An introductory knowledge of English literature and a good proficiency in English (advanced level, B2 + in terms of the Common European reference framework).
This course offers a survey of contemporary literatures in English through the analysis of several representative works from distinct geographical/cultural areas. This course also includes the showing and discussion of adaptations for film and/or television.
- Students will be expected to show their ability to relate texts that illustrate one or more literary currents to the historical and literary contexts explored in the course.
- They will have to produce an analysis that demonstrates their familiarity with the issues raised by the course, and with the poetics through which those issues are expressed.
- The module is also indirectly meant to increase the students' lexical skills. Their analyses will therefore have to reflect a command of the English language that corresponds to their level (Masters), as well as a good grasp of the various cultural concepts discussed in the course.
The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.
Group assignment, oral presentation, written exam.
Ex-cathedra class. Interactive modules. Students are expected to do the required readings beforehand so as to be able to participate actively in classroom discussions.
Through the study of some celebrated but also some minor examples of what may be termed as utopian, dystopian, and ecotopian literature, this course will explore key elements of utopian and dystopian literary works from Thomas More's canonical text to the present. Via a close analysis of excerpts and novels, this module considers visions of better worlds indirectly or ironically or even as frightening warnings that emphasize extrapolations of the worst in the present. What is left of future possibilities in our age, haunted by the end of utopias and apocalyptic fragmentation? If most utopias are characterized by rupture and dislocation, the crack at the core of our anthropocene world is not one we have consciously brought about. Utopias have not only become dystopias, their very meaning, definition and dangers are questioned.
Utopian thought is a crucial means of understanding the past, present, and future as regards questions of gender, social, and political organization. Considering the way in which the contemporary and the posthuman can be explored in an imagined utopian/dystopian future, this module examines themes such as the control and manipulation of language, as well as religion, history, gender, sociability and the relationship between humans and the environment. Through moocs, guided in-class and online discussion, readings and researched writing, students will develop their own viable definitions of what utopia is and is not.
Teaching material : Secondary literature linked to the topic of the course. Reading of the selected literary works and of scholarly articles. Coursebook available at DUC.
