Course Catalogue

View Specification Document | Reading List

This course allows for a close examination of the Caribbean's creole identity by assessing Caribbean literary and cultural works from the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Film, music, religion, literature, and food will be explored to specifically examine the influence of slavery on Caribbean culture.

1 x 2hr seminar per week over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.

This is one of the MLitt options in English Literature and MSc in Reparatory Justice and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus and may have some virtual attendees.

Registration on the MLitt English Literature programme or the MSc in Reparatory Justice and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other MLitt programmes.

None

None

 The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ 1 x Essay Prospectus & Annotated Bibliography (1500 words) - 25% 

■ 1 x Final Essay (3000 words) - 50% 

■ Seminar Presentation (5 mins) - 15% 

■ Seminar Contribution - 10% 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the Essay Prospectus & Annotated Bibliography, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ There are no alternatives to the Essay, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ Recorded presentation or one-to-one presentation / discussion/Q&A with staff (where presentation would normally be in class) as alternative to presentation.

■ Written self-evaluation reflecting on seminar contribution or written response to seminar material in advance or after seminar as alternative to seminar contribution.

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to a variety of Caribbean texts across multiple genres.

■ Assess social categories like identity, class, race, and migration.

■ Examine history, culture, and geography to contextualise the Caribbean as a creole space.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Recognise the importance of historically contextualizing Caribbean texts

■ Identify the socio-historical context of key themes, like identity, race, class, migration.

■ Analyse how slavery has influenced Caribbean creative and intellectual productions.

■ Assess texts across distinct genres and forms.

■ Use scholarly discourse to understand cultural texts.

■ Examine the meaning and formal qualities of individual texts and groups of texts in presentations and in written assessments.