STUDY

This module supports you in developing the necessary knowledge and skills of analysis and criticism required for undergraduate work in English Literature. The module offers an introduction to the major literary genres – drama, poetry, prose – and invites you to explore critical approaches, concepts, and methodologies in the study of a broad range of literary texts, from classical plays to contemporary poetry.  

This module is designed to equip you with the terminology and confidence for analysing language across a range of data sources. You will develop skills in language analysis that will be activated throughout their chosen degree programme, as well as in many professions. Relevant skills will be practiced and developed through instruction relating to the four core frameworks of theoretical linguistics (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics), as well as elements of Historical Linguistics and Sociolinguistics. 

This module will provide you with a toolkit of creative skills and techniques to develop original writing across a range of forms, including poetry, prose, and drama. Through creative writing workshops and close analysis of craft, you will develop the basic skills and practices required to develop their writing in future creative writing modules. You will be encouraged to examine how critical reflection and creative practice inform and supplement each other, and to view writing as part of an ongoing, developing practice, informed by diverse influences, experiences and cultures. 

You will build on your foundation in critical theory from your first year, examining a range of theoretical approaches to texts, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, feminism, postcolonial theory and postmodernism in greater detail. You will apply theory to literary texts and contemporary debates, developing multiple perspectives on a variety of topics such as language, reality, subjectivity, gender, race, and sexuality. 

This module builds on the knowledge and practice obtained in your Skills weeks, supporting you as you prepare to design and complete an individual academic research project in English studies. On the module, you will explore the methods, approaches and structural components of an extended research project through examples in literature, linguistics, and creative writing. 

This module introduces you to the literary field of adaptation studies, exploring the afterlives of a range of ‘source’ texts through a critical and creative assessment of processes of textual transformation. Through an analysis of texts where characters’ afterlives also feature in the narrative, you will investigate shifts in media, genre, audience, ideological positions and modes of production and consumption. 

This module enables you to undertake a thematic study of Shakespeare’s dramatic work based on the detailed study of plays from different genres. These plays will be studied both as responses to the political, social and religious changes of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and as works of continuing relevance through a close examination of recent and varied performance contexts. 

This module represents a more theoretical consideration of textuality, providing preparation for students' own independent research. You will consider core topics and approaches in language study such as language variation, creativity in language use, stylistics, cognitive poetics and critical discourse analysis. 

This module will bring together a number of strands that have been introduced throughout the first
year of the degree and consider how language features are used in literature and film. Our focus will be primarily on sociolinguistic aspects rather than stylistic ones, allowing students to assess how literature and film reflect actual language, and what this may tell us about linguistic attitudes and use. The module will give students a foundation in some key dialect features and characteristics, with a particular focus on British and North American varieties. A general historical introduction to dialect use in (English) literature, in terms of both literary dialect and dialect literature will also feature.

This module will consider different forms of creative nonfiction, including life writing, the essay, biography, autobiography, and journalism. We will consider different critical responses to autobiography and life writing and ways of creatively writing about the self and one’s surroundings. We will explore the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, examining how different writers approach the narrative and ethical challenges of representing real lives on the page.

In this module, you will explore different popular genres, including science fiction, fantasy, crime, and historical fiction. Each week, you will analyse a novel or short stories from a different genre and gain a broad understanding of the formal techniques and thematic concerns that underpin writing in this genre. You will then practice these techniques in your own writing, gaining skills in world-building, character creation, plot construction, and the planning of novels.  

This module considers how contemporary writing engages with the climate crisis. Examining a variety of forms (including plays, novels, and poetry) we will consider how contemporary literature negotiates the challenges of representing a crisis that spans across national borders and multiple decades. The module aims to consolidate your analytical, critical and intellectual skills through the study of a range of genres and a variety of theoretical approaches.   

This module introduces you to the role of horror in young adult fiction, inviting analyses of works from literature, cinema and television that are categorised as dark fantasy, dystopian fiction, sci-fi horror and paranormal romance. Through close reading and independent research, you will examine issues relating to gender, power, identity and sexuality against the self-reflexive nature of horror and its highly subversive potential. 

You will undertake student-centred learning based on a placement, which will build on their knowledge from language and creative writing modules, along with subject specific writing and IT skills. You will also gain knowledge about professional writing from seminars with professional writers. 

This module provides an opportunity for you to explore, over a year, a chosen topic of your interest. Literature students will design and carry out an extensive or significant piece of independent research, examining an area of scholarship that they wish to pursue. Creative writing students will produce an original creative writing portfolio, whether a novel extract or collection of drama, short stories, or poetry. Linguistics students will undertake a project that synthesises novel data and scholarly literature to examine an original research question. All students will be assigned a specialist supervisor and meet regularly as a supportive learning group to consider common research issues and workshop their ideas.  

This module invites you to work with influential and contemporary scripts written for the stage and screen to support the production of their own short script. You will explore a selection of performance texts written for theatre, television and cinema in the twentieth century and up to the present day, engaging with crucial differences in forms of performance writing to understand the demands of each particular medium. 

This module gives you the opportunity to explore in depth a specific topic (subject to supervisory agreement) emerging from their wider study of literature, linguistics, or creative writing.