ENGLISH 355 New Zealand Literature - Course Outlines

Course Prescription

Offers an historical survey of major writers and key issues in New Zealand literature. Students will not only read some of the best writing our country has to offer but will develop, through the literature studied, a richly detailed overview of New Zealand experience from the period of first contact until now.

Course Overview

English 355: New Zealand Literature explores a selection of classic and contemporary works by great writers in relation to ideas about history, place, and culture. We look at how versions of the past have been constructed and explore the significance of those pasts for New Zealanders today. We consider what Pierre Nora describes as the tensions between memory and history and provide a rich and complex map of divergent literatures. Authors featured in the course include Witi Ihimaera, Paula Morris, Janet Frame, Allen Curnow, Frank Sargeson, Katherine Mansfield, Hone Tuwhare, J C Sturm, Albert Wendt, Jack Ross and others.

Students will study poetry, non-fiction, short stories, pūrākau, and novels. These genres, however, like languages, often blur. We introduce strategies for transcultural reading, Indigenous literary theories, and new historicist approaches to narrative. We explore problems of European settlement and consider how encounters between Tangata whenua and Tauiwi have influenced New Zealand writing. Such issues are by no means confined to a distant past: we find them continuing, with variations, throughout the course. We also examine an intriguing selection of speculative fiction and ghost stories that draw attention to intense encounters with familiar and unknown environments. The poetry section canvasses acclaimed authors across themes and movements. Entanglements of nature-culture and notions of belonging are explored through Aotearoa ecopoetry.

This course can fit into your degree in a number of ways. For all students majoring in English, a stand-alone course in New Zealand Literature makes an ideal introduction to the culture of your own place. Our literature is not only fascinating in its own right, but knowing about writing produced here, in a local and familiar context, gives you a perspective that will enable you to better understand the literature of other times and places. For some students, English 355 might be part of a pathway in Global or Postcolonial literatures. Looking beyond our own major, English 355 might also be part of a concentration in New Zealand Studies with strong links to courses in History, Comparative Literature, Media Film and TV, Maori Studies, and other subjects.

Course Requirements

Prerequisite: 30 points at Stage II in English Restriction: ENGLISH 221

Learning Outcomes

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

Apply close-reading skills, narrative theory, and cultural understanding to NZ texts from different periods and different genres. (Capability 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3)
Relate NZ texts to a critical understanding of their rhetoric, narrative structure, and cultural positioning. (Capability 2.2 and 2.3)
Analyse how NZ texts give shape to and are shaped by the times and places in which they are set, and evaluate the contemporary implications of the stories they tell. (Capability 3.1)
Articulate and discuss ideas in group work and essay writing. (Capability 4.2)
Demonstrate an historical and culturally informed understanding of relations between tangata whenua and tauiwi through a study of literary texts. (Capability 6.1 and 6.2)

Assessments

Assessment Type	Percentage	Classification
Assignment 1	20%	Individual Coursework
Assignment 2	40%	Individual Coursework
Assignment 3	30%	Individual Coursework
Class Participation	10%	Individual Coursework
4 types	100%

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect 2 hours of lectures, a 1 hour tutorial, 4 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 3 hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience or Online

This course is offered in two delivery modes:

Campus Experience

Attendance is required at scheduled activities, including tutorials, to complete components of the course.
Lectures will be available as recordings. Other learning activities, including tutorials, will not be available as recordings.
The course will not include live online events, including tutorials.
The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly timetable.

Online

Attendance is required at scheduled online activities, including tutorials, to complete components of the course.
Where possible, study material will be released progressively throughout the course.
This course runs to the University semester/quarter timetable and all the associated completion dates and deadlines will apply.

This course is available for delivery to students studying remotely outside NZ in 2022.

Learning Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Required readings will be available from the library as eBooks or digitised on Canvas where possible. Some texts are not available online and will need to be purchased in hardcopy: refer to Canvas for all learning resources and updates.

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Student feedback from 2021 will be considered in the adaption of this course in the coming year.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.

Class Representatives

Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption, we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and course assessment continues to meet the principles of the University’s assessment policy. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator/director, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the university website for information about how to proceed.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course students may be asked to submit coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. In exceptional circumstances changes to elements of this course may be necessary at short notice. Students enrolled in this course will be informed of any such changes and the reasons for them, as soon as possible, through Canvas.

Capability 1:	Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice
Capability 2:	Critical Thinking
Capability 3:	Solution Seeking
Capability 4:	Communication and Engagement
Capability 6:	Social and Environmental Responsibilities

ENGLISH 355 : New Zealand Literature

Arts

2022 Semester One (1223) (15 POINTS)