Global Crime Narratives (ENGL40025)
HonoursPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
| Availability | Semester 2 |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look up fees |
This subject looks at a range of crime narratives from around the world and across different media: short fiction, novels, ‘true crime’, memoir, film, and television. It will move chronologically from Poe to the present day, each crime narrative unfolding in radically different locations: an English village, the Tokyo underground, the Melbourne suburbs, and so on.
The subject is designed to introduce students to a number of different approaches to crimes of various kinds. It recognizes that crimes generate narratives. But crimes also generate frameworks of comprehension: philosophical, moral, ethical, criminal, psychoanalytical, familial, etc. The detective provides one of those frameworks, with a focus in particular on criminal profiling, character recognition, and moral agency. Crime narratives make us think about the limits of identity; they make us navigate our way across the extent of human action and reaction; and they always ask us to reflect on our proximity to the crime scene and the criminal act. Students will be asked to engage critically with these issues, negotiating the crime narratives covered in this subject and the frameworks of comprehension that have built around them.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this subject, student should be able to:
- understand some of the key frameworks for comprehending crime narratives;
- understand histories of crime narratives; and
- appreciate the complexities involved in the representation of crime and responses to crime.
Last updated: 31 October 2023
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 31 October 2023
Assessment
Additional details
- A 1,500 word preliminary essay (30%), due mid semester
- A 3,500 word final essay (70%), due at the end of semester
- Hurdle: students are required to attend a minimum of 80% of classes in order to pass this subject and regular class participation is expected.
Last updated: 31 October 2023
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Ken Gelder Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours Total 24 hours: a 2 hour seminar per week Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 29 July 2019 to 27 October 2019 Last self-enrol date 9 August 2019 Census date 31 August 2019 Last date to withdraw without fail 27 September 2019 Assessment period ends 22 November 2019 Semester 2 contact information
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 31 October 2023
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue, ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1845)
A Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (1890)
Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr Ripley (1955)
Alfred Hitchcock (dir.), Psycho (1960) – film
Michel Foucault, I, Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my mother, my sister and my brother… A case of parricide in the 19th century (1975)
Thomas Harris, Red Dragon (1981) and David Slade (dir.), Hannibal (2013-14) – TV series
Haruki Murakami, Underground (1997-98)
Mark Brandon Read, Chopper: From the Inside (1991); and David Michod (dir), Animal Kingdom (2010) – film
Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005)
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007)
Chloe Hooper, The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2008)
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies Informal specialisation English and Theatre - Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Please note Single Subject Studies via Community Access Program is not available to student visa holders or applicants
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Additional information for this subject
Subject coordinator approval required
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
Last updated: 31 October 2023