CO4029 Science and Technology/Literature and Culture

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

15

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable

To be arranged

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr N Sreenan

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Niall Sreenan, Prof Mary Orr, Dr Damiano Benvegnu, Prof Ziad Elmarsafy

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module aims at improving students' scientific literacy level by exploring the literary and cultural incidence of the scientific and technological revolutions that have defined modernity. The module revolves around the structural axes of belief and scepticism. Science as language, method, myth, and outlook defines contemporary life and thought, but is consistently met with resistance and outright rejection, even as new technologies are adopted. Scientists furnish answers to multiple crises but do not always find the credibility they need to implement desperately needed solutions. What is it about science and technology that proves simultaneously so wondrous and so horrifying? Literature and culture provide key pathways of interrogating these patterns and explaining the multifarious social and political responses to 'progress.'

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST TAKE CO2001 OR TAKE CO2002,PERMISSION OF THE COMPARATIVE LITERATURE HONOURS ADVISER

Assessment pattern

Coursework = 100%

Re-assessment

Coursework = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

Weekly 1.5 hour seminars (x11 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours

17

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

132

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • be able to recognise and interpret salient developments in the history of science and its intersection with literature and culture between the early modern and modern/contemporary period in a global and cross-cultural context
  • be able analyse and critically appraise relevant textual, literary, historical, and theoretical material relating to the history of science and culture/literature
  • be able to critically appraise contemporary issues in science and culture/literature from a variety of theoretical, historical, literary and cultural perspectives
  • begin to devise an independent and interdisciplinary theoretical approach and discourse to comment in critically engaged and innovative ways on the mutual impact of culture/literature and science