from The Open University
Alternatively you can skip the navigation by pressing 'Enter'.
Approaching prose fiction
Do you want to get more out of your reading? This unit...
Do you want to get more out of your reading? This unit is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. You will learn about narrative events and perspectives, the setting of novels, types of characterisation and genre.
By the end of this unit you should be able to:
- recognise and discuss selected library texts from the Renaissance to the present;
- know how to approach literary texts in terms of genre, gender and the canon;
- understand and be able to apply technical analytical terms;
- engage in close analysis of narrative and poetic language;
- recognise performance is an interpretation of dramatic texts;
- engage in comparative work and draw general conclusion;
- use textual evidence to argue a case;
- understand and use academic conventions: referencing and bibliography.
- Duration: 20 hours
- Published on: Friday 24th June 2011
- Level: Intermediate
- Posted under: Literature
Approaching prose fiction
Introduction

This unit is designed to help you develop the analytical skills needed for studying literary texts at university level.
This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Approaching literature (A210) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Archive content
This is an extract from an Open University course which is no longer available to new students. If you found this interesting you could explore more free Literature course units or view the range of currently available OU Literature courses.
Other pages You might like

Try: Writing family history
This album contains extracts from interviews with a wide range of people talking about...

Try: What is good writing?
Does the idea of essay writing put you off the idea of studying? This unit will help you...

Study: Reading and studying literature
This course will introduce you to the study of English literature by looking at a...

Try: James Berry: Windrush songs
How does a poet represent two distinctly different cultures in their work? How did James...

Try: Studying the arts and humanities
This unit is an introduction to studying the arts and humanities. It takes you through a...

Study: Creative writing
This practical creative writing course identifies your strengths and interests, and helps...

Try: James Joyce’s Dublin
How did the fictional world James Joyce created reflect his own experiences of Dublin?...

Try: Approaching poetry
Do you want to get more out of your reading of poetry? This unit is designed to develop...

Try: Analysing European Romanticism
The principal tenets of the movement known as Romanticism first began in Germany and...

Try: History of reading tutorial 1: Finding...
How do we know what people read in the past, and how they read it? This tutorial, the...

Try: Introducing Religions
Why study religion? An understanding of the world’s religious traditions is crucial in...
Try: Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
This unit concentrates on Sam Selvon’s twentieth-century novel, The Lonely Londoners....
Comments
Be the first to post a comment
Copyright & revisions
Copyright information
- Creative-Commons: The Open University is proud to release this free course under a Creative Commons licence. However, any third-party materials featured within it are used with permission and are not ours to give away. These materials are not subject to the Creative Commons licence. See terms and conditions. Full details can be found in the Acknowledgements section.
Feeds
If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?)
Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.
Alternative Formats
Tags, Ratings and Social Bookmarking
Page Tags
Sign in or create a free account to add tags to your personal tag cloud using:
Have you tried our free courses?
Back on the streets
More Or Less returns
OU TV & Radio
-
More Or LessBBC Radio 4
Sunday 20:00 -
Thinking Allowed: Plenty & stammeringBBC Radio 4
Monday 0:15 -
Bang Goes The Theory s6e5Eden
Monday 9:00 -
Bang Goes The Theory s6e6Eden
Monday 9:30 -
Bang Goes The Theory s6e6Eden
Monday 9:30
Views
Votes
Comments
Tags
- climate change (373)
- business (277)
- diaries (194)
- bottom line (169)
- food (168)
- Rough Science (162)
- internet (147)
- BBC Two (145)
- BBC Radio 4 (140)
- BBC (133)
- Scotland (121)
- points for debate (120)
- listings (120)
- children (116)
- Creative Climate (116)
- Bang goes the Theory (116)
- English Civil War (115)
- astronomy (108)
- Thinking Allowed (104)
- religion (98)
- 20th century (94)
- marketing (94)
- Charles I (93)
- evolution (92)
- communication (92)
- research (89)
- sustainability (89)
- architecture (86)
- energy (83)
- Charles Darwin (78)
OpenLearn Links
Copyrighted imageCredit: Background image Lucian Milasan | Dreamstime.com 

