On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Analyse ideas and representations of the ordinary/everyday in relation to specific literary and visual traditions and forms
2. Demonstrate a familiarity with some of the key theories of the everyday in cultural studies and how they can be applied to specific works of literature or visual media
3. Identify the relationship between concepts of the everyday and historical, social and cultural contexts
4. Build capacities in the close reading of literary and/or visual texts
5. Demonstrate skills in oral and written presentation, with a focus on writing skills and effective argument.

. Representations of the ordinary and everyday life in one or more literary genres (e.g. prose fiction, poetry, life writing) and visual media (e.g. photography, film, television)
. Definitions and theories of the everyday in relation to cultural formations and practices (e.g. Walter Benjamin, Surrealism, Henri Lefebvre, Georg Lukacs, Roland Barthes, Ben Highmore, Rita Felski, Jean Baudrillard);
. Critical debates surrounding the (im)possibility of representing the everyday;
. The intersections between the everyday and modernity as related to the primary texts (e.g. spaces, technology, class, ethnicity, gender, war/terrorism, modes and technologies of representation);
. The close study of a select number (e.g. 4) of specific literary traditions and visual and media cultures in terms of their engagement with the subject matter of the everyday. Possible topics include:
- Victorian realism and series fiction
- Stream of consciousness narration
- The everyday and poetic tradition (e.g. Romanticism, Imagism, Objectivism)
- Postmodern narrative
- Blogs and other online media (Twitter, Facebook etc.)
- Surrealism
- Documentary photography
- social realist cinema (e.g. kitchen sink drama)
- Hyperrealism