52690 Narrative in Theory and Practice

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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

Description

This subject draws on a range of narrative traditions to explore the history, theory, and practices that underpin the ways we create and consume stories in contemporary society. Through the study of fictional forms, students develop techniques to construct narrative: these foundational skills are used to create story, character, point of view, temporality and setting. Students learn to critically reflect on their own production of narrative and on the possibilities of storytelling in the contemporary context.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences:

• Act in a professional manner appropriate to communication industries (1.1)
• Apply theoretically informed understandings of communication industries to independent and collaborative projects across a range of media (1.2)
• Act as reflexive critical thinkers and innovative creative practitioners who evaluate their own and others' work (2.2)
• Exemplify effective and appropriate communication in different communication industry contexts (6.1)

Teaching and learning strategies

This subject is delivered through a combination of tutorials and prerecorded lectures and activities. The lectures and tutorials explore the theory and practice of narrative in order to foster an understanding of how narrative functions in creative writing. From the beginning of the session, students work collaboratively and participate in writing workshops and group exercises that enable them to develop and test their ideas in both peer- and tutor-led contexts. Supported by online content, students work through self-guided learning tasks at their own pace. These tasks include exercises and quizzes on narrative technique and theory, interactive activities, discussion forums, and both essential and supplementary readings. In the workshop context, students receive early formative feedback from their peers and from their tutor.

Content (topics)

This subject draws on a range of narrative traditions to explore the history, theory, and practices underpinning the ways we create and consume stories in contemporary society. Through the study of fictional forms, students examine how and why stories are told and received across a range of modes and formats, from the novel and short story, to the audio-visual, to the interactive and immersive. In terms of their own writing practice, students develop skills in the core structures and techniques that underpin narrative: the construction of story, character, point of view, temporality and setting. Students are also introduced to the origins and main elements of dramatic theory, as well as key literary movements including realism, modernism, and postmodernism.

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Structural analysis of a text

Assessment task 2: Creative work