Created by: Course development team led by Barbara Collash

Revised by: Rodney & Mills-McFarlane

January, 2017

NAME OF INSTITUTION: MICO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

FACULTY: HUMANITIES AND LIBERAL ARTS
DEPARTMENT: LANGUAGE, LITERACY AND LITERATURE
PROGRAMME: B.ED. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
COURSE TITLE: FOUNDATIONS OF PROSE FICTION
COURSE CODE: LFPF1101
YEAR: ONE
DURATION: 45 HOURS
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITE: CSEC/CAPE English B

RATIONALE
The universal appeal which prose fiction (the most widely read literary genre) exerts inheres
largely in the fact that imagined stories of imagined people draw us closer to an understanding of
others, self and the complexities and challenges of everyday realities. An introductory course in
the study of prose fiction supports institutional aims as it not only serves to develop the academic
and intellectual skills and abilities of student-teachers, but also provides them with the
knowledge and pleasures derived from vicarious and imagined life experiences. Additionally, it
enlarges their understanding of themselves and others and deepens their appreciation of life,
especially as this relates to ‘diversity’/‘difference’ and the values and attitudes that contribute to
harmonious living in the global community in which we operate.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course exposes the student teachers to a range of experiences presented by both male and
female writers from different geographical spaces, particularly Britain, North America and the
Caribbean. Ideally the experiences within the texts are sequenced to give student teachers a sense
of the development of the genre. Student-teachers will conduct research and make presentations
on various forms, types and modes of prose fiction. Focussing on the texts selected for detailed
study, they will examine the relationship between text and historical/socio-cultural context,
analyse the various elements that make up the fictional narrative, explore the ways in which
different writers use particular narrative strategies, and how these all work together to give

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pleasure and produce meanings. Practice will also be provided in critical reading and analysis,
both orally and in writing. Located within the overarching framework of the learner-centred
model, this course foregrounds the Reader Response Approach and related activities that “shift
ownership for interpretation from teacher and critic to student” (Milner and Milner, 2008). In this
regard, the lecturer assumes the role of co-learner/facilitator, guiding students to share their
views, give and take criticisms, examine/self-critique and modify their interpretation through
group/whole class sharing/discussion, as well as to go to the text for evidence and to analyse
details (thus engaging in more formal analysis), and to make connections to real life situations.

COURSE GOALS
By the end of the course, student-teachers should:

Knowledge
1. locate the beginnings of prose fiction in early narratives;
2. examine the extent to which the contemporary novel and short story have retained the
entertainment and didactic functions of these early narratives;
3. understand the relationship between form, content and meaning;
4. evaluate the ways in which historical/socio-cultural contexts inform meaning;
5. acquire knowledge of the formal/literary elements of prose fiction and how these work together
to produce meaning;
6. show knowledge of the particular narrative strategies a writer use;

Skills
7. develop skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing;
8. produce well-organized argumentative essays;
9. hone skills in conducting research, selecting, arranging and presenting information;

Affective
10. promote the value/function of prose fiction in academic and everyday life;
11. become sensitized to the values, attitudes, issues and ideas that literary texts engage with;

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12. profess a deeper understanding of self, society/social issues, and human nature in general;
13. reflect a deeper love and appreciation for prose fiction, both for its aesthetic qualities and for the
ways in which it relates to life in the real world.

UNIT 1: The Nature of Prose Fiction (9 hours)

Learning Objectives
Student teachers should be able to:

• critique text book definitions of key concepts related to the course (‘prose’, ‘fiction’ etc.) based
on their prior experience with prose fiction;
• write one-sentence summaries of the nature of prose fiction based on given readings;
• describe the definitive features of the important prose genres and sub-genres of the novel based
on class presentations and their own research;
• defend the place of prose fiction in the Jamaican classroom/school curriculum based on the
personal, social and academic benefits of engaging with this genre;
• present evidence of good research skills through the quality of oral presentations and
discriminate use of sources.

UNIT 2: Forms, Modes and Elements of Prose Fiction (12 hours)

Learning Objectives
Student teachers should be able to:

• create a graphic comparing/contrasting at least four forms of traditional narratives (myth, legend
etc.) based on their features and function(s);
• create a graphic comparing/contrasting a selected or assigned traditional narrative and modern
prose fiction based on their features and function(s);
• critique samples of modern prose fiction with respect to their dis/continuities with traditional
narratives;
• cite one example of at least three modes of prose fiction (fantasy, realism, expressionism, for
example), and list the definitive features of each mode;

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• develop analyses of given narratives, focussing on how the formal and literary elements work
together to produce meaning.

UNIT 3: Studying the Novel (12 hours)

Learning Objectives
Student teachers should be able to:

• Research the emergence and evolution of the British novel and through meaningful oral
presentations discuss/compare the similarities and differences as present in Caribbean in texts;
• write extended pieces critiquing the effectiveness of particular novelistic conventions in the
novels under study;
• derive meaning from prose texts through application of particular strategies/approaches
including: close-reading of excerpts (including ‘openings’), focussing on particular
features/elements, and reading from different theoretical perspectives;
• critique or compare and contrast given prose texts or samples of prose fiction
• identify one or more of the following: the distinctive features such as form/genre, the
deployment of novelistic and or literary conventions (the extent to which these are parodied or
overturned), historical/socio-cultural contexts, narrative strategies; structural and stylistic
features, thematic concerns etc.;
• critique differing interpretations of a given text and determine the validity of each;
• engage with abstract concepts such as ‘values’, ‘attitudes’ and ‘ideas’ as deployed in prose
narratives;
• defend their own interpretations/informed opinions based on their reading of the texts under
study through oral presentations;
• write well-structured, coherent and cogent argumentative essays using the Writing Process.

UNIT 4: Studying Short Stories (12 hours)

Learning Objectives

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Student teachers should be able to:

• compare the novel and the short story with respect to formal features, narrative and stylistic
strategies and structural devices;
• compare different types of short stories (traditional/modern; realistic/impressionistic) based on
given guidelines;
• analyse given short stories, taking into account how form, narrative strategies, structural devices,
literary elements, and other devices of style and language work together to produce meaning;
• critique differing interpretations of the same short story.

Course Assessment
Coursework 60%
Final Exam 40%

Summative

Coursework
In-class test (Individual) 20%
Oral Presentation (Individual) 20%
Dramatic re-presentation and analytic review (Group Presentation) 20%

Final Examination 40%

Recommended Learning Resources

Breath, Eyes, Memory – Edwidge Danticat
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Selected Short Stories (Goodison, Senior)

References/ Learning Resources

Abrams, M. H. Glossary of Literary Terms (8th ed.). Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005

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Griffith, Kelley. Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet. (7th ed.) Boston:
Wadsworth, 2010
McMahan, Elizabeth, Susan X. Day and Robert Funk. Literature and the Writing Process. (9th
ed.) Prentice Hall: NJ, 2010.
Murfin, Ross C. and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2nd
ed.) Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003
Peck, John. How to study a novel. MacMilllan, Palgrave, 1995.
Roberts, Edgar. Writing About Literature. (12th ed.) Prentice Hall: 2009

Online Resources
Analysing a story
http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/mainguides/fiction.htm

Approaching prose fiction – LearningSpace – The Open University

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=397197

Introduction to prose fiction resource material

http://www.nou.edu.ng/noun/NOUN_OCL/pdf/pdf2/ENG%20181%20-
%20Course%20Material.pdf

Prose Fiction. General Introduction. By Professor W. A. Neilson.

http://www.bartleby.com/60/161.html