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Teaching Responsibility

LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:

Humanities and Social Science

Learning Methods

Lecture

Workshop

Module Offerings

7025WRIT-SEP-MTP

Aims

The module will address key ideas about myth and storytelling, style, structure and genre ideas through weeks of lectures, class presentations and writing workshops. During the 12 weeks of the module the subject is taught in the following ways utilising guest lecturers, staff with expertise in a wide range of writing structures and styles and class participation through writer workshops, discussion and feedback. The module also allows students to reflect on culture, history and myth and their application in their own writing making it more diverse and in-depth and fully exploring all genre and stylistic possibilities.

The module will also offer vocational skills in analytical thinking, editing and rewriting, communication, presentation and digital media, critical writing and cross-cultural skills in analysing, reflecting and presenting on culture and storytelling.

Learning Outcomes

1.
Define, discuss and reflect on the range of mythologies and stories, styles, structures and genres open to them as writers;
2.
Demonstrate self-direction and originality in exploring questions about how writers write in ways which meet or subvert stylistic, structural or genre conventions;
3.
Research world mythologies and common mythological tropes as well as the theorists and writers who have written about them;
4.
Explore and write critically about writers who have led the field in their particular form or genre, relying on or renegotiating literary traditions to challenge established writing protocols;
5.
Critically apply the influence of writers and writing on their own practises, particularly in class discussion and presentations;
6.
Develop further and practice skills of scholarly presentation, organisation communication, documentation and evaluation;
7.
Produce and perfect creative work through exercises and redrafting with respect to the following semesters intensity of workshops.
8.
Submit critical and creative work to a high standard.

Module Content

Outline Syllabus:
This module explores the ways narratives take shape and the choices writers make to ensure that the style, structure and genre in which they write best suits the story they want to tell. It utilises common themes, tropes and mythologies in writing – such as the hero's journey, the descent and return, the coming of age, the love story, to name a few, to examine how these tropes have been addressed by poets, novelists, short fiction writers and playwrights and how the themes have changed or metamorphosed into something quite different from the original story by an adept use of new writing approaches.

The module will allow students to critically and creatively explore their own writing ideas in the context of other writers and their influences. It will assist them to pose important questions to their own creative ideas and approaches – particularly questions about the best ways in which to craft a story be it through poetry, short fiction, a crime novel or a young adult work. In doing this students engage with ideas that have shaped human storytelling from our earliest times, reflecting on their reiteration in contemporary narratives.
Module Overview:
By engaging with a range of genres, styles and structures you will enhance your understanding of your own and other authors writing.
Additional Information:
Weeks 1 - 3 Mythology, Style and Structure - how do ideas take shape and how do writers determine the best style and structure for their stories?

Weeks 4- 6 Style and Structure - written and spoken voice and point of view Weeks 7 - 9 Genre

Weeks 10 – 12 Workshopping - Intense workshopping of student work in genre/stylistically defined groups.

Assessments

Presentation

Essay

Portfolio