Module manager: Dr Daniel O’Gorman
Email: d.ogorman@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
This module is not approved as an Elective
This module examines contemporary conceptualisations of ‘terror’ through a focus on texts that are global in their form or content. Encompassing fiction, poetry, theatre and memoir, these texts challenge national boundaries, and in doing so dramatise the transnational figuration of contemporary political violence. Reading the texts alongside relevant theory, the module explores how they intervene in debates surrounding terrorism and counterterrorism, on topics as urgent as Islamophobia, surveillance, ‘radicalisation’, drone warfare and homonationalism.
This module aims to familiarise students with key debates around the notion of ‘terror’ in the twenty-first century, and of the role that literary and cultural texts have played in these debates. Its objectives include:
• Introducing students to key creative texts and theoretical works which respond to and/or critique received assumptions about terrorism and counterterrorism in contemporary media and political discourse.
• Facilitating their learning about an impulse in contemporary literature to seek innovative ways of figuring an increasingly interconnected globe and the challenges that have accompanied this.
• Encouraging students to position both the texts and the debates in a postcolonial context by tracing the colonial roots of recent discourse on terrorism and insurgency.
• Developing a conversance in live debates relating to the intersection of globalisation and terrorism, including on issues such as border policing, racial profiling, neoimperialism and ‘alt-right’ violence.
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. Analyse key literary and cultural interventions in political debates surrounding terrorism and counterterrorism in the twenty-first century.
2. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of critical and conceptual issues inherent in debates about terror and its representation in a political context.
3. Evaluate the ways in which literary and cultural texts complicate orthodox narratives of terrorism in the twenty-first century.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
4. Present findings in a clear, concise, focused, and structured manner.
5. Generate ideas and showcase originality in critical responses to cultural and conceptual materials.
6. Source pertinent research materials and resources to enhance the quality of engagement with primary materials.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seminar | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Private study hours | 280 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
All students will be offered the opportunity to submit a short ‘unassessed’ piece of essay work (1750 words) concerning the essay assignment they have identified, in order to receive feedback from the tutor about the quality of its academic content and its mode of delivery. This feedback will be given in two ways: as a written report on the ‘unassessed’ assignment and in a one-to-one meeting with the student where they can ask any further questions and seek advice about the development of their assignment. This ‘unassessed’ piece may constitute an early draft of the longer formally submitted assessed essay.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 4000-word assessed essay on a self-chosen topic. | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 7/31/2024
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team