Modules

Arts and languages Access module (Y031)

Are you new to higher education study or returning after a break? This Access module – which presents several times a year and is designed to develop the key skills required for successful university study – is an ideal starting point. You may even be able to study for free. This module includes case studies from the field of art history, including one centred on the Turner prize, alongside a range of other subjects, including English literature, English language studies, history and modern languages. The theme of popular protest runs throughout the module and is used to link the various subject areas. This module will also gently introduce you to computing and online learning; the perfect way to gain the study skills you’ll need for the next step in your studies.

Discovering the arts and humanities (A111)

Do you want to know more about how people have expressed themselves through the ages and around the world? If so, this module is for you. Studying the arts and humanities helps us to learn about what people thought and felt throughout history, as well as how the things they created influence the world we live in today. The module is built around three themes: 'reputations', 'traditions' and 'crossing boundaries'. It invites you to discover people, events, practices, ideas and works of art from three thousand years ago to the present day. No qualifications or previous study experience are needed, and there is lots of support available to help you succeed if this is your first module at university level.
Cultures (A112)

How are cultures produced and encountered, and why does it matter? These questions are examined in this module through the key themes of place, power, literary ‘classics’, and journeys. You'll learn about contemporary cultures and relationships between cultures throughout history, discover how and why cultural identities emerge, and explore how they are expressed using texts, images and objects. After exploring a range of case studies from classical studies, art history, English literature, and creative writing, you'll investigate these themes with specific reference to your choice of one of these subject areas.

Literature matters (A240)

In this module you'll think about literature in the light of key contemporary concerns: representation and identity, the environment, politics, and the imagination. Along the way, you'll read books in a diverse range of literary genres, including novels, drama, short stories, poetry, and essays. In your literary encounters, you'll travel in time from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century and read texts from Britain and around the world.
Telling stories – the novel and beyond (A233)

How have writers chosen to tell their stories, and why? What techniques do they use to make us believe in the reality of the worlds they create? If you’re interested in finding out in depth about how literature works this module is for you. You'll read gripping stories from across literary history, from Shakespeare to science fiction, from Thomas Hardy to Arundhati Roy, with a particular focus on nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels.

English literature from Shakespeare to Austen (A334)

This module takes you on an engaging journey through a diverse selection of great literature from 1570 to 1818. You will focus on two globally recognised writers in English: the playwright William Shakespeare and the novelist, Jane Austen. Your literary journey from Shakespeare to Austen will include Renaissance poetry (Donne, Spenser) and drama (Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy), Restoration comedy (Wycherley, The Country Wife), 18th century fiction (Swift, Gulliver’s Travels), Oriental tales (Arabian Nights), travel writing (Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters), autobiography (Rousseau, Confessions) and Romantic ballads.
Literature in transition: from 1800 to the present (A335)

This module draws you into the main currents of literature from 1800 to the present day. You will engage with some of the most stimulating literary works ever written, and track the seismic historical transitions and transformations relevant to them – with an eye on our present and the future. Numerous major authors are offered for close critical study (Dickens, Tennyson, Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Winterson, and others), alongside exciting but relatively neglected authors. Influential literary movements and critical interventions will be discussed, while leaving ample space for your own ideas. The module has three parts: Realities, Movements, Futures.

MA English literature part 1 (A893)

Our MA in English Literature introduces you to studying literature ‘in the world’ across three broad themes: ‘Literature and the Popular’, ‘Literature and Revolution’ and ‘Literature and the Global’. You’ll also have a wide choice of optional texts: from early-modern manuscripts to detective fiction; and from classical tragedy to the global short story. You’ll encounter actual archives and databases and be introduced to digitised manuscripts and other original materials as you develop skills in research and analysis. You’ll also work like a professional researcher using specific approaches, following up clues, reviewing context, and making exciting discoveries about your topic.
MA English literature part 2 (A894)

This module requires you to produce a dissertation on a subject in Literary Studies of your own choice. The opening block guides you in drafting a detailed research proposal, and also introduces strategies for communicating your research to non-university audiences. The remainder of the module is dedicated to writing the dissertation. Working in close dialogue with your own personal tutor, you'll proceed from the initial proposal to submit drafts of the first two chapters before submitting the final dissertation.