Thursday 20 December 2012

NUS EN3261/EU3217 EUROPEAN LITERATURE I [Module Review]

NUS EN3261/EU3217 European Literature 1 is taught by Prof Turner, a really eccentric but amicable guy.

The assessment criteria is broken down into the following:

In class quiz (7%) - very short answer questions that you either know or don't know. The quiz only lasted for about 20 minutes with 20 (or might be 25, I forgot) questions. But you can complete it within 10, because the questions are those that does not actually allow you to smoke through. E.g. where did A and B go for honeymoon in the book C? 

2 short essays (40%; i.e. 20% each) - 2 short essays at 1000 words each, really manageable if I would say so myself, for a level 3000 module. There will be a range of topics for you to choose from, so it's quite unlikely that you will have nothing to write at all.

Class participation (13%) - this is the part I hated most. The class is broken into 4 to 5 small groups and there will be at least an hour for discussion and presentation every week. Being a non-literature major, I always feel like I got nothing much valuable to input whenever we break into small groups for discussion. It makes me feel quite useless and noob compared to the people who are so eloquent and can just squeeze water out of rocks kind. I guess I just lack the ability to really deep read.

Final closed book examination (40%) - you get a choice for a compulsory question in section A, and another question in section B. It requires you to discuss the question in relation to two, or three texts. You're allowed to repeat the books discussed, but not the materials.

I would say that this module is manageable, but I didn't enjoy it as much as EN3234/AS3234 Asian American Literature. The books used in this module is (in my opinion) more boring, so I had a hard time getting through some of the books because they were so dry and out of the usual genre that I enjoy. I think out of the 6 or 7 books, there were only about 2 or 3 that I remotely enjoy and didn't dread reading. 

Hopefully my next literature module choice will see more interesting books.


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