Contemporary Writing 2: Genre

Overview

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: to be confirmed
• Assessment: a 4000-word essay (100%)

Module description

This module focuses on the relationship between your use of genre and your emerging practice as an author. We will deconstruct a number of examples from popular genres including speculative, crime, fantasy, historical, romance, science fiction, thriller and horror to explore the nuts and bolts of prose fiction. This will involve reverse engineering techniques like creating tension, pacing, worldbuilding, exploiting and exploding conventions and the art of commercial narrative structure. This module is designed for genre-lovers as well as those looking to add new tools to their existing practice or explore genre in a more experimental, hybrid way. 

In addition, we will examine the broader cultural, economic and philosophical reasons as to why barriers between genre and literary have broken down; the 'genrefication' of the literary and why some genre novels are becoming increasingly 'literary'. Aside from all this, we'll celebrate genres on their own terms, examine the 'literary vs genre' debate, see how diverse and new voices are creating new creative possibilities, consider how genres are formed, what constitutes them and whether they're even necessary.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will understand:

• the textual strategies underlying a range of genres that dominate contemporary storytelling
• the principles of plot structure.