Scottish Literature MA
Scottish Literature 1A: The Fantastic and the Real SCOTLIT1013
- Academic Session: 2026-27
- School: School of Critical Studies
- Credits: 20
- Level: Level 1 (SCQF level 7)
- Typically Offered: Semester 1
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
- Collaborative Online International Learning: No
- Curriculum For Life: No
Short Description
This course introduces students to the past 250 years of Scottish literary history through a combination of celebrated and neglected texts. Focussing on poetry and prose, and featuring pirates, fairies, monsters, devils, and the full gamut of loves, joys, sorrows, and traumas, this course examines the range of ways in which people have imagined themselves in, through, or otherwise associated with Scotland. This means confronting both the comfortable stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the horrors we are liable to reveal.
Timetable
Lectures on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 2pm over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus; weekly one hour seminar (choice of times) over 9 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.
Excluded Courses
None
Co-requisites
None
Assessment
The standard assessments for this course are:
■ Essay (2000 words) - 70%
■ Set exercise (1000 words) - 30%
If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:
■ There is no alternative to the essay, but a flexible deadline and extra time can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)
■ There is no alternative to the set exercise, but a flexible deadline and extra time can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)
Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.
Course Aims
This course aims to:
■ Introduce students to some of the main themes and writers of Scottish literary history.
■ Present texts and writers within cultural, political and historical contexts.
■ Focus on the generic literary forms and languages of the set texts.
■ Enable students to develop the essential skills of literary criticism.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course students will be able to:
■ Describe Scottish literary history and some of its key writers and ideas
■ illustrate basic skills of literary criticism, grasping concepts such as literary genre and form, narrative point of view, the use of irony, figurative language, etc, and be able to use these in practical criticism and essays
■ identify key literary / historical periods and movements
■ demonstrate skills of research and presentation in written form, both in terms of close reading of texts, and in wider critical / cultural analysis