Any SCQF 9 module in literature, film, photography, cultural studies, sociology or psychology.

This module will enable you to study a range of modern Scottish novels, as well as a key film adaptation, and undertake a theoretical and socio-historical examination of these texts. You will consider in detail the development of modern Scottish fiction – from realism, through the modernist period and on into postmodernity. Texts will be analysed formally, as well as in relation to the national and international social, political and cultural contexts of the period.
The critic Gavin Wallace once described the Scottish novel as ‘the novel of damaged identity’. This module will examine that claim. Furthermore, Modern Scottish fiction will be studied in relation to theories of the nation, nationalism, and post-nationalism, as well as in an internationalist perspective. The module will also be representative of diverse wider concerns and issues, such as gender, class, sectarianism, and the tensions and contrasts between the urban and the rural.
This module will: introduce the Kailyard and examine the anti-Kailyard novel; trace the development of the Scottish Literary Renaissance in its historical and cultural contexts; study the formal and thematic importance of significant modern Scottish novels; examine community, masculinity and history; look at femininity and the welfare statist Thatcherite 1980s; study gender, sexuality and race; examine authorship, (social and gender) peripherality, and postmodern ‘rave’ culture.

Upon completion of this module you will be able to:
LO1: articulate a well-argued understanding of the diverse nature of modern Scottish fiction
LO2: evaluate the formal development of the novel in Scotland from realism, through modernism to postmodernism
LO3: analyse the relationships between writers, sensibilities and priorities, in relation to modern Scottish culture
LO4: undertake critical analysis of particular novels (and films) relating to Scotland in their cultural, theoretical, national and international contexts
LO5: conduct independent research that will inform discussion around essay-based writing on modern Scottish fiction