STUDY

What critical knowledge and analytical skills are required for undergraduate work in English Literature? This module introduces the major tendencies and concepts in a range of theoretical approaches including feminism, Marxism, and queer theory. Through close reading, you will explore a selection of poems and short stories and discover literary criticism’s relationship with culture, philosophy, and politics. 

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 your 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, Sociolinguistics and Stylistics. 

This module will provide you with a toolkit of creative skills and techniques to produce 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 skills and practices required to create your own distinctive voice.

Where do stories come from? What makes a hero? How can ancient texts help shape our perceptions of the modern world? Reading Emily Wilson’s contemporary translation of The Odyssey and extracts from other foundational texts, you will consider the epic as a form and examine the complicated representation of literary heroes.

In this module, you will build upon the skills you developed in ‘Reading Literature’ to explore works in their socio-historical context. Looking at texts from a range of early 20th century literary movements, including modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, you will explore how literature emerges from – and contributes to – the major political, social, and technological developments of this period.

How can contemporary critical theories help to uncover new readings of older texts? This module will help you to build upon your skills at close reading and theoretical analysis, by exploring a rich range of canonical and less-known works from medieval and early modern English literature, including plays by William Shakespeare.

What is the role of adaptation in contemporary media culture? This multidisciplinary module introduces the practices of literary and transmedia adaptation, inviting you to explore issues concerning authorship, fidelity, and intertextuality. Through analytical approaches drawn from literature and linguistics, you will investigate shifts in media, genre, audience, ideological positions and modes of production and consumption.

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.  

How do we write stories for younger readers? In this module, you will explore a selection of children’s literature, from the ‘golden age’ of nineteenth-century classics to contemporary examples from the twenty-first century. You will have the opportunity to develop your own original writing and expand your knowledge of contextual issues and current debates, using theories from literature, philosophy and cultural studies.

This module explores what it means to learn and use a language. Focusing on three major aspects of language development (Acquisition, Production, and Processing/Comprehension), you will explore linguistic fields and have the opportunity to design and test your own methodologies and data analysis.

This module helps you identify possible career paths and introduces you to potential future employers. Supported by your tutors and the university careers team, you will undertake student-centred learning based on a placement or professional activity. You will also gain key knowledge about professional writing and education practice from seminars and student-led group activities.

From bloodsuckers to Byronic heroes, grave-robbers to fortune-hunters, Victorian literature presents a cast of alluring antagonists who defy social boundaries and break moral codes. On this module, you will explore nineteenth-century ideas of villainy through a range of Victorian literary texts. Focusing on the intersections of literary and linguistic theory, you will consider various analytical methods and approaches to deconstruct the Victorian villain.

What is the role of horror in young adult fiction? On this module, you will analyse works from literature, cinema and television that are categorised as dark fantasy, dystopian fiction, sci-fi horror and paranormal romance. Through a critical or creative response, you will examine issues relating to gender, power, identity and sexuality and assess horror's subversive potential.

This module brings together English literature, creative writing and linguistics to explore the way language is written from multiple perspectives. Beginning with close analysis of dramatic texts, you will be guided to develop a final project based on your own academic and creative interests, such as writing an original screenplay or conducting a sociolinguistic analysis of performance texts.

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 considers how contemporary writing engages with the climate crisis. Examining a variety of forms (including plays, novels, and poetry) you will explore how contemporary literature negotiates the challenges of representing a crisis that spans across national borders and multiple decades.