Students

ENGL303 – Narrative and the Novel

2012 – D2

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor
Antonina Harbus
Contact via antonina.harbus@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
6cp in ENGL units at 200 level
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
This unit explores narrative technique in the novel. We will study recent theories of how narratives work and apply these ideas to the interpretation of novels with apparently different aims and strategies, including realism, experimentation with form, and the use of the genre as a vehicle for social commentary or humour. Particular attention will be paid to reconceptualisations of the genre, and the various Structuralist and Post-structuralist theories accounting for the construction of meaning in narrative. In this unit, students will learn advanced textual analysis and critical practice, including how to interpret and describe the way time and pace are managed; the representation of character and agency; the presentation of consciousness and memory; subjectivity; metafiction; and style and rhetoric in prose fiction.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • describe the way pace and focalization are managed; character and agency presented; consciousness represented; and style and rhetoric used in novels
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Due Groupwork/Individual Short Extension AI Approach
Essay 1 35% 4pm Tues 25 Sept. No
Essay 2 50% 4pm Mon 12 Nov No
Tutorial Performance 15% Weeks 1-13 No

Essay 1

Due: 4pm Tues 25 Sept.
Weighting: 35%
Groupwork/Individual:
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach:

2000-word essay on topic supplied, or negotiated with convenor.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • describe the way pace and focalization are managed; character and agency presented; consciousness represented; and style and rhetoric used in novels
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field

Essay 2

Due: 4pm Mon 12 Nov
Weighting: 50%
Groupwork/Individual:
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach:

3000-word essay on topic supplied, or negotiated with convenor.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • describe the way pace and focalization are managed; character and agency presented; consciousness represented; and style and rhetoric used in novels
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field

Tutorial Performance

Due: Weeks 1-13
Weighting: 15%
Groupwork/Individual:
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach:

Attendance at seminars, demonstrated preparation for and participation in classs discussions and activities


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • describe the way pace and focalization are managed; character and agency presented; consciousness represented; and style and rhetoric used in novels
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Delivery and Resources

Delivery:

Day seminars; iLearn

Classes: 

  • Students are required to attend a two-hour seminar each week, (Class attendance is a requirement for being eligible to pass the unit; attendance plus preparation and participation is required to earn a seminar mark). Any absences must be supported by a medical or other certificate.

  •  Students are required to read the set readings for each class, consider the topic questions, and prepare contributions to the class discussion and activities.
  • Students are required to submit two essays (see details below).

 

Times and Locations for Seminars:

For current updates, class times and venues, please consult the MQ Timetables website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au.

Required and recommended resources

Novels (in order of use)

  • Graham Greene, The Quiet American (Vintage)
  • Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (Picador)
  • Andrea Levy, Small Island (Review)
  • Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (Harvest)
  • Michael Cunningham, The Hours (4th Estate)
  • Ian McEwan, Saturday (Vintage)
  • David Lodge, Thinks… (Penguin) 

Recommended Critical Texts

  • Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics, 2nd ed. (Routledge)
  • Paul Cobley, Narrative (Routledge)
  • Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (Anchor)

Unit Schedule

Week

Topic

Week 1

 

Introduction

 

Week 2

 

Narration

Week 3

 

Realism

Week 4

 

Genre

Week 5

 

Style

Week 6

 

Humour

Week 7

 

Narrative technique

Week 8

 

Themes

Week 9

 

Modernism

Week 10

 

Intertextuality

Week 11

 

Themes

Week 12

 

Novel

Week 13

 

Review

Learning and Teaching Activities

Class Preparation

Read set texts and prepare responses to stimulus questions. Prepare groupwork activities as directed.

Class Participation

Contribute to discussions and participate in small group and other class activities.

Essays

Prepare and submit by the due dates two essays as per instructions.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Assessment Policy  http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html

Grade Appeal Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Special Consideration Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/special_consideration/policy.html

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be accessed at: http://students.mq.edu.au/support/.

UniWISE provides:

  • Online learning resources and academic skills workshops http://www.mq.edu.au/learning_skills/
  • Personal assistance with your learning & study related questions.
  • The Learning Help Desk is located in the Library foyer (level 2).
  • Online and on-campus orientation events run by Mentors@Macquarie.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Support Unit who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

Details of these services can be accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au/ses/.

IT Help

If you wish to receive IT help, we would be glad to assist you at http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/

When using the university's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students and it outlines what can be done.

Graduate Capabilities

Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative

We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Essay 1
  • Essay 2

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • describe the way pace and focalization are managed; character and agency presented; consciousness represented; and style and rhetoric used in novels
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • describe the way pace and focalization are managed; character and agency presented; consciousness represented; and style and rhetoric used in novels
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Essay 1
  • Essay 2
  • Tutorial Performance

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Essay 1
  • Essay 2
  • Tutorial Performance

Creative and Innovative

Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Essay 1
  • Essay 2
  • Tutorial Performance

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate advanced critical practices relating to interpretation, textual analysis, and academic writing
  • describe the way pace and focalization are managed; character and agency presented; consciousness represented; and style and rhetoric used in novels
  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field
  • engage in informed critical discussion with others on unit content, entertain other points of view, and argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Essay 1
  • Essay 2
  • Tutorial Performance

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field

Assessment tasks

  • Essay 2
  • Tutorial Performance

Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible

We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • demonstrate an understanding of the novel in its social context
  • demonstrate an understanding of narrative theory, including genre theory, advanced research techniques, and familiarity with published scholarship in the field

Assessment Information

Assignment submission

• Please read The Preparation and Presentation of Essays (at

http://www.engl.mq.edu.au/undergrad/undergrad_home.htm).

• Students will be required to submit their essays in paper format, and via the

Turnitin link in the unit’s iLearn site to allow the fullest testing for plagiarism (on

which, see below). Please note that your essay will not be marked unless it has

been submitted via Turnitin within the unit’s iLearn site as well as on paper.

 

Do not send essays via email.

 

Bar-coded Arts Coversheet

Written work must be submitted through the Arts Student Centre (via the appropriate

assignment box) on Level 1, W6A (for internal students). Note that the Enquiry Office,

which administers the collection and return of assignments, is open from 9.00 am to 5.00

pm. The “after-hours” box will open at 5.00 pm. It is located outside the main front door

of W6A on the left-hand side. It will close again at 9.00 am the next morning.

Arts cover sheets must be used when handing in assignments. Internal students must

print and attach a completed coversheet to all submitted work. A personalised assignment

coversheet is generated from the student section of the Faculty of Arts website at:

http://www.arts.mq.edu.au/current_students/undergraduate/admin_central/coversheet.

Please provide your student details and click the Get my assignment coversheet button

to generate your personalised assignment cover sheet. No other coversheets will be

provided by the Faculty.

 

Late Submission of Written Work

• Late submission of written work without prior approval and supporting

documentation (e.g., a medical certificate) will attract a penalty of 2% per day

(including weekends).

• If you have a legitimate reason for being unable to submit your work on time,

for which you can provide documentation, please contact your instructor or the

convenor to discuss an extension (preferably before the due date).

Return of marked work

• Essay 1 will be returned during seminars

• Essay 2 can be collected from the Arts Student Centre (W6A Foyer) after the end of semester.

 

Changes since First Published

Date Description
19/07/2012 Updated assessment information included.