ENGL333 - Global Literary Cultures

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Unit rationale, description and aim

As an advanced scholar in the field of literary studies it is essential to have an understanding of and a capacity to analyse and explain modern texts of international significance published in English and in translation. In this unit students will apply the conceptual knowledge and analytical skills developed in earlier units to a study of texts of different genres reflecting diverse cultural contexts and perspectives. Students will critically review postcolonial and settler colonial literatures, as well as transnational, cosmopolitan and world Indigenous literatures, to inform and develop evidence-based arguments that offer interpretations of texts within a framework underpinned by theories of global literary studies. Students will critically analyse literary representations of race, conflict, religion, gender, immigration, and justice. The aim of this unit is to provide students with opportunities to develop and creatively investigate big-picture questions, drawing on the central issues and debates in global literary studies.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Demonstrate broad and deep knowledge of a range of literary theories that are pertinent to world of global literatures in order to generate interpretations of texts (GA4, GA5, GA9) 

LO2 - Devise, develop and communicate complex ideas and concepts of global literature to a specified audience using both critical and creative approaches including audio, digital, oral, visual or written form as appropriate (GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9, GA10) 

LO3 - Locate, interpret and appropriately reference a range of texts and critical resources and use them to sustain a nuanced evidence-based argument in a self-devised project (GA4, GA5, GA8, GA10) 

LO4 - Critically analyse evidence and synthesise scholarship on global literatures according to the methodological and ethical conventions of the discipline (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA10) 

LO5 - Recognise and reflect on the significance of complex literary texts in imagining and interpreting the world over time (GA1, GA2, GA5, GA8). 

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity 

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

Topics will include:  

• the key features of contemporary global literatures 
• theories of racism, postcolonialism, settler colonialism, Indigeneity, whiteness studies, decolonisation, and cosmopolitanism 
• literatures within a framework of globalised geopolitics  
• writings and voices of world Indigenous peoples and also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities 
• theories of literary value 
• the commodification of literature 
• the politics and ethics of literature in a globalised world 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit is delivered as a face-to-face class in order to immerse students in active and collaborative learning through activities which facilitate the development of interpretive skills fundamental to the discipline of literary studies and a deep understanding of unit content. The unit engages students in inquiry-based learning, a research-based strategy that actively involves students in the exploration of the content, issues and questions surrounding a curricular area or concept. This face-to-face approach has been selected because of the breadth, depth and complexity inherent in an advanced level unit. 

Students in this unit will be encouraged to develop specific research and analytic skills in interpreting a wide range of literary texts within their specific global and historical contexts in order to understand how these contexts underpin their production and interpretation.  

This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy.  

Assessment strategy and rationale

This third-year unit in the discipline of English is designed to include assessment tasks that build deep content knowledge, independent learning, and higher-order research and analytic skills. 

The contextual understanding task requires students to demonstrate knowledge of the key contextual factors that determine the production and reception of a specific literary text. This task will prepare them for the second research assignment. 

Students will undertake a research project that expands on the skills developed in the first assessment task in the form of a self-devised research essay that locates critical resources to produce a sustained argument that reflects on key debates, issues and texts in contemporary world and global literature. 

The summative task provides an overview of the knowledge and skills acquired by the students by requiring them to critically analyse and synthesise understandings of contemporary literature. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Ashcroft, Bill, et al. (eds). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. 2nd ed. Routledge, 2005. 

Biddle, Arthur and Bien, Gloria. Global Voices: Contemporary Literature from the Non-Western World. Indiana University Press, 1995. 

Chadwick, Allen. Trans-Indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies. University of Minnesota Press, 2012. 

Chew, Shirley et al. A Concise Companion to Postcolonial Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2010. 

Gunew, Sneja. Post-Multicultural Writers as Neo-Cosmopolitan Mediators. Anthem Press, 2017. 

Innes, C.L. The Cambridge Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures in English. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 

Justice, Daniel Heath. Why Indigenous Literatures Matter. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2018. 

Krishnan, Madhu. Contemporary African Literature in English. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 

Puchner, Martin (General ed). The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Norton, 2018. 

Ward, Thomas. Decolonizing Indigeneity: New Approaches to Latin American Literature. Lexington Books, 2016.