Description

Contents

Module information for our postgraduate degree programme Caribbean Literature MRes.

Research Skills and Methods in African Studies
This module is a practical hands-on introduction to research methods which takes you through the process of defining a research topic; identifying and accessing sources, including archival and electronic sources; compiling a bibliography; producing an overview of existing work on the topic; designing a project; establishing a timetable; gaining research permission; the ethics of research; planning and executing fieldwork; using interviews and surveys; using photography, sound and video recording; keeping field notes; archival research; assessing and analyzing findings; and writing up.

You have the opportunity to present work in progress at different stages of your project, gaining feedback and advice from staff and fellow students. Through the talks by invited speakers on research in progress, the module also offers a broader perspective on research and raises questions about interdisciplinary approaches to it.

Assessment: Short paper presenting research proposal and bibliography; journal

Caribbean Fiction 20 credits
This course examines the development of the Caribbean novel in the twentieth-century. Working with texts from Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone territories the course explores the engagement of the Caribbean novel with key issues such as slavery colonialism, postcolonial politics and the construction of nationhood. The course examines the progression of these issues through mapping the work of earlier canonized figures against that of a younger generation of writers emerging in the 80s and 90s. Writers to be studied include George Lamming, V.S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys, Alejo Carpentier, Juan Bosch, Antonio Benítez Rojo, Maryse Conde and Reinaldo Arenas.

Assessment: 1 x 4000 word essay.

Caribbean Poetry 20 credits
This course examines the development of the Caribbean poem in the twentieth-century.Working with texts from Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone territories the course explores the engagement of Caribbean poetry with issues of language - the debate between 'nation language' and 'standard English'; of style - the 'Caribbean sonnet' or the dub rant; of production - Faber & Faber or Island Records, and, underlying all of these, of audience - ways in which it/they/we are defined and respond to such writings. Poets to be discussed include Derek Walcott, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Martin Carter, Aime Cesaire, Nicolás Guillén, Rene Depestre and Astrid Roemer.

Assessment: 1x 4000 word essay.

Requirements

* IELTS 6.5 with no less than 6.0 in any band.
* TOEFL 580 Paper- based test / 237 Computer-based test.

English Language Requirements