Modules

• Year 1

  Core Modules

  Introduction to Creative Writing (20 credits)

  ×

  Introduction to Creative Writing

  Overview

  This module is designed as an introduction to creative writing, and will cover the three main creative genres: poetry, prose fiction, and scriptwriting. The focus throughout will be on the rules of successful creative writing, both generally and in relation to each kind of writing’s specific requirements. The module will be split equally between reading and writing: a series of set texts will be used as a platform for discussing what each literary form requires, technically and aesthetically. Students will then be expected to emulate these forms in their own writing exercises. There will be a heavy emphasis on standard grammar, stylistic clarity, accuracy of language, and proper presentation of work.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this module you should have gained an understanding of the problems posed by a range of different creative texts and the strategies employed to overcome them. You should also have learned to write according to strict criteria governing both subject matter and execution.

  Skills

  To familiarise students with the technical and aesthetic rules of a wide spectrum of texts from a practice-based perspective; to enable students to experiment with various literary forms in order to discover their own strengths (and weaknesses) as writers.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  1

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG1090

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  English in Transition (20 credits)

  ×

  English in Transition

  Overview

  This module is envisaged as introducing students to literary interpretation as conceived by English studies at university level. It aims to provide students with critical skills and technical vocabulary necessary to study poetry and prose for the rest of their degree. The module focuses on a small selection of texts designed to help students make the transition from the critical strategies used at A-level to those of academic English. In turn, the two sections of the module include contributions from the Heaney Centre and creative writing colleagues and the mode of assessment will allow for reflective development of writing skills through resubmission of formative writing for summative assessment.

  Learning Outcomes

  At the end of this module students will have learned to read and analyze poetry and prose using the techniques, vocabularies and approaches of contemporary academic English studies. They will have made the transition from reading and writing at A-level, having learned the research skills and critical terminologies necessary for the close, contextual reading of prose and poetry and writing about both genres in a suitably academic register. They will be equipped to undertake advanced study of literary works in semester two modules.

  Skills

  Students will learn to develop: critical and analytical skills; methods of textual analysis appropriate to the genres of poetry and prose; writing and research skills appropriate to degree-level English; oral presentation skills; independent study skills; and an ability to collaborate and work in groups; the ability to read and prepare for weekly lectures and tutorials.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  1

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG1001

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  Introduction to English Language (20 credits)

  ×

  Introduction to English Language

  Overview

  This module offers a broad introduction to key topics in English language. It lays the foundations for the systematic study of the language in all its diversity. Among the topics covered are: common beliefs about “good” and “bad” accents and dialects; phonetics, syntax and morphology; and the social, situational and geographical variation in language, with an emphasis on the history and development of the English language. Another important area of inquiry is how language works in cultural contexts and intersects with issues of power and gender. In summary, the module enables students to move beyond ‘common-sense’ ideas about language towards the academic and analytic perspective appropriate for university level.

  Learning Outcomes

  On successful completion of this module, students will have become aware of the levels of structure which make up the spoken and written varieties of a language, the communicative functions of these levels, and of the relevant descriptive and analytical frameworks to analyse and describe them, with regard both to present-day English and to stages in its historical development. Students will also have gained the skills for the confident oral delivery of some of the issues and topics addressed on the Course.

  Skills

  While Units One and Two focus on theoretical and analytical concepts and frameworks, Units Three and Four provide case studies from ‘real-world’ contexts such as the media and the historical development of the English language, to which students will apply the skills they have gained in Units One and Two. The module incorporates online assessment for Units One and Two, which will account for 30% of the mark and will take the form of online exercises, to be completed by students in weeks 3-6. Units Three and Four will be assessed at the end of the semester as essay assignments, worth 70% in total. Students will write two essays of 1400-1700 words each: one essay will address the issues covered in Unit Three (35%), and the other essay will address the issues covered in Unit Four (35%).

  Coursework

  70%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  30%

  Stage/Level

  1

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENL1001

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  Issues in Contemporary Fiction: Gender, Race, Ecology (20 credits)

  ×

  Issues in Contemporary Fiction: Gender, Race, Ecology

  Overview

  This module examines a broad sample of recent fiction. In doing so, it raises a set of general questions: 1) whose contemporary experience does this literature address? 2) what economic or political factors lead to a shared sense of the contemporary? 3) how does modern fiction relate to these broader social forces? The module has a three-part structure. Section 1 examines the sociology of contemporary taste; it focuses on the institutions and practices that shape aesthetic judgement. Section 2 analyses literary treatments of contemporary political issues and examines the suitability of literature as a vehicle for political reflection. The final section of the module explores the ways in which recent fiction has raised questions about the nature and function of religion in the modern world.

  Learning Outcomes

  At the end of this module students will have gained a general understanding of the theoretical and methodological issues that surround the study of contemporary literature. Students will have learned to subject a range of recent fiction to a technical or formal analysis. They will also be able to read texts in context and will have a basic understanding of the social, economic, and political forces that shape these contexts.

  Skills

  Students will learn to develop a) analytical skills b) methods of textual analysis c) an understanding of meta-critical issues d) a clear and succinct writing style e) oral presentation skills f) a capacity for independent inquiry g) an ability to collaborate and work in groups h) computer skills.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  1

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG1002

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  Optional Modules

  Writing from 21st Century Ireland (20 credits)

  ×

  Writing from 21st Century Ireland

  Overview

  This module offers detailed consideration of a range of contemporary writing in Ireland. The selected reading is generically diverse, with a particular focus on contemporary literary texts (defined as published within the past 5 years). Texts are chosen to highlight diversity in terms of authorship, representation and literary form. Indicative themes will be the role of place and of experimentation in writing; issues of class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality; and the practice of literary reviewing today.

  Learning Outcomes

  · To introduce analytical and critical skills to reading contemporary texts drawn from a wide range of genres;
  · To understand and evaluate current debates about the representation of social issues in contemporary writing
  · To research and reflect upon the publication and reception of contemporary writing, including the practice of literary reviewing;
  · To refine and develop your oral and written skills
  · To promote collaborative work in relation to a specific task.

  Skills

  At the end of this module students should have learned to: * Read and analyse contemporary writing using the techniques, vocabularies and approaches of current academic English studies; * Discuss, analyse and historically contextualise a wide range of complex, topical social and cultural issues in twenty-first century Irish literature and experience. * Work collaboratively with others in the preparation of a group presentation; * Work independently in researching and analysing contemporary writing; * Use a variety of texts and resources (academic journal articles, print reviews, supplementary websites and other kinds of media) in their discussion and writing about contemporary texts. * Understand the registers of different kinds of communication (blog or podcast; oral presentation; academic essay) and communicate effectively employing these different styles

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  1

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG1009

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Reading the Modern City (20 credits)

  ×

  Reading the Modern City

  Overview

  This module is designed specifically for students studying History and various forms of Literary and Cultural Studies and encourages them to reflect on the relationships between different methodologies for reading the modern city, circa 1840-1960. The module encourages students to reflect on how they might read a novel, as opposed to a work of social history: can they deploy the same reading practices? What are the ethics of reading historical sources compared to the ethics of reading fiction? Does genre play a similar role in both historical and literary works? How might questions of race, class, gender or sexuality frame disciplinary reading? . How do both disciplines draw on methodologies outside their own fields, such as economics, architecture, and social science? The module would be organised around four different cities, with each city being used as a case study to think through these methodological questions, while also representing a series of themes.
  
  Course Outline
  
  Week 1: Introduction to the module and to its interdisciplinary challenges
  
  Week 2: Theories of Urban Modernity: Simmel, Benjamin, De Certeau
  
  Week 3: Shock City 1: Manchester in the industrial age
  
  Week 4: Shock City 2: The condition of England novel (Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton, 1848)
  
  Week 5: The Imperial City 1: London and the Politics of Empire
  
  Week 6: Reading Week
  
  Week 7: The Imperial City 2: The Gothic and imperial Anxiety (Richard Marsh’s The Beetle, 1897)
  
  Week 8: City Cultures 1: Modernity and Popular Culture in modern Dublin
  
  Week 9: City Cultures 2: The Politics of Cultural Value (James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922 [Wandering Rocks])
  
  Week 10: Declining Cities 1: Post-industrialisation and Suburbanisation in Belfast
  
  Week 11: Declining Cities 2: Alienation and Identity (Brian Moore’s The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn, 1955)
  
  Week 12: Gentrification and the Return of the Urban Ideal (class trip to Dublin)

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have developed knowledge and understanding of the emergence and development of urban modernity (1840-present). They will be able to identify the ways in which different disciplines analyse and interpret the past, and in particular demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of methodological differences. In developing a self-reflexive approach to the question of method, students will be able to transfer these skills across their degrees. They will also be able to examine and interrogate some of the dominant frameworks in the humanities for approaching historical texts and periods, in particular the study of class, gender, sexuality, race, and religious identity.

  Skills

  Having completed this module students will be able to:
  
  • Understand the similarities and differences between methodologies in History and Literary and Cultural Studies.
  • Demonstrate understanding of the complex relationship between literary forms and socio-political developments.
  • Think about the strategies of close reading involved in History and Literary and Cultural Studies.
  • Reflect on the usefulness of economic, sociological, and ideological frameworks for reading the past
  • Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual research
  • Demonstrate digital literacy skills required to make a digital map, using relevant software programmes

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  1

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG1005

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

• Year 2

  Core Modules

  Creative Writing Prose (20 credits)

  ×

  Creative Writing Prose

  Overview

  This creative writing prose module will be structured around the students’ own written work. Two or three pieces of work will be submitted each week for detailed discussion in seminar. Extracts from other, published texts will be provided to amplify more general points arising from the group discussion. In this way, in the course of the semester, students will look in depth at practical aspects of fiction writing – characterisation, plot construction – and at the evolution of the main prose forms and genres.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students should have gained a greater understanding of the different forms and genres of prose fiction and of the processes involved in the creation of works of fiction, and they will have learned how to use the techniques of established prose authors in their own creative work. Objectivity about their own creative work will have been further fostered by the writing of a self-reflexive commentary to accompany their final submission. Students should have come some way towards developing their own creative voice.

  Skills

  Students will be encouraged throughout the module to write often and to a deadline, improving their capacities for both sustained creative production and time-management. The environment of the creative writing workshop will also enhance their ability to work as a team, and to successfully communicate constructive feedback on other students’ work. By learning how to engage critically with their own writing, to make informed decisions about structure and content, students should also have become better readers of the texts they will encounter in their other modules, as well as better critics of their own work.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2093

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  Creative Writing Drama (20 credits)

  ×

  Creative Writing Drama

  Overview

  This creative writing drama module, focusing on writing for stage, screen and radio, will be structured around the students’ own written work. Two or three pieces of work by students will be submitted each week for detailed discussion in seminar. Extracts from other, published texts will also be provided to amplify more general points arising from the group discussion. In this way, in the course of the semester, students will look in depth at practical aspects of dramatic writing – characterisation, story structure and dramatic language – and at the evolution of the main dramatic forms.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students should have gained a greater understanding of the rules and key techniques of writing for stage, screen and radio and of the processes involved in the creation of dramatic writing, and have learned how to use these tools in their own creative work. Objectivity about their own creative work will have been further fostered by the writing of a self-reflexive commentary to accompany their final submission. Students should have come some way towards developing their own creative voice.

  Skills

  Students will be encouraged throughout the module to write often and to a deadline, improving their capacities for both sustained creative production and time-management. The environment of the creative writing workshop will also enhance their ability to work as a team, and to successfully communicate constructive feedback on other students’ work. By learning how to engage critically with their own writing, to make informed decisions about structure and content, students should also have become better readers of the texts they will encounter in their other modules, as well as better critics of their own work.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2091

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  Creative Writing Poetry (20 credits)

  ×

  Creative Writing Poetry

  Overview

  This creative writing poetry module will be structured around the students’ own written work. Two or three poems by students will be submitted each week for detailed discussion in seminar. Other works by established poets will also be brought to class each week and discussed in detail. These will function as templates for students’ own writing exercises. In this way, in the course of the semester, students will look in depth at practical aspects of writing poetry and become familiar with a wide range of different poetic styles and techniques.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students should be familiar with the various categories of contemporary English-language poetry and have written widely in a range of poetic forms and styles. Objectivity about their own creative practice will have been further fostered by the writing of a self-reflexive commentary to accompany their final submission. Students should have come some way towards developing their own creative voice.

  Skills

  Students will be encouraged throughout the module to write often and to a deadline, improving their capacities for both sustained creative production and time-management. The environment of the creative writing workshop will also enhance their ability to work as a team, and to successfully communicate constructive feedback on other students’ work. By learning how to engage critically with their own writing, to make informed decisions about structure and content, students should also have become better readers of the texts they will encounter in their other modules, as well as better critics of their own work.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2092

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  Optional Modules

  Enlightenment and its Discontents (20 credits)

  ×

  Enlightenment and its Discontents

  Overview

  This module introduces students to the intellectual arguments and counter-arguments of the period known as the Age of Enlightenment, running through the long eighteenth century and embodied in its literature. As an increasing emphasis on rationality as a means to human understanding came to challenge earlier forms of social and political legitimacy, attitudes to self and identity; science and religion; gender and sexuality; politics and government were significantly reformulated from the eighteenth century onwards, with literature and the arts reflecting and participating in the broad historical movement that this shift in thinking represented. We will introduce and debate some of these key ideas of the Enlightenment (or of the various forms of Enlightenment) in relation to the development of generic categories and poetic forms over the period. The module will be organized around a series of texts and debates implicated in significant cultural and historical developments such as the growth of individualism, consumerism, ideas of political liberty and rights, and of the nation and its overseas empire. The module will include selections of poetry and prose (including literary forms such as the periodical essay, life writings, the political pamphlet, and the novel) to be read in relation to contextual, literary-theoretical, and historical considerations. We will also examine revisionist responses to the Enlightenment, reflecting the interests of contemporary authors seeking to represent the marginalized or silenced voices of the period such as those of women, labouring classes, slaves, and colonial others.

  Learning Outcomes

  Students completing this module will have gained, through their engagement with literary texts and genres, an understanding of major Enlightenment ideas and their impact on historical development. They will be able to read and contextualize literature of eighteenth century in particular with regard to such ideas, and to discern their significance for contemporary literature and society. They will be able to distinguish and appreciate a diversity of genres and texts characteristic of the period, and to read and interrogate such genres and texts in a critical way. They will be introduced to major digital resources giving them the skills that will enable independent research should they wish to progress further in this area. Students will be equipped to debate political, religious and social issues in an informed way with regard to the emergence of such controversies, and their continued development in modern forms. Students will also be able interrogate constructions of the Enlightenment and to deconstruct its various claims from contemporary perspectives critical of its legacy for the modern world.

  Skills

  Students who have completed this module will be able to:
  
  • Analyse literary texts with regard to the major intellectual debates and forms of knowledge generated by Enlightenment thinking.
  • Debate various religious, social and political issues produced in literature relating to Enlightenment.
  • Demonstrate research skills with regard to the use of digital platforms such as Eighteenth-Century Collections Online and British Periodicals with regard to the exploration of such topics.
  • Show an understanding of formal and generic developments in literature with regard to intellectual history.
  • Examine the ways in which literary texts are implicated in the emergence of dominant understandings of political and social discourses.
  • Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2064

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Romantic Poetry, 1789-1832 (20 credits)

  ×

  Romantic Poetry, 1789-1832

  Overview

  The Romantic period (c.1789-1832) witnessed dramatic social and historical change as the effects of major events such as the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, widespread Enclosure and the Industrial Revolution initiated the sense of ‘living in history’. In the midst of these revolutionary changes, poets wrote with new confidence of the importance of the imagination, as a creative and utopian force; of the beauty, fragility and power of the natural world; of political ideals of social justice; of the arguments for gender equality. Poetry became synonymous with the imagination as a force which could unite idealism with social change. This module studies a range of Romantic poetry, including but not restricted to, the work of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Robinson, Felicia Hemans, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charlotte Smith, and William Wordsworth. Poems will be studied through the key themes of the revolutionary imagination; the natural world; the language of class; representations of childhood; slavery and feminism. One hour of each week’s seminar time will comprise a close reading of one key poem for that week’s discussion, with the second hour being used for more generalized and broader discussion. The module will also include a specialised library visit and a field trip connected with the natural world.

  Learning Outcomes

  Students completing this module will have learned to read poetry in terms of its formal techniques and effects and to situate these interpretations in a range of contexts both historical and contemporary. They will be able to read and contextualize poetry of the Romantic period in particular, and to understand its significance for contemporary literature and society. They will be able to distinguish and appreciate a diversity of poetic genres and styles characteristic of the period, and to read and interrogate a range of diverse kinds of poetry in a critical way. Students will be equipped to debate political, aesthetic and social issues in an informed way with regard to their historical development, and their continued development in modern forms. Students will also be able to interrogate constructions of Romanticism and to deconstruct its various claims from contemporary perspectives both supportive and critical of its legacy for the modern world.

  Skills

  Students who have completed this module will be able to:
  
  • Interpret a range of poems in ways which are attuned to their aesthetic effects and contextual meanings.
  • Debate various aesthetic, social and political issues produced in poetry of the Romantic period.
  • Show an understanding of formal and generic developments in poetry with regard to intellectual history.
  • Examine the ways in which literary texts are implicated in the emergence of dominant understandings of political and social discourses.
  • Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2063

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Utopia / Dystopia: The Future in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature (20 credits)

  ×

  Utopia / Dystopia: The Future in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature

  Overview

  In the late nineteenth century, utopian literature met speculative fiction: the ‘nowhere’ of utopia was reimagined as the future, which was conceived as both the best and worst possible worlds. This course examines a variety of late nineteenth-century utopias and dystopias, but also shows the ways this imaginative tradition shaped literary prediction in the twentieth century (including works by Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Margaret Atwood). It considers the ways twentieth-century writers both engaged with their literary predecessors and rewrote utopian and dystopian traditions to speak to the urgency of their own political moments. From the dangers and promises of science and technology to the future of feminism, socialism, race and mass culture, we will explore what utopias and dystopias reveal about their own historical moments, and analyze the claim that one person’s utopia is another’s dystopia.
  
  Indicative selection of texts
  
  Edward Bulwer Lytton, The Coming Race
  H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
  William Morris, News from Nowhere
  Catherine Helen Spence, A Week in the Future
  Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
  E. M. Forster, ‘The Machine Stops’
  Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
  George Orwell, 1984
  Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

  Learning Outcomes

  At the end of this course, students will be able to analyze the evolving generic traits of political fantasy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and will have gained an understanding of utopian, dystopian and speculative fiction as literary forms. They will be able to relate utopian and dystopian fiction to social debates and historical changes in the period in which it was produced (including debates over feminism, socialism, evolutionary biology and eugenics and the future of democracy and mass culture). They will be capable of analyzing the political function of utopian and dystopian literature, and the role of reading communities in the evolution of the genre. Students will be able to use their understanding of genre to reflect on continuities with as well as changes between late Victorian and twentieth-century literature.

  Skills

  • A demonstrable understanding of the relationship between the political and the literary, and an ability to see the relevance of debates generated by this ‘literature of ideas’ to the present as well as the past
  • Transferrable skills in the forms of group discussion, ability to present material to peers and individual research and essay writing skills – the ability to synthesize texts and create a clear analytical argument
  • The ability to interweave close and historical reading skills – a demonstrable awareness of the ways historical and cultural change shapes literary form within political fantasy from the nineteenth to the twentieth century
  • Ability to apply theoretical and historical debates over genre (utopian and dystopian and speculative fiction) to a range of literary contexts
  • An ability to show the ways fiction is shaped by reading communities as well as writers (including socialist and feminist readerships).

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2065

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Fiction and the Novel (1660-1820) (20 credits)

  ×

  Fiction and the Novel (1660-1820)

  Overview

  This module examines the development of prose fiction in English from the later seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. This is the period in which the novel emerged in its recognisably modern form, establishing itself as an important genre within literary culture. It was also an era of generic experimentation, as writers debated the nature of the novel, took the form in new directions, and grappled with earlier modes of writing in prose, such as romance and picaresque, allegorical and fantastical fiction. In this module, we explore the variety of prose fiction published during this period: from romance and amatory fiction, through works of realism and social comedy, to the sentimental and Gothic modes that emerged in the later eighteenth century. These works engaged closely with contemporary social, cultural and political issues, and we will consider texts that address topics such as travel and empire; science and civilisation; marriage and gender; crime, morality and the state of the nation. By considering these works in their literary and cultural contexts, the module both highlights the diversity of fiction written during this era and charts the early history of the novel up to the sophisticated narratives of Jane Austen.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have developed higher-level knowledge and understanding of prose fiction during the period 1660-1820. They will be able to identify the different kinds and modes of fiction published during this period, including romance and amatory fiction, works of realism and social comedy, the sentimental and Gothic modes. They will be equipped to assess critical arguments concerning the ‘rise’ of the novel as a distinctive literary genre during the ‘long’ eighteenth century. They will also be able to situate this body of fiction more broadly within its literary and cultural contexts. On completing the module, then, students will be able to articulate the key types of fiction in English during the period up to (and including) Austen, theories about the novel’s emergence as a literary form, and the engagement of these works with a range of contemporary issues.

  Skills

  Having completed this module students will be able to:
  
  • Analyse works of prose fiction published during the ‘long’ eighteenth century, in terms of genre, technique, and social and cultural contexts
  • Demonstrate understanding of the variety of forms, modes and styles within fiction during this period, and the pre-history of some of these ways of writing
  • Adjudicate critical and theoretical ideas regarding the ‘rise’ or emergence of the novel genre during the period up to Austen
  • Demonstrate understanding of the particular issues explored within this body of fiction - from issues such as marriage and travel to concerns about crime, morality and empire
  • Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of group discussion, written communication, and individual research

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2061

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Dickens and the Cult of Celebrity (20 credits)

  ×

  Dickens and the Cult of Celebrity

  Overview

  We are all familiar with people who have recently been quickly catapulted to the heights of fame and public attention. The status of such individuals is often associated with wealth and public exposure, and the rise of mass media makes it much easier for them to gain publicity and recognition instantly, across the world. But has it always been this way?
  
  This module will examine the career and legacy of Charles Dickens, who was first recognised for his extraordinary creativity, in producing the works of literature for which he is best known. He was also, however, a careful and intelligent manipulator of his own public image, to the extent that the catchphrase ‘the man who invented Christmas’ survives to this day. By carefully scrutinising Dickens through fiction, journalism, letters, advertising, biography, photography, and film, students will come to understand just how ‘constructed’ this Victorian superstar was; they will also understand how the means he, his publishers, agents, and advisors, and his inheritors employed to develop and maintain his public image serve as forerunners for the phenomenon of celebrity culture in our own day.
  
  Indicative set texts & other media:
  
  Lee Barron, Celebrity Cultures: An Introduction (Sage, 2015)
  Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
  Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
  Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
  Ralph Fiennes, The Invisible Woman (DVD 2013)
  Bharat Naluri, The Man Who Invented Christmas (DVD 2017)
  Michael Slater, Charles Dickens (Yale UP, 2011)

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of the history of celebrity, and the role it has played in shaping cultural values. They will be able to read and engage critically with key Dickens novels from the 1830s-1850s, as well as with his journalism and letters. They will also be able to examine and perform critical assessments on other media that feature Dickens as the central figure, including film, photography, and advertising. Students will be able to analyse and interrogate the ways in which various media project the idea of celebrity in light of their target audiences, and will be able to assess the effects of the strategies employed.

  Skills

  Having completed this module you will be able to:
  
  • Analyse Dickens’s literary texts in both historical and critical contexts.
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the meaning of ‘celebrity’ and the role it has played in shaping cultural values
  • Examine how textual and visual media have had an impact upon the development of celebrity
  • Explore the construction of the author as a complex amalgam of creative ability and targeted media manipulation
  • Demonstrate how celebrities become brands in their own right, and are used in marketing to promote products and services
  • Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research.
  • Demonstrate advanced research skills, in particular the use of digital platforms to explore the nature of celebrity culture

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2066

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Diachronic Linguistics: Exploring language change (20 credits)

  ×

  Diachronic Linguistics: Exploring language change

  Overview

  This module uses the various stages of the English language from the 5th century through to the present day as the backdrop for the introduction of specific concepts used in the analysis of language change. By exploring key syntactic, morphological and semantic changes in the history of English, students will engage with current theories of diachronic change and be encouraged to apply theoretical concepts to empirical data. Typical topics that will be covered include morpho-phonology in the verbal and nominal domains, changes in word order, grammaticalisation and null subjects (although not necessarily all in each year).

  Learning Outcomes

  By the end of the module, students will be able to draw on the main stages of the diachrony of the English language to explain the basic mechanisms of language change. Students will also be able to employ appropriate methods for observing and describing language change phenomena in the morphology, with specific reference to syntax, morphology and semantics of English and related varieties.

  Skills

  By the end of the module, students will be able to draw on the main stages of the diachrony of the English language to explain the basic mechanisms of language change. The students will also be able to employ descriptive methods in order to observe and describe language change phenomena in the morphology, syntax and semantics of English and related varieties.

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENL2003

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Radio Drama (20 credits)

  ×

  Radio Drama

  Overview

  An introduction to the theory and practice of directing, writing and performing for radio and podcasting. Seminars will introduce key theoretical and practical principles linked to selected case studies. Students will apply these skills in their own short radio dramas as writers, script editors, SFX Spot/Foley Operators, directors or actors. We will work closely with students on the Broadcast production degree on the technical aspects of this module. The module is open to students on all drama and Broadcast Production programmes and on the Creative Writing programme in the Seamus Heaney Centre.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module students should:
  Have an understanding of the distinctive demands of acting, writing and directing for radio
  Have a critical appreciation of radio drama as a genre and be familiar with a range of relevant examples

  Skills

  Oral communication, team-working and specialist technical skills.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  DRA2014

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Adaptation as Interdisciplinary Practice (20 credits)

  ×

  Adaptation as Interdisciplinary Practice

  Overview

  This module asks students to examine the process and challenges of adapting works, either within the same medium in a different time or place, or between different media, with staff from across the school collaborating to offer students an understanding of how different media work, and how the differences between those media impact the process of adaptation. The class will also examine how adaptation plays an integral role in the process of translation. Each week students will examine several versions of a play, novel, and/or film script (or watch them), looking at originals from the Greeks forward to see how adaptors have grappled with great works of different eras and cultures in an attempt to make them more accessible to contemporary audiences, while at the same time (in most cases) attempting to preserve something of their original context. The class will also look at theoretical models of adaptation. Ultimately, students will be asked to examine the adaptation history of a single original work in an academic essay, and will try their own hand at adaptation in presenting a treatment for a work of fiction, drama, film, or any other form, adapted from a prior work.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, you should:
  
  Understand the history of adaptation in drama and other forms.
  Be able to analyse translations and adaptations
  Be able to identify the rationale behind what is altered and what is kept.
  Become adapters on their own.

  Skills

  Research and analytical skills
  Performance skills
  Communication and speech
  Interacting with others (both in interactions between performer and director, as well as performer and audience)
  Technical proficiency

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  AEL2002

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Modernism and Modernity (20 credits)

  ×

  Modernism and Modernity

  Overview

  This module introduces students to the literature and culture of the period 1900-1930, with a focus on the literary movements grouped under the term ‘modernism’. These literary texts will be examined as complicated and ambivalent responses to the experience of modernity. Students will cover key figures of British and Irish ‘High Modernism’, including James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot, alongside American modernists and writers of the so-called ‘middle brow’. Particular attention will be paid to the historical contexts in which these texts were produced, and on their conditions of publication and consumption. These contexts include: the aftermath of the Great War; gender politics, from the New Woman to Suffrage and beyond; the politics of race; terrorism and violence; queer sexualities; urban decay and urban development; the relationship between cultural centres and peripheries; poetry and its publics; American cultural politics; media, and the rise of youth cultures. More broadly, the modules will explore theories and manifestations of ‘modernity’, examining the challenges of modern technologies and social formations to literary practice.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of the literature of modernity. They will be able to read a variety of texts from the period 1900-1930, including novels, poems, short stories, novellas, and periodical essays. Students will be able to read these texts in relation to a number of contexts, including political, social, and cultural developments. They will also develop the skills to read these texts with an eye to their formal complexity and ingenuity, tying this experimentation to the dynamic social contexts to which they responded. Students will be introduced to a number of digital resources that will encourage their independent research into the periodical publication of modernist works. Moreover students will be able to interrogate a number of dominant critical frameworks, including: those that have, until recently, elevated modernism above the broader literary culture of the period; those that diminish the influence of Victorian literature on modernism.

  Skills

  Having completed this module students will be able to:
  
  • Analyse modernist literature in both a historical and critical context.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the complex relationship between formal literary innovation and social transformations.
  • Examine the relationship between ‘high’ cultural forms and the so-called ‘middle brow’ works of the period.
  • Explore how literary texts challenged dominant understandings of race, gender, and class.
  • Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research.
  • Demonstrate advanced research skills, in particular the use of digital platforms to explore the nature of modernist periodicals.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2060

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Gender, Culture, and Representation – Backwards & in Heels (20 credits)

  ×

  Gender, Culture, and Representation – Backwards & in Heels

  Overview

  This interdisciplinary module introduces students to the central ideas of gender theory and to a wide variety of representations of gender across a range of media, including theatre, performance, literature, visual art, film and television. Using key texts and cultural works students are encouraged to examine critically the representation of gender across media, and the political, legal, and ethical dimensions of gender within our culture. The module involves a critical engagement with the relationship between identity, representation and culture and explores theories concerning the social construction of the masculine and feminine body. The module engages with several key issues, including the representation of femininity and masculinity, gender in the literary and theatrical canon of Western culture, the spatiality and temporality of gender, and its intersections with issues of race/ethnicity, class, and labour. Students will be asked to think about these issues and ideas across disciplines but also within their areas of study through seminars.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, you should:
  
  * have engaged with a variety of representations of gender, the body and sexual identities within socio-historical, theoretical and representational frameworks and across multiple forms of media,
  
  * have cultivated an understanding of the theoretical and practical movements that have shaped the construction and representation of gender, sexuality and the body in culture,
  
  * have developed a critical understanding of the relationship between representation and identity.

  Skills

  Having completed this module, you should:
  
  * have developed reflexive thinking and independent critical and analytical skills.
  
  * have developed imaginative and communicative skills based on the application of reading materials to class presentations
  
  * have developed research and writing skills

  Coursework

  60%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  40%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  AEL2001

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Modern American Fiction: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality (20 credits)

  ×

  Modern American Fiction: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality

  Overview

  This module introduces students to some of the key American novelists, contexts and critical issues associated with the modern era, roughly interpreted as the first half of the twentieth century (c.1920-1950). It does not ignore the orthodox intellectual approaches to the era, namely that of the modern or modernism and how the representative fiction of the era sought to find new forms and languages suitable to the task of interrogating this modernity. However, rather than rehearsing old debates about national particularity, the “melting pot” and US exceptionalism, the focus of this module is the ways in which exemplary African-American, female, working class and gay novelists, as well as their white, male counterparts, sought to undo and re-write narratives of identity and belonging according to particularities of race, class, gender and sexuality. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between narratives of affirmation and negation (or ‘noir’). The module examines these axes of difference as multiple and overlapping, rather than mutually exclusive; hence the focus is on the narrative, formal and linguistic complexities thrown up the re-making of American fiction through the related and diverging prisms of class and race, for example, or gender and sexuality, or even in terms of race, gender, class and sexuality. A repeated concern of the module is whether or to what extent we can use US fiction of the era to trace and interrogate wider social and political challenges to dominant/normative understandings of the United States, modernity, capitalism, and national identity. The set texts reflect this heterogeneity in terms of the writers to be studied and in terms of the diversity of styles, forms and genres that make up American fiction of the era.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of modern American fiction (c. 1900-1950). They will be able to identify the ways in which representative novels of the era interrogate the modern era and the complex relationship between literary form, popular culture and modernism as organizing concepts. They will also be able to examine and reflect upon the complex ways in which dominant and singular narratives of national belonging are untold and reimagined according to the related and overlapping categories of race, class, gender and sexuality – and the implications of this for an understanding of “American” fiction. They will be able to offer close readings of this fiction according to its use of literary form and language and its thematizations of the urban, the modern, “noir”, capitalism, gender and sexuality and race and class. On completion of the module, students will be able to reflect upon the usefulness of fiction of the era to contest received or orthodox accounts of US political, social and economic life and potentially to intervene in this life for affirmative and/or politically progressive ends.

  Skills

  Having completed this module students will be able to:
  
  • Analyse modern American fiction paying attention to theoretical/conceptual and contextual issues and develop close critical readings of a diverse range of fiction.
  • Demonstrate understanding of the complex relationship between literary forms and socio-political transformations.
  • Think about the synthesis and weighting of different, sometimes competing interpretations of literary texts.
  • Reflect on the usefulness of race, class, gender and sexuality as organizing categories to interrogate the exemplary fiction of the era and its thematizations of US identities.
  • Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research
  • Demonstrate digital literacy skills required to make a digital map, using relevant software programmes, relating to one of the set texts.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2173

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Shakespeare and Co (20 credits)

  ×

  Shakespeare and Co

  Overview

  This module introduces students to the drama of the English Renaissance. It explores texts by a wide range of authors, including Shakespeare, Cary, Marlowe, Middleton, Rowley and Webster and examines the forces working on drama in the early modern period. Lectures will provide an introduction to the dramatic form, close readings of the set plays, and readings in relation to contemporary issues such as nationality, authority, desire, religion, sexuality, gender, strangeness, race, identity, social standing, fantasy, magic and taboo.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this module, students should have learned how to study dramatic form and how to relate a text to its context. Through class discussion and formative assessments, you should have further developed your oral and written communication skills.

  Skills

  To familiarize students with the range of drama produced during the English Renaissance; to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to undertake Renaissance modules in Stage 3.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2050

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Language and Power (20 credits)

  ×

  Language and Power

  Overview

  This module investigates the ways in which language intersects with the social and political reflexes of power and ideology. Students are encouraged to challenge, through exposure and then analysis, the discourse conventions that characterise the language of powerful groups and institutions. This module places particular emphasis on print and broadcast media, legal, political and advertising discourse, and on other forms of institutional rhetoric. Among the topics covered are: The Discourse of Institutions and Organisations; Power and Talk; Language and Gender; Language and Race; Language and the Law; Humour as Power; Political Discourse and the Language of Advertising.

  Learning Outcomes

  Students should be able to carry out systematic analysis of differing forms of language in different contexts of use. The moudle should help students to analyse a range of texts and practices, understand the ways in which language is used to exercise control, understand the anatomy of texts and text-types, especially print and broadcast media, and advertising discourse. Also analyse critically the interrelation between powerful institutions and the discourses they disseminate in the public sphere. Students should also further develop effective oral and written communication skills.

  Skills

  Students are invited to think in new ways about the English language in relation to its social and political context. Students should also develop skill in unpacking a variety of spoken and written texts, and in developing arguments about the way language practice is informed by and reinforces relationships of power. It is hoped that the course itself acts as an empowering tool, helping students to interrogate the discourse that surrounds them in everyday social contexts.

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  20%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENL2002

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Foundations for Speech Analysis: The Phonetics of English (20 credits)

  ×

  Foundations for Speech Analysis: The Phonetics of English

  Overview

  This module offers you an introduction to the study of speech analysis. We begin by investigating the mechanisms which are used to produce speech and providing a framework for the convenient classification and description of pronunciation features. We then examine accent variation, in terms of aspects such as contextual effects, intonation and voice quality. Finally, the module gives you the chance to acquire an understanding of the acoustic characteristics of speech. Throughout the module, you will be required to develop your oral and aural skills in phonetics by means of various practical and online facilities. While the module concentrates on normal English speech, we may also have the opportunity to consider data from non-English speech and from non-normal speech.

  Learning Outcomes

  This module should give a practical grounding in phonetics. Knowledge of how speech works is needed for a variety of occupations. Students intending to teach English will find phonetic skills essential in implementing oracy and literacy requirements in the classroom. Drama students can benefit from phonetic knowledge in order to deal with voice production, projection and accent learning. For foreign language learners and teachers, phonetics is invaluable in achieving target pronunciations. Future students of linguistics and communication should find that phonetics complements their study of linguistic communications and, finally, those interested in communication disorders need a detailed knowledge of speech production and perception in order to understand specific impairments and their effects..

  Skills

  When you have completed this module, you should be able to apply your knowledge of speech production and variation to a variety of communicative and educational situations. By means of your aural and oral training, you should have developed skills in detailed, analytic listening and in accurate perception, production and transcription of various phonetic distinctions. The 50% essay should enable you to acquire and demonstrate ability in critical assessment of, for example, the role of a speaker's phonetic profile in achieving particular communicative ends.

  Coursework

  70%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  30%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENL2001

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Irish Literature (20 credits)

  ×

  Irish Literature

  Overview

  This module introduces students to the extraordinary diversity and achievement of Irish literature, from the Act of Union in 1800 to the late twentieth century. The module is chronologically structured, and places particular emphasis on situating texts in their wider historical contexts, as well as developing their relations to broader European movements and traditions. Encompassing poetry, fiction, and drama, the module considers a range of themes, such as romanticism, gender, the gothic, cultural nationalism, the politics of modernity, liminality and exile, and northern perspectives on an Irish tradition. Writers studied will include W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this module the student should have an ability to set Irish literature in its historical context; an ability to make connections between differing genres of Irish writing; an ability to scrutinise the politics of Irish writing.

  Skills

  On completion of this module you should have an ability to set Irish literature in its historical context; an ability to make connections between differing genres of Irish writing and an ability to scrutinise the politics of Irish writing.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2081

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Principles of Business in Arts, Cultural and Creative Industries (20 credits)

  ×

  Principles of Business in Arts, Cultural and Creative Industries

  Overview

  This course is designed for Stage 2 students in all Creative Arts disciplines (Drama, Film & Broadcast, Music & Sonic Arts) to introduce and explore key elements in the ‘business’ of creative work: the planning, management and delivery of cultural and creative projects, events and/or activities. As part of an interdisciplinary class and with elements of independent group work throughout, students will share their knowledge from their own programmes and gain new insights to the crossover of skills and opportunities and the benefits of multidisciplinary teams.
  
  The course runs in two parts. The first half of the course will introduce students to the unique planning and delivery challenges of cultural and creative work with students’ active engagement in observing or putting the theory into real-life practice. In the second half, students will work through one of two options (subject to availability): to work in teams to enhance, deliver and evaluate a programmed event or activity with a cultural business; or to undertake independent field research in the development of an event or activity proposal for a cultural business.
  
  Assessment will be principally based on reflexive journaling and some practical assessment of their participation (the production of a short-form report or plan).
  
  Part 1 will be delivered mainly through classroom lectures, seminars and discussions on the different functions of management and planning in the arts, cultural and creative industries.
  
  Part 2
  Subject to availability in any given year, students will choose one of two strands for Part 2 of the programme. Activities offered in these strands each year will be selected in discussion between Subject Leads of Creative Arts and relevant staff in creative centres on campus, enabling students to access contemporary events and knowledge relevant to their studies.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this course, students are expected to be able to:
  1. Recognise common features and approaches to planning and delivery of arts, cultural and creative activities, events or projects
  2. Express improved understanding of the industry context of their chosen discipline, recognising influences, norms and constraints on creative and cultural business
  3. Articulate how increased understanding of creative business might influence their own creative or industry practice, their future study and professional development.
  4. Understand the collaborative and team-based nature of arts, cultural and creative industries planning and delivery.

  Skills

  The completion of this course will support the following skills:
  • Reflective & reflexive thinking
  • Evaluation and observation
  • Report and/or proposal writing
  • Practical skills in event/project management/planning
  • Teamwork and collaborative working

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  SCA2002

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Mapping the Anglo-Saxon World (20 credits)

  ×

  Mapping the Anglo-Saxon World

  Overview

  This module aims to map the world of the Anglo-Saxons through their language, literature and material culture. Students will learn about the heroic past and values of the Anglo-Saxons, magical rituals and prognostications, and systems of faith and beliefs. A fascinating range of texts and genres from the period (c. 7th-11th centuries) will be studied in relation to their cultural context and audience. These include: heroic poetry; elegies; riddles, charms and prognostications; historiography; and biblical writings. Students will engage with selected texts in the original language and consider issues of literary interpretation and translation. They will also be introduced to concepts of authorship, gender, genre, time, health, self, otherness and religion. Students will become familiar with the basics of Old English literary and religious vocabulary and acquire a working knowledge of the Old English manuscript tradition.

  Learning Outcomes

  To introduce the study of Old English; to introduce the world of Anglo-Saxon literature and culture.

  Skills

  Having completed the module, students should have acquired the basics of Old English grammar and poetics, the ability to translate and discuss critically selected Old English texts and to relate texts to their cultural and historical contexts.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2003

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Havoc and Rebellion: Writing and Reading Later Medieval England (20 credits)

  ×

  Havoc and Rebellion: Writing and Reading Later Medieval England

  Overview

  From the Black Death to the Uprising of 1381; from the usurpation and murder of King Richard II to the Oldcastle Rebellion of 1414; from the rise of the Lollard heresy to the Wars of the Roses – how did late medieval writing, from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Langland’s Piers Plowman, and Gower’s Vox Clamantis, to the work of a range of anonymous poets, dramatists, and chroniclers, respond to several decades of tumultuous social and cultural change? This module introduces students to the vibrancy and vitality of a crucial period in the history of English writing, and it explores the methodological challenges of reading literature historically. Students will engage with key historicist readings of the period’s literature and will consider literature in its material circumstances with reference to online facsimiles of key manuscript books, as well as the museological presentation of the period’s material culture. The key genres, conventions and preoccupations of the period will be explored in relation to the explosive social mobility that followed the devastation of the Black Death. The module will conclude on the eve of the coronation of Henry VIII, when it was assumed that the political and religious tumult of the ‘calamitous fourteenth century’ had finally been settled.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of late medieval literature and culture (c.1370-1509). They will have learned to address the challenges of reading literature in its historical contexts, and become familiar with the central tenets of historicist critical practice. They will have learned to interrogate critically the re-presentation of texts and artefacts from the Middle Ages in online archival and museological contexts. They will have learned to reflect critically on the idea of the Middle Ages itself and on questions of historical periodisation in general.

  Skills

  Having completed this module students will be able to:
  
  • Analyse late medieval literature, paying attention to the relationship between texts and contexts assumed by historicist modes of reading.
  • Demonstrate understanding of the complex relationship between literary forms and socio-political transformations.
  • Situate the literature of this period in the contexts of its influence on literary ideas and modes of transmission, such as authorship and printing, that will be of critical importance to later periods
  • Demonstrate enhanced digital capabilities, both in terms of using digital repositories and in working collaboratively on a digital project for assessment.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2041

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  An Introduction to Critical and Cultural Theory (20 credits)

  ×

  An Introduction to Critical and Cultural Theory

  Overview

  ‘Critical and Cultural Theory’ names a panoply of intellectual movements, philosophical currents and political perspectives emerging out of the crisis in European culture and identity precipitated by the pace of political, technological and social change in the nineteenth century. That crisis was exacerbated by the world wars of the twentieth century, the rise of Communism, and the collapse of Western imperialism. This module introduces students to key issues in critical and cultural theory, historicising its emergence and reflecting on its current preoccupations. Beginning with the ‘masters of suspicion’, Freud, Nietzsche and Marx, who are often perceived to have brought the project of Enlightenment humanism to a shuddering halt, the module will trace the development of a variety of important theoretical perspectives, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism and poststructuralism, historicism, gender studies, and bio-politics and posthumanism. The module will build on the questions asked by the Stage One module ENG xxx Adventures in Literature and the History of Ideas and will complement the approaches taken on other Stage Two modules, given its historicising agenda.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have developed a basic knowledge of a range of theoretical traditions and be better equipped to situate the cultural and political preoccupations of the modern and postmodern literatures they are exploring elsewhere in the curriculum in relation to the intellectual, political and social developments of Western societies from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. They will be better attuned to the intellectual agendas and theoretical affiliations of the critical approaches used by both staff in the School and in the secondary critical materials they are encountering in other modules across their degrees. They will have learned to historicise and synthesise a range of often conflicting intellectual and philosophical traditions.

  Skills

  Having completed this module students will be able to:
  • Identify and adjudicate between different intellectual approaches to literature, culture, gender and history
  • Analyse and evaluate key critical terminologies and ideas and place them in their historical contexts
  • Demonstrate an ability to read ‘secondary’ texts critically and with a view to their underpinning intellectual assumptions and agendas
  • Demonstrate transferral skills in the form of group discussion, written communication, oral presentation and collaborative work

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2000

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Inventing America (20 credits)

  ×

  Inventing America

  Overview

  This module analyses the historical, literary and philosophical movements that generated the American literary tradition in the nineteenth century. It will introduce students to the key critical and cultural contexts, writers and movements of the American Renaissance as well as the counter narratives (cited in questions of gender, race, slavery as well as US religious and historical legacies) that produced enduring documents of the nineteenth century. In part, the module is a digest of canonical American writing of the period but one that allows students to read through and beyond the texts and into the major debates underpinning the writing from the new world between circa 1830 and 1900. Backgrounding the module’s discussions are key historical events and phenomena particular to the United States (e.g., the 1830s banking collapse; the American Civil War; demographic and population changes) and students will be encouraged to fuse their literary investigations with appropriate knowledge of historical and social contexts.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this module, students will have a sound knowledge of nineteenth-century American writing, in particular the rise and promise offered by Transcendentalism, the darker pessimism of the American realists, and the narratives and poetry of American discordance registered in slave narratives and texts dealing specifically with gender, race, and the power systems of American society. The developing influence of capitalism, the economic justifications for the horrors of slavery, and the self-conscious development of American individualism all feature as key questions that the module discusses. By moving between a range of genres – philosophical essays, econarratives, poetry, horror fiction, slave narratives, psychological tales, historical fiction – students will be equipped as multi-modal readers and critics of the developing forms of nineteenth-century American writing.

  Skills

  Students will, on completion of this module, be able to:
  • analyse a range of nineteenth-century American writing from different perspectives in terms of genre, historical significance, literary techniques and variations of form;
  • demonstrate a good understanding of the period known as the American Renaissance
  • identify key aspects of American writing from the nineteenth century
  • understand the cross-currents of American literary production set against contemporary debates concerning class, gender and race
  • demonstrate a range of transferable skills in the forms of presentation skills, group discussion, individual research and written communication

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  2

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG2172

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

• Year 3

  Core Modules

  Double Dissertation Creative Writing (40 credits)

  ×

  Double Dissertation Creative Writing

  Overview

  In this module students will undertake a piece of extensive creative writing in either prose, or poetry, or scriptwriting). They will have the one-to-one guidance of a tutor, but the emphasis is on their own independent thinking, reading and writing. The self-reflexive commentaries required of students in Stage Two are similarly expanded in both length and scope at Stage Three: for this module students must complete a commentary which not only articulates the themes and justifies the structure of the creative dissertation, but which also places the creative work in its contemporary literary context. The key aim is to build on existing knowledge of the rules and techniques of successful creative writing in prose, poetry or drama acquired during Stage 2 by undertaking a more sustained piece of creative work, and to contextualise this creative work with reference to other existing works of literature in the same genre. To do this will require students to read broadly in their area of interest. They must be able to identify key aspects of successful creative writing in other writers and appropriate them accordingly in their own work. They must significantly develop their own writing, both formally and thematically, in a piece of writing which is longer and more ambitious than anything they have previously attempted.

  Learning Outcomes

  The module will provide an opportunity to concentrate on a single sustained piece of creative writing while at the same time developing skills of practical literary analysis and scholarly self-contextualisation. By the end of the module students will have developed the skills needed to write either prose, poetry or drama competently and at length, displaying both knowledge of the rules of their chosen genre and originality of execution; and have developed the skills needed to reflect in an informed way on one’s own creative practice. Students should have successfully developed a creative voice/style of their own.

  Skills

  Students will have learned how to work, independently and at length, on a creative project of their own devising, evidencing both time-management skills and creative initiative; they will have learned to connect creative and critical practice.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  40

  Module Code

  ENH3000

  Teaching Period

  Full Year

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Core

  Optional Modules

  Contemporary Literature: Poetry and Precariousness in the Twenty-First Century (20 credits)

  ×

  Contemporary Literature: Poetry and Precariousness in the Twenty-First Century

  Overview

  This module investigates the way in which the contemporary era is registered in a range of texts published in the twenty-first century. Precariousness is central to its reflection on the contemporary period and condition. It considers the precariousness of political economies, state security, ecology and social bonds, to ask if and how contemporary literary form registers precariousness, syntactically, structurally and in its modes of speech and address, and what alternatives it might offer to the precarious contemporary condition. Beginning with an introduction to neoliberalism, the module will consider the contemporary period by encompassing debt and accumulation, collective life, contemporary warfare and violence, non-human animals and environments, and networked, digital technologies. It includes satirical short stories, long poems addressing contemporary crises, lyric depictions of modern warfare and violence, individual volumes that examine non-human animals, plant and mineral life, traditional lyric forms and cut and paste poetics.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students should have a good understanding of the contemporary era and an increased understanding of how precariousness characterises contemporary experience. They should be able to identify prevailing concerns and anxieties in the contemporary period, and the variety of formal responses to such concerns in a range of twenty-first century texts. They will have developed the ability to evaluate the significance of political, social, and ideological contexts in the interpretation of contemporary literature. They will should have honed the ability to relate contemporary texts fruitfully to theoretical and secondary material. They will have developed the special ability to read and analyse individual volumes of poetry and thus read individual lyrics in the context and structure of a whole work.

  Skills

  Students will develop the ability to read and critically analyse of a number of forms of literary texts, including short stories, long poems, epistolary verse, short-line forms and collage poetry. They will enhance their skills in comparative analysis, and in relating set texts to a variety of approaches to and interpretations of the contemporary period. They will hone their ability to research historical and cultural material, and to bring relevant contextual information to bear on their critical writing. From their acquired knowledge of critical reflections on the contemporary period, they will develop a critical discernment in relation to competing arguments and interpretations of contemporary literature.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3184

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Writing New York, 1880-1940 (20 credits)

  ×

  Writing New York, 1880-1940

  Overview

  This course explores the development of New York literature, from the social milieu of Washington Square in the 1880s, through to the experimentations of Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, and finally to the demise of the Urban ideal after the Second World War. Topics covered here include: socio-economic tensions in the Gilded Age; the development of a specifically American Naturalism; the different ways in which those who were marginalised from the city represented their experience; the unique nature of New York impressionist writing; Jazz-Age New York; the emergence of ‘noir’ New York; the ‘death’ of American cities and the nostalgia for the New York of the early twentieth century in the years of the city’s Nadir.

  Learning Outcomes

  Students completing this module should be able to:
  • demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the politics and practice of writing about New York in the period 1880-1940.
  • show knowledge of the development of New York literature, as well as the way that literature incorporated and revised European models of writing .
  • understand the ways in which different areas of the city have very different literary and cultural practices.
  • explore the ways in which marginalized groups (African Americans, European Migrants), negotiated the city and found new ways of representing it.
  • undertake research using historical material (literary, social, political, cultural.

  Skills

  • understanding and incorporating critical thinking, including specific terminology, into discussions of texts.
  • comparing and contrasting texts within the same socio-historical constraints
  • analyzing texts closely and locating them firmly within their socio-historical context.
  • presenting within given formats and to a required standard, coherent and well-substantiated analyses and arguments, both orally and in writing.
  • studying independently; demonstrating an ability to incorporate tutor feedback into written work.
  • engaging in classroom debate and foster a vibrant intellectual environment.
  • reflecting on these learning processes.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3183

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Further Adventures in Shakespeare (20 credits)

  ×

  Further Adventures in Shakespeare

  Overview

  The module content is divided generically. Students will read across the whole range of Shakespeare’s works and sample comedy, history, tragedy, the Roman plays, and the romances. There are also sessions on what are termed ‘problem plays’ and ‘unfamiliar Shakespeare’ – texts not often staged or discussed. The rich sample investigated means that a corresponding range of themes and approaches will be identified and explored.
  There is no overlap between texts on this module and those taught elsewhere at Stages 2 or 3.
  Students will be asked to buy two set texts - The Norton Shakespeare, ed. Stephen Greenblatt (New York: Norton, 1997), which will have been purchased for Introduction to Renaissance Literature, and Stanley Wells and Lena Cowen Orlin, eds, An Oxford Guide to Shakespeare (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

  Learning Outcomes

  Having successfully completed this module, students should have become familiar with the main genres within which Shakespeare wrote. Students should be able to analyse the Shakespearean text in depth and relate it to its moment of production. Students should have honed their presentational skills and, through regular teamwork, learned the value of collaborative practice.

  Skills

  Subject specific knowledge (Shakespeare, genre, context)
  Close-reading
  Oral and written communication skills
  Teamwork
  Presentational skills

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3182

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Irish Gothic (20 credits)

  ×

  Irish Gothic

  Overview

  This module explores Ireland’s unique contribution to the Gothic through an extraordinary range of texts that encompasses classics of the genre (such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula) alongside lesser-known writers such as Gerald Griffin and James Clarence Mangan. Whilst the reading for the module exemplifies the formal diversity of the genre, particular emphasis is placed on the accelerating use of the short story as a literary vehicle for terror (notably in the work of Sheridan Le Fanu and Elizabeth Bowen). The module pursues several interrelated lines of intellectual inquiry: the longstanding perception of Ireland as a site of Gothic horror; the role of Gaelic folklore and myth in creating supernatural terror; the reception and development of Gothic themes in Irish writing; and current critical debates in the field. In tracing the widespread prevalence of Gothic motifs and themes, the module seeks to delineate the contours of a distinctive aesthetic, and reflects on questions of colonial and gender politics, as well as dilemmas of national and sexual identities as they appear in the dark glass of Irish Gothic writing.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completing this module, students should have a thorough knowledge of the Gothic genre as it developed in Irish writing, and be able to identify and expand upon the distinctive formal and thematic features of this literary tradition. Students should also be able to situate texts in a range of relevant contexts, relating Gothic motifs and themes to the historical and cultural particularities of their production. Students should also gain good understanding of the current critical debates surrounding Irish Gothic writing.

  Skills

  Over the course of the module, students should develop/acquire the following skills:
  • to analyse primary and secondary material in a scholarly manner;
  • to research appropriate critical and historical material on any given literary topic;
  • to edit and present scholarly arguments and literary analyses to peers;
  • to negotiate a ranging critical field, and situate in relation to it their own analytical perspective.

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3330

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Stevens & Bishop (20 credits)

  ×

  Stevens & Bishop

  Overview

  This module examines in depth the work of two major twentieth-century American poets: Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop. The work of the module will divide evenly between the two writers, with the first five weeks concentrating on Stevens and the second five on Bishop. Students will engage with two main texts (the collected poems of each poet) and assess their writings either in terms of individual collections or as examples of a longer career in poetry.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students should have a thorough knowledge of the work of both Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop within a range of particular contexts: their connection to other poetic movements or schools or traditions; their place within a canon of twentieth-century American poetry; their relation to philosophical movements, both within the United States and further afield; and of how their poems work as poetry. They will also be familiar with other examples of Stevens’ and Bishop’s writing, whether in the form of letters, essays, or in prose and how these assist in the understanding of their poetry within related contexts.

  Skills

  Students will develop the ability to read and critically analyse poetry in a range of forms and modes: short poems; philosophical poems; narrative poems; long poems. Their skills in assessing fundamental examples of twentieth-century American poetry between 1923 and 1976 will be enhanced by a range of approaches: comparing poems by Stevens or by Bishop from across her/his oeuvre, and/or by comparing the work of both writers; by reading their work in relation to key critical and contextual understandings of their contemporary moments (Modernism, late Modernism, World Wars 1 and 2, the Depression, the Middle Generation). Students taking this module will develop an appreciation of poetry on its own terms as exemplified by two giants of the form in the United States.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3333

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Work-based Learning (20 credits)

  ×

  Work-based Learning

  Overview

  This module provides an opportunity for student to utilise disciplinary skills in a work-based environment within the context of reflective practice. Students will negotiate suitable placements in consultation with their academic supervisor and participate in a programme of related classes and events. Simulated work-based projects in which students work in groups with the support of the university’s Enterprise Unit in the Students’ Union are also possible.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this module, students should have:
  Increased ability to relate academic theory to the work environment
  A developed understanding of the organisational culture, policies and processes
  The ability to reflexively and critically evaluate their own learning from the placement
  An appreciation of enterprise and innnovation
  Enhanced career knowledge

  Skills

  Employability skills, including effective communication, teamworking and problem-solving.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  AEL3001

  Teaching Period

  Full Year

  Duration

  24 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Stylistics: Analysing Style in Language (20 credits)

  ×

  Stylistics: Analysing Style in Language

  Overview

  Stylistics is the application of analytical models and methods from linguistics to rhetorical texts, including (but not limited to) fictional and persuasive texts. In this module, the students are introduced to the analytical frameworks used in contemporary Stylistics, which draw on a range of approaches from Pragmatics, Corpus Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology. The frameworks are applied to texts to demonstrate how the linguistic patterns employed lead to stylistic effects. The students will practice applying the models to a variety of texts, identifying the linguistic features that contribute towards style in language.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this module, students will have an understanding of the key frameworks used in stylistic analysis and the ability to apply them to rhetorical texts. Through practising this application, students will learn to identify patterns in the linguistic features that lead to stylistic effects. Consequently, students will have a heightened awareness of the use of language for artful and persuasive purposes.
  
  As well as subject-specific outcomes, students will gain from this module more generally by learning methods in the qualitative analysis of texts, to write critically and to present an argument clearly.

  Skills

  During this module, students will have the opportunity to acquire the following skills:
  
  Module-specific:
  - Linguistic analysis of rhetorical texts
  - Criticism of linguistic theory and practice
  - Identification of formal linguistic features
  
  Generic:
  - Qualitative research methods
  - Writing critically and reflectively
  - Presentation skills

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENL3011

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Representing the Working Class (20 credits)

  ×

  Representing the Working Class

  Overview

  This course aims to explore the writing and culture of the working class, to ask how socio-economic distinctions inflect judgements of ‘taste’, and to develop an understanding of the historical role of class in shaping identities across ethno-nationalist lines. A good deal of scholarship in recent decades has signalled a growing awareness of British working-class writing, though Irish Studies, by comparison, has tended to neglect issues of social class. We will therefore engage the more substantial body of scholarship on British working-class literature to inform our discussion of Irish working-class writers, signalling new and exciting possibilities for future scholarship.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this course, students will have refined their broad critical understanding of key thinkers in cultural materialist and left-wing literary theory. They will have applied this understanding to over a dozen key texts (including films), engaging a range of historical and social contexts across twentieth-century British and Irish writing, analysing the recurrence of key themes and ideas in working-class writing. Students will also have related these readings to developments in postcolonial, postmodern and feminist theories, where applicable, drawing on a broad range of cultural and intellectual perspectives.

  Skills

  During this module, students will have the opportunity to practise the following skills:
  - Critical analysis of key debates in literary and cultural theory;
  - Engagement with interdisciplinary debates regarding historiography and the sociology of culture;
  - Application of learning to key texts in working-class writing;
  - Comparative analysis of literary and filmic representations and conventions;
  - Writing critically and reflectively;
  - Presentation skills.

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3064

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Analysing Language: Exploring linguistic structures of English (20 credits)

  ×

  Analysing Language: Exploring linguistic structures of English

  Overview

  By exploring aspects of the grammar and syntax of English, this module will familiarise students with rules, principles, and processes that determine the structure of sentences in language. The course will also equip them with the appropriate methodological skills for the empirical analysis of language data and for the formal representation of data (i.e. phrase structure trees) to display the various operations that they will be introduced to throughout the module. Typical topics that will be covered include phrase structure, argument structure, case, agreement, noun phrase structure, binding and movement (although not necessarily all in each year).

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of this module, students will have a solid understanding of core concepts in formal syntactic theory, as well as the fundamentals of empirical enquiry and will be able to apply this theory to natural language data and account for the linguistic variation observed in English and related varieties.

  Skills

  By the end of the module, students will be able to identify lexical categories, apply syntactic tests for constituency locate clause boundaries in complex sentences and draw trees for basic English sentences. The students will be able to show how a restricted set of principles can account for a wide range of the phenomena of English syntax. Students will also develop critical thinking skills through the examination of different explanatory approaches to problems in the syntax of English and related varieties.

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENL3001

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Contemporary Irish and Scottish Fiction Devolutionary Identities (20 credits)

  ×

  Contemporary Irish and Scottish Fiction Devolutionary Identities

  Overview

  The past decades have not only seen an increasing interest in the historical, political and economic crosscurrents between Scotland and Ireland, but they have also witnessed a remarkable literary renaissance on both sides of the Irish Sea. This course explores the transformed literary landscape of Irish and Scottish fiction since the 1980s in relation to the (d)evolutionary processes of cultural and social change in today’s Atlantic archipelago, concerning in particular the Irish Republic’s economic boom in the 1990s (commonly referred to as the ‘Celtic Tiger’), the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, and the movement towards the reconstitution of the Scottish Parliament. We will examine how these changes and the issues that they raise are reflected in an indicative selection of Irish, Northern Irish, and Scottish novels, focusing on the relationship between the formal and stylistic experiments often found in these writings and the concepts of identity, society, the nation, history, and gender that they draw on, resist, and/or give rise to. In this respect, we will pay due attention to ideas about the role of literature, gender, sexuality, class, race, and religion in the (re)construction of national identity; questions of power, authority and authenticity, and the impact of globalization on cultural production; the politics of place and the rural/urban divide; revisions and representations of history, and issues of trauma and memory; the literary use of non-standard English; narrative tropes, techniques, and typographic experiments.
  
  This course aims to establish a comparative framework in order to trace the shared concerns and noteworthy differences that characterise and constitute a significant part of the contemporary Irish and Scottish literary scene. It is designed to introduce students to dominant critical and literary paradigms as well as key debates in Irish and Scottish Studies raised by postcolonialism, postmodernism, (post-) nationalism, gender studies, and feminism. To that end, literary texts will be read alongside theoretical and cultural perspectives in both fields, copies of which will be provided in a course reader.

  Learning Outcomes

  By the end of the module, students will have gained a in-depth knowledge of 11 Irish and Scottish novels and developed an understanding of the corpus of, and crosscurrents between, contemporary Scottish and Irish fiction. The module will introduce students to dominant critical and literary paradigms as well as key debates in Irish and Scottish Studies raised by postcolonialism, postmodernism, (post-) nationalism, gender studies, and feminism. They will be able to apply the knowledge they have gained in textual analysis of contemporary Irish and Scottish fiction, expanding their sense of new developments in subject matter, literary technique, and language use.

  Skills

  Students will gain a range of subject-specific, intellectual, practical and transferable skills: they will develop their critical assessment of texts and gain deeper analytic and textual competence. They will also hone their presentation and writing skills and learn to present and discuss complex issues with clarity and cogency, both orally and in writing, write clearly and succinctly, and organise study time effectively.

  Coursework

  80%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  20%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3060

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Contemporary US Crime Fiction: the Police, the State, the Globe (20 credits)

  ×

  Contemporary US Crime Fiction: the Police, the State, the Globe

  Overview

  This module examines some of the different manifestations of contemporary U.S. crime fiction since the late 1960s. Beginning with a section on ‘policing the city’ and the ways in which the genre negotiates the complex inter-relationship of race, class and capitalism, the module moves on to consider state violence and public corruption before concluding with an examination of the limitations of state power and the international reach of some crime fiction. Rather than arguing for the genre as a singular, static entity, the module examines its proliferation and diversity in the contemporary era (focusing on novels, TV series and films) and explores connections between crime fiction and other genres (e.g. urban realism and espionage fiction). In doing so, the module aims to situate different kinds of crime fiction as a series of complex negotiations with different forms of political authority (e.g. the police, the state, capitalism etc.).

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, students will have acquired the ability to analyse a broad range of exemplary U.S. crime fiction (novels, films, TV programs) in light of their understanding of particular theoretical approaches and different theoretical approaches in the light of their understanding of particular set texts. They will have developed an ability to identify particular generic traits, speak about the genre’s development since the late 1960s in a theoretical informed way and situate this development in relation to particular social, cultural, political and economic circumstances in the U.S and the global realm. They will have developed their skills in constructing written and spoken arguments drawing on appropriate primary and secondary evidence.

  Skills

  This module will allow students to build upon the skills that they have acquired in first and second year and in particular will allow and permit the following:
  - broad understanding of the development and proliferation of U.S. crime fiction since the 1960s;
  - understanding of the relationship of crime fiction texts to different forms of political authority;
  - an ability to analyse a variety of set texts in the light of particular theoretical approaches and analyse a variety if theoretical approaches in the light of particular set texts;
  - an ability to analyse literary and filmic/televisual texts and articulate sophisticated ideas and arguments in a clear, accessible manner in written and spoken assignments;
  - an ability to work closely in collaboration with other students.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENH3008

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Televising the Victorians (20 credits)

  ×

  Televising the Victorians

  Overview

  This module aims to raise questions about the relation between works of fiction set in the Victorian period, and made-for-TV reappropriations of these texts. It considers the way that we ‘read’ the Victorian period through visual image, and the impact of technologies of the visual on the written word. It introduces different theoretical approaches to film, and explains, by means of example, the differences between cinema and television. It explores connection between cinematic practice (montage, the shot, editing, sound, space and mise-en-scène) and notions of writing. It will ask questions about the nature of genre, spectatorship, and issues of ideology and effect. The module will concentrate on identifying the range of different resources required to understand the flow of images on the TV screen, and will examine how ‘adaptation’ is conceptualised, particularly the ways in which the comparison of book and film is haunted by notions of faithfulness and the ‘original’ primacy of the literary work.

  Learning Outcomes

  Having completed this module, you should have refined your ability to analyse literary texts sensitively in relation to films made for TV. You should have developed your skills in constructing written and spoken analyses and arguments, based on assembling appropriate primary and secondary evidence from textual and visual media. You should have developed an ability to conceptualise adaptations, to speak in a theoretically informed manner about reappropriations of works set in the Victorian period, to distinguish between film and television as visual media, and to read visual images in such a way as to appreciate how literature and film work together to produce cultural artefacts.

  Skills

  This module should enable you to build upon and substantially enhance the skills that you have already acquired during the course of your degree, and in particular should allow you to acquire and demonstrate the following: broad comprehension of modern scholarly debates concerning adaptations; understanding of how Victorian social and cultural contexts are translated or interpreted for the modern age; understanding of the fundamentals of film and television art; the ability to analyse critically the interrelation between works of fiction and their made for tv counterparts, in the process identifying their complexities and contradictions; effective oral and written communication skills.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3069

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Speech Worlds: Phonology in Acquisition and Disorder (20 credits)

  ×

  Speech Worlds: Phonology in Acquisition and Disorder

  Overview

  The module focuses on four main areas of phonetics. First, you will refine your existing skills in phonetic description and transcription by expanding your knowledge of articulatory categories and distinctions. We then examine methods of profiling speakers' phonetic and phonological systems, using a range of appropriate models. The third component of the module concentrates on intonational aspects of speech. Here, we will examine recent theoretical developments alongside traditional accounts, and we will assess the role of intonation in various communicative situations. Finally, you will gain knowledge of and practical ability in the acoustic analysis of speech. Building on the basic acoustic skills you acquired in Patterns of Spoken English, you will now move on to understand the role of instrumental analysis in the quantification of speech production characteristics. In each of these four areas, we will analyse speech from a wide range of contexts, including disordered speech and children's speech. Throughout the module, you will be encouraged to develop your aural phonetic skills by means of an audio-tape, specifically designed to accompany the course, along with CD-ROM packages.

  Learning Outcomes

  This module should equip you with a firm understanding of the role of advanced phonetic study in assessing and profiling speech. You should be in a position to undertake a detailed analysis of a speaker's output and to account for breakdowns in speech production using appropriate and informed explanations. Your experience of this module should encourage you to appreciate the value of detailed phonetic knowledge in, for example, English teaching where a detailed understanding of oracy skills can be central to educational development, in foreign language teaching and learning, and in clinical speech contexts.

  Skills

  The central aim of this module is to develop your theoretical and practical skills in phonetics. We will achieve this aim by examining the processes involved in the production of speech and describing/ transcribing them in detail; by understanding and evaluating models for phonetic analysis; by applying phonetic and phonological analysis as a means of understanding the structure of normal and disordered speech, and by using techniques of acoustic analysis in investigating phonetic data.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENL3003

  Teaching Period

  Autumn

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Marvels, Monsters and Miracles in Anglo-Saxon England (20 credits)

  ×

  Marvels, Monsters and Miracles in Anglo-Saxon England

  Overview

  The very nature of marvels insists on their subjectivity: they are defined by the experience of their viewer. To marvel from the Latin mirari or to wonder from the Germanic wundar is to be filled with awe, surprise, admiration or astonishment. When we try to generalise about the meaning of marvels and the use of wonder in the Middle Ages, we are confronted with multiplicity. How do we read marvels? What’s their role in medieval texts? Are monsters and miracles to be read as marvels? One of the most critical tools for discussing the nature of difference that is central to the marvellous is the idea of the ‘Other’ which offers both psychological and political means of analysing the experience of wonder. The Anglo-Saxons were fascinated by the idea of encounters with strangeness and difference – a fascination that expressed itself in a rich and diverse rang of textual, artistic and geographical representations of such imaginings. Difference was considered both marvellous and monstrous; terrifying and fascinating; disgusting and desirable.
  This module examines the perceptions of the marvellous and monstrous in the literature of the Anglo-Saxons. It investigates the nature of those phenomena which the Anglo-Saxons experienced as marvels, how they interpreted their experiences of astonishment and how they recreated them for others. It analyses the importance of ‘marvellous difference’ in defining ethnic, racial, religious, class and gender identities, as represented in different genres including historiography (i.e. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), travel narratives (Wonders of the East, Alexander’s Letter to Aristotle etc), hagiography (i.e. The Life of St Christopher) and other literary texts including Beowulf, Judith, Genesis B.
  Texts in Latin, Old Norse and Middle English may be used for comparative purposes. Modern English translations will be provided for all the texts. Students are also expected to be able to engage with texts in Old English.

  Learning Outcomes

  On completion of the module students should be able to:
  -Demonstrate a critical awareness of a variety of early medieval concepts and constructions of otherness and difference;
  -Show a familiarity with a range of medieval texts, genres and cultural concepts;
  -Demonstrate the ability to engage with both contemporary critical concepts and their applicability to pre-modern texts;
  -Show evidence of independent research and study skills;
  -Use relevant electronic databases to further their written work;
  -Demonstrate a consistent level of contribution to seminar discussions.

  Skills

  This module will enable students to:
  -Develop an informed sense of the complexity of concepts such as monstrosity, marvellous, superstition, miracle, religion, otherness;
  -Consider and evaluate how difference (racial, religious, gender, national) was conceptualised in early medieval English culture;
  -Acquire an understanding of various literary texts in relation to their cultural context and audience;
  -Develop an ability to engage critically with the primary material as well as familiarity with modern scholarly and critical approaches;
  Apply independent thought and academic research skills.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3011

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Special Topic in Creative Writing (20 credits)

  ×

  Special Topic in Creative Writing

  Overview

  This is a Special Topic module offered by a visiting Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing. The contents of the module, which will change on an annual basis, depending on the area of creative writing expertise of the Visiting Scholar, will provide an opportunity for students to work on a specific aspect of creative writing. The specific module content will be announced as early as possible each academic year. Students who sign up for this module will, as normal, have the right to switch to another module if the content does not suit their academic plans.

  Learning Outcomes

  On successful completion of this module students will have examined an aspect of creative writing and will have written extensively in the appropriate form or genre. Objectivity about their own creative practice will have been further fostered by the writing of a self-reflexive commentary to accompany their final submission. Students should have come some way towards developing their own creative voice.

  Skills

  To be decided.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENH3019

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Renaissance Performance, Gender, Space (20 credits)

  ×

  Renaissance Performance, Gender, Space

  Overview

  This module will examine gendered dimensions of performance from the late sixteenth century to the Restoration. It will introduce students to ways of reading performance via a range of playwrights, genres and theatrical contexts. Topics will include Shakespeare’s boy actors, the children’s playing companies, female performance, shifting dramatic practices and theatrical innovation. It will raise questions about performance spaces and traditions and the representation of gender, location, status, cross-dressing, the body and the actor on this stage.

  Learning Outcomes

  Students will gain knowledge of modes of representation on the Renaissance stage. They will become familiar with important developments in theatrical practices in this period. They will be able to critically reflect on the ways in which dramatic texts refract contemporary issues of gender, sexuality, status and location and to evaluate these themes across dramatic genres and performance spaces.

  Skills

  Students will develop skills of close analysis of texts in relation to Renaissance performance and cultural contexts. They will develop the ability to explore questions of gender, genre, space and performance. The module will improve students’ written and oral communication skills and enhance their abilities to develop an argument independently and through group work.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3181

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Special Topic in Irish Writing: Modern Irish Literature and the Primitive Sublime (20 credits)

  ×

  Special Topic in Irish Writing: Modern Irish Literature and the Primitive Sublime

  Overview

  This is a Special Topic module offered by a visiting Fulbright Scholar. This course focuses on contemporary Irish women writers and their depiction of home in light of the poetic duality of scáth, an Irish word that may be translated as either shadow or shelter. This duality of scáth helps capture the complicated nature of home, especially for Irish women, who have historically been caught somewhere between viewing “home” as a sheltered respite or as an imprisoning shadow. After rooting the Irish female literary tradition in Irish myths, we will study both how today’s authors not only describe this paradoxical relationship but also offer models of women who simultaneously resist the shadows and create their own shelters of beauty and hope without denying or ignoring ugly realities. Sample texts include Emma Donaghue’s Room, Anna Burns’s Milkman, and Maggie O’Farrell’s This Must Be the Place.

  Learning Outcomes

  Students will develop their skills in: close reading of literary texts; analysis of literary texts within cultural, historical, and biographical contexts; oral communication; formulation of critical arguments; research methods; scholarly writing, including the integration of primary and secondary sources and adherence to academic conventions

  Skills

  To be decided.

  Coursework

  100%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  0%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENH3020

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional

  Shakespeare on Screen (20 credits)

  ×

  Shakespeare on Screen

  Overview

  The late twentieth century has seen a proliferation of Shakespeare on screen. This module investigates the phenomenon through the cinematic history of four plays - Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Othello. It looks at the work of directors such as Laurence Olivier, Franco Zeffirelli, Orson Welles, Kenneth Branagh, Baz Luhrmann, Oliver Parker and Michael Almereyda. Debate will focus upon the following areas; the relationship between the playtext and the film; the malleability of Shakespeare as a cultural icon; the relevance of Shakespeare to a modern audience; the shifting status of Shakespeare as a signifier of gender, race, technology and politics.

  Learning Outcomes

  This module aims to inculcate an in-depth knowledge of the multifarious ways in which Shakespeare is appropriated in late twentieth-century cinema; to enable students to discriminate between various filmic versions of a play; to gain the confidence and capability to deploy critical and theoretical tools to talk about film constructively; and to reflect upon connections between Shakespearean production and the preoccupations of a particular historical moment.

  Skills

  Having successfully completed this module, you should have become familiar with a range of ways in which Shakespeare is appropriated in the cinema; you should have learned how to utilise a theoretical filmic vocabulary in the interests of larger analyses; you should be able to discriminate between various filmic versions of a play and to identify some of their cultural and intertextual influences; you should have further honed your presentational skills and, through regular teamwork, learned the value of collaborative practice.

  Coursework

  90%

  Examination

  0%

  Practical

  10%

  Stage/Level

  3

  Credits

  20

  Module Code

  ENG3087

  Teaching Period

  Spring

  Duration

  12 weeks

  Pre-requisite

  No

  Core/Optional

  Optional