Undergraduate - UnitATS2914 - The dark hero and femme fatale

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Literary Studies
Offered	Clayton Second semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Patrick Spedding

Synopsis

The unit is designed to introduce students to the development of the dark or satanic hero and the femme fatale in a range of major English texts selected to illustrate the tremendous impact and popularity of these powerful figures. Writers since the Renaissance have created powerful and seductive heroes, anti-heroes and appealing villains who advocate and personify radical individualism, self-sufficiency and ambition, but who are often isolated, gloomy and dissatisfied by their revolt against God, morality and society. Special attention will be given to the gendered representation of the dark hero, particularly the persistent tendency to represent or view female characters who challenge moral codes in relation to prevailing social roles of virgin/whore, good/bad mother etc. The unit encourages students to examine the relationship between the satanic heroes, vamps and villains who appear in the unit texts and the many dark heroes of contemporary culture.

Outcomes

Students successfully completing this subject will be able to:

identify key characteristics of the Dark or Satanic Hero and the Femme Fatale;
identify the historical development, and with a range of different historical manifestations, of these figures;
identify the psychological, social and cultural roots of these figures and the impact they have had;
identify the key critical debates concerning the Dark Hero and the Femme Fatale;
evaluate the relevance of these debates to the course-texts as well as to modern manifestations of these figures;
argue their interpretations clearly and persuasively in oral and essay form;
communicate ideas and position effectively in discussion.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Patrick Spedding

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Literary studies

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units.