ENGLISH 356 : The Modern Novel
Arts
2025 Semester Two (1255) (15 POINTS)
Course Prescription
Course Overview
What is modernity and what makes a novel modern? This course will pose and provide answers to this question through the study of novels from a variety of cultures and decades from the early twentieth to the early twenty-first centuries. A weekly lecture programme is supported by small group discussion using student-prepared close readings and other passages from the novels.
Including in our focus works from Europe, Asia and America, we will consider not only the stories novels tell about modernity but also the formal innovations of structure, style and voice novelists have made in their attempts to respond to a world undergoing rapid social, technological and political change.
Capabilities Developed in this Course
| Capability 1: | People and Place |
| Capability 2: | Sustainability |
| Capability 3: | Knowledge and Practice |
| Capability 4: | Critical Thinking |
| Capability 5: | Solution Seeking |
| Capability 6: | Communication |
Learning Outcomes
- Read novels closely (creatively and critically), spending regular, focused time with the text itself. (Capability 1 and 2)
- Elaborate and test larger questions about the ways in which novels are shaped by the significant social and technological changes occurring in industrialised and post-industrialised modernity. These include the Cold or total war environment, the emergent American civil rights movement, the dispersal of private experience across public networks, the challenges of emigration and immigration, and the appeal of apocalyptic thinking. (Capability 3, 4 and 6)
- Elaborate and test how novels respond to and reconfigure these changes by altering established literary forms, creating new ones, and requiring new kinds of participation from their readers. (Capability 2, 5 and 6)
- Compare and contrast the work the modern novel does with that performed by new developments in music and art from the same period. (Capability 1, 2 and 3)
- Compare and contrast the work the modern novel does with what we can learn from the historical record about specific events within modernity. (Capability 1, 2 and 3)
Assessments
| Assessment Type | Percentage | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| Close readings | 40% | Individual Coursework |
| Research essay | 40% | Individual Coursework |
| Close reading test | 20% | Individual Test |
| 3 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 24 hours of lectures in weekly two hour periods for twelve weeks and a weekly 1 hour tutorial from weeks 2 to 11. Since the course as a whole requires approximately 150 hours of study, the remaining total of 116 hours across the semester should be spent on independent study: reading, thinking, preparing for assignments and completing them.
Delivery Mode
Campus Experience
Attendance is expected at scheduled activities including tutorials.
Lectures will be available as recordings. Other learning activities including tutorials will not be available as recordings.
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.
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.
Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework, tests and examinations 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. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.
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 your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, 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 you may be asked to submit your 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. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.