English Literature BA

Core modules:

Renaissance to Revolution

This module surveys the poetry and prose from the early modern period in England, i.e., that written between the beginnings of the sixteenth century through the seventeenth century to the late eighteenth century. We will look at different genres, from court complaint to sonnets, prose fiction, erotic verse, restoration drama and the works of writers such as Donne, Herbert, Spenser, Marlowe, Dyrden, Milton and Pope. The texts studied will be related to critical methods that help us understand the relationships between literature and the culture, society, and politics of the period in which it was produced.

40 credits

Optional modules:

Early Englishes

Early Englishes works backward over a whole millennium of English, 1600 to 600. Each week's lectures and seminar focus on one century and one text representative of that century (for example, Beowulf and Piers Plowman). We will use a variety of techniques , literary, linguistic, anthropological, cultural historical, to analyse each text, thereby opening up discussion of the issues that preoccupied the English of the time, from glorious monster-slaying to the slow surrender of pagan belief to terror at the imminent arrival of Antichrist and on to the first expressions of love and desire. Texts will initially be studied in translation so no prior knowledge of Old or Middle English is necessary, but students will also be given the opportunity to examine texts in the original language.

20 credits

Contemporary Literature

This module introduces students to a diverse range of texts in English (prose, poetry, and film) with a focus on texts published since 2000. Texts will be chosen to provoke thinking and debate on urgent and controversial topics that might include: globalisation and neoliberalism; ecology and animal lives; artificial intelligence and the posthuman; political activism and social justice; migration and displacement; state violence and armed conflict. We will discuss formally and conceptually challenging works, raise ethical and philosophical questions and begin to discover how current critical and theoretical approaches can help us to engage with contemporary texts.

20 credits

Introduction to Creative Writing

The aim of this unit is to help students to develop their expressive and technical skills in writing poetry and prose and to improve their abilities as an editor and critic of their own and other people's writing. Students will be guided in the production of new work and encouraged to develop an analytical awareness of both the craft elements and the wider cultural and theoretical contexts of writing. This module explores poetic techniques for creating new poems and narrative techniques for generating some prose work through the critical study of published examples, imaginative exercises, discussion and feedback on students' own writing. This exploration will help students to develop their own creative work while sharpening critical appreciation of published poetry and modern and contemporary fiction. The course is designed to give students the expereince of being workshopped as well as to establish basic creative writing techniques on Level 1 to preparing students for the challenges of Creative Writing Level 2.

20 credits

Shakespeare

This unit introduces students to the plays and poetry of William Shakespeare. Students will read a wide range of his works and will analyse them in the context of the cultural and historical energies of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. We will consider the range of dramatic styles and genres that he engages, alongside the conditions of performance, kinds of publication, and the characteristics of the language in which he worked. We shall also relate the texts to critical methods that help illuminate the relationships between drama and the culture, politics, and religion of the period.

20 credits

History of English

This module traces the history of the English language of the Fifth century AD through to the present day. Students will learn about the development of English over this period, looking at the factors which have shaped the language, and learning a variety of techniques for studying the language. The module will also introduce students to the range and variety of the English language at all periods, and to the ways in which English influences, and is influenced by, other languages.

20 credits

Practical Stylistics

How are literary effects created through language? How can we describe these effects? This course will aim to provide literature students with a gentle introduction to language, and provide language students with experience of applying linguistic analysis to literary texts. The emphasis will be upon a practical hands-on approach, and topics covered will include sentence structure, lexical choice, cohesion, narrative structure, discourse analysis (with reference to drama and dialogue) and point of view in narrative fiction. The texts studied will be predominantly literary and twentieth century, and will include extracts from novels, plays, poetry and short stories.

20 credits

Introduction to Cinema

This module aims to study a cross-section of the most important American films up to the present day and to develop both a formalist and an institutional analysis of these works. Its intention is to study the growth of the classical Hollywood style, a matter of a sophisticated range of technical stratagems as well as of a genre-based cinema, and of the institution of Hollywood itself, the most significant force in cinema to-day.

20 credits

Studying Theatre: A History of Dramatic Texts in Performance

Covering classical, contemporary and popular texts, Introduction to Theatre aims to turn an interest in theatre and theatre-going into a more thorough appreciation of the ways in which playwriting, acting, design and performance have shaped theatre's development. Each week students will study a particular play and the historical context that informed its first performances and its theatrical afterlife. The course emphasis is on theatre as a social practice and practical discipline. Seminars and lectures will focus on the play in performance, and the processes that underlie production. Students do not need previous knowledge or experience, but should be prepared to try some new approaches to texts, for example through practical workshops.

20 credits

Foundations in Literary Study: Biblical and Classical Sources in English Literature

This module provides foundational knowledge about the treatment of Biblical and Classical sources in English Literature. It is an important unit for the study of literature and the Humanities, preparing students for work at higher levels. Typically a Biblical or Classical source and a literary text will be discussed together, to expose a range of meanings and to prepare participants for their own research about both the Bible and Classical material as literature and the treatment of Bible and Classical material in Literature. It will also prepare students for independent research. It is recommended that all students of English take this module.

20 credits

Reviewing Theatre: The Art of the Critic

This module focuses on:1) The development of appropriate skills and vocabularies to facilitate analysis and discussion of theatre performance.2) The question of how an essentially ephemeral event might be most effectively documented for the benefit of future researchers.3. An exploration of the reception and impact of specific 'historical' performances, and how we know what we know about them.Students will watch contrasting kinds of live theatrical performance, which they will discuss, analyse, and respond to in a variety of ways. They will also carry out research into selected past performances and consider the role and practice of threatre criticism.

20 credits

Core modules:

Romanticism to Modernism (a)

This module focuses on a diverse range of texts (including poetry, prose, drama and film) produced between the late eighteenth to the late twentieth century. It pays detailed attention to the varied styles, issues, and movements produced by the rapid technological, political and cultural shifts that characterise these two centuries. Drawing on the expertise of the teaching team, the module introduces cutting-edge research carried out within the department in areas such as romanticism, the Gothic and science fiction, experimental literature, colonial and postcolonial contexts, war studies, and animal studies

40 credits

Literature and Critical Thought (a)

This course introduces writers, concepts and approaches fundamental to contemporary literary theory, and explores their application to diverse relevant texts. Students will engage in a transhistorical study of the formal, literary and cultural functions of genre (e.g. in the forms of comedy and tragedy). They will also encounter theorists such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Ferdinand de Saussure, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Michael Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan and Jean Baudrillard. Lectures will introduce and explain this material, and seminars will discuss and apply it to the study of literature.

40 credits

Romanticism to Modernism (b)

This module focuses on a diverse range of texts (including poetry, prose, drama and film) produced between the late eighteenth to the late twentieth century. It pays detailed attention to the varied styles, issues, and movements produced by the rapid technological, political and cultural shifts that characterise these two centuries. Drawing on the expertise of the teaching team, the module introduces cutting-edge research carried out within the department in areas such as romanticism, the Gothic and science fiction, experimental literature, colonial and postcolonial contexts, war studies, and animal studies.

20 credits

Literature and Critical Thought (b)

This course introduces writers, concepts and approaches fundamental to contemporary literary theory, and explores their application to diverse relevant texts. Students will engage in a transhistorical study of the formal, literary and cultural functions of genre (e.g. in the forms of comedy and tragedy). They will also encounter theorists such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Ferdinand de Saussure, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Michael Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan and Jean Baudrillard. Lectures will introduce and explain this material, and seminars will discuss and apply it to the study of literature.

20 credits

Optional modules:

Creating Fiction (details TBA)

Road Journeys in American Culture: 1930-2000

This module analyses the development of road narratives from the 1930s to the present, looking at the ways in which this narrative trope tells the story of American culture and society throughout the twentieth-century. The module aims to address some or all of the following questions. Do road journeys reflect or run away from political realities 'at home'? To what extent is the road journey a gendered space predominantly occupied by men? Are certain groups of people allowed to travel and other groups not? Is the road journey a metaphor for American colonization and expansion, or something else more ambiguous? Texts to be studied include films such as 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Bonnie and Clyde', The Straight Strory', and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' novels such as 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac, 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov, and 'The Music of Chance' by Paul Auster, and poems by Elizabeth Bishop and Amy Clampitt.

20 credits

John Donne

This module focuses on the work of one of the most charismatic, provocative, and intellectually challenging poets and preachers of the early modern period, John Donne. Ranging across Donne¿s writings, we will consider his erotic and religious poetry, political satires, letters, and sermons. The module will examine the social and literary circles in which Donne¿s work was written and read, with a particular emphasis on contemporary cultures of print and manuscript, and also seek to locate Donne¿s work in the wider context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century society, exploring, for example, his engagement with court politics, religious controversy, debates about marriage, and the exploration of the New World. The module will conclude with an examination of the critical reception of Donne¿s work and, in particular, the ways in which his biography has been constructed from the seventeenth-century to the present day.

20 credits

Shakespeare on Film

This module deals with issues arising from the transposition of Shakespeare¿s plays to film. It will consider such issues as the relationship between text, staging and the cinematic adaptation. The course will look at, for example, the comparative strengths of films that attempt textual fidelity (Branagh¿s Hamlet) and those that reflect the auteur/director¿s need to `rewright¿ the original (Derek Jarman¿s The Tempest); and analyse the problems, in terms of space, language and otherwise, associated with adapting stage drama for cinematic purposes. In particular, this module will look at some of the most exciting, unconventional and successful adaptations of Shakespearean plays to screen.

20 credits

Literature and Nonsense

This Level 2 module aims to introduce students to literary nonsense published between the eighteenth century and the present day. Challenging the common conception that nonsense literature is a Victorian phenomenon that begins and ends with Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, it will trace both the forebears and the heirs of these two fathers of nonsense in order to propose nonsense as a kind of writing that presents radical formal, philosophical and ideological challenges to literary and critical practice.

20 credits

Literature, Ecology, Capital

Fredric Jameson famously noted that it `seems to be easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism¿. This module explores how literature represents the relationships between ecological crisis and the crises of capitalism. We will consider texts concerned with (for example) petroculture, habitat loss, biotechnology, meat and tourism. Chronologically, we will move from the late nineteenth century to the present. Given the global nature of the topic, we will be concerned with a diverse range of national literatures.

20 credits

New Realisms: Contemporary British Cinema

This module will explore the ways in which contemporary British directors working within the broad traditions of British realist cinema have responded to and sought to represent the contemporary period. Students will study films by directors such as Andrea Arnold, Shane Meadows, Andrew Haigh, Clio Barnard, Duane Hopkins, Joanna Hogg, Steve McQueen, and Francis Lee and will consider these works in a range of theoretical, formal, and institutional contexts.

20 credits

European Gothic

What were the historical circumstances which led to the rise of the Gothic in Europe? This course will interrogate the Gothic through this and many other questions which will place emphasis upon its historical and political contexts. We will examine a variety of Gothic texts from 1764 to the present day, and locate and critique them historically through a variety of contemporary reviews and critical essays. Gothic art and architecture will also be examined in relation to the texts with a scheduled slide show, examining work by 'Gothic' artists such as Goya and Piranesi.

20 credits

Representing the Holocaust

This course will examine fictional and non-fictional, literary and filmic, representations of the Holocaust, and considers the use and extension of conventional textual forms to do so, including documentary film, memoir, short story and cartoon. Texts covered will include Elie Wiesel's 'Night', Claude Lanzmann's film 'Shoah', Martin Sherman's 'Bent', Martin Amis's 'Time's Arrow' and Ida Fink's stories in 'A Scrap of Time'.

20 credits

Storying Sheffield

On this innovative and exciting course you will work alongside Sheffield people from less advantaged backgrounds in order to co-produce narratives about their lives in the city, and contribute to a high-quality web-based narrative resource: ¿The Sheffield Story Web¿. In seminars and workshops you will develop skills in using narrative as a method of undertaking research, and will learn about narrative and personal geographies; the study of English and `real-world¿ projects; and representing life-stories using creative means. The course will provide you with opportunities to develop and demonstrate a wide range of transferable skills attractive to future employers.

20 credits

Good Books: Intertextual Approaches to Literature and the Bible

Literature, film and television constantly return to the Bible as a source of narrative, character and image. Biblical texts are translated, rewritten, transposed and radically challenged by literature from the medieval period to the present day and so intertextual readings of the Bible and literature provide insight into the ways authors engage with politics, philosophy, and tradition. Our module explores a range of intertextual relationships, from medieval dream poetry through to contemporary writing and cultural representation, including a range of genres and approaches. We will analyse film, TV and visual media as well as literary forms, to explore the ways in which creative writers interpret and re-imagine biblical narratives and tropes.

20 credits

Satire and Print in the Eighteenth Century

Against a background of political, religious and cultural ferment, new ideas of the individual's relationship to the state emerged in the early-eighteenth century. New kinds of readers, authors, and an increasingly powerful book trade reshaped the literary map of Britain. Those fraught relationships are captured in the prose and poetry of the satirists upon this course. The political, religious and economic satires of writers including Defoe, Pope, Swift, Ramsay, Finch, Gay, Leapor, Montagu, Addison and Steele will be read as a new and troubled relationship between the individual and the state emerged alongside a vigorously contested idea of 'Britain' in literature.

20 credits

The Postcolonial Bildungsroman

This module considers the bildungsroman as a global form that, having emerged in tandem with Western imperialism, remains a vital means of constructing the self and (re)imagining social and political relations in postcolonial literatures. We will focus on the representation of growth, development and community in novels from South Asia, Nigeria, South Africa and the Caribbean, paying attention to features that are, arguably, anti-developmental, including primitivism, animality, violence, illness and disability. We will investigate how `postcolonial' or `global' novels stretch, resist or overhaul, an inherited form and ask how contemporary concerns with race, gender and religious conflict play out for protagonists in whose lives the local and the global meet.

20 credits

Crime Writing: from the fin de siècle to the Golden Age

How did the genre of crime writing become so influential? This module will examine the cultural history of crime writing from 1890-1950, in a range of genres including detective novels, short stories, plays and films, and true crime writing or reportage. By focusing on a number of narratives of crime, the module will invite an analysis of how this genre is engaged with and subverted by writers wrestling with a modernity that included developments including two World Wars, imperialism and anticolonial movements, women’s suffrage and presence in the workplace and a hugely increased use of technology, alongside the rise of criminology and psychoanalysis.

20 credits

The Invention of Romanticism: Pride, Persuasion and the Modern Mind
Stories at the End of the World: From the Beginning of the End to Apocalypse Now
What it Means Not to be Human: Animals, Ecology, Technology, Literature
Creative, Experimental, Destructive (Writing)
Chivalry and Romance in the Middle Ages
Middlemarch
Power, Knowledge and Sexuality on Stage, 1580 -1700
Literature of the Black Atlantic
ModCons: Exploring the Long Twentieth Century
Renaissance Literature, Modern Crisis
Life After Death? Romantic Poets Write the Afterlife

Radical Theory

The premise of this course is the necessity to re-interpret the university as a site for philosophical speculation and theory-based intervention. Run collectively, the course will address, to use Walter Benjamin's terms, the catastrophe of the status quo, and is structured around three aims, which are: 1) to address `moments' of crisis such as, for example, climate change; the neoliberal, market-driven higher education system; the state of exception; the myth of the human; 2) to theorize these crises, and 3) to explore the relationship between theory and practice: in particular to explore theorized agency as enabling political activism.

20 credits

Dissertation

This module provides third year students with an opportunity to develop work done in Approved Modules and Core units, or study a relevant topic not included in these courses. Students are expected to show a capacity for research and for organising a long essay. The Dissertation is an essay between 8,000 and 10,000 words, the result of a sustained period of independent study at Level 3. The Dissertation takes the place of a second semester Approved Module. Disertation topics must be approved by the Dissertation convenor, Cathy Shrank. She will take into account appropriate courses that have been taken. She may advise against taking the Dissertation. It is exected that students will formulate a topic with the help of a potential supervisor chosen from the full-time academic staff and after discussion with their Personal Tutor. Registration for the Dissertation depends on availability of supervisors. Dissertation students have a preliminary meeting with their supervisors early in Semester 1 and then meet supervisors at least three times during Semester 2. Normally supervisors read one near-complete draft of the Dissertation not later than the first week after the Easter vacation. The Dissertation is due at the end of Semester 2 and normal assessment submission regulations apply to it.

20 credits