ENG-30106 - The Detective and the American City
Coordinator: James Peacock Room: CBB0.025 Tel: +44 1782 7 33140
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 6
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office: 01782 733147

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25


Aims
- to analyse and discuss the relationship between the detective and the city across a number of cultural fields: literature, visual art and film;
- to treat the detective as a figure which reflects economic, demographic, cultural and political changes in American cities, and anxieties about
identity and status attending those changes;
- to pay close attention to the detective as a peculiarly reflexive figure, someone who, in his or her quest to reconstruct plot and deliver explanation, reflects the processes both of the reader and the writer;
- to discuss not only traditional detectives, but also broader theoretical issues of reading, spectatorship and criticism which will be of value to
students in their further literary studies.

Intended Learning Outcomes

describe and evaluate basic features of multi-disciplinary scholarship (literary, historical and/or political) relating to study of the United States: 1,2
analyse and interpret a range of primary and secondary written and/or visual sources: 1,2
make coherent arguments based on evidence and analysis orally and in writing
: 1,2
relate textual analysis to social, cultural and historical contexts: 1,2
carry out research using a range of textual and electronic resources: 1,2
employ the basic bibliographical, referencing, and presentation requirements of the core disciplines: 1,2
analyse features of the social, historical, and political identity of the United States: 1,2

Study hours

1-hour weekly workshops + 2-hour weekly seminars= 36 hours; 50 hours tutorial and seminar preparation, including discussion threads; 64 hours assessment preparation.

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Short Paper weighted 30%
Close reading exercise of 1,000 words
Students will carry out a detailed close reading of an extract from one of the texts featured in the first few weeks of the module.

2: Essay weighted 70%
Discursive essay on one or two of the texts featured on the module, 2,000 words.
Students will complete an essay of 2,000 words on one or two of the texts on the module, with reference to secondary critical material.