The Art of English

Course Coordinator: Dr Danny Leung, BA, MPhil, PhD (CUHK)

Course Developer: The Open University, UK, Course Team

Advisory prerequisite
Students are advised to have taken ENGL E372 before studying this course.

Aims
The overall aim of the course is to examine creativity in the English language, not just in 'high culture' literary texts but also in everyday language use.

Contents
The course covers two broad areas:

• Everyday creativity in spoken and written English
  This part examines, for example, various forms of verbal humour (e.g. puns, jokes), rhymes and riddles, metaphorical imagery, narratives of personal experience, and the use of different languages and language varieties in conversation. The creative uses of written English — including graffiti and text messages, letter writing, diaries and online chat — are also considered.
• Literary creativity
  Here the focus is on exploring creativity in literature, used in a broad sense to include not only 'high culture' genres but also advertisements, film, popular fiction and children's literature. The art of translation between English and other languages, and the important role of the reader, or viewer, in creating literariness in texts are also examined.

Learning support
There will be 14 face-to-face tutorials, each of two hours.

Assessment
There are six assignments and a final three-hour examination. Except for some designated assignments, students are required to submit assignments via the Online Learning Environment (OLE).

Set book(s)
Carter, R (2015) Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk, 2nd edn, Routledge.

Jeffries, L and Mclntyre, D (2010) Stylistics, Cambridge.