ENGL4116: Semester 1, 2020

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Units ENGL4116 Semester 1 2020 [Normal day]

Unit of study_

ENGL4116: Approaches to Genre

Semester 1, 2020 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

In this unit students will critically examine significant theoretical definitions of and debates about genre through time. They will apply an advanced understanding of genres (or 'kinds' or 'forms') to representative and problematic texts in order to develop a deep appreciation of the function, limitations and transformations of genre in literature. The complex relationship between formal properties, creativity and historical context will be explored.

Unit details and rules

Unit code	ENGL4116
Academic unit
Credit points	6
Prohibitions ?	None
Prerequisites ?	None
Corequisites ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Jennifer Nicholson, jennifer.nicholson@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Assignment	Essay n/a	100%	Formal exam period Due date: 09 Jun 2020 at 23:59	6000 words
Outcomes assessed:

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

The University usually awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014. However, the honours grading scheme is slightly different. Please check the coursework policy documentation and the honours handbook to ensure that you understand the differences.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

You may only use artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator, and if you do use them, you must also acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section.

Studiosity is permitted for postgraduate units unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	Genre theory 1: genre, kind, mode	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 02	Old Comedy in The Clouds	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 03	Fantastic Genres	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 04	Genre theory 2: system failure and nonsense genres	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 05	The essay, philosophy, and friendship	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 06	Contemporary essays, autobiography, and textual relations	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 07	(online) Genre Fiction and Genres in the World - Fantasy, Fascism, and Fraught Genres2	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 08	Wittgenstein's Nephew - novella, essay, or autobiography?	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 09	Genre theory 3: Genre and interpretation	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 10	Interpreting Slaughterhouse-Five - antiwar satire and science fiction	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 11	Genre theory 4: Late style and genre’s power	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 12	The Tempest - comedy, mixed-mode, romance, problem play	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 13	Taymor's The Tempest: ecocriticism and feminism in genre theory	Seminar (2 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: according to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
Lecture recording: most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
- Please note that this unit of study is seminar-based, so lectures are not a formal component of our unit.
Preparation: students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Most readings for this unit can be accessed on the Library eReserve link available on Canvas.

However, the following texts will need to be aquired by students (either bought or borrowed) to read and bring to class for the relevant weeks:

Aristophanes. "The Clouds," in Lysistrata and Other Plays (Penguin Classics, revised edition - ISBN 9780140448146)
Bernhard, Thomas. Wittgenstein’s Nephew (any edition)
Frow, John. Genre (2nd edition - ISBN 9781138020580)
Le Guin, Ursula. A Wizard of Earthsea (any Penguin edition)
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest (Arden3, revised edition - ISBN 9781408133477. This text is also available entirely online via our library, so you may choose to forgo a hard copy)
Vonnegut, jr., Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five (any edition)

Some copies of each have been ordered to the independent bookshop Gleebooks on Glebe Point Road, near campus. You will be able to order them via the ‘Textbooks’ link on their website (http://www.gleebooks.com.au/) closer to the beginning of semester. Gleebooks will include a 10% student discount on your purchases. Please contact them as soon as you can, to ensure that they order adequate copies of the appropriate texts you need. Information about this will also be posted on Canvas.

You may also wish acquire texts by your own means. However, please pay attention to which texts’ editions are important. This will help you follow along in those texts when we discuss them in class, and give you access to the relevant editorial apparatuses. If you have any concerns about access to these texts, please contact the unit coordinator and we can find ways to borrow copies or buy second hand if necessary.

All other readings will be made available to you online and/or in PDF form.

You will need to view Julie Taymor’s film, The Tempest towards the end of the semester, too. This movie is widely available. You can view it in the library, buy it, rent it, or watch it online. Information about this will also be outlined on Canvas.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. demonstrate knowledge of genres and genre theory and opportunity to conduct independent, rigorous and original research displaying analytical and creative skills
LO2. source, evaluate and deploy primary and secondary information relevant to genre studies
LO3. work independently, sustainably and be self-motivated in the pursuit of new ideas and ways of thinking within the field of literary genre studies
LO4. function as a literary scholar possessing appropriate ethical standards in the conduct of your research and relations with your peers, teachers and the broader scholarly community
LO5. demonstrate communication skills and methods appropriate to the study of genre in English literature and transferable to other fields.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This unit last ran in 2019. In 2020, the following alternations will be made as a result of student feedback in that cohort: 1) poetry takes on a more significant role in helping us establish key concepts from genre theory; 2) the reading list has been updated to provide a more inclusive and nuanced range of readings; however, this could continue to be improved, so any feedback or ideas you may have about this would be warmly received this semester!; 3) the reading list changes include the addition of Shakespearean sonnets, one of Le Guin's wonderful fantasy novels, and a recent essay by Yiyun Li - the former two in particular have been added to further help identify key aspects of 'typical' genre as a gateway to identifying experimentation in later texts, while the latter opens up some important discussion on race that will remain significant in the second half of the unit, and; 4) choices of theory have been narrowed down slightly to allow us to focus on key concepts more clearly.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

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