This is a course about how stories work, and how to read them effectively and critically. We encounter narratives every day, in gossip and jokes, news reports, in books and films and on the internet. Everyone is experienced in understanding and interpreting stories. This course gives you the chance to articulate, understand, and develop your skills as a consumer (and creator) of stories, through describing and analysing the various elements of a narrative – such as narration, character, structure, genre, and point of view – in a number of different examples in English. The course will develop a critical vocabulary which students working in small groups can use, with increasing confidence, to discuss, analyse and report on written narrative texts of various length and complexity. Besides the target stories, there will be critical readings, with plenty of examples, in textual studies and in narratology (the poetics of stories). At the end of the course, all students should have the skills and confidence to give a productive and well-informed reading of any narrative, literary or non-literary, and some sense of the part that narrative plays in our understanding of the world we live in.
To provide students with a deeper understanding of narrative; to introduce students to elements of narrative theory (narratology) and think about its applications to specific texts; to improve students’ reading, writing, analytical, and research skills.
Most texts will be available on Moodle, but you will need to purchase Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006) and Emma Donoghue’s Room (2010) or borrow from the libraries in Hong Kong (HKU or use JULAC: https://lib.hku.hk/cdd/ils-jla.html). You can also find texts from the Internet Archive library (it is free, but you need to register: https://archive.org/).
- Sheridan Le Fanu, “Green Tea” (1872)
- Brian Friel, Making History (1988)
- W. H. Auden, “Museé des Beaux Arts” (1938)
- William Carlos Williams, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” (1962)
- Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (2006)
- Bob Dylan, “Only a Pawn in Their Game” (1964) / “Desolation Row” (1965) / “Hurricane” (1975)
- Emma Donoghue, Room (2010)
- Dorothy Tse, selected stories from Snow and Shadow (2014; Trans, Nicky Harman)
Abbott, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, 3rd edition (2020)
Bal, Mieke. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (University of Toronto
Press, [1985] 2009)
Bhabha, Homi. Nation and Narration (Routledge, 1990)
Brook, Peter. Body Work: Objects of Desire in Modern Narrative (Harvard University Press,
1993)
Miller, J. Hillis. Reading Narrative (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998)
Newton, Adam Zachary. Narrative Ethics (Harvard University Press, 1997)
Rabinowitz, Peter J. Before Reading: Narrative Conventions and the Politics of
Interpretation (Ohio State University Press, 1998)
*Secondary materials in relation to each primary text will be uploaded on Moodle in due course.
Attendance, preparation, and participation (10%): Everyone is required to be present for both lectures and tutorials. Absence should be justified in writing. You are expected to have finished the assigned reading before class and to actively participate in class. Legitimate excuses for missing a class or a deadline include serious illness, serious injury, and family tragedy, and they require documentation. It is your responsibility to inform your tutor about this and supply the necessary documentation.
Short Response Paper (15%): Students will submit one response paper (500 words) covering materials from Week 1-4. It is designed for students to practice close reading and prepare for their final essays. Students will be assessed on their understanding of, as well as critical engagement with, the set texts of the course. They need to put forward their ideas and argument convincingly and provide relevant details from the primary text(s) to support their reading and interpretation.
Mid-term Exam (15%): Students will be tested on their basic comprehension of concepts, ideas and theories covered in the course. The exam will be conducted in class and will feature a series of multiple choice and short answer questions to test their knowledge on narrative and required readings.
Creative Group Project and Presentation (25%): Students will form groups of 4-5 to give a creative response to one of the set texts covered in the course. Each group will need to submit a rationale explaining their choice, purpose and approach, and give a short presentation (10 minutes). Detailed instructions on the creative responses – whether in the form of rewriting, adapting, re-situating, or creating artwork – will be provided in due course.
Final Essay (35%): 1200-1500 words (word count includes direct quotes but excludes bibliography). Students will carry out close textual analysis and secondary source research to critically engage with selected set text(s) in response to an essay question.