Overview
A study of literary classics that have attracted controversy for reasons including political content; issues of morality/obscenity; transgressing conventions of form; polemical works; questions of authorial identity and authenticity; controversies over prizes and literary merit.
ENGL131 Controversial Classics explores how literature engages debates over art, religion, sexuality, morality, politics, race, gender, drugs, censorship, and more, while introducing you to some of the great works of English literature from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, Sylvia Plath’s Ariel, and James Baldwin’s essays to Alan Duff’s Once Were Warriors, Becky Manawatu’s Auē, and Tusiata Avia’s “250th Anniversary of James Cook’s Arrival in New Zealand.” The paper also equips you with the skills to take your own stand on debates over classic texts that continue to divide their readers.
About this paper
| Paper title | Controversial Classics |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 2 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,103.10 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Eligibility
- There are no prerequisites for this paper, which develops skills in communication, critical thinking, and ethics relevant to students specialising in a wide range of disciplines.
- Contact
- More information link
View more information on the English and Linguistics Programme website
- Teaching staff
Convener: Professor Jacob Edmond
- Paper Structure
There are generally two to three 1-hour lectures and a 1-hour tutorial for each text or topic studied. Lectures are designed to stimulate your own thinking about each text. Tutorials emphasize participation in discussion and support you to develop your own evidence-based arguments.
- Teaching Arrangements
Two 1-hour lectures per week.
A 1-hour tutorial in selected weeks.
- Textbooks
- Course readings, available on eReserve and ancillary materials for each topic:
- Allen Ginsberg, Howl (City Lights).
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Penguin Classics).
- Sylvia Plath, Ariel (Faber).
- Becky Manawatu, Auē (Makaro).
- Alan Duff, Once Were Warriors (Penguin).
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
Global perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Ethics, Information literacy, Environmental literacy, Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork, Interdisciplinary learning.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.- Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the paper will:
- In-depth knowledge: you will gain exposure to a range of literary texts and contexts and the ability to read them closely and with insight.
- Critical thinking: you will gain the ability to assess literary controversies, to understand the reasons for them, and to make your own informed judgements about them.
- Ethics/cultural understanding/global perspective: you will learn to reflect critically on arguments about literary, artistic, social, political, religious, and ethical values and to assess how these arguments and values have changed over time and across cultures.
- Communication/teamwork: you will learn to develop a sustained argument, supported by textual and contextual evidence, both orally and in written form, individually and in group discussion.
- Research / scholarship / information literacy / self-motivation: you will learn to engage critically with a range of literary scholarship and with historical sources.
- Assessment details
- Weekly in-class tutorial responses
- An in-class close-reading exercise
- A final exam