EN2902 Writing Scotland: Creative and Critical Approaches

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Module description

What is Scotland? How does a nation take shape on paper, and who gets to decide which aspects will take hold in the cultural imagination? In this module we will explore the ways in which Scotland as a location and an idea has been constructed and represented in literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, at home and abroad, in prose, poetry and drama, as well as how we ourselves might participate in the project of “writing Scotland”. Beginning with three weeks on Scottish writing about what it means to live in and identify with Scotland from a variety of perspectives, we’ll then turn to three texts in which the nation has been characterized from the outside – each of these sections will be assessed through a research essay – before considering with guidance from practicing poets and authors how contemporary writing might model techniques for capturing a sense of place, history, and identity in an original creative piece, and reflecting on this process in a critical commentary.

Intended learning outcomes

• encounter a wide range of literary styles and genres, and be able to identify and analyse their key features
• gain a sense of the variety of approaches to questions of nationhood and national identity in Scotland and beyond, and their development from premodern eras to the present day
• build on skills introduced in EN1901 in relating primary texts to secondary material, both critical and historical, and, through discussion and written essays, develop ability to talk and write about literary texts with fluency and technical understanding
• put some of the literary techniques studied into practice, and be able to reflect critically on how and why creative writing generates particular effects
• be able to articulate and interrogate how issues of diversity, sustainability and enterprise intersect in cultural representations of Scotland and Scottishness