Global Crime Narratives (ENGL40025)
HonoursPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
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
Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
A preliminary
| Mid semester | 30% |
A final essay
| End of semester | 70% |
| Hurdle requirement: Students are required to attend a minimum of 80% of classes in order to pass this subject and regular class participation is expected. | Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
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 3 August 2020 to 1 November 2020 Last self-enrol date 14 August 2020 Census date 21 September 2020 Last date to withdraw without fail 16 October 2020 Assessment period ends 27 November 2020 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 - 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