ENGL 467 Storyworlds and Cognition applies advanced narrative theory to a range
of fictional storyworlds across media, including texts in print (novels and short
fiction) and in digital environments (digital fiction and video games). More specifically,
it combines cognitive-based narrative theory and literary theory in order to identify
the affordances and limitations of different modes and media, with particular focus
on the representation of fictional minds.
We will consider the unique power
of novels and textual discourse to tell of the cognitive functioning of others. We
will consider the way in which the print medium exploits a diverse range of techniques
used to portray perspective and perception as well as describe dispositions, intentions,
and emotions of characters.
Furthermore, we will consider how the participatory
nature of digital fictions and the agency required in gameworlds requires a recalibration
of more conventional notions of immersion in fictional worlds and identification with
the characters that inhabit them.
In recognising the ways in which narratives
across media represent consciousness and cognition, we aim to determine what such
texts can tell us about the minds of actual readers, viewers, and players in turn.
| Paper title | Special Topic: Storyworlds and Cognition |
|---|---|
| Paper code | ENGL467 |
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.1667 |
| Points | 20 points |
| Teaching period | Full Year |
| Domestic Tuition Fees (NZD) | $1,142.40 |
| International Tuition Fees (NZD) | $4,661.93 |
- Prerequisite
- 72 points from ENGL 311-368, EURO 302
- Contact
- More information link
- View more information on the Department of English and Linguistics website
- Teaching staff
- Paper Structure
- There is one 2-hour seminar per week.
- Textbooks
- *Titles subject to change
Print narratives:- James Joyce, "Penelope" (excerpt)
- Lidia Yuknavitch, "Male Lead"
- Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway [required for purchase]
- Lance Olsen, Nietzsche's Kisses [required for purchase]
- Nicholson Baker, Mezzanine [required for purchase]
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical
thinking, Cultural understanding, Ethics, Information literacy, Research.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the paper will be able to:
- Gain an understanding of narrative as a "cultural form" across media;
- Gain a familiarity with the working concepts and vocabulary of the field of narrative theory and "cognitive narratology" and apply that theoretical and conceptual knowledge to specific narrative texts in written assessment;
- Identify moments of convergence and divergence between what structures the experience of narratives in print (such as novels) on the one hand and those of digital fictions and gameworlds on the other;
- Recognise the ways in which narratives across media both represent cognition (of fictional characters) and tell us something about the minds of actual readers, viewers, and players;
- Acquire the technical and critical skills necessary to utilise digitial platforms as a working repository of scholarly ideas and a participatory text open to peer critique;
- Identify main currents of scholarship and claims in a variety of secondary sources in this emerging field and triangulate these claims in relation to other sources and readings;
- Understand higher concepts that underpin the relationship between literature and media and demonstrate that understanding in written assessment;
- Create, prepare and deliver an academic lecture on a chosen topic from the paper.
