Faculty of Arts English Literature Module Catalogue Study Abroad Students Semester one 2017/2018 Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL1502
Introduction To English Studies
15
1
Level 4
Nick Rowe
Module Description:
This module offers students an opportunity to extend their engagement with the material and debates encountered in Critical Reading I: Fiction in a small group environment that will promote interaction with fellow students and the module tutor. Students will be involved in detailed discussion of their interpretations of fictional texts and will share their experience in the location and evaluation of relevant critical writing. There will be opportunities to share and compare essay‐writing strategies and research methods and to ensure the referencing requirements and conventions of degree‐level work are understood. COMPULSORY MODULE
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English
English Joint
Assessments:
001:
002:
003:
004:
Seminar Paper
Library Exercise
Draft Essay And Feedback Form
Essay (2000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
25%
25%
0%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL1505
Critical Reading 1
15
1
Level 4
Michael Jardine
Module Description:
This is the first of two related modules which together form a broad introduction to critical reading of literary texts. This first module is designed to build upon reading skills developed at pre‐degree level and to introduce more advanced reading skills, drawing upon developments in undergraduate English. It will focus on key aspects of engagement with literature: the role of the reader; the authority of the author; text, context and intertextuality; canon‐formation; genre and generic expectation; literature and identity politics; nation and narration. Students will develop their reading skills with a wide range of texts, including fiction, poetry and short stories, both canonical and non‐canonical. Students will be made aware of the history of the discipline as it has moved through different kinds of reading practice since its first appearance in English universities. This will provide a context in which to place the discipline’s development through the so‐called ‘theory revolution’ and its aftermath.
Specific to:
Assessments:
001:
002:
Weekly Online Formative
2000 Word Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
0%
100%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL1508
Introduction To Poetry
15
1
Level 4
Nick Rowe
Module Description:
This module focuses upon poetry as arguably the most challenging and neglected form of literary production, and seeks to raise issues concerning the nature and function of poetry in both contemporary English society and other contexts. It will offer the opportunity to debate the extension of the canon to include such material as pop lyrics and rap and to explore the relationship between class, race, gender and the development of poetic forms. Students will engage in close reading of a range of poetry texts and will be able to consider the significance of the specific moment of production and reproduction of these texts.
Specific to:
Assessments:
001:
002:
Critical Commentary (100 Words)
Essay (2000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
40%
60%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2302A
Shakespeare And Early Modern Drama
15
1
Level 5
Nick Rowe
Module Description:
This module will introduce students to a broad range of dramatic texts produced for the commercial stage in the first part of the so‐called ‘golden age’ of English drama, up to the death of Elizabeth in 1603. Students will engage with some of the most celebrated work by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, such as Marlowe, Kyd and Dekker. Repeated topics across these plays include revenge, gender, sexuality, warfare, and nationality. The selected plays will be placed in their wider cultural and historical context and develop critical approaches that foreground such a procedure with reference more specifically to politics, sexuality and ethnicity. Attention will be given to the performance aspect of the texts and the practices of early professional theatre companies, and also to the range of genres deployed and the cultural significance of generic choice. Students will place Shakespeare among the leading dramatists of his age in order to best understand the nature of their achievement in the three major dramatic genres of the period, i.e. tragedy, comedy, history.
Specific to:
Assessments:
001:
002:
Contributions To Virtual Seminar
Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2307
The Modern Age
15
1
Level 5
Amanda Boulter
Module Description:
This module introduces you to some of the key texts and movements from the period 1910 ‐1960. The first half of the twentieth century was a time of major change and social upheaval: from the First and Second World Wars, to post‐war immigration and Angry Young Men. This module begins by considering various responses to World War 1, including those of modernist and experimental writers, such as Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot and Katherine Mansfield, and looking at films such as Metropolis. It then explores writing of the 1930s and 40s (in the work of, for example, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Jean Rhys, Christopher Isherwood and Walter Greenwood). The module concludes by examining the changing attitudes of post‐war Britain in the work of writers such as Sam Selvon and Alan Sillitoe to explore the way literature reflected and contributed to social change.
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English
English Joint
Assessments:
001:
002:
1000 Word Critical Commentary
3000 Word Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
25%
75%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2401
Chaucer And His World
15
1
Level 5
Nick Rowe
Module Description:
The core focus of this module will be on Chaucer, and The Canterbury Tales in particular. These texts will be studied alongside sources and other texts of the Middle Ages as well later responses such as the BBC Canterbury Tales of 2003, and will span a range of genres, from bawdy comic fabilaux to courtly romance. Contemporary critical approaches to the relations between author, text and reader will be tested against distinctive medieval attitudes to authorship. Attention will be paid to their relation to their historical context and their treatment of such issues as social status, gender and sexuality. Chaucer's canonisation will also be examined, to attempt to identify the forces behind his status as the representative of medieval English literature standing at the point of origin of the English literary canon.
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English Language Studies Single Honours
English
English Joint
Assessments:
001:
002:
Presentation
Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
50%
50%
Semester
S1
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2403A
Eighteenth‐Century Romanticism
15
1
Level 5
Gary Farnell
Module Description:
An in‐depth examination of eighteenth‐century Romanticism is undertaken in this module. This proceeds through a periodization of early – ‘first‐generation’ – Romanticism in the eighteenth century, running from the French Revolution of 1789 to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Within this there is close analysis of a range of both canonical and non‐canonical writers (for example, Anna Laetitia Barbauld; William Blake; Edmund Burke; Mary Wollstonecraft; Dorothy Wordsworth; William Wordsworth). Further, there is comparative assessment of different approaches to this kind of analysis.
Specific to:
Assessments:
001:
002:
Essay
Group Presentation
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2404A
Victorian Fictions
15
1
Level 5
Neil Mccaw
Module Description:
This module will consider a wide range of Victorian texts within their literary and historical context. Beginning with the great Victorian realist novel, it will examine the different ways in which Victorian identity was defined and imagined by relevant nineteenth‐century writers, and how this process touched upon the key ideological assumptions of the age. Subsequently, an array of other texts will become the focus, including Sensation fictions, Gothic stories, detective tales, and imperialist and science‐fiction narratives; these will all be read for the ways in which they refract areas of social concern such as urbanization, scientific development, imperialism, gender and sexual identities and the bourgeois family. Therein the module will explore both canonical and popular‐cultural texts in an attempt to relate different modes of publication and dissemination to particular matters of content.
Specific to:
Assessments:
001:
002:
2000‐Word Essay
Timed Exercise
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
50%
50%
Semester
S1
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2531
Sex And Sensibility In 18Th Century Print Culture
15
1
Level 5
Chris Mounsey
Module Description:
This module explores the developments and changes in literature at the pivotal time in literary history when printed materials became readily available to a wide audience. It will focus on printed outputs between 1680 and 1780: texts that mark the changes in literary output from the libertine court of Charles II to the Age of Sensibility that would herald Jane Austen. We will study the texts that use first sex and then morality as a lure as well as a political metaphor, in a variety of genres from the novel and poetry to newspapers and pamphlets. We shall find that after government censorship lapsed in 1696, a fierce battle raged between those who fought for quality “literature” – the Scriblerans, and those who wanted to make money out of publishing – Grub Street. What we will find is that there was very little difference between the two sides: the Scriblerans usurped the novel from women writers, and the Grubs churned out high quality essays week by week.
Specific to:
English Literature
Assessments:
001:
002:
Essay (2000 Words)
Take Away Exam (2X1000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2533
Textual Editing In Theory And Practice
15
1
Level 5
Jude Davies
Module Description:
The processes of drafting, revision, editing, censorship and publication are fundamental to producing works for readers generally and for students of literature and culture. Yet these processes are often erased or taken for granted in the presentation to readers of a single, stable text. This module therefore brings back into view the historical and material factors that have shaped and reshaped texts, and in doing so addresses fundamental questions in the production of texts and their transformation into works. While taking some cognizance of pre‐print culture, the module’s main focus is on printed texts and the development of digital texts and editions. It starts by considering theories and debates on textuality, before considering the different approaches and debates over how to produce a scholarly edition. The module concludes with hands‐on editing of previously unpublished archival material.
Specific to:
American Studies
American Studies and History
American Studies and Politics
English with American Literature
English Literature with English Language
English Literature
Assessments:
001:
002:
1500‐Word Essay
1000‐Word Group Project
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL2534
Children’s Literature And Young Adult Fiction
15
1
Level 5
Chris Mounsey
Module Description:
Literature written for children and young adults is the foundation of our knowledge of our culture and our world. It is therefore surprising that until recently it has been excluded from serious academic study and treated as unimportant by the academy. This module will offer a brief survey of the millions of books written for children and young adults from the small beginnings of the mythical father of children’s literature – John Newbery – to the phenomenon of literary and financial success that is J.K. Rowling. Is children’s and young adult’s literature educational? Is it soap opera? Is it escapist? Is it polemic? Is it dangerous?
Specific to:
English Literature
Assessments:
001:
002:
003:
Essay Tutorial
Essay Draft
3500‐Word Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
0%
0%
100%
Semester
S1
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL3502
Twentieth‐Century Dramatic Texts: Brecht And Beckett
15
1
Level 6
Nick Joseph
Module Description:
This module will explore and dissect selected dramatic works by Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht – arguably the two most significant and influential theatre practitioners of the 20th century. Selected texts will be scrutinised in relation to cultural, political, philosophical, artistic and literary preoccupations. The ‘function’ of 20th century theatre (as it relates to selected texts) will be explored, alongside examination of key approaches to theatrical form and innovation in content and stylistic approach. To aid understanding of ideological and artistic context, the module will also examine a select number of works by playwrights other than Beckett and Brecht (e.g. Ionesco, Frisch, Genet, Pinter, Churchill, Fo), whose works tie‐in usefully with the artistic and ideological concerns of Brecht and Becket, and help locate broader artistic/ideological/philosophical movements. Specific to:
English with American Literature
English
English Joint
Assessments:
002:
A Research And Textual Analysis Exercise
Essay (2000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
001:
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL3504
Jewish Identities
15
1
Level 6
Ruth Gilbert
Module Description:
This module will explore some of the ways in which Jewish identities have been represented within a variety of texts. It will ask questions about how such identities can be defined: is Jewishness religious, racial, national or cultural? The module will focus primarily on twentieth and twenty‐first century texts but may also bring in material from earlier periods in order to contextualize key themes. The module will examine a range of images of the Jew looking at themes of exile and immigration, diasporic identities, anti‐Semitism and Jewish self‐representation. The module will also explore representations of the holocaust, focusing, for example, on testimony, experimental forms of representation and Hollywood film to consider some of the difficulties inherent in representing such a subject and the aestheticization of trauma. Material studied will include short stories, novels, memoirs and films.
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English
English Joint
Assessments:
001:
002:
Exam
Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
50%
50%
Semester
S1
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL3505
Keywords
15
1
Level 6
Gary Farnell
Module Description:
An in‐depth examination of the discursive dimension of contemporary culture is undertaken in this module. This is framed in terms of an introduction to the keywords project initiated by Raymond Williams after the Second World War (beginning with a keywords analysis of the word culture). There is analysis of a range of keywords in present‐
day discourse; the essays on different keywords in Tony Bennett et al., eds, New Keywords constitute the actual objects of study. Also, there is comparative assessment of different approaches to the above form of analysis of contemporary keywords.
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English Language Studies Single Honours
English
English Joint
Assessments:
001:
002:
Essay (2000 Words)
Group Presentation
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL3506A
Literature, Sexuality And Morality
15
1
Level 6
Chris Mounsey
Module Description:
The use of sexuality as a theoretical tool for analysing literature developed out of Feminism and Gender Studies. It began under the banner of Queer Theory, focussing on homosexuality and its resistance to heteronormativity, but Queer Theory became clogged by its own methodology which became predictive rather than evaluative. For this reason the study of sexuality in literature has altered its focus to the contextual, and the direction it seems to be taking is the way it intersects with morality in the Christian and post Christian Western worlds. The module will explore the roots of the link between sexuality and morality in texts written before the twentieth century, and then move to twentieth‐
century and contemporary texts which confront sexuality in a discussion about whether it is necessary to be moral.
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English
English Joint
Assessments:
001:
002:
Presentation
Essay (2000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL3515A
Romantic Celebrity Culture
15
1
Level 6
Gary Farnell
Module Description:
An in‐depth examination of Romantic celebrity culture is undertaken in this module. There is examination of the different meanings of the word celebrity from its English‐language origins in the seventeenth century through to the present day, with particular reference to the significance in this regard of the Romantic era. Lord Byron is centrally important here, sometimes seen as being the first modern celebrity. Analysis is conducted of celebrity texts by not only Byron but others, such as Felicia Hemans and Letitia Elizabeth Landon (pen name LEL). The roots of today’s celebrity culture are traced to the Romantic period proper. All this provides an opportunity for evaluation of different approaches to analysis of Romantic celebrity texts.
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English
English Joint
Assessments:
001:
002:
Essay
Group Presentation
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL3524
Literature And Psychoanalysis
15
1
Level 6
Ruth Gilbert
Module Description:
The module will explore a range of psychoanalytical theories and apply these to the reading of literary texts. Themes that will be considered include the significance of the unconscious, the development of desire and repression, the connections between language and subjectivity, the effects of the uncanny, and the power of symbols, myths and archetypes. Ideas will be drawn from Freud, Jung, Klein and Lacan amongst others. Literary texts that are studied on the module might include works such as Edgar Allen Poe’s, The Purloined Letter (1844), Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Virginia Woolf’s, To the Lighthouse (1927) and Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body (1993), but the module will also allow space for the study of more contemporary texts, different genre and material selected by students.
Specific to:
English with American Literature
English
English Joint
Assessments:
002:
Annotated Bibliography (1000 Words)
Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
001:
Semester
S1
25%
75%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
EL3528
The Victorian Art Of Murder
15
1
Level 6
Neil Mccaw
Module Description:
This module will examine the intersection between various forms of cultural text and the Victorian interest in crime and criminality, detection and law enforcement, and in particular the growing fascination with murder as cultural spectacle. It will look at literary, artistic, and popular media representations of these themes, and relate these to wider Victorian attitudes and beliefs related to the nature of criminality and deviancy, the body, death, and the role of biology as a determinant of human behaviour. As such the module will read across high‐cultural forms, such as the realist novel and visual art, as well as analysing popular‐cultural texts such as broadsides, the Newagate Calendar, Sensation novels and tabloid newspaper reports. The idea will be to interrogate the different facets and levels of the Victorian fascination with serious crime, how this interest manifested itself, and what this says about them and Victorian culture more generally. Students will then focus on one area of this wider subject matter as the topic for their own academic paper, with a view to submitting it to a published undergraduate journal.
Specific to:
English Literature
Assessments:
002:
Research Paper Proposal + Annotated Bibliography
4000‐Word Essay
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
001:
Semester
S1
0%
100%