1. ACL 1001: Reading Contemporary Fiction
Lecture 12: Unit Overview

2. Topics Covered in ACL 1001 What is a text?
What does it mean to ‘read,’ or critique a text?
Literary Theory – commentary on literature and ideas about reading and writing
‘the canon of “great” English literature and its links to ideologies of class, ‘culture’ and value
Ideologies of gender: Masculinity/Femininity
Realist Fiction and its conventions
Post- Modern Fiction and its experimentations
Ideologies of ‘Race’, Ethnicity and National Identity
Colonialism/postcolonialism

3. Novels Tony Birch Blood Siri Hustvedt, The Summer without Men
Toni Morrison, Tar Baby
Zadie Smith, White Teeth

4. Major Essay
Choose a topic and develop a cogent response. What is your essay argument?
You are required to write on both White Teeth and Tar Baby, giving equal weight to each. Quote directly from these primary texts to show where your idea is drawn from.
Draw on theoretical material to answer the question. The long essay MUST include at least three references from academic texts found in and through the library (not internet sites), as well as material from the Unit Reader.
Independent research

5. Major Essay
Correct referencing (Harvard Style)
Bibliography
Don’t generalise, always back up opinions with refereed scholarly articles.
Draft, draft and proofread

6. Resources Feminist Frequency http://www.feministfrequency.com/
Destroy the Joint
Sociological Issues
TED Talks