CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:1.‘The long-established genres and forms –tragedy, comedy, epic, pastoral, eclogue, lyric, ode, etc. –are ways of seeing the world as ordered, conventional, and static in fundamental ways. When you adopt their rules, you assume a certain posture and a set of hypotheses about the way things are and should be. But if you want to remake the world, you have to start by liquidating the old forms and starting anew.’ Discuss the process of writing in ‘new’ ways with reference to any text from thismodule.
2.‘The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects “unfamiliar,” to make forms difficult to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged.’ (Viktor Shklovsky)How does avant-garde writing challenge conventional forms of representation? Discuss in relationto any text from thismodule.
3.‘There is no “originality” as such in literature, only new ways of combining and redacting already existing texts.’Discuss with reference to any text from thismodule.
4.‘Literary texts become familiar over time, and our familiarity with them tends to diminish what is monstrous and irreconcilable about them. But in the great experimental texts, we continue to experience that monstrosity, that irreconcilability, as a tear in the fabric of sense.’Discuss with reference to any text from thismodule.ASSESSMENT CRITERIAoDemonstrates understanding of the key concepts and issues in this moduleoDemonstrates understanding of the historical and social context/s from which the text being discussed emergesoUses appropriate scholarly sources and an academic registeroAppropriate presentation andformatting including absence of typographical errors.
