Module: What is Literature?

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	What is Literature?
Module Code	LIT1048 (ITS: LIT1)
Faculty	Humanities & Social Sciences	School	English
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	15

Description

The first unit of this module is ‘How do we read literature?’ This is a question that preoccupies even the most experienced of readers and this module aims to set students on the path to finding their answers to it. It introduces literature from a number of genres and periods: drama is represented by Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams, poetry by a detailed examination of Yeats, short story writing by Joyce, and the novel by Dickens’s Great Expectations and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. These works are approached using a variety of strategies including close reading and an analysis of form, historical context, and critical theories such as psychoanalysis. In addition to this the module equips students with the study skills needed to successfully study literature at third level.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify and describe key critical concepts and theoretical approaches to literary texts
2. Recognise the distinctive characteristics and conventions of the three principal literary genres of poetry, prose and drama
3. Explain the relationship between texts and the social, cultural and political contexts in which they are produced
4. Interact with texts using literary critical tools
5. Develop their academic skills in the light of self-reflection

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Tutorial	15	No Description
Online activity	60	No Description
Independent Study	300	No Description
Total Workload: 375

Section Breakdown
CRN	11683	Part of Term	Semester 1 & 2
Coursework	100%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	N
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	Jack Quin	Module Teacher	Leeann Lane, Shirley Anne O'Brien

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Assignment	Literature skills task	20%	n/a
Assignment	Close reading of a poem and individual presentation on the chosen poem	40%	n/a
Essay	Essay plan + Essay with annotated biblography	40%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	l,
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

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

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Unit 1: How do we Read Literature?

Unit 2: Be Prepared! Getting Ready to Study

Unit 3: Learning Together: Tutorials and Presentations

Unit 4: Tennessee Williams and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Unit 5: Thinking about Drama

Unit 6: Hamlet and Shakespearean Drama

Unit 7: Hamlet and Literary Criticism

Unit 8: Approaches to Research

Unit 9: Writing Skills 1

Unit 10: Reading Poetry 1: Metre, Rhythm and Rhyme

Unit 11: Reading Poetry 2: Figurative Language

Unit 12: Reading Poetry 3: Form and History

Unit 13: Reading Poetry 4: New Criticism

Unit 14: The Poetry of W. B Yeats

Unit 15: Writing Skills 2

Unit 16: The Nature of Fiction

Unit 17: Charles Dickens: Great Expectations

Unit 18: James Joyce: Dubliners

Unit 19: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Unit 20: Preparing for Exams

Unit 21: Summary and Review

Indicative Reading List

Books:

Barry, P.: 2009, Beginning Theory, 3rd Edition, Manchester University Press, Manchester,
Brooks, C.: 1947, â€˜The Language of Paradoxâ€™ from The Well-Wrought Urn: Structures in the Study of Poetry, (Also available in Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader by David Lodge 2008 Routledge),
Dickens, C.: 2012, Great Expectations, Penguin (Available in LION),
Eagleton, T.: 1996, Literary Theory: An Introduction, Cambridge, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell,
Furniss, T. and Bath, M.: 2007, Reading Poetry: An Introduction, Second, Routledge,
Joyce, J.: 2012, Dubliners, Penguin,
Roy, A.: 2004, A God of Small Things, Harper Perennial,
Shakespeare, W.: 2011, Hamlet, ed. Robert S. Miola, W. W. Norton & Co., New York,
Williams, T.: 1955, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 2010 Edition (Philip C. Kolin ed.),
Yeats, W. B.: 2000, W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry, , ed. by Timothy Webb, Penguin, London,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None