Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract/Objectives

This course aims to guide students in reading literary theory, appreciating major modern and contemporary literary works, mastering the principles of literary creation, and engaging with issues relevant to literary discourse, thereby developing their ability to write academic papers and produce creative literary works. The course is organized around three main dimensions: conceptual/theoretical foundations, textual appreciation, and creative practice. The selected texts for appreciation or close reading include poetry, prose, fiction, drama scripts, creative nonfiction, and academic essays. In each unit, depending on the genre of the texts, students will study relevant aesthetic theories, scholarly articles, and methodologies of creative writing. The course will lead students to analyze the artistic construction of works and to conduct criticism, creative practice, and academic writing from a professional perspective. The modern literary appreciation and writing skills acquired in this course can also be applied to teaching in primary and secondary school settings, aligning with the orientation of in-service teachers’ professional development in research and pedagogy. For the final project, students may choose to submit either a creative work or an academic paper.

Results/Contributions

This course is structured around three core dimensions—conceptual theory, textual appreciation, and creative practice—guiding students to read across poetry, prose, fiction, drama, creative nonfiction, and academic essays in order to develop methods for modern and contemporary literary analysis as well as skills in research-based writing. Through lectures, guided readings, group discussion, and in-class presentations, students are trained to approach texts from the perspectives of aesthetic form, narrative structure, and linguistic strategy, integrating theoretical frameworks and secondary scholarship to formulate research questions, build arguments, and complete either an academic paper or a creative project. The course also incorporates topics such as postcolonial memory, gender, and ethnicity, enabling students to understand how literature responds to social change and cultural conditions, and to further reflect on narrative ethics, representational responsibility, and the possibilities of public communication. In addition, the course introduces applications of digital humanities through a special lecture by Associate Professor Hu Chi-jui (Graduate Institute of History, National Changhua University of Education) titled “DocuSky and Textual Analysis.” Through hands-on demonstrations of platform workflows and sample analyses, the lecture showcases the practical potential of digital tools in literary research, encouraging students to transform reading, criticism, and research methods into sustainable practices of knowledge production, with further applications in educational settings and social engagement.

Keywords

Modern literature, the Methods of Literary creation， Thesis Writing、 Literary theory, Appreciative criticism, Taiwan Literature

Contact Information

臺灣研究教師在職進修碩士學位班，蘇淑芬
gpts@my.nthu.edu.tw