Module Specifications.
Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025
All Module information is indicative, and this portal is an interim interface pending the full upgrade of Coursebuilder and subsequent integration to the new DCU Student Information System (DCU Key).
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Date posted: September 2024
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Description This module studies both generic issues and the nature of fiction in relation to the short story and the novel. It defines key concepts and theories of fiction and shows the development of those concepts as the forms developed in Britain, Ireland and America from the early eighteenth-century to the contemporary moment. The module will trace the development of the novel considering its relationship to history, realism and fantasy. The relationship between the centrality of individual characters to the wider issues of nation and community will be explored. A chronological overview of the short story will be provided with a focus on the most prominent practitioners of the form from different countries. The course concentrates on the form of short fiction and looks at its different characteristics including the following: unity of impression, narrative voice; tributary forms such as the fairytale; the contention that the short story deals with marginal figures of society, ‘submerged population groups’. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Learning Outcomes 1. Engage closely with primary texts. 2. Understand a range of methods and a critical language that will help analyse prose fiction in the short story form and the novel form. 3. Recognise the form of short fiction and its development from the early nineteenth century up until the present day. 4. Recognise the form of the novel and its development from the early eighteenth century up until the present day. 5. Distinguish genre and characteristics of the short story and the novel 6. Understand the national contexts: Irish, British, and American, which influences the forms of fiction. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Daniel DefoeJane AustenCharles DickensRichard FordKatherine MansfieldFrank O'ConnorE.A. PoeJames JoyceHerman MelvillePatrick McCabeAlice WalkerF. Scott Fitzgerald | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List
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Other Resources None | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||