English Literature - BA (Hons)

This module introduces students to the historical development and major forms of prose literature from the early modern period to the present day. As well as the novel and short story, the module considers examples of creative non-fiction and experimental prose so as to reflect on the question ‘what is literature?’ The module explores the links between literacy and the modern self and examines the use of prose for both narrative and persuasive purposes. Students will read and analyse a wide range of primary texts and develop their own skills in writing prose. The module is taught in weekly sessions over a period of 30 weeks and assessed via three pieces of written coursework across the year.

Romantics to Victorians is a year long level 4 module which introduces students to the transformations of English literature and culture from the mid-18th to the mid- to late 19th century. Through the study of literary, philosophical, political and popular texts the module provides an introduction and context to the study of literature in the late modern period, and situates a number of key critical debates about science and religion, political and social revolutions, industrialisation, city and citizen, Romanticism and Realism, mid-Victorian society, and Empire. The module is taught in weekly sessions, and is assessed by a series of written coursework pieces and a group presentation. The module will also provide an extended induction to academic study skills.

The module Theory and Practice of Drama provides an opportunity to study across text, performance and creative writing. Students will study the formal characteristics of representative playtexts and the political, social and philosophical concerns of the societies in which they have developed. This will be combined with a study of theatrical practice and performance where students will examine how writing and performance intersect, inform, and inspire each other. Students will further have the choice of pursuing specialist skills, either in the critical and theoretical analysis of dramatic genres, or in creative writing and the production of playscripts. The module is generally taught in weekly three-hour sessions comprising a lecture and English Literature seminar or Creative Writing workshop, and is assessed by essay, presentation, and reflective or creative writing.

The module Theory and Practice of Poetry will provide students with a wide-ranging introduction to reading poetry and to the great variety of poetic forms and genres, from sonnets to free verse. It will introduce students to poetic literary history and give students the skills to identify key poets including Shakespeare, Pope, Wordsworth and Eliot, and also poetic forms and poetic conventions. It will conclude with an exploration of contemporary poetry and poetics. Throughout the module, students will be provided with the skills and opportunities to read published poetry, write their own poetry, and discuss classic poetry, their own work and the work of other students in a supportive environment facilitated by their tutor. The module is taught in weekly three hour sessions comprising a lecture and seminar or workshop, and a weekly hour of guided blended learning or tutorial time and is assessed by presentation, essay, reflective writing or creative writing with a commentary.

Genre Fiction explores a range of fictional genres. From crime and gothic horror to science fiction and romantic comedy, a well-established range of narrative genres dominates the production of popular fiction for both page and screen. Often dismissed as escapist entertainment for the masses, genre fiction may also be considered a literature of subversion and resistance in its expression of transgressive desires and imagination of alternative realities. This module studies the historical development, interplay, techniques, conventions and audiences of some major types of genre fiction from the eighteenth century to the present day. The module will be taught via a programme of weekly sessions supplemented by tutorial and online support. As well as developing skills of literary analysis, students will have the opportunity to practise the role of creative producer and critical reviewer by producing a variety of written coursework. Students will also make a short group seminar presentation on a genre text or series of their choice.

History of Critical Thinking asks students to engage with a number of topics which frame their study of literature in relation to both the contemporary world and the history of critical thinking and address questions of interpretation, signification, perspective and truth. Students will follow a number of separate but related syllabuses which will respond to developments in contemporary critical and academic debates. The module aims to provide students with a number of focussed critical discussions about making meaning from and through literary texts. The module may include such topics as: symbolism in the visual arts and literary texts; information networks, technology and truth; decolonising the imagination; language, meaning and mind.

Victorians to Moderns is a year long level 5 module which provides a continuation to the level 4 module Romantics to Victorians, and examines the transformations of English literature and culture from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Through the study of literature, philosophy, criticism and the arts, the module develops the student’s critical understanding of cultural context and formal innovation in the English literary tradition. The module develops and extends a number of debates encountered in Romantics to Victorians, and introduces intellectual and critical debates proper to Modernism. These topics include Naturalism and the Social Sciences; Spiritualism and Esotericism; Decadence and Aestheticism; Psychoanalysis; The Machine and the City; Art, Manifesto and Revolt; The New Woman; & Fascism, Communism and War. The module is taught by weekly sessions comprising lecture and seminar, supplemented by tutorials, and assessed by a combination of critical essays, open-book tests and summaries.

Perspectives on Shakespeare will introduce students - through an examination of text and performance - to the diversity of analysis and interpretation of Shakespeare. A selection of key dramatic texts will be examined through a combination of modern criticism (e.g. new historicism, feminist and Queer theory, psychoanalysis and postcolonial theory) and the work of directors (theatre and film) and performance makers. Students will be introduced to Shakespeare as a cultural, inter- and trans-cultural commodity.

Contemporary and historical relationships between poetry and performance are of central concern in the module Poetry and Performance. From oral poetry and performance in folk customs, to classical and Shakespearean traditions, from bardic ways to W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, from blues and jazz to Patience Agbabi, John Hegley and Dizzee Rascal, there will be something to inspire everyone in the poetry and performance studied on the module. There will be opportunities for research and development of each student’s writing and/or performance style, and for immersing themselves in the sights and sounds of chosen performance cultures. Collective and individual poetry may be developed for performance. Students will be able to listen to a variety of poets performing and to consider their own response to the work in the process of developing research and writing. The module will be taught by weekly two-hour sessions comprising a lecture and seminar, and assessed by essays and reviews on performance poetry or by the creation, performance and recording of performance texts.

The Literature of Childhood is a 15 credit, level 5 module that looks at how literature written for and about children over the last two hundred years has given voice to the changing concept of childhood and the values, ideals and fears that have been associated with childhood throughout this period. The module will be delivered in weekly classes and tutorials over a 15 week period. Assessment is based on an oral presentation and a 3,000 word assignment.

In The Short Story students explore the short story as a popular contemporary form. Rooted in oral story telling, contemporary short stories are forms of entertainment and literary texts. Classically, the short story is to be read in one sitting and so can focus the reader on specific moments in time, intimate character portrayal and brisk narrative exposition. This module will engage with many forms and cultural examples of short stories and encourage students to consider their own reading and experience as they develop their skills in analysing short stories. Students will be offered a range of assessment options fostering engagement with the short story. The module is taught by weekly two hour sessions for fifteen weeks comprising lectures and seminar or workshop, and assessed by essay or reflective and critical writing.

This module builds on the earlier core modules Romantics to Victorians and Victorians to Moderns for English Literature students, and Writers World and Research Methodology and Ethics for Creative Writing students. It examines the period from the 1950s to the 2010s. Through the study of poetry, drama and prose, their critical discussion and creative production, and through reference to other media forms, the module addresses major themes in the cultural, social and political history of the period. The syllabus includes canonical works but enlarges and transforms students’ understanding of literary production by considering works written in English within other national traditions and works in translation in order properly to represent the complex, intersectional experience of literary and cultural engagement for readers today. The module takes a partly chronological approach and addresses such themes as war and reconstruction; race, feminism and sexuality; post-war geopolitics, the Cold War; Thatcherism, Reaganism and the neo-liberal settlement; post-modernity; multiculturalism and intersectionality; post-9/11 writing and the political making of the modern world. The module is taught in weekly sessions comprising a lecture followed by an English Literature seminar or Creative Writing workshop. The module is supported by online material and face-to-face tutorial hours, and assessed by short critical writing, essays and/or creative pieces produced in workshop.

This Project module allows students to explore in depth a literary or creative writing topic of their own choice, arising out of previous study and subject to supervisor approval. Independent but supported learning and sustained research and writing provide students with a focus for refining and drawing together a wide range of creative, critical, literary and transferable skills.

Why Literature Matters is a level 6 module which introduces and develops a series of related discussions about the personal, worldly and critical stakes involved in reading and writing literature. Students will follow a number of discrete syllabuses, some related to staff specialisms and publications, that require them to engage with the value of their reading, writing and critical practice in relation to other spheres of experience and action.

This module ‘From Page to Performance: Stage and Screen’ will examine a selection of texts from prose and drama and students will assess the creative journey these texts make from the verbal medium of the page to the embodied and enacted forms of stage and screen and the range of representational modes involved in that process. Students will look at the semiotic systems involved in transmediation, that is, how the act of storytelling is transformed as it migrates from one medium, audience, context, purpose to another. This will involve the overlapping but distinct processes of critical analysis, creative writing and screen theory and practice.

Literary London is a 15 credit English Literature option module which examines the literary representation of London from the 17th century to the present day. Through the study of literature, criticism, journalism, and social & economic history, and through reflection on creative and literary critical work, students will develop their understanding of London’s literary history. The module is taught in weekly sessions of a lecture followed by a seminar and supported by online and face-to-face tutorials, and assessed by a critical essays.