Understanding Texts

Key information

Status: Module not running
Module code: 152900123
FHEQ Level: 5
Credits: 15
Department: School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Module overview

The module provides students with a thorough grounding in the study of texts, both oral and written, with a particular emphasis on textual production in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. It consists of two distinct units. The first trains students in the fundamental skills of close reading, with attention to the appropriate cultural and historical context. The second unit introduces students to theoretical frameworks—such as analyses of race, gender, colonialism and post-colonialism—within which to situate their textual interpretation. The aim is to equip students with the analytical, presentation and writing skills that are fundamental to textual study, and which will be drawn on throughout their degree programmes. Case studies for the examination of texts are drawn from the cultures of Africa, South East Asia, South Asia, and the Near and Middle East.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:
1. Interpret texts through close reading
2. Build written and oral arguments based on textual evidence
3. Demonstrate knowledge of textual genres and techniques
4. Productively apply critical theoritical frames to texts

Workload

There will be one hour of lectures and one hour of tutorials per week.

Scope and syllabus

The module prepares the students for the study of the cultures of Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, and the Near and Middle East mediated through various forms of texts, with an emphasis on oral and written ones. The students must be capable of close analyses of texts, but they also need to be aware of the ways in which human production and reception of texts is conditioned through ideological approaches and in which texts are anchored in their cultures and times.

The module typically examines topics such as:

texts and textualities
text and close reading: formal, thematic, stylistic analysis of texts
text and language, text and genre, figures of speech
orality, performance, writing
production of texts, author, audience, reader, reception
text and theory: postcolonialism, feminism, comparative literature, world literature

Method of assessment

30% - Close reading of a text (1,000 words)
70% - Group podcast (12 minutes) or group annotated bibliography (1,500 words), plus 250-word document describing individual contributions to the group project
The exact assessment deadline dates are published on the relevant module Moodle/BLE page