LEVEL 4: READING LIST, 2016-17
In your first year you will take the following modules, all of which run from the beginning
of October 2016 to mid-May 2017.
You are not expected to read all of the following texts in advance! Just do your best to
get started with the reading (and viewing of films) over the summer. There may be other
texts you’ll need to read during the year; however, you’ll be told in advance about
additional texts. If you have any questions, contact Prof Deborah Wynne:
[email protected]
EN4401: An Introduction to English Literature
This module allows you an opportunity to examine literary texts – including plays, poems,
novels and short stories – from the Renaissance to the present. You will need to buy and read
the following texts:
William Shakespeare, The Tempest, edited by Stephen Orgel (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2008).
Charles Dickens, Hard Times, edited by Fred Kaplan and Sylvere Monod (New York and
London: Norton, 2001).
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, edited by Susan Fraiman (New York and London: Norton,
2004).
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (London: Faber and Faber, 2010).
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, edited by Alison Lurie (London: Penguin
Classics, 2002).
You will also study Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest along with extracts from
Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, John Milton’s Paradise Lost. All of these texts will
be provided in the form of a module booklet at the beginning of term.
EN4402: Ways of Reading
This module introduces you to using a range of critical and theoretical approaches, showing
how these can help you to improve your understanding of all the texts you encounter on your
degree programme, whether literary or filmic.
You will be provided with a booklet of short texts to read at the beginning of term. We will
also study two films and you may find it helpful to watch these in advance:
You may find it helpful to watch Capote (directed by Bennett Miller, 2006) and Made in
Dagenham (directed by Nigel Cole, 2010).
EN4403: Introduction to Creative Writing
This module helps you to develop your skills as a writer. However, in order to become an
effective creative writer, you will also need to study the techniques and strategies that
established writers have developed. You will need to read the following texts:
Beckett, Samuel, All That Fall And Other Plays (London: Faber and Faber, 2009)
Carter, Angela, Burning Your Boats (London: Vintage, 1996)
Tarantino, Quentin, Pulp Fiction (London: Faber and Faber, 1999)
Astley, Neil (ed.), Staying Alive (Northumberland: Bloodaxe, 2015) [this is a poetry
anthology; read over the summer any of the poems you find interesting or challenging.]
Vonnegut, Kurt, Slaughterhouse-Five (London: Vintage, 2008)
EN4404: Introduction to Literature and Film
This module examines the relationship between literary texts and their screen adaptations.
The literary and film texts you will study include the following:
Before Christmas you will need to:
Read Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2009) and
watch Tim Burton (dir.) Alice in Wonderland (2010) DVD
Read Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca (London: Virago, 2003) and watch Alfred Hitchcock
(dir.), Rebecca (1940) DVD
Also watch Jane Campion (dir.) Bright Star (2009) and Rodrigo Garcia (dir.), Albert Nobbs
(2012). You will be provided with the reading at the beginning of the module.
After Christmas you will need to:
Read James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce [1941] (London: Phoenix, 2011) and watch Todd
Haynes (dir.) Mildred Pierce (2011)
Read Ian McEwan, Atonement (London: Vintage, 2001) and watch Joe Wright (dir.)
Atonement (2007)
Read the novella, Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898) [A photocopy of this text will
be provided – however, you may wish to download a free e-text] and watch Jack Clayton
(dir.) The Innocents (1961)
Read Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides [1993] (London : Fourth Estate, 2013) and
watch Sofia Coppola (dir.) The Virgin Suicides (2000)