BA (Hons) English Literature

During this module, you will be introduced to the literacy-critical skills and approaches that are fundamental to the study of English. It will equip you with specialist analytical terminology and techniques, and reinforce and develop your existing skills of analysis.

This module is an introduction to Gothic effects, such as suspense, mood, eeriness, the weird, fantasy and horror. It covers texts from the eighteenth century to the present and aims to build your knowledge of the rise of the Gothic as well as its different manifestations in different genres and creative outputs, such as the novel, poetry and film.

This module will introduce you to some of the literary works, frameworks, and cultural developments in modern American literature. The primary texts will be drawn from a variety of genres and forms of writing, and will cover a period from the emergence of modern literature in the early twentieth-century through to the diversification of American cultural voices in the post-war period.

You will be introduced to important foundational myths, legends, fables and stories which have informed English-speaking cultures and societies, as well as those across Europe. Primary texts range from classical works to the Bible and later literary examples of the redeployment and recirculation of foundational myths in works from John Milton’s Paradise Lost to 21st-century retellings.

This foundation module will equip you with the necessary skills to analyse and evaluate poetry as a text. It will give you an idea of the breath and range of poetry in English by developing intertextual connections and recognising its relation to changing contexts.

During this module, you will study Shakespeare’s timeless work and investigate the ways his texts are repeatedly rewritten and performed today. You will engage in current debates about the nature and function of Shakespeare’s work by reading the work of the Elizabethan bard in relation to changing contexts through a range of production instances.

This module offers a broad examination of the longstanding and multifaceted relationship between literature and film. It examines formal strategies and ideological implications of literary adaptation; the potential synergies and divergences of different literary forms and genres; the cultural translation of adapted texts over time; the parallel development of form in both mediums; and the cinematic framing of specific authors, characters or genres.

Through this module you will embark on journey to discover world literatures by exploring a range of texts written both by authors whose national languages may include English, and authors whose work has been translated into English. Its range embraces novelists, poets and dramatists from around the world and encourages you to appreciate today’s intertwined global cultures by looking at, for example, the Booker Prize List.

This module is organised around key frameworks for the understanding of human and cultural identity; likely to include gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, subculture and social class. The exploration of such frameworks will be supported by theoretical materials designed to introduce you to key literary and cultural concepts (such as ideology, patriarchy, heteronormativity, performativity, otherness, diaspora, and hybridity). (core module)

During this module, you will be empowered to read, analyse, and discuss literature by having literary genres in mind. By connecting genre to political, social, and historical contexts you will examine how patterns and arrangements generate, as well as unsettle, conventional analytical models in literary studies. (optional module)

This module allows you to develop writing skills in a number of genres, and understand and apply a range of techniques required for the craft of writing. It will encourage you to consider the wider social, cultural and ethical implications of literary praxis, and to assume agency through your creative contributions to important cultural conversations. (optional module)

In this module, you will specialise in literature written for children, starting in the eighteenth century to the present and explore a range of genres, such as fairy tales, picture books, fantasy and animal stories as well as poetry for and about children. It provides you with knowledge and understanding of cultural contexts, origins of literary form as well as constructions and appropriations of childhood. (optional module)

In this module, you will be introduced to the generic and thematic diversity of the Victorian period (1837-1901). This module emphasises the specific historical, socio-cultural contexts of the Victorian era to reflect on the ways in which Victorian writers negotiated groundbreaking ideas and discoveries, and significant events. (core module)

This module offers a survey of the development of western drama from the late 19th century to the present day. You will be introduced to dramatists such as Ibsen, Brecht, Williams and Beckett, alongside key developments and debates in dramaturgical theory and practice. (optional module)

You will examine the impact of women in literature through transnational parallels and contrasts. This module highlights identity politics and the ways in which women have fought to change discriminations based on race, gender, class, age, and sexuality. (optional module)

This module provides you with opportunities to apply your subject-specific skills and knowledge, being developed throughout the programme, in a transferable manner. Suggested projects could take the form of a publication project (print or web), targeted writing project (such as brochure, newsletter or resource pack), or a project relating to a particular industry (such as arts, heritage, education, journalism, etc.), although this is not proscriptive. (optional module)

During this module, you will be required to devise and undertake a dissertation on a subject of interest to you, and to prepare in written form a substantial literary critical essay, including, for example, a proposal and reference list. It asks you to practice and develop all of the research skills imparted earlier as part of research-led modules, applying them in a more independent and critically advanced manner. (core module)

You will explore a range of literary and other texts associated with the cultural and artistic developments of Modernism during the early decades of the twentieth-century. You will be introduced to the diverse strands of Modernism, as exemplified by writers such as Conrad, Joyce, Hemmingway, Woolf, Eliot, Pound, Yeats, Mansfield and Faulkner. (optional module)

This module introduces you to a range of fiction, poetry, drama and periodical writing from eighteenth-century Britain. The module emphasises two major strands: on the one hand, it engages with the diverse and vibrant popular culture of the period, as a space where public and personal ideologies are contested; on the other, it considers the multiple models of value (moral, social, intellectual and economic) brought under scrutiny by Britain’s mercantile and imperial expansion. (optional module)

This module promotes detailed knowledge of the major developments in English Literature occurring during the Romantic period. With its emphasis on the cultural contexts of literary, poetic and dramatic language this module enables you to discuss critically changing modes of expression in relation to political, philosophical, aesthetic and social contexts. (optional module)

In this module, you will be asked to undertake an independently-conceived research project, on a subject of your choosing and to work on and prepare a substantial literary critical essay. The module will continue to deepen and refine your knowledge of a specialist area, as well as offering insight and supervisory guidance in the construction of longer pieces of analytical written work. (core module)

This module offers a final opportunity for you to extend your critical engagement with modern writing through an examination of some of the most significant writers, movements, and innovations in literature since the end of the second world war. Central strands of investigation will likely include: challenges to realism and aesthetic experimentation; the rise of apocalyptic imaginaries and the arrival of the Anthropocene; multiculturalism and globalisation; and the deconstruction of self and subjectivity. (optional module)

This module introduces and discusses texts from the nineteenth century through to the present day. It explores the meaning and origins of the concept of adolescence by investigating its functioning in works of literature written for and about adolescents and in relation to relevant social or cultural contexts. (optional module)

During this module, you will consider the role of memory as topic and method in the production of literary texts from the Victorian period to the 21st century. You will explore current issues in memory studies, including (for example) trauma theory, the ethics of memorialisation, and the role of memory in cultural consciousness and heritage. (optional module)

This module asks you to undertake an independently-conceived and researched research project, on a subject of your choosing and to work on and prepare a substantial literary critical essay. The module will continue to deepen and refine your knowledge of a specialist area, as well as offering insight and supervisory guidance in the construction of longer pieces of analytical written work. (core module)