Unit information: Darkest London in 2023/24

Unit name	Darkest London
Unit code	ENGL29026
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Matthews
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None.
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None.
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

London has been visited by disaster many times, both in real and fictional forms. Plague, fire, war, crime, terrorism, hardship and homelessness are recurring motifs in representations of the city, whether as responses to historical events or fantasies of destruction and renewal. Yet perversely even when the city is prosperous, powerful and secure, it condemns and destroys many of its citizens. Ranging from Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), one of the first works of 'docu-fiction', to the apocalyptic gangster film The Long Good Friday (dir. John Mackenzie, 1981), the unit studies works by writers, film-makers, and artists who have created some of the most powerful and imaginative responses to life, death and disaster in the 'Great Wen' since the Plague (1665) and Great Fire of London (1666).

Aims:

• To give students knowledge of a range of works from different periods and in different genres which focus on London as infernal, apocalyptic or benighted;

• To equip students with appropriate literary, theoretical, socio-historical, topographical and other contexts to enable an informed understanding of the primary texts;

• To engage with the creative psychology of writings which represent London as plague-stricken, burning, bombed, or threatened by the 'secret agents' of terrorism

• To practice skills of close analysis and critical argument informed by relevant contexts in oral and written forms.

Students will be given the opportunity to submit a draft or outline of their final, summative essay of up to 1,500 words and to receive feedback on this.

Your learning on this unit

By the end of the unit, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate knowledge of a range of relevant London literature and film;
2. apply appropriate contexts to enable an informed understanding of the primary texts;
3. analyze these works using sophisticated critical methods including historical, theoretical, and aesthetic paradigms;
4. articulate their views in discussion and on paper with the appropriate skills.

How you will learn

One x 2 hour seminar per week.

How you will be assessed

1 x 35000 - word summative essay (100%) ILOs 1-4

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ENGL29026).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.