question of each novel | Grade: Approved – not approved |
Everything you need to know about before, during, and after the exam; registration, absence, appeals, and diplomas: UiT Exams homepage
More info about the coursework requirements
Six written responses to one discussion question of each novel. 500-600 carefully chosen, well-organized and revised words. The obligatory coursework requirements must be approved in order to take the final exam.
This course requires regular attendance. However, a distance learning version of the course will also be available. For students who miss more than 3 class meetings (or who wish to take the course as distance students), it will be possible to submit a 500-word response paper addressing the topic for each class meeting missed.