English and History BA

English literature pathway 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

English literature pathway 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

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

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

Studying Theatre: A History of Dramatic Texts in Performance

Covering classical, contemporary and popular texts, Studying Theatre; A History of Dramatic Text in Performance 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

Exploring Literary Language

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

Hybrid Forms? Comedy and Tragedy

This module gives you the opportunity to study developments in comedy and tragedy from classical antiquity to the present day. This focus on genre enables you to take a broadly comparative approach, setting, for instance, works of classical antiquity alongside those of the early modern, modern, and contemporary worlds. As such, the module equips you to draw connections between periods studied separately at different points of your degree and between disparate forms, e.g. drama and the novel. Over the course of this module we will consider questions such as: what is genre, and why is it important? How does genre reflect or respond to historical change? Is there any such thing as a ‘pure’ genre or is hybridization a defining feature of genre itself? We will answer these questions by reading texts by authors such as Angela Carter, Noel Coward, Plautus, Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Wole Soyinka.

20 credits

Theatre 1: Staging Texts

This module will explore the processes through which texts written for theatrical performance ('plays') may be effectively interrogated, interpreted, and translated into performances. This will involve seeing one or more productions and analysing the relationship between the written and the performance texts, but the main emphasis will be on the first-hand, studio-based practical exploration of text(s). Though some consideration may be given to the perspectives of designers, directors and others, students will engage with text(s) primarily as imaginative, inventive and creative performers and interpreters of text(s).

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

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

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

English language pathway core modules:

The Sounds of English

This module is an introduction to the subdisciplines of Linguistics known as Phonetics and Phonology, focusing specifically on the sounds of the English language. It is designed to provide a solid understanding of how speech sounds are made and how they function in use. The lectures will present descriptions of English speech sounds and theories to explain their behaviour in a range of different accents and contexts, and the workshop classes will provide hands-on experience in using and thinking about the sounds of English. The module serves as an essential basis for more advanced linguistic study.

10 credits

The Structures of English

This module is an introduction to the syntax of natural languages, focussing on the syntactic structure of contemporary English. This module is intended as a sister module to the 10-credit 'Sounds of English' module, which runs in parallel. It is designed to provide a firm grounding in the descriptions of English sentence structure(s), and to introduce students to the main theories and methods of syntactic argumentation. The lectures will cover major topics in the formal description of English sentences, while the workshop classes will provide hands-on experience in analysing and thinking about sentence structure. The module serves as an essential basis for more advanced linguistic study.

10 credits

English language pathway optional modules:

Varieties of English

This course explores the extraordinary diversity of the English language today, and is concerned with describing the features, use and status of contemporary varieties of English in Britain and around the world. Extraterritorial varieties are located within histories of expansion, colonialism, and globalisation, and considered in relation to the role of English as an international language. We investigate developments which led to the social and geographic distribution of certain present day varieties in Britain. Students will apply tools of description for all linguistic levels, and develop awareness of sociolinguistic aspects of language such as social indexing, attitudes and standardisation, as well as the relationship between variation and change.

20 credits

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

Exploring Literary Language

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

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

Linguistic Theory

This module explores how language is structured by examining central issues in linguistic theory, building upon the concepts introduced in EL112 Sounds of English and ELL113 Structure of English. Students will be instructed in (1) foundational theories and concepts in areas such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, (2) the linguistic evidence that informs these approaches, (3) the analytical techniques required to apply these theories to language data, and (4) the relevance of such theoretical models for the wider study of language. The module will develop analytical tools in using linguistic theory, training students to rigorously interpret language data within theoretical frameworks

20 credits

Core history modules:

History Workshop

What does it take to be a historian? In this module, you will study the process of historical research, learning discipline-specific methods and essential study and writing skills through close engagement with a historical text (usually a work of narrative non-fiction) linked to your tutor's research interests. You will develop skills in critical reading, historiography, essay writing, bibliographic techniques, and reflection.

The assessment for this module is aimed at giving you a strong foundation in the skills you will need throughout your degree and beyond: critical reading and writing, bibliographic techniques, and the ability to reflect on and articulate your skills as a historian.

20 credits

Optional history modules:

Paths from Antiquity to Modernity

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the broad structures of Western history from the end of the Roman Empire to the present day. It provides students intending to take History Single or Dual Honours degree modules with a common framework for the more detailed modules that you will be studying at Levels Two and Three. At the same time, it provides non-historians with a fundamental appraisal of the shape of the past, to which courses in other departments will readily relate. Our aim is to equip you with an understanding of the periodisation of western history and of the major transitions in the process of modernisation. In the process, you will become more critically aware of the essential conceptual tools that modern historians readily use to analyse the past. The module aims to provide the essential training in the skills and methods needed for University level historical study.

20 credits

Empire: From the Ancient World to the Middle Ages

Covering the period from the 4th century BC to the 15th century AD, this module invites students to explore the ancient and medieval worlds through the lens of 'empire'. It provides an introduction to ancient and medieval types of empire, their contacts with and legacies to each other, and the connectedness between East and West in this period. Using a wealth of primary evidence and drawing on corresponding historiographical debates, students explore what it meant to live in ancient and medieval empires, what kind of social, cultural and religious encounters they engendered, and whether there was any space for resistance.

20 credits

The 'Disenchantment' of Early Modern Europe, c. 1570-1770

This module explores the fundamental shifts in mental attitudes and public behaviour that occurred in Europe between the age of the Reformation and the age of the Enlightenment. The central focus of the course will be the examination of the supernatural - religious beliefs, but also witchcraft and magic. You will explore the changing ways in which beliefs impinged on people's lives at various social levels. You will also have an opportunity to study the impact on people's world views of such changes as rising literacy, urbanisation, state formation and new discoveries about the natural world. All these will be investigated in the institutional contexts of state and church and the ways in which they sought to channel and mould beliefs and behaviour. This module enables you to understand how the early modern period is distinctive from and links medieval and later modern historical studies.

20 credits

The Making of the Twentieth Century

This module considers the twentieth century as a time that transformed the social and political order in the world, calling into question the role of the European powers in global contexts, and dramatically reorienting the relationship between states and societies. You will engage with case studies representing key themes in twentieth-century global history: imperialism and the processes of decolonisation; the challenges of building the postcolonial nation; revolutions and the emergence of new states; war, genocide and conflict; and the institutions of international order.

In addressing these themes, The Making of the Twentieth Century has a particular aim of counteracting prevailing tendencies towards Eurocentrism.  You will gain a considerable body of knowledge on the histories of Asia, Africa and Latin America especially.  At the same time, emphasis is placed on the empirical and theoretical grounds upon which competing interpretations rest in order to encourage you to develop critical awareness of the character of historical analysis.  More generally, this module aims to develop analytical, conceptual and literary skills through class discussion and written assignments.  Communication skills will also be emphasised in weekly seminars that will allow specific issues to be discussed in more depth, often with reference to primary source material.  Above all, the module seeks to stimulate an interest in history and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

20 credits

The Transformation of the United Kingdom, 1800 to the Present

This module explores the central political, social, economic, cultural and diplomatic developments that have transformed Britain since 1800. Unlike most of its European neighbours, Britain did not experience dramatic moments of revolution, constitution-building, invasion or military defeat; indeed the belief that the nation was set on a course of gradual evolutionary progress was central to many versions of British identity. This course examines how, when and why change occurred in Britain. Key themes include the transition to mass democracy; the impact of industrialisation; shifts in social relationships based on class, gender and ethnicity; and the rise and fall of Britain as an imperial power.

20 credits

Try a new subject:

The flexible structure of your first year at Sheffield means that you also have the chance to experience modules from outside of English and History - you can choose up to 40 credits of modules from a list approved by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. A final guided module list is made available to new students when you select your modules as part of registration.

Core English literature modules:

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

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 (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 (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

Optional English literature modules:

The History of Persuasion

In all areas of life language plays a crucial role in defining what kind of event is taking place, who is in a position of authority and whose assertions should be trusted and believed. The aim of this module is to explore the nature of texts produced within four different areas: science, religion, the mass-media, and the market place. We shall consider the linguistic characteristics of each discourse and discuss how authority is constructed and persuasion achieved within each area. We shall also examine the emergence of each discourse from a historical angle and explore the controversies which surround communication in all four contexts. Students will have the opportunity to use stylistic techniques in the analysis of both historical and contemporary texts and to explore the social and cultural history of communication. Where appropriate, comparisons will be drawn with more literary genres with the aim of investigating (and problematising) the distinction between literary and non-literary discourse.

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

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

Contemporary Drama and Creative Practices

This module engages with diverse modes of contemporary drama and creative practices, including formats beyond conventional play scripts. Expanding literary and dramatic traditions, this module investigates alternative, experimental and even radical processes for creating drama and creative practice and reflects on the potential these modes of making might offer. Students will be introduced to a range of approaches, aesthetics and forms in which contemporary dramatic and creative practices could be understood and analysed. Building on interdisciplinary understandings and theoretical research, this module will also examine the contexts which gave rise to these modes of making and consider how these respond to or challenge different traditions. Under staff direction and supervision, students will experiment with different strategies and apply various methodologies in making, writing and sharing new dramatic and creative texts, drawing from their practical research and exploration.

20 credits

Victorian Women Poets: Stressing Sex

This module introduces students to a range of Victorian women poets and the critical and ideological debates that surround their work. Reading the poetry of canonical writers, such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti alongside less familiar works by, for example Mathilde Blind and Amy Levy, students will be encouraged to engage with questions of gender and genre and to think about how women employed different poetic forms and voices to respond to the political, scientific and religious upheavals of the nineteenth century. The module also explores the gender politics of the literary canon and encourages students to consider how a focus on women writers from diverse class, national and ethnic backgrounds might resist powerful narratives about Victorian literature and culture.

20 credits

Exiles and Monsters: An Introduction to Old English

This module explores the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England, enabling you to read and understand the earliest English literature. You will learn how to read Old English, developing a good understanding of Old English grammar and gaining familiarity with the language and literature through translating a range of texts. We will examine the historical background and cultural contexts of these texts, introducing you to the breadth and variety of Old English texts, and to differing critical approaches to them.

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

The Novella and the Uncanny

This course will explore novellas from across the last 150 years which represent uncanny experiences of haunting, madness, obsession, and psychological and political disorientation, with these intense experiences often refracted through the consciousness of a central character. We will consider whether the particularities of this literary form lend themselves to representing experiences at the 'limits of reason'. Texts will include works by Kafka, Camus, George Eliot, Ayn Rand, Pynchon and others. The course will encompass the study of some relevant theory, including Freud's essay 'The Uncanny' - which itself contains an analysis of Hoffman's bizarre short story 'The Sandman'.

20 credits

John Donne Worlds of Desire

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

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

Creative Writing Prose Fiction 2

The aim of this unit is to help students to develop their expressive and technical skills in writing prose fiction at Level 2 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. The emphasis throughout will be on reading as a writer and writing as a reader.

20 credits

Writing the Real

This module explores the often problematic relationship between literature and 'the real world', using a range of theoretical and stylistic approaches. We will consider why 'realism' is such a difficult term to get to grips with; why describing a text or film as 'realistic' can be a very politically charged act; how ideas of 'the real' have changed over time; and what effects the inclusion of 'real' materials into fictional works may have. We will explore 'the real' in a wide range literary texts and films, including works by Elizabeth Gaskell, Ken Loach and Harold Pinter.

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

Sex and Decadence in Restoration Theatre

The period between the Restoration of Charles II 1660 and the accession of James II (1688), witnessed an astonishing development of theatrical practice and culture; the professional Restoration stage, unlike its Renaissance predecessor, used actresses rather than cross-dressed boys to play female parts and the introduction of moveable scenery to these theatres brought with it different styles of acting, plotting and realism. On this module, we will consider how this new kind of theatre enabled the emergence of two key Restoration theatrical types, the rake and the courtesan, and what these new roles might tell us about changing attitudes towards sex

20 credits

Queer and Now: Contemporary Queer Texts

This module introduces students to a range of contemporary queer texts and considers how they respond to key debates and conversations regarding gender, sexuality, identity and community. Students will explore a variety of exemplary texts and artworks from the late 20th century up to the present day, together with the social, political, cultural and theoretical contexts which inform them. Considering how queer texts and theories might expand, challenge or stand in opposition to notions of canon, students will read works by queer novelists, poets and writers and will watch plays, films and drag performances to examine the opportunities of queer work and its relationship to activism and social change.

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

Creative Writing Poetry 2

We learn by example: a creative writer is first and foremost a creative reader and a critical reader of his/her own work. This module explores poetic form and techniques for creating new poems through the critical study of published examples, imaginative exercises, discussion and feeback on students' own writing. This exploration will help students to develop their own creative work while sharpening critical appreciation of the formal aspects of poetry. Subjects covered will include: metre, rhythm and free verse; rhyme and verbal patterning; traditional forms such as sonnet and terza rima; new ways with form.

20 credits

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

Christopher Marlowe

This module gives students the opportunity to read the entire dramatic and poetic output of Shakespeare's great rival, Christopher Marlowe. In putting plays into dialogue with lyric and narrative poetry, we will interrogate the implications of the label 'poet-dramatist' to describe the trajectory of Marlowe's career. Students will also look at important institutional contexts for the publication of Marlowe's work: professional theatre, patronage networks and print.

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

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 (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

Core English language modules:

The History of Persuasion

In all areas of life language plays a crucial role in defining what kind of event is taking place, who is in a position of authority and whose assertions should be trusted and believed. The aim of this module is to explore the nature of texts produced within four different areas: science, religion, the mass-media, and the market place. We shall consider the linguistic characteristics of each discourse and discuss how authority is constructed and persuasion achieved within each area. We shall also examine the emergence of each discourse from a historical angle and explore the controversies which surround communication in all four contexts. Students will have the opportunity to use stylistic techniques in the analysis of both historical and contemporary texts and to explore the social and cultural history of communication. Where appropriate, comparisons will be drawn with more literary genres with the aim of investigating (and problematising) the distinction between literary and non-literary discourse.

20 credits

Phonetics

This module aims to provide a detailed understanding of speech sounds, how they are produced, how perceived, how they vary from one language to another, and how they are analysed. Lectures will deal with the three core areas of phonetics: articulation, acoustics and audition. The course has a practical as well as a theoretical component. There will be weekly classes in which students will learn to recognise, produce and transcribe the sounds of the International Phonetic Alphabet. The application and history of phonetics will also be covered.

20 credits

Syntax

This module builds on what students have learnt in ELL113 Structure of English at Level 1, providing a more in-depth look at the structure and organising principles of sentences. We develop the tree structures students learn in first year, and see how these structures form a system of representation that can be used for any language. This involves thinking about the universal constraints on the grouping of words into phrases, and consideration of various operations that move elements around inside sentences to generate the word orders we see written or hear spoken, while at the same time ensuring that sentences satisfy formal constraints. In other words, the module provides an opportunity for students to think in more depth about why sentences are structured the way that they are.

20 credits

Exiles and Monsters: An Introduction to Old English

This module explores the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England, enabling you to read and understand the earliest English literature. You will learn how to read Old English, developing a good understanding of Old English grammar and gaining familiarity with the language and literature through translating a range of texts. We will examine the historical background and cultural contexts of these texts, introducing you to the breadth and variety of Old English texts, and to differing critical approaches to them.

20 credits

Language and Cognition

This module introduces students to the key theories and frameworks at the core of cognitive linguistics. The module explores the relationships between language and the human mind and considers how recent advances in the study of human cognition can enhance our understanding of the conceptual processes that underpin the production and reception of discourse. The module introduces students to such concepts as embodiment, prototypes, situated simulation, profiling, mental representation, conceptual mapping, and conceptual integration. The module equips students with the necessary knowledge and analytical skills to design and carry out their own investigations into language and cognition.

20 credits

Writing the Real

This module explores the often problematic relationship between literature and 'the real world', using a range of theoretical and stylistic approaches. We will consider why 'realism' is such a difficult term to get to grips with; why describing a text or film as 'realistic' can be a very politically charged act; how ideas of 'the real' have changed over time; and what effects the inclusion of 'real' materials into fictional works may have. We will explore 'the real' in a wide range literary texts and films, including works by Elizabeth Gaskell, Ken Loach and Harold Pinter.

20 credits

Sociolinguistics

This module explores the workings of language in its rich social setting. It includes an investigation of accent and dialect, register and style in relation to social class, gender, age, ethinicity, region and social networks. The module also examines sociolinguistic situations around the world, such as multilingualism and diglossia, pidgins and creoles, new Englishes and other globalised forms of language. The module is intended to be enabling and offers an opportunity for students to develop a sense of their own ethical responsibilities as language users and analysts. Students will be provided with the methodological tools necessary to carry out independent fieldwork and will be encouraged to undertake their own exploration of sociolinguistics.

20 credits

First Language Acquisition

This second-year module is aimed at students who have already taken Introduction to Linguistics at Level 1. In this course, we focus specifically on the first language acquisition of syntactic (and semantic) knowledge. Addressing both theoretical and methodological issues, the course explores the relationship between the logical problem of language acquisition -- how very young children manage to acquire quite abstract and subtle properties of their target grammars in the absence of clear positive evidence -- and the developmental problem of acquisition -- how children recover from systematic errors, and acquire subtle language-specific properties. We also explore the related tension between nativist vs. emergentist explanations for language acquisition and development.

20 credits

Phonology

This module aims to examine phonological theories and the data on which they are constructed, exploring phonological organisation and processes in different languages. Segmental and prosodic (e.g. syllable-based) phenomena will be investigated, using rule- and constraint-based frameworks. As well as being a core part of theoretical linguistics, an understanding of phonology is essential to the studies of historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, speech pathologies, language acquisition, and computerised speech synthesis and recognition technologies.

20 credits

A Sense of Place: Local and Regional Identity

This module takes an interdisciplinary approach to issues of regional and local identity in contemporary Britain. Lectures focus on different aspects of the 'local' involved in the creation, dissemination and commodification of regional and local identity. Topics covered include: perceptual geography; archaeology; material culture; place-names; dialect; 'blason populaire' and regional sayings; regional literature; regional songs as 'anthems'; regional festivals and customs; the marketing of regions in the tourist industry. From 2006 the module will be involved in the 'Business in the Curriculum' initative. Students will work in teams with representatives of cultural and heritage organisation to solve 'real life' problems.

20 credits

Optional English language modules:

Historians and History

This course will introduce students to the most influential 'schools' of historical practice in operation in the second half of the twentieth century and which remain influential today. These include Marxism, the Annales school, quantitative history, history from below, feminist and gender history, and postmodernism, as well as English empiricism. Lectures will provide an overview of each approach, and discuss the historical context in which it emerged. In seminars, students will be taught to assess critically the opportunities and limitations of each approach.

20 credits

The Uses of History

This module explores the theory and practice of public history by providing students with the opportunity to communicate their scholarly work to an audience beyond the boundaries of our discipline. Students will articulate an aspect of their own historical interests to a non-academic audience and evaluate the use of history outside academic settings. The course will engage in debate about important questions facing historians in the present, and consider ideas about the role and purposes of History as an academic subject.

20 credits

Optional history modules:

The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England

This interdisciplinary module seeks to reconstruct an understanding of Anglo-Saxon England from the end of the Roman Empire in the early fifth century to advent of the Viking Age. There exists a modern-day notion that the 'Anglo-Saxons' were the first people identifiable as 'English', developing in isolation from Continental Europe. This module will break down the misconceptions of Britain's 'Anglo-Saxon' past through the analysis and interpretation of written sources and archaeological evidence, including material culture and scientific data. It will explore the people and their beliefs, and will demonstrate that Anglo-Saxon England was intricately connected to the wider European and Mediterranean world.

20 credits

The Medieval Inquisition

The Inquisition - an extraordinary court instituted by bishops from the 13th century to judge heretics and encourage their return to the Roman Church - marks an important development in medieval history and has played an essential role in modern perceptions of the Middle Ages. By focusing on some of the best known sources of the Inquisition, which have been important in recent historiography as well as contemporary fiction (The Name of the Rose), this document option will help students reflect on how a better understanding of the Middle Ages and a critical questioning of modern prejudices can benefit from each other.

20 credits

Appeasement, the Munich Crisis and the British People

The conduct of foreign policy in Britain in the late 1930s and the policy of appeasement in particular have been matters of sustained historiographical debate since 1945. This unit introduces students to some of the key sources pertinent to the discussion through a series of linked lecture workshops and seminars. These highlight the shifting debates between the 'Guilty Men' and the anti-appeasers, and the diplomatic perspective, but we also consider how the Press, the British public, men and women, and various political parties responded to the Crisis and understood their position as the Second World War loomed.

20 credits

Murder in the cathedral: the Becket Affair

On 29 December 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was brutally murdered in his cathedral by four knights of his King and one-time friend, Henry II. In the space of ten years, a close friendship had been ruined, and Thomas' stubbornness, flight to France, and untimely death created additional tensions for the English king. This document option investigates events surrounding Thomas' death and the emergence of his cult. It asks how a minor squabble became a continent-wide cause célèbre, forcing Henry into an act of ritual humiliation to clear his name while ensuring that Thomas' memory lived on.

20 credits

Gender, Race and Class in Nazi Germany 1933-1945

This module analyses German society from 1933 to 1945 from the perspective of gender, race and class. We will examine the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion under the Nazi dictatorship through the lens of the agency of ‘Aryan’ women and men, the persecution of ‘racially’ defined minorities and by probing into the connections between social class and both consent and popular dissent. While racial categories were pivotal for Nazi policy, their application and their outcomes intersected with issues of gender and class, whether in the forced sterilization of (mostly) women, or in labour market policies that limited gainful employment of women. Through the focus on gender, race and class as dimensions of policy, collective agency and experiences in Germany from 1933 to 1945, the module will offer an introduction into key aspects of the Nazi dictatorship and its dynamics.

20 credits

Life Worth Living

What does it mean for a life to go well? How does one live life well? What is a flourishing life? These questions have shaped intellectual endeavour for millennia. Life Worth Living explores approaches to these questions through engagement with diverse traditions/thinkers including classical Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Existentialism, Marx, and Nietzsche. The module includes historical analysis of these traditions, visits from individuals whose lives are shaped by them, fieldwork to discuss the ideas beyond the classroom, and assessments to help students develop their own vision of a life worth living.

20 credits

The Gunpowder Plot

The Gunpowder Plot provoked endless debate at the time and in following centuries over the precise nature of the plot, its objectives and the degree of government complicity. The answers to these questions lie in a rich but ambiguous body of primary sources written by the government and its apologists, by Catholics, and by other observers. This course will enable students to analyse all these types of source, and to address systematically the problems of source analysis and interpretation that they present, while building up a detailed understanding of the problematic position of Catholics in late Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

20 credits

Revolution, Reform and Crusade in 11th-c. Europe

This module explores the sources for one of the most dramatic and debated centuries in European history. The eleventh century was characterised by great violence - the first medieval burning of heretics, the First Crusade, the oppression of free peasant farmers - but also by cultural and economic development, as both commercial and intellectual exchange intensified, across and beyond the continent. We will use a range of sources to examine the role in these transformations played by Scottish queens, North African scholars, Byzantine courtiers, English bishops, Italian urban mobs, Icelandic voyagers, German popes and French peasants, amongst other figures. Throughout our investigation, we shall consider the module's key question. What overarching narrative of the eleventh century does the great range of surviving sources best support: one of political fragmentation as public order was rebuilt from the bottom up, or one of religious consolidation as the Church grew in power and influence?

20 credits

The Putney Debates, October 1647

Following the first English civil war there was political stalemate over the post-war settlement. By late 1647 there were calls for revolutionary political change, not least at the famous Putney debates. They came at a crucial moment in the development of the revolution, and successive editors between 1891 and 2007 presented the records of the debates in varying contexts in order to reveal the fundamental significance of the revolution. This module explores the background to the debates at Putney, what was said, and also considers how different editions of the debates reflect the shifting significance attached to the English revolution.

20 credits

A Protestant Nation? Religion, Politics and Culture in England 1560-1640

On the accession of Elizabeth I, England became an officially Protestant country but the Church, State and laypeople did not necessarily agree about the nature of changes needed to accommodate the new religion. On the level of national government policy, we shall explore what governments expected from their subjects and how they attempted to secure religious conformity during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. How far did anti-Catholicism define English identity in this period? Did authorities at the national and local levels disagree about how severely religious minorities should be treated?

20 credits

Shell-Shock to Prozac: Mental Health in Britain

This course charts the history of psychiatry and mental health in Britain. We start at the First World War, with the large-scale management of psychiatric casualties (shell-shock). We will look at the uptake of psychoanalysis in interwar Britain, contrasted with 'extreme' asylum treatments such as lobotomy and insulin coma therapy. We shall then gauge the impact of the National Health Service from 1948, the closure of the asylums, and the impact of new drug therapies (including the iconic Prozac). Finally we shall analyse the rise of patient activism, and the emergence of new 'epidemic' illnesses such as depression and self-harm.

20 credits

Modern Chinese History: Beyond Revolution

This module will examine key themes in the histories of China’s short twentieth century, with a primary focus on interpretations of ‘modernity’ and ‘progress’, explanations of revolution, and the ways in which new approaches in scholarship have influenced our understanding of China’s recent past. While the structure of the module is loosely chronological, the emphasis is not on the detail of events but on the critical analysis of broad social and political changes, and we will examine these through recent historical writing on China and a range of primary textual and visual sources.

20 credits

Modern Japanese History

This module will explore key themes in the modern history of Japan from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, while developing core skills in reading primary sources and historical analysis. Broad themes include identity and nation-building, social and economic change, war and its practical and cultural legacies. Key sub-disciplinary approaches will be based in social and cultural history, with some excursions into other historiographical approaches. It will be delivered through weekly lectures, and seminars structured around developing primary source analysis skills and relating these to appropriate secondary literature. 

20 credits

Religion in an Age of Terror: Ancient Texts and the Making of Modern Israel.

This module will look at the origins, growth and development of conflict and violence in the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), in order to provide a historical perspective on the roots of contemporary religious violence. The focus of the module will be a case-study on the conflict in Israel/Palestine (especially between 1947-67). Primary source analysis will be of the Bible/Quran (and related material), and the documents relating to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Related topics will include: theories of religious violence; religious terrorism; politics and religion; and the roots of religious 'fundamentalism.'

20 credits

The Fall of the Roman Empire in the West

This module will explore one of the classic problems of world history, conventionally seen in terms of 'decline and fall', but recently reinterpreted in a more positive light with a new emphasis on 'transition', 'transformation', and the cultural diversity of a period now generally known as Late Antiquity. These themes will be explored through a lively historiographical debate, backed up with a wide range of informative and entertaining primary sources. Students will acquire a good general awareness of the last century of the western Roman empire, but will also explore a number of important comparative themes in history such as authority, community and identity, why empires exist, and how they end. No prior knowledge of the period is required.

20 credits

Warriors, Saints and Heroes in early medieval Britain

This module explores patterns of power in early medieval Britain from the withdrawal of Roman authority in the fifth century through to the incursions of the Vikings in the ninth. We will focus on what would become England, though Wales and Scotland will also come into consideration. Central themes include the problem of where the Angles and Saxons came from, the relations between independent kingdoms, the role of the Church in reshaping ideas of royal power, the nature of heroic warrior culture, people's sense of their place in the wider world, and the changing distributions of power in their own society. We will explore a range of sources, ranging from archaeological excavations and coins to poetry, travel-writing and historical chronicles.

20 credits

Holy Russia, Soviet Empire: Nation, Religion, and Identity in the 20th Century

This module explores the twentieth-century history of Russia, the Soviet Union, and its successor states. Rather than approaching this turbulent period in history by focusing on the rise and fall of different political leaders (as is often the case in survey courses), we instead approach this subject through the prism of nation, religion and identity. The course probes the following questions: What did the 'Russian revolution mean for the multi-national empire created by the Romanovs? How far did the communist party manage to create a 'Soviet' identity, and on what was this based? Did the Bolsheviks attempt to create an atheist society succeed? And what happened to 'Soviet' identity when communist leaders began to lose their grip on power in the final decades of the twentieth century?

20 credits

The Export of England: Seventeenth Century Trade and Empire

This module considers the commercial and territorial expansion of seventeenth-century England. It examines how England's commerce was transformed from the largely bilateral cloth trade with Europe conducted by mercantile corporations, to a multilateral commerce conducted under several conditions (the 'navigation system, 'free trade', joint-stock companies). These changes coincided with the foundation of North American and West Indian colonies, building on earlier experiences in Ireland, and the course will consider their developing relations with the metropolis. Throughout, the focus will be on whether these changes were a consequence of deliberate 'mercantilist' state policies, or of the initiative of thousands of individuals.

20 credits

Two Germanys, 'One People'? Central Europe, 1945-1990

In 1989-90, German 'reunification' brought together populations changed by 40 years of different lived experiences, within borders that had not bounded any previous German state. This course examines the social, political, and cultural history of East and West Germany in comparative perspective, focusing on how they related to one another as well as to pre-1945 German history. Special emphasis will be placed on relationships with European neighbours, allied superpowers, and migrant populations in order to show how contemporary Germany has been shaped by transnational processes and how non-Germans have likewise helped define what it now means to be 'German'.

20 credits

Decolonisation: The End of Empire & the Future of the World

The world was transformed in the twentieth century. A world of empires and colonies became a world of independent states. In this module we analyse this global transformation. Why did it happen - and how? How much really changed? For people around the globe - from imperial rulers in Europe to anti-colonial nationalists in the 'third world' - the crumbling of European empires was an opportunity to shape the future of their own communities and of the world. Sometimes negotiated, often violent, these hard-fought struggles over the future created the world we live in today.

20 credits

Gender and the Georgians: Sex and Society in Britain 1714-1837

Eighteenth-century Britain witnessed great change: historians have argued for a 'revolution' in industry, the 'birth of a consumer society' and the emergence of a 'public sphere' of political debate; global trade expanded, towns grew, and new Enlightenment ideas flourished. In this context, gender identities and roles were redefined, understandings of the body debated, and notions of masculinity and femininity contested. This module explores these ideas about gender, and how they informed people's experiences, from polite fashions to the criminal underworld, bluestocking sobriety to drunkenness in gentlemen's clubs, and from 'subcultures' of homosexuality to the first 'feminists'

20 credits

The History of American Foreign Relations

George Washington famously warned against 'the insidious wiles of foreign influence' in his farewell address in 1796. But history has challenged any idea of the United States as a self-contained, bounded nation. Rather, the U.S. has played an active role in world affairs and has been profoundly shaped by events and people outside its borders. This course surveys the history of the U.S. in global context, beginning with America's first forays into overseas expansion in the late nineteenth century. We will cover both the major foreign policy moments and trends in U.S. history ;wars, government initiatives and interventions abroad, interstate diplomacy 'as well as the less formal encounters, migrations, and transnational exchanges that constitute American foreign relations. Primary and secondary source readings, lectures, and discussions will pay particular attention to the intersections between changes at home and developments abroad.

20 credits

Try a new subject:

The flexible structure of your second year at Sheffield means that you also have the chance to experience modules from outside of English and History - you can choose up to 20 credits of modules from a list approved by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. A final guided module list is made available to new students when you select your modules as part of registration.

Optional English literature modules:

Life After Death? Romantic Poets and Writing the Afterlife

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason held that there were only two real questions: Is there a God and is there eternal life? Poets and philosophers (and for Coleridge, 'no man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher') have sought to imagine, conjure, or deny the idea of a life after death. This module will explore the versions of eternity written by Romantic poets. From Keats's denial of eternity, Byron's questioning, Shelley's agnostic yearning, and Hemans's feminist redress of the issue, we will consider the idea of life after death in poetry. Starting with a grounding in key philosophical ideas from Plato's assertion of the soul's immortality and Lucretius' denial of any life after death, this module will look at the hell, purgatory, heaven, and nothingness of life after death as written by Romantic poets.

20 credits

Exiles and Monsters: Reading Old English

This module explores the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England, enabling you to read and understand the earliest English literature. You will learn how to read Old English, developing a good understanding of Old English grammar and gaining familiarity with the language and literature through translating a range of texts. We will examine the historical background and cultural contexts of these texts, introducing you to the breadth and variety of Old English literature, and to differing critical approaches to them.

20 credits

Afro-American Literature 1: Beginnings to the Harlem Renaissance

This course examines Afro-American Literature from early slave narratives and poems to the explosion of creativity after the first world war in the Harlem Renaissance, with its mixture of jazz, art, writing and politics. Writers considered include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, W.E. Du Bois, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Huston, Langston Hughes, Paul Dunbar. Music, art, and the cartoonist George Herriman will be discussed. We will also consider some later texts which reflect on this history, including Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Toni Morrison's Jazz.

20 credits

No Animals were Harmed in the Making of this Module: Animals in Film

Animals have played a crucial role in film as an artistic medium, from the literal use of animal products in film stock to the capturing of animal movement as a driver of stop-motion, wide-screen and CGI film technology. The wish to picture animals' lives, whether naturalistically or playfully, brings about filmic genres such as wildlife film and animation. By analysing a range of key films, the module will consider these and other major aspects of animals in film such as: animals' roles in different film genres, from art-house documentary to horror; the range of literal and symbolic ways animals appear in film; animals in the film star-system; animal lives and the ethics of film-making; adaptation and the different challenges of filmic and literary representation of animals.

20 credits

Fin de siècle Gothic

The module examines a range of Gothic texts and their fin de siècle contexts. Writers explored include R.L. Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Vernon Lee, Oscar Wilde, M.R. James, Bram Stoker, and H.G. Wells. Students will explore a diverse range of contemporary contexts which will enable them to see how theories of degeneration, images of Empire, models of medicine, notions of decadence, and ideas about history can be applied to the fin de siècle Gothic. The focus on ghosts, vampires, and aliens will help identify how a language of 'otherness' articulated the culturally specific anxieties of fin de siècle Britain. Teaching involves a mixture of lectures and seminars.

20 credits

Creative Writing Poetry 3

The aim of this unit is to help students to develop their expressive and technical skills in writing poetry at Level 3 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 poetry. The emphasis throughout will be on reading as a writer and writing as a reader.

20 credits

Middlemarch

Virginia Woolf famously described Middlemarch as 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.' Spanning eight books, it is widely regarded as George Eliot's masterpiece. Eliot described and defied her society; she scrutinised her Victorian moment. She lived and worked at odds with nineteenth-century religious institutions: for more than twenty years, she was the partner of George Henry Lewes, a married man, and in her writing she sought to portray life 'as it was', to represent and celebrate everyday life, to resist its injustices. She is also one of the few pseudonymous women to retain their pen name in posterity. This module focuses on Middlemarch's eight books, exploring a range of historical and thematic issues including: serialisation; gender and marriage; class, religion and politics; Victorian science; art and ethics.

20 credits

The Idea of America

This module examines how and why contemporary American writers challenge foundational ideas of America. By reading some of the most exciting new voices of American literature alongside canonical authors of the 20th Century, we will discover how creative responses to key 'Americanised' tropes such as self-reliance, equality and freedom produce a reimagining of the idea of America. We will explore how literary depictions of American identities and portraits of the nation are influenced by wider social, cultural and historical contexts and this module has a particular focus on diversity. The content is structured thematically and offers students an opportunity to co-create aspects of the taught curriculum.

20 credits

The Man Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock's Films

This course will examine a selection of Hitchcock's British and Hollywood films in the context of a variety of critical approaches. It will analyse the plot, techniques, influences of and homages to a variety of Hitchcock's films.

20 credits

America and the Avant-Garde, 1950's-1990's

We require a situation like it really is - no rules at all. Only when we make them do it in our labs do crystals win our games. Do they? I wonder? (John Cage). In this module we will be looking at a range of avant-garde experiments in poetry, prose and performance that have been carried out by contemporary American writers and artists. As well as discussing the innovations of performance poetry, happenings and assemblages, we will also be comparing the work of different movements such as the Beats, the Black Mountain Poets, FLUXUS, and Mail Art.

20 credits

Writing Fiction 3

This module explores techniques and strategies for creating fiction through the critical study of short excerpts from a wide range of novels and short stories, imaginative exercises, discussion and feedback on students own writing. This exploration will help students develop their own creative work while sharpening critical appreciation of both classic and contemporary fiction. Subjects covered will include: narrative voice, character, dialogue, plot, mood, pace and style. Examples will include work by Laurence Sterne, Dickens, Joyce and Anthony Burgess, JG Ballard, Martin Amis, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk and Michael Houellebecq.

20 credits

Crime and Transgression in Romantic Literature

This course focuses on the literature of the period 1900-1945, in particular on Anglo-American and Irish Modernism, its origins around World War 1, and the texts of the 1920s and 1930s which register its impact in Britain and North America. While the Modernism movement will be at the centre of the course, represented by Joyce, Woolf, and Eliot for example, we will examine a full range of texts of that period and pay attention to the vast range of styles, issues, and non-modernists movements of the periods. The aesthetic revolution of Modernism will be changed

20 credits

Contemporary Black British Writing

This module will explore the diversity of Black British Writing from the Windrush Era to the present, paying particular attention to rewritings of earlier British texts and experiments with generic and cultural forms. We will use theoretical interrogations of race and colonialism from thinkers including Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall and Reni Eddo-Lodge to analyse works that radically reformulate key moments in British literature and culture from the Roman invasion to The Canturbury Tales, through the colonial hinterlands of Victorian fiction to the aspiration and culture clash of 1950s London. 

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

The Invention of Romanticism

This module is about the birth and legacy of romantic writing. You'll write a critical essay over Christmas, and over Easter you'll write a proposal for an oral paper. You'll be invited to present that paper to our undergraduate conference after Easter. Your conference paper will be converted into a final essay. All told, you'll understand the modern world better, and will have had lots of support towards enhancing your presentation skills.

40 credits

Renaissance Literature, Modern Crisis

This module considers early modern and Renaissance literature in relation to some of the pressing concerns of the modern world, e.g. the climate emergency, decolonisation, and gender identity (topics may vary from year to year depending on staff expertise and current events). You'll write a critical essay and work on a project such as an edited collection of texts with a shared theme.

40 credits

Research Topics in Theatre and Film

This module introduces students to significant research topics in the areas of theatre studies and film studies, through examination of diverse historical and contemporary examples. The module's topics and themes will investigate theatre and film texts in terms of their creation, production and reception, explore them via relevant formal, practical and critical approaches, and interrogate and integrate them within complex, creative and theoretically-informed scholarly work.

40 credits

Mod Cons: Exploring the Long 20th Century

This module introduces students to current research in the study of literary and related forms of cultural text and practice, focusing on the modern and contemporary periods from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. With a curriculum adapted each year in response to the current research interests of available academic staff, the module focuses on the ways in which literary and related works can be understood in terms of important aesthetic, cultural and socio-political concerns in the period.

40 credits

Optional English language modules:

Research Practice

'Research Practice' is normally taken in combination with the 'Dissertation' module, and, together these two units give students the opportunity to spend a whole year researching a topic of particular interest to them, engaging with new data or primary sources, and working on material more advanced than that normally covered in taught modules. 'Research Practice' focuses on the planning of the larger project. Students receive support and training in whole-group workshops and through one-to-one support from a supervisor. By the end of the module, students should have designed an appropriate programme of research and should have begun to implement it.Although support will be provided by supervisors and the module convenor, students will be expected to drive their projects forward themselves and be proactive in seeking guidance on anything that arises as they do so. The module is not suitable for students who do not enjoy independent research and reading. Students will be required to submit a research proposal towards the end of Level 2. Students will receive guidance on this and may seek help with this part of the process from members of academic staff. Registration for this module depends on both the coherence of the research proposal and the availability of suitable supervisors.

20 credits

Psychology of Language

This third-year module in psycholinguistics examines the relationship between the human mind and language, addressing both theoretical and methodological issues. We look at the processes involved in producing and comprehending speech, and in reading, exploring the ways in which we represent and store linguistic knowledge. The core linguistic modules will be investigated (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics), with a focus on phonology. Evidence from speech errors, impaired speech, and neuroscience alongside classic psychological experimental work in the field will be considered. Students will gain a thorough grounding in psycholinguistic theory and practice, and should acquire the tools to undertake their own research in the future.

20 credits

Exiles and Monsters: Reading Old English

This module explores the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England, enabling you to read and understand the earliest English literature. You will learn how to read Old English, developing a good understanding of Old English grammar and gaining familiarity with the language and literature through translating a range of texts. We will examine the historical background and cultural contexts of these texts, introducing you to the breadth and variety of Old English literature, and to differing critical approaches to them.

20 credits

Investigating Real Readers

Stylistic analyses often make claims about a text's effects on 'the reader' or audience. This module asks: who is this 'reader'? How can stylisticians support their claims about textual effect? Students will be introduced to various methods used to investigate the responses of real readers in stylistics, with a central emphasis on verbal data and qualitative analysis. The module's practical focus means students will be engaged in testing out and evaluating these methods, and will complete the module with an understanding of how to design, conduct and reflect upon their own stylistic investigations of real readers.

20 credits

Narrative Style in the Contemporary Novel

In this module you will consider how the contemporary novel in English experiments with narrative style and technique, and the effects that are generated as a result. The module will start with a basic recap of key narrative concepts, in order to enable appreciation of the ways in which contemporary writers play with traditional narratological concepts. Some of the styles we will look at include: disruptions to chronological sequence; second-person narration; first-person free indirect discourse. We will also look at how such techniques generate or hinder the construction of experiences such as identification and empathy in the reader.

20 credits

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

The module introduces and reviews the principles that underlie, and the methodology employed in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. Among the topics discussed are the teaching of the four main language skills - reading, writing, listening, speaking - and the teaching of the language system - grammar and vocabulary. There are also sessions on the language learning process and the characteristics of communicative language teaching.

20 credits

Language and Gender

This module will explore the relationship between language use and gender identity. We will consider how gender has been defined in social and linguistic research and examine a variety of theoretical perspectives, methodologies and findings (incorporating both quantitiative and qualitative linguistic work). The approach is interdisciplinary (drawing upon sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and discourse analysis) and will address the issues of power, status, socialisation and ideology.

20 credits

Approaches to Discourse

The course aims to introduce students to the critical analysis of spoken and written discourse in contemporary social contexts. It provides a range of resources and techniques for analysing texts and dialogue, enabling students to apply them to real life data drawn from a wide variety of contexts. Instruction will cover classical theoretical approaches to the analysis of discourse and genre, including functional grammatical analysis of clauses and sentences, the generic structure of texts, conversational and pragmatic analysis of spoken discourse, and intertextual and interdiscursive analysis. Throughout the topics covered, the students will be encouraged to reflect upon the role of discourse in the structuring of social practices and power relations.

20 credits

Advanced Syntax

This module builds on the material covered in ELL 221 Syntax, focusing on both the universal and language-specific rules that govern syntactic structure in human language. The topics covered will expand our understanding of areas of structure that could not be explained in Syntax, including further instances of movement, a more nuanced understanding of verbal structure, and a greater emphasis on data from languages other than English.

20 credits

Dissertation

The 'Dissertation' module is always taken in combination with the 'Research Practice' module and, together, these two units give students the opportunity to spend a whole year researching a topic of particular interest to them, engaging with new data or primary sources, and working on material more advanced than that normally covered in taught modules. The final results is a dissertation of between 8,000 and 10,000 words. Students receive support and research training throughout the year, attending workshops and one-to-one sessions with a supervisor. In the process, they develop research and communication skills valuable in academic and professional contexts.

20 credits

Conversation Analysis

In this module we will work with recordings of real conversation, analysing aspects of spoken interaction such as turn-taking, overlap, repair, sequence organisation and topic from the perspective of Conversation Analysis (CA). The module provides an opportunity to: deepen your understanding of how conversation is structurally organised; develop analyses of conversation which are inductive and do not rely on reading the minds of participants but are grounded in the observable linguistic-sequential properties of the talk; and explore the relationship between CA and linguistics.

20 credits

Language attitudes, perceptions and regard

This module will involve students learning about the various ways that non-specialists react to language variation. Students will learn about why such reactions matter, and be taught about the latest developments in this burgeoning field.

20 credits

Theolinguistics

This module examines the ways in which people talk to and about God, both in religious and secular contexts. Among the topics that will be covered are the nature and problem of religious language, religious genres, approaches to investigating religious language, the significance of metaphor in religious language, and the use of religious language in everyday talk. A significant portion of the module will focus on critical theolinguistics, which is the exploration of how religious language is used to assert power and/or control.

20 credits

Text-Worlds

This module introduces students to Text World Theory, a cognitive-linguistic model of discourse processing. It provides an opportunity to explore the text-world approach to the analysis of discourse, as well as a range of related ideas and frameworks from the disciplines of linguistics, psychology, philosophy, narratology, and stylistics. We will examine, for example, the influence of context on the production and reception of discourse, the linguistic means through which mental representations of discourse are created, and the ways in which multiple worlds can be constructed across extended stretches of language. Students will be introduced to the core components of Text World Theory and will develop the skills necessary to apply this approach to a range of discourse types in a practical and systematic manner.

20 credits

Experiments in Digital Story-Telling

This module focuses on experimental uses of digital technology for story-telling and it offers students opportunities to engage in critical reading of narratives written by others as well as developing experimental narratives of their own. We'll look at several different kinds of digital artefacts including texts that have non-linear structures (hypertexts, for example), narratives that take the form of site-specific installations, narrative games, and multimodal texts that combine text and image in interesting ways. Students will also work in a small group on an experimental narrative of their own. (Note that the technical skills needed for this work will be basic and will be taught as part of the course.)

20 credits

Advanced Phonetics

Students will use specialist computer software to provide robust analysis of a range of different phonetic parameters. This will involve working with waveforms, fundamental frequency traces, spectra and spectrograms. Training will take the form of practical demonstrations and guided workshop exercises, linked to a series of 'lab report' assessments. In the final assessment, students will work on either different varieties of English (reocrdings provide by the student cohort), or on another language selected by the module convenor. This module builds on ELL112 Sounds of English and ELL207 Phonetics; successful completion on these modules is therefore a pre-requisite.

20 credits

Second Language Acquisition

This module will introduce students to major theoretical notions and assumptions in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) - a theory that investigates how language speakers acquire a second language both in adulthood and childhood. The module focuses on the SLA theories that are believed to be constrained by Universal Grammar. It provides a historical overview of how SLA theories have evolved and examines influential concepts to explore how different arguments have been developed and how they have been investigated empirically. At the same time, the module offers students hands-on training in analyzing second language learner data, using their knowledge of syntax and the opportunity to design an SLA project.

20 credits

Historical Pragmatics

Historical pragmatics is an exciting and relatively new field which takes a holistic approach (i.e. inclusive of linguistic, social and historical factors) to studying how language users communicated and constructed meaning in earlier periods. Based on the study of English, the aims of this course are: 1) to introduce the study of historical discourse as evidenced by (for example) correspondence and courtroom dialogue; 2) to introduce topics such as sociopragmatics, (im)politeness, and the 'new philology', grounding them in historical pragmatic theory; and 3) to offer an opportunity to perform historical pragmatic analysis through textual study and corpus applications.

20 credits

History Group A:

The Family

The family is one of the most important forms of social relation across historical periods and places. But this seemingly 'natural' form of social organisation has a diverse history, as households and familial relationships were shaped by their cultural, economic, and political contexts. This module examines historical family structures and familial relations, from affection and care to authority and exclusion. We pay particular attention to gender and race, considering how intersecting identities shaped the family as we know it today. Drawing on anthropology, feminist history, and queer history, we also consider non-biological kinship: from 'chosen families' to surrogacy.

20 credits

A Comparative History of Revolution

This module takes a comparative approach to the study of Revolution as a way to gain a better understanding of significant transformation of the social, economic and political landscapes of entire societies, to question underlying assumptions regarding values and legitimacy, as well as to understand and assess the vocabulary of revolution which has come to permeate political language. By comparing different case studies, students will have an opportunity to engage with the rich and stimulating historiography in this area and to formulate their own interpretations of a subject that touches on significant questions about change and power.

20 credits

Decolonising History: Empires, Colonialism and Power

This module examines the rise and fall of empires as processes that shape our contemporary world. It considers the growth and governance of empires, decolonisation struggles, and the telling of imperial history from the perspective of colonised and coloniser. In approaching this history from multiple vantage points, this module asks: who held power, particularly over knowledge production, both during empire and after empire's end? Drawing upon diverse historiographical traditions, and examining a wide range of time periods and places, we will question the centrality of empires in the telling of global history. In doing so, we will bring the past to bear on contemporary debates about race, globalisation, migration, and decolonisation. This module is, above all, about what it means to decolonise history, society and the academy.

20 credits

Short Dissertation

The dissertation in History is an exercise of 7,500-8,500 words in which students explore an individually chosen topic involving problems and issues derived from a module taken at level two or level three. It is expected to consist of research at a high level where interpretation and analysis will be of importance. The balance between primary and secondary materials will depend on the topic and an availability of sources. In each case students work independently under the guidance of a supervisor.

20 credits

Making History Public

This core module is designed to allow students the opportunity to produce a piece of public history. It will equip students with the skills required to effectively communicate their scholarly research to a non-academic audience, and develop transferable skills beyond the traditional academic skills of a History degree. Drawing on any aspect of their experience as History undergraduates, students will design and produce an accessible digital artefact presenting a topic or theme of their choosing. Students will be supported by workshops and seminars to identify suitable topics and develop communication and digital skills central to public history, and will also be encouraged to bring their extra-curricular skills and interests to this module. A virtual exhibition will showcase student work to the whole History community. In addition, students will submit an interpretative written exercise, situating and explaining the artefact they have created and analysing their experience over the course of the module.

20 credits

History Group B:

The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the various debates on the origins and execution of the 'final solution' in Nazi occupied Europe during the Second World War.

40 credits

Permissive Britain? Social and Cultural Change 1956-74

This module explores British society and culture as the nation moved from an era of austerity to one of unprecedented affluence. Key topics include the impact of affluence on class and gender relationships, the emergence of a national youth culture, changes and continuities in sexual behaviour, and debates about immigration and race. The unit encourages students to assess the significance of reforming legislation that relaxed the censorship regime, decriminalised homosexuality, enabled easier access to abortion, liberalised the divorce system and abolished capital punishment, examining the arguments of those who resisted, as well as those who championed the 'permissive society'.

40 credits

Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Britain, 1923-1945

This module examines three inter-related issues in order to assess the impact of fascism in Britain between the wars. Making full use of one of the best archives for this purpose in the country held here in the Special Collection of the University Library, first we examine the political organization, the ideas and the culture of 'native' British fascism from its inception in 1923 to the Second World War. Second, we move on to explore active and ideological resistance to British fascist and racist organisations by a loose coalition of Communists, Socialists, Liberals and even Conservatives, as well as the resistance mounted by those religious and ethnic groups most affected by fascist racial provocation and violence. Third, we will consider how contemporary interpretations of fascism, and formal and more informal relations with the European dictatorships, contributed to the National Government's policy of appeasement on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to the greater definition of what was quintessentially 'British' about Britain's war aims with the outbreak of World War Two. We will approach these topics by analysing primary source material, including political pamphlets and propaganda, newspapers, public records, memoirs, oral testimonies, visual material, film and recordings, and novels.

40 credits

Slavery in the American South, 1789-1861

By 1861, some four million African Americans were enslaved in the American south. This module explores the lives of these enslaved people. We examine the roles, relationships, and experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, through themes such as social and cultural life, work, the family, community and conflict, truancy, escape, and violence. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources - from the perspectives of enslaved and formerly enslaved people, as well as their enslavers - we focus in particular upon the varied ways in which African Americans resisted both their enslavers and their enslavement.

40 credits

The World of Intoxicants in Early Modern England

Intoxicants were a key feature of early modern societies. This is as true for 'old' world alcohols like wine, beer, ale, and other fermented drinks as it is for 'new' intoxicants like opiates, tobacco, sugar, caffeines, chocolate, and distilled liquors that began to enter European diets after 1600 from the Levant, the Americas, and Asia. Focusing on intoxicants in England, this module considers a) the ongoing importance and, indeed, increasing significance of alcohols to culture, society, and economy over the course of the seventeenth century and b) the introduction and popularisation of new intoxicants over the same period.

40 credits

Cannibals and Christians: Mexico and Spain, c.1492-1600

This module examines the extraordinary clash of cultures which occurred following the 'discovery' of America, and the reciprocal relationship which developed between Europe and the 'New World' in the sixteenth century. Focusing on the sixteenth-century discovery, conquest and settlement of Central and South America, especially Mexico, the module will address such themes as the nature of the encounter, the intellectual and cultural impact, trade and exchange, migration, evangelisation and empire. The module addresses the encounter from a wide range of perspectives, evaluating the encounter from the viewpoint of sailors, conquistadors, priests, historians, explorers, missionaries, administrators and the indigenous people themselves.

40 credits

The Weimar Republic - Laboratory of Modernity

The history of Weimar Germany has often focused on elements of crisis and the rise of the Nazis. But the Weimar Republic was more than just a state of permanent crisis. It was also a laboratory of modernity, a site of permanent experimentation in politics, the arts and mass media, in gender relations and in attempts to build new communities. The module will use and engage the rich primary source record of the era. More than many other eras of history, Weimar Germany prompts us to consider the potential disadvantage of hindsight for the historian: that s/he already knows the outcome.

40 credits

Resistance & Liberation in South Africa: Gandhi to Mandela

This module analyses resistance to segregation, apartheid, and white supremacy in South Africa. Drawing upon memoirs, oral histories, novels, films, speeches, news reporting, online databases, and document collections, we begin with the non-violent campaigns led by Mohandas Gandhi in the 1900s against the segregation of Indians in South Africa, and end with Nelson Mandela's election as president in the country's first non-racial democratic elections in 1994. We will explore the inspirations, nature, and effects of a wide range of forms of political, social, and cultural resistance by opponents of white supremacy - from ordinary people to elite politicians - both inside South Africa and around the world.

40 credits

Nomadland: The Peoples of the Steppe, 600-1000

Nomads are the dark matter of history. Choosing neither to produce written sources, nor found cities which are the usual target of archaeology, they defy the typical means of investigation of the historian. Yet their political impact – from the Huns of Attila to the Mongols of Ghengis Khan – was vast. Fear of the nomad other, framed in terms of barbarism, is one of the defining literary themes of the settled civilisations who were their neighbours. This fear had a huge impact on settled society: the Great Wall of China was built to keep nomads out.This course asks how we can look beyond the fearsome, caricatured image produced by sedentary authors to reconstruct the politics, mentalities, and lifestyles of these crucial agents of pre-modern history. To do so, we will focus on the varied experiences of the nomadic peoples who emerged in the aftermath of the disintegrations of the great Turkic Khaganate in the seventh century. The Khaganate stretched over the vast, flat, grasslands of the Steppe, from China to Hungary and its successors settled regions across modern day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans. These new peoples and their cultural and political choices fundamentally transformed the region, and had a profound impact on the great empires around them, namely Byzantines, Sassanian Iranians, and the Islamic caliphate.Throughout, we will use material culture and sources written originally in Greek, Arabic, Armenian and Slavonic (all available in modern English translation), to ask: how do we write a history of a people who chose not to write? 

40 credits

France in Africa, Africa in France: experiencing colonialism, anticolonialism, and postcolonialism

This module examines the rise and fall of French imperial rule in Africa, and its legacies and afterlives, from the end of the 19th century to the contemporary post-colonial era. By 1918, French imperial power in Africa had reached its zenith. Yet the next fifty years were characterised by contradiction, decline, and conflict, as the certainties of the ‘age of empire’ were challenged. It will explore the ideas that underpinned French imperialism; the effects of imperialism on colonised societies; challenges to imperial rule; the complex relationship between French republican ideals and imperialism; movements of people and ideas from Africa to metropolitan France; and the persistent and important legacies of empire in the post-colonial era. Through these topics students will engage with questions of how race, gender, and class were navigated in the Francophone world, drawing on source material which allows for a ‘bottom-up’ approach to draw out the voices of the people under study. Our range of primary sources represent the widest range of perspectives including African and French voices, women and men, the metropole and colony. Secondary literature will be used to contextualise the these sources and allow students to engage with the latest historiographical debates and scholarship being generated by this rapidly expanding field of enquiry. All texts will be provided in English.

40 credits

History Group C:

Dissertation

The Dissertation in History is an exercise of 9-11,000 words in which students explore an individually chosen topic involving problems and issues derived from a module taken at level two or level three. It is expected to consist of research at a high level where interpretation and analysis will be of importance. The balance between primary and secondary materials will depend on the topic and the availability of sources. In each case students work independently under the guidance of a supervisor.

40 credits

Try a new subject:

The flexible structure of your third year at Sheffield means that you also have the chance to experience modules from outside of English and History - you can choose up to 20 credits of modules from a list approved by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. A final guided module list is made available to new students when you select your modules as part of registration.