Module manager: Dr Brenda Hollweg
Email: b.hollweg@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
ARTF2205
This module is not approved as a discovery module
Although women have published literary essays for over 100 years and have produced audiovisual essays in increasing numbers since the late 1970s, their presence as essayists, public critics and intellectuals is still under-acknowledged. This module will make their enduring work more visible. You will be introduced to the essay as a malleable form of socio-political resistance and new knowledge production, aligning criticality and feeling, personal reflection and public performance. We will explore essayistic practices from the 20th and 21st century and in transnational contexts, including photoessays, art installations, personal memoirs, moving-image letters, and so forth. We will ask: how do these different iterations of the essay negotiate questions of the maternal, or the problem of language and sexual difference, or post/coloniality and femininity? In which ways do they investigate gender inequalities and sexual oppression in globalised economies? Which new feminist issues arise in the contexts of ecological destruction or the digital? Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
This module aims to teach students the significance of essayistic practice as a vehicle for socio-political critique, self-reflection and ethical relations with the other. These are also central objectives of feminist practice. To explore the intersections of essayistic and feminist critique, we will consider both the argumentative and affective strengths of this border-crossing form of enquiry. Voices from different historical moments of feminist critique are brought into conversation with current essayistic practices worldwide. Lectures, interactive seminars, screenings, reflective responses and the making of a video essay will support your analytical thinking skills and enable you, more specifically, to understand the interconnectedness of essayism and feminism.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Analyse different iterations of the essay in diverse cultural contexts;
2. Evaluate the intersections that exist between essayism and feminist tactics and practices;
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the power of the essay as vehicle of both logic and affect;
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
4. Work critically with feminist and cultural theories, methodologies and audio-visual avant-garde forms;
5. Argue effectively using evidence drawn from image archives and online databases of essayistic and feminist practices;
6. Present researched materials confidently;
7. Communicate critically and persuasively in multiple modes, engaging with primary and secondary source material.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Seminar | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| Independent online learning hours | 4 | ||
| Private study hours | 168 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 28 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
The in-class discussions allow ongoing monitoring of student progress. You will receive feedback on your first assignment mid-way through the module, with an opportunity for further discussion of this feedback to ‘feed forward’ information important for your second assignment.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Project | 40 |
| Coursework | Project | 60 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated.
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 08/05/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team