University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students.

Planned timetable: Thursday 1pm-3pm

This module will consider how a range of contemporary literary texts, both prose and poetry, speak to situations in which human rights are invoked. The aim of the module will be to enhance students’ understanding of the implications of human rights and to show how literary practice can be crucial in extending and critiquing that discourse. The module will begin and end with statements of rights, and will consider the declaration as a form in itself. We will address a range of texts which, in different formal and political respects, deepen understanding of situations in which human rights are at stake: the asylum process, the Mediterranean crossing, the citizenship debate, the refugee camp, theories of the politics of rights, the post-national community, the indigenous rights claim, and the act of arbitrary detention. The module will explore the need to think actively about human rights and investigate the importance of literary practice in developing such thinking.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass EN2003 and pass EN2004

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: Two hour tutorial (x 11 weeks).

Scheduled learning hours: 22

Guided independent study hours: 364

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework - 100%


Re-assessment: Coursework - 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor G D Herd
Module teaching staff: Prof David Herd

Intended learning outcomes

• Analyse and assess the work of a range of contemporary writers whose texts focus on questions of human rights.
• Articulate an understanding of the relationship between key contemporary literary texts and the discourse of human rights and show how literature can both extend and critique our understanding of that discourse.
• Reflect upon and utilise key theoretical interventions and concepts associated with the discourse of human rights.
• Demonstrate an awareness of contemporary contexts in which human rights are invoked and denied and discuss how literary texts deepen understanding of such contexts.
• Research, develop and present ideas effectively in written form.
• Employ a range of relevant practical and presentational skills, both written and oral (oral skills will be practiced in group discussions and informal individual presentations; written skills will be practiced and tested by means of essays and semester examinations).