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North American Fiction and Film
Welcome to North American Fiction and Film on the Web. We hope that this
unit will give students and other browsers an opportunity to explore one
of the units offered in the Literary Studies major here at Central Queensland
University, a unit we hope you will find both interesting and challenging.
We will commence with an introductory chapter which discusses some issues
relating to the study of North American fiction and film, and then we will
consider a selection of appropriate novels in subsequent chapter. Each chapter
raises a number of general issues related to North American fiction as well
as several specific issues associated with the reading of the particular
text under discussion. Obviously, the web also allows you to browse within
this framework according to your interest.Happy reading!
If you have any difficulties at all please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely
Dr John Fitzsimmons
Coordinator and unit lecturer
Dr Wally Woods
Senior lecturer, Literary Studies
Table of Contents
General Details
Chapters and Texts
Topic
Introduction
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Unit Details
Unit aims
The aims of this unit are:
- to provide students with the skills to describe and analyse selected
American writings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries within a framework
of issues such as ideology, gender, race and the politics of literature;
- to examine the way various discourses and narratives are used in the
construction of America as a community and the attempts that have been made
to negotiate these constructions;
- to promote an understanding of the complicity between literature and
ideology, and of the ways that texts operate as sites of ideological struggle,
particularly as exemplified in the set texts; and,
- to develop further the student's communication skills.
Unit rationale
We take as axiomatic the idea that literature is not about absolute "truths"
of the "human condition." Rather, the ways that literature has
been written and read make it a "site of struggle" over the values
and meanings in and through which various conceptions of the world are known
and challenged. We are concerned, therefore, to explore the set texts in
conjunction with the orthodoxies in which, and with which, they were written
and are read.
In each chapter of this unit you will find the following:
- a topic and/or a set text
- a brief discussion of this topic/set text
- some related further reading.
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Assessment
Essay preparation: General procedures
Following are guidelines for the preparation of essays:
- Type or write your essays clearly.
- Use A4 paper and leave at least a 3cm margin. (This is the best format
both for marking and photocopying.)
- Make a duplicate copy of each essay. This overcomes any problems should
your essays ever be lost in transit, though this rarely happens.
- Number each page of the essay.
Assessment criteria for assignments
In marking your assignments, tutors will be asking themselves the following
questions:
- Does this essay have a clearly articulated thesis which can be considered
as an answer to the question?
- Is this thesis supported with clear arguments and relevant evidence
from the text(s)?
- Has secondary criticism been used to support the arguments and does
the student clearly understand the relevant critical theory?
- Has care been taken with presentation, expression and spelling (i.e.
has the essay been carefully edited)?
- Have all sources been properly acknowledged (i.e. ideas, paraphrases
as well as quotations)?
For a full description and discussion of these assessment criteria, see
Appendix 1 of the Study Guide.
Assignment grading
A mark will be recorded on the front of the Assignment Folder of all assignments
which have been assessed. All assignments and essays must be submitted before
a final grade can be issued.
Assessment for this unit will be made using the following grades:
Grade Score Range HD 85% +
D 75-84%
C 65-74%
P 50-64%
Extensions to assignment deadlines
Please read this section carefully. Failure to submit essays by the
due date may result in a loss of marks unless an extension of time has been
approved. All assignments must be posted by the due date as specified for
each assignment.
Students requiring extensions should adhere to the following procedures:
- less that one week's extension: Contact the Faculty Secretary by phone
before the due date and briefly state reason for extension;
- up to two weeks' extension: Contact your lecturer by phone before the
due date and briefly state reason for extension.
Note: Assignments and essays submitted without extension may suffer a penalty
equivalent to the loss of one third of marks for each week the assignment
or essay is late. For the last essay, extensions beyond the study break
will only be granted in extenuating circumstances.
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Essay topics
Essay details
The formal assessment for this unit will be on the basis of two essays worth
40% and 60% respectively.
Essay 1
Due date: Friday of Week 7
Length: 2000 words
Marks: 40%
Topic:
Please answer one (1) of the following:
Essay 2
Due date: Friday of Week 13
Marks: 60%
Length: 3000 words
Topic:
Please answer one (1) of the following:
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Dr Wally WOODS
Dr Wally Woods (BA(Hons), MA James Cook, PhD Qld, Senior Lecturer)
is both Dean of Faculty of Arts, and Head of Humanities Department.
His current research interests include postmodernist fiction, metafiction,
post-structuralist literary theory, the construction of masculinity within
literature and the mass media, the art and culture of the Singhalese of
Thursday Island, and the literature of the Torres Straits. He is presently
involved in mapping the literature of the Central Queensland region. Phone:
(079) 309714; Email: w.woods@cqu.edu.au
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Last updated July 1996
Comments to Dr John Fitzsimmons:
Phone: (079) 309240; Email: j.fitzsimmons@cqu.edu.au
Humanities Department
Faculty of Arts
Central Queensland University
Rockhampton MC Queensland 4702
Australia