English Literature BA

Core modules:

Renaissance to Revolution

This module surveys the English drama, poetry, and prose from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We will look at different genres including comedy, tragedy,lyric, prose fiction, the novel, epic, and prose polemic in the works of writers such as Aphra Behn, Frances Burney, John Donne, Oloudah Equiano, Aemelia Lanyer, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton and Alexander Pope. The texts studied will be related to critical methods that help us understand the relationships between literature and the culture, society, and politics of the period in which it was produced.

40 credits

Optional modules:

Early Englishes

This module is of particular interest to anyone who wants to know more about the first 1000 years of English language and literature. 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, Margery Kempe's Book, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and Beowulf). We will use a variety of techniques - literary, linguistic, anthropological, cultural-historical - to analyse each text, thereby opening up discussion of issues that preoccupied the English of the time, from glorious monster-slaying to the first expressions of love and desire, from religious devotion to comedy, from the power of insults to the status of English. We will investigate international influences on English language and literature, explore medieval worldviews and how they might differ from modern ones, and query what it means when we say something is medieval. No prior knowledge of Old or Middle English is necessary; students will be given the opportunity to examine texts in the original language but where necessary translations will be provided.

20 credits

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

The Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, represent some of the central sources for European literary imaginations. In this module you will explore the range of literature indebted to biblical and classical literature, themes, and characters. Featuring a range of lecturers from across the School of English, the module will help you learn to think critically about biblical and classical themes such as divine destruction, love, gender, homecoming, colonialism, nostalgia, and empire, and read a variety of authors, from Amelia Lanyer and Shakespeare to Derek Walcott and Margaret Atwood. When we understand the ways in which biblical and classical writers shaped their narratives, and how creative authors revised, resisted or radicalised their themes, we have several important keys to unlock crucial facets of English literary tradition.

20 credits

Contemporary Literature

This module introduces you 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

Ranging chronologically from classical to contemporary examples, this module aims to turn an interest in drama and theatre-going into a deeper appreciation of the ways in which traditions of playwriting, acting, design and performance have shaped theatre's development over the centuries. Each week you will study a particular play and the contexts that informed its first performances and its theatrical afterlife. Engaging with contrasting texts and productions will build your knowledge of dramatic genres and styles, the relationship between performance and politics, the representation on page and stage of racial and gendered identities, and the roles and responsibilities of audiences. We will approach theatre as a social practice and an artistic discipline, exploring production videos and related materials alongside study of the script, and experimenting with creative exercises in writing, directing and stage design. This module develops skills in analysing diverse texts and forms whilst also revealing the distinctive qualities and capabilities of drama as a literary genre.

20 credits

Darwin, Marx, Freud

This course is structured around the writings of Darwin, Marx, Freud. We will consider selections from all three philosophers' writings, such as, for example, Darwin's The Origin of Species; cover key concepts from Marx's work—commodity fetishism; alienation—and investigate Freud's philosophy of the subject through selected readings from his writings. We will dismantle cultural prejudice and engage with, and in, revolutionary thinking. This course will prepare you for modules like Critical and Literary Thought but, most importantly, it will help you become critical, potentially revolutionary, thinkers.

20 credits

Exploring Literary Language

This module explores the language of literary texts. We will look at how different literary styles create particular effects and describe these styles and effects using linguistics. The course aims to provide students interested in English literature with a practical introduction to language, and to provide students interested in language with experience of applying linguistic analysis to literary texts. The emphasis is on a hands-on approach, and topics covered will include sentence structure, register, narrative structure, conversation 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 Michaela Coel.

20 credits

Introduction to Cinema

This module offers an introduction to film analysis, film theory and film history based on a global overview of cinema from a comprehensive time period. You will watch and analyse approximately ten set films (with suggested further viewing) including key films from historic and contemporary cinemas from across the world, potentially encompassing Britain, Europe, America, Australia and Asia. The module has incorporated a diverse selection of films including Bicycle Thieves (Vittoria De Sica, 1948, Italy), Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989, US), The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959, France) , Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, 2019, South Korea) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliot, 1994, Australia). You will learn about genre, realism, national cinema, narrative, style, technique and representation of identity, among other topics. The subject of identity, for example, enables the exploration of personal, national, ethnic, gendered and queer identities through cinematic representation. The module aims to enable you to closely analyse cinematic material, engage with film theory and apply it in your analysis, identify the tools of cinematic technique in analysis and think critically and independently. It is intended as a gateway to a new cinematic language and mode of analysis/close reading.

20 credits

History of English

What is English? Taking this question as a point of departure, this module introduces students to the exceptionally dynamic linguistic history of English(es). Changing linguistic forms and functions are contextualized within their historical moment, and language external factors such as language contact, imperialism and racism are also discussed as they pertain to periods of English. To be clear: this is not just a module about old forms of language (although there is plenty of that!) - it's about gaining historical linguistic perspective on current Englishes (including related Creoles) and their place within a much bigger story.

20 credits

Introduction to Creative Writing

The aim of this unit is to help you to develop your expressive and technical skills in writing poetry and prose and to improve your abilities as an editor and critic of your own and other people's writing. You 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 and prose 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 your own writing. This exploration will help you develop your own creative work while sharpening critical appreciation of published poetry and modern and contemporary fiction. The course is designed to give you the experience of being workshopped as well as to establish basic creative writing techniques at Level 1 in preparation for the challenges of Creative Writing Level 2 and/or 3.

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 - 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 modules:

Romanticism to Modernism (a)

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

40 credits

Literature and Critical Theory (a)

This course introduces writers, concepts and approaches fundamental to contemporary literary theory, and explores their application to diverse relevant texts. You will engage in a transhistorical study of the formal, literary and cultural functions of genre (e.g. in the forms of comedy and tragedy). You 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. This module helps you develop your academic writing, critical thinking and research skills while studying the work of major theorists.

40 credits

Optional modules:

The History of Persuasion

This module focuses on why some written texts seem more persuasive (or authoritative) than others. To answer this question we will look at non-literary writing from a range of different contexts: journalism, advertising, political speaking, science writing, and religious communication. You'll look closely at the language used in each context, think about what constitutes persuasive writing in each, and talk about why this differs from context to context. You'll also have a chance to look at the histories of these different kinds of text. Examples from earlier periods look different from what we are used to in the 21st century and it is fascinating to explore how journalism, for example, has come to look as it does today. All these types of writing are associated with powerful institutions: journalism with the national press, advertising with big corporations, political speaking with the major political parties. But we will also explore how people with more marginalised identities use them, resist them, and are represented through them. The overall aim is help you become more critical in your response to the different kinds of written communication that surround us and this is valuable in many of the careers that English graduates go into.

20 credits

Creative Writing: Poetry, Experimentation, De/Construction

This module offers a practical and theoretical workshop which is designed to look at current methods of creative writing exploring a wide range of forms of poetry and poetics, prose poetry, poetic prose and hybrid writing. During the term our core readings and discussions (critical and creative) will be focusing on producing new work, new texts while we will be revisiting, reconfiguring and deconstructing concepts of poetry, contemporary poetry and its various new, experimental formations, poetics of fusion and the hybrid while discovering themes and concepts of self and selves, borders and boundaries of both psyche and language, the liminal, memory, as creative source of self invention, concepts of I as Non-I, Anti-I, gender, history, identity and culture as complex components of identity, identity as construction, identity as self-theory, as text(s). During the module you will be given the opportunity to develop your writing in various contemporary formations of more established and currently forming conventions/experimentations; your critical thinking through a wide range of creative samples by currently published authors of both poetry and prose and other speculative genres of fusion; and through the weekly workshops to sharpen your editorial skills.

20 credits

The Novella and the Uncanny

This course will explore novellas (and some film adaptations of 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 unsettling experiences at the 'limits of reason', and explore connections between the uncanny and the operations of political and personal power . Texts will include works by Kafka, Camus, George Eliot, Daphne Du Maurier and Muriel Spark. The course will also encompass the study of Freud's essay 'The Uncanny' - which itself contains an analysis of Hoffman's bizarre short story 'The Sandman'.

20 credits

Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer is not only the most famous medieval English writer, he is also one of the most varied, controversial, and gritty writers at the time. This course aims to introduce students to a wide range of Chaucer's writings, including the Canterbury Tales, while situating Chaucerian writing in its medieval context, which will also allow us to assess the commonly held notion of Chaucer as the father of English literature. We will explore literary, linguistic, material, cultural, religious, and political aspects of his fascinatingly rich body of texts to gauge Chaucer's status as a medieval poet, and interrogate questions of society, gender, tradition and philosophy that his work continues to inspire.

20 credits

The Art and Politics of Hip Hop

This module will introduce you to Hip Hop as a musical, cultural and (especially) literary phenomenon. Both extremely popular and at times highly controversial, we will explore various forms of the art of Hip Hop from its early developments to the present.The module is organised around two principal ideas. The first is that Hip Hop is poetical; the second is that Hip Hop is political.Working mainly in a North American context, over the course of the module, we will reflect upon the various ways in which Hip Hop fuses manner and matter, combining aesthetic innovation and different kinds of social commentary.Each week, we will focus on a specific artist or group, and attend principally to one album. Expect to study some 'mainstream' work (e.g., Fugees or Cardi B, but definitely NOT Vanilla Ice). You will also encounter underground, 'conscious' and alternative artists.Seminars are complemented by 'listening sessions' wherein we gather to collectively experience albums (i.e., 'sound works') in a specially-dedicated space in Western Bank Library, using a specially-dedicated collection of vinyl recordings.Throughout, we consider how radical forms of rhetoric, prosody, intertextuality, performance relate to explicit expressions of power, hope, marginalisation, identity, community. Our aim is to start understanding Hip Hop in its troubling and ingenious complexities.

20 credits

English Works: Foundations

Students taking this module will connect their academic studies to future careers. Teaching from experts across the School's different subject areas - linguistics, language, literature, screen studies and creative practice - will challenge students to think deeply (critically, creatively, reflectively) about the meanings and practices of work and education. Sessions dedicated to career-decision planning (e.g. applications and interviews; online profiles and networking) will enable students to reflect on their values, motivations and career aspirations in addition to providing practical guidance and support. This module provides opportunities to gain career insights and access to work-related learning (e.g. workplace visits; virtual internships and projects). Together, through a series of interactive workshops, students will think about their future careers while making novel connections between English studies and the worlds of education and work.

20 credits

Writing the Real

In both fiction and drama, there is an approach to writing called 'realism' (or, in the case of theatre, 'naturalism'). Realist writers make a commitment to telling their readers about the world as it actually is and this means avoiding supernatural or speculative material and instead focusing on the experiences of ordinary people in a world that is recognisably like our own. The hey-day of realism was the nineteenth century but, since then, virtually all writers have had to take up a position in relation to it and decide whether to write about a world in which people have guardian angels and animals can talk or focus instead on 'real life' in contemporary London or New York City or Lagos. The module examines how realist and non-realist styles work linguistically and you will learn to analyse both kinds of text in a fine-grained way. You will read examples by British authors from different backgrounds as well as writers from other parts of the world. Narrative is central to how we define ourselves and understand the world around us, so the module looks beyond the strictly academic and helps you understand more about how we respond to the world through story-telling.

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

European Gothic

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

20 credits

Shakespeare: Page, Stage, Screen

This module focuses on the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare. You will read a wide range of his works and analyse them in the context of the cultural and historical energies of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, as well as exploring how they have been reinvented and reimagined through performance and as texts which have been refashioned through editorial intervention or adaptation. The module considers the range of dramatic styles and genres that Shakespeare uses, alongside the conditions of performance, kinds of publication, and the characteristics of the language in which he worked. It also relates the texts to critical methods that help illuminate the relationships between drama and the culture, politics, and religion of the period and the ways in which Shakespeare's works have been remade for different times and contexts.

20 credits

English Works: Enhanced

Students taking this module go beyond English Works: Foundations. They will continue to explore ideas of education and work from across the School's subject areas - linguistics, language, literature, screen studies and creative practice - while undertaking short-term work experience as an integrated part of their learning. An embedded peer coaching programme provides an effective support structure for students undertaking their work experience and develops valuable coaching and leadership skills. Students will be empowered to design their own work experience with dedicated support from the module team, and will reflect on their professional development in a showcase event. Together, through a series of interactive workshops, peer coaching and work experience, students will test their ambitions and build career confidence while advocating for the vital skills and contributions made by English studies to the workplace and wider society.

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 - 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.

Core modules:

The Invention of Romanticism

This module is about the birth and legacy of romantic-era writing. It studies famous figures such as William Wordsworth, John Keats and Emily Bronte alongside lesser-known writers such as Charlotte Smith, Charles Waterton and John Clare. It is taught by a team who use their research interests in fields such as environmental criticism, gender studies or colonial writing to think about how such authors inform our thinking about the world today. Over the year you'll write two essays and develop a proposal for an end-of-year module conference where, supported by your tutors, you can present your ideas and findings to the class. As well as helping you find your own critical voice and developing your academic writing and research skills, this module believes that the modern world and how we think of it was born and shaped by the literature of the Romantics and it encourages you to think critically about that legacy.

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). It will combine historicism (looking at texts in historical contexts) with presentism (thinking about how we read texts in our own historical context). You'll write a critical essay relating early modern literature to a modern priority, and then work on a project whose nature and scope you'll decide in dialogue with your tutor(s): for example, an edited collection of texts based around a shared theme; teaching materials; or a magazine-style article. As well as helping you hone your academic writing and your research and critical thinking skills, this module encourages you to think about how literary texts can speak to problems in the wider world.

40 credits

Research Topics in Theatre and Film

This module introduces you to significant research topics that cut across theatre and film studies, opening up the synergies and divergence between these art forms. Key themes such as Bodies, Identities, Memory, Site and Migration will focus our analysis of diverse historical and contemporary examples, positioned critically alongside notable remakings and sometimes radical adaptations. Research into these case studies will uncover important contexts of creation, production and reception that serve to deepen and problematise their meanings. You will also explore current approaches in theory and criticism that reframe theatre and film in exciting and challenging ways. The module's year-long structure allows substantial time to pursue individual research interests, guided by your tutors and inspired by and extending beyond work we undertake as a group. Reflecting the creative mediums we focus on, this module includes supported assessment options for video essays and project pitches, building skills in editing and audiovisual presentation, as alternatives to the traditional essay. Whether or not you choose to experiment with these formats, you will acquire sophisticated knowledge of film and theatre, deepen your understanding of cinematic and performance languages, and gain valuable skills in creative thinking and expression beyond the written word.

40 credits

Mod Cons: Exploring the Long 20th Century

This module introduces you 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 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. During this module you will be given the opportunity to develop your critical thinking and your writing and analytical skills through an in-depth engagement with a variety of text from the modern and contemporary periods.

40 credits

Optional 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

Apocalypse: The Beginning of the End of the World

It is impossible to make sense of our world of pandemics, the climate crisis, economic instability, and violent, divisive rhetoric without an understanding of apocalyptic literature. While 20th and 21st century contributions to apocalyptic literature, such as Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, are far ranging in their examination of what the end of the world looks and feels like, they all have their origins in ancient notions of catastrophic ends and the hope for a new beginning. This module will guide you to explore the apocalypse's origins in texts left out of the biblical canon, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as those that are more well known, such as Revelation. You'll learn to engage critically with a range of literature, including contemporary novels dreaming about the end of colonial violence, and cinematic interpretations about climate apocalypse. You will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge about apocalypses to a text and topic that are important to you.

20 credits

Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer is not only the most famous medieval English writer, he is also one of the most varied, controversial, and gritty writers at the time. This course aims to introduce you to a wide range of Chaucer's writings, including the Canterbury Tales, while situating Chaucerian writing in its medieval context. We will explore literary, linguistic, material, cultural, religious, and political aspects of his fascinatingly rich body of texts to gauge Chaucer's status as a medieval poet, and interrogate questions of society, gender, and philosophy that his work continues to inspire.

20 credits

The Idea of America

If you are interested in how and why contemporary (1950-present day) American writers revise myths of America, then this module will appeal to you. We explore how foundational ideas of America (such freedom, equality, democracy, self-reliance, the frontier, capitalism and American exceptionalism) are reimagined by its poets, playwrights and prose writers. You might read works by authors such as Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Cormac McCarthy, C Pam Zhang, Charles Yu, Arthur Miller and Ocean Vuong and the module is organised around a series of thematic strands that will help you to make connections between writers and key American mythologies. For example, the themes could include a focus on the ongoing legacies of slavery and settler colonisation and/or a study of the role of religion, region and place in shaping literary perspectives of America. You can expect to read a diverse range of works by Asian-American, Native-American, African-American and Arab-American authors and by the end of this module you will develop valuable leadership and employability skills including improved emotional intelligence and global awareness.

20 credits

Researching Readers

Your studies so far will have given you many opportunities to think about how you interpret texts and how texts are discussed by professional critics. This module encourages you to engage with the responses of readers outside of University too, in the wider reading public. Academic discussions regularly make claims about the effects of a text on its 'readers' or 'audience', but these readers are often theoretical constructs rather than actual people. This module is a practical introduction to methods that can be used to collect data so that you can investigate the responses of real readers in a variety of contexts. Methods that we study might include experimental tasks, questionnaires, focus groups and internet resources. We focus on qualitative, verbal data: the things which people say or write about their reading experiences. You will learn how to use that data to test and develop your own textual analyses. For instance, we might use data to explore how readers engage with fictional characters, how they make sense of metaphors, or how they respond emotionally to patterns in language. You will be supported in designing, conducting and reflecting upon your own study of real readers, with free choice of the text you study and the method you use, so there is lots of scope for pursuing what interests you.

20 credits

Narrative Style in the Contemporary Novel

On this module you will consider how the contemporary novel experiments with narrative style and technique, and the effects of this on you as a reader. We will be looking at writing in English from all over the world, and from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives. We will be looking at key narrative concepts, such as point of view, in order to enable appreciation of the ways in which contemporary writers play with traditional styles. Some of the experimental features we will look at include: disruptions to chronological sequence; the use of second-person ('you') narration; the use of multiple narrators. We will look at how such techniques increase or hinder such experiences as empathy and identification with characters. You will get a chance to work extensively on a contemporary novel of your choice and deepen your enjoyment of it by looking at how it is written.

20 credits

Creative Writing Poetry Experiments: (De)Constructing Paper Selves

This module offers a practical and theoretical workshop which is designed to look at current methods of creative writing exploring a wide range of forms of poetry and poetics, prose poetry, poetic prose and hybrid writing. During the term our core readings and discussions (critical and creative) will be focusing on producing new work, new texts while we will be revisiting, reconfiguring and deconstructing concepts of poetry, contemporary poetry and its various new, experimental formations, poetics of fusion and the hybrid while thematically and theoretically we will explore concepts of borders and boundaries of the contemporary poem while looking at complex concepts of identity, self, form and language, inner and outer landscapes, gender and politics, trauma, historicity and phenomenology. We will be focussing on the manifold ways in which language constructs and deconstructs self and selves, breaches old paradigms, looks 'behind' itself (in panic?) and yet audaciously ploughs on towards the 'unforeseeable'. During the module you will be given the opportunity to develop your writing in various contemporary formations of more established and currently forming conventions/experimentations; your critical thinking through a wide range of creative samples by currently published authors of both poetry and prose and other speculative genres of fusion; and through the weekly workshops to sharpen your editorial skills.

20 credits

The Brontës

'Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, nor ought it to be.' So advised Robert Southey, Poet Laureate, to a young Charlotte Bronte in 1837. Just ten years later she and her sisters, Emily and Anne, caused a sensation: their first novels, published under pseudonyms just weeks apart, were read and reviewed with astonishment, praise and censure. Now some 200 years since their births, the Bronte siblings (including their brother, Branwell) sustain a thriving industry of literary tourism and their works can be read and enjoyed via a multitude of editions and adaptations. This module will explore the art of the Brontës, their writings, drawings and paintings from collaborative juvenilia through to Charlotte's final novel, Villette. These works shed light upon the socio-cultural trends and political upheavals of the 1840s and 1850s, from the plight of the governess to machine breaking in the industrial North. This module will also ask how and why the Brontës have enjoyed such a varied and long-lasting cultural afterlife.

20 credits

Experiments in Interactive Digital Narrative

This module offers the chance to learn about and experiment with the possibilities of interactive digital narratives. What are interactive digital narratives? In brief, they are stories designed (a) to be read on screen and (b) to give the reader choice about how to navigate them. For example, you might have come across digital adventure stories that read like this: 'You walk up to the house but the door is locked. Do you search for a hidden key or do you break the door down?' Here both 'search' and 'break' will be links so you can choose what you want to do and find out what happens when you do it. Stories like this are widely available online but writers and artists have used the same approach to explore a wider range of human experience than fantasy adventures. Early in the semester we will think about various issues relating to digital narrative: the relationship between material and virtual worlds, the relationship between author and reader, our fears about Artificial Intelligence. Then you'll create an experimental narrative of your own inspired by your critical reading. You don't need any special knowledge of computers or coding - all that will be taught in the module. The learning you experience as you develop your project will be invaluable if you go on to work in any field where you need to make digital content.

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

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 (English Literature 40 credits)

The Dissertation is a long essay of between 8-10,000 words, the result of a sustained period of independent study across both semesters where you work closely with an academic specialist in your area of interest. This module provides final year undergraduate students with an opportunity to build on work done in previous modules, or study a topic that has not been included in the degree. Students taking this module are expected to demonstrate a capacity both for independent research and for organising a long piece of work. In addition to writing a critical dissertation, you also have the option to work on a piece of creative writing that could include a collection of poetry, a piece of short fiction or theatre, or a video-essay.

40 credits

Language and the Environment

This module will introduce students to a range of research focused on language and the natural environment. We will begin by exploring the discipline of Ecolinguistics and the concept of an 'ecosophy', the ecological philosophy underpinning environmental linguistic research. Students will have an opportunity to define their own key ethical principles and design a small-scale research project around their personal ecosophy. We will examine a range of different linguistic theories and their application in the rigorous and systematic analyses of language and the natural environment. We will also explore different linguistic methodologies which might enable these analyses, drawn from disciplines including discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and empirical stylistics. We will investigate a variety of different discourse types in our lectures and seminars, including political speeches, the language of environmental documentaries, literary texts, social media, marketing and advertising, and everyday conversation. Students will have the opportunity at the end of the module to use their knowledge and skills to execute their own research project, investigating the relationships between language and the natural world in a discourse of their choice.

20 credits

Reading Animals

Contemporary literature is filled with stories about animals, and told by animals, which provide astonishing perspectives on animals' experiences—their ideas and feelings, needs and desires; their sense of place, of past and future; their sense of community, loneliness, freedom or danger, or solidarity with humans. In literature, animals tell us what it is like to live in family homes or factories; to go on adventures or to go extinct; to be wild or captive, domestic or feral; to lose their home; to be owned, watched, admired, hunted, worshipped, medically treated, and more. This module looks at literary texts in which nonhuman animals' lives are the central concern. We will study works by writers such as NoViolet Bulawayo, George Saunders, Sabrina Imbler, George Orwell, Yoko Tawada, and Ceridwen Dovey. We will ask: in what ways have authors given voice to animals' experience? What are the most effective literary strategies for representing animals (both portraying and speaking for them)? How have writers re-imagined the fable and other genres in which animals conventionally appear? How are portrayals altered in authors of different race, nation, or gender? And, perhaps most topically, how does literary writing help us rethink animals' importance in an age of extinction and industrial-scale consumption?

20 credits

Privilege and Subversion in Early Modern Drama, 1580-1700

This module surveys the theatre of early modern England, a cultural phenomenon that ranged from the scandalous and iconoclastic drama of Christopher Marlowe to the bawdy, urbane comedy of William Wycherley. We will interrogate the manifold ways in which the privileges and hierarchies of the period (relating, for example, to knowledge, power, gender, politics, sexuality and social class) were interrogated, subverted or upheld by dramatists such as Aphra Behn, John Dryden, Thomas Middleton and John Ford. We will read plays in a variety of genres and will analyse them in the context of landmark cultural and historical changes of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, such as religious conflict, colonial expansion, and the growth of London as a centre of pleasure and consumption.The module considers the changing conditions of performance in pre- and post-civil-war theatre, the kinds of publication that dramatists used, and the characteristics of the language with which dramatists worked. It also relates the texts to critical methods that help illuminate the relationships between theatre and the explosive cultural, political, and religious differences of the period.

20 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 - 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.