English Literature and History BA(Hons)

This module will focus on the political and social histories of a number of case studies considering the period from the end of the nineteenth century until the eve of the Second World War. Typical countries you will cover include a selection from a range of European and world powers including the USSR, the USA and France. In each case you will focus on the main political themes of the era such as democracy, fascism and communism and then consider them in wider social and cultural contexts. You will receive skills training integrated within the module.

Critical thinking enables us to go beyond the surface of information, using analytical skills to dissect, question, and evaluate ideas with a detective's curiosity and a scientist's precision. This skillset is common to all disciplines in the Humanities, where the challenge lies in unravelling complexities, probing assumptions, and exploring the neglected features of human culture, language and history. The module will hone your intellectual skills in reasoning and close analysis, improve your ability to present arguments effectively, and equip you to plan and conduct an independent research project. This module will also provide support for planning your personal and career development.

This module introduces you to a diverse range of literary texts, representing the principal genres on which the Western literary tradition is built. It also explores how these genres have been adapted, modified, and reformed in response to historical and cultural change. It helps you situate this knowledge in relation to overarching questions about the key concepts, skills and terms used throughout the study of literature at university level.

This module examines the history, memory and historiographical controversy surrounding the Nazi era in European History. You will use a broad range of primary and secondary source material to develop a deep historical analysis of the era, rooted in the debates over the consent or coercion of the German population, the limits of the totalitarian model and the nature of victimhood and commemoration. This module falls into the ‘Conflict’ and ‘Communities and Welfare’ research groups.

Gothic emerged as the dark twin of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century and has remained perennially popular ever since. Gothic novels, ghost stories and horror films offer scintillating and often scandalous popular entertainment, while counterbalancing the values of modernity and order celebrated in realism and rational philosophy. This module will explore the origins and development of the Gothic, from its emergence in the age of revolutions and Regency decadence, through nineteenth-century parodies and re-appropriations, to its manifold transformations within the cultural industries of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

You will be expected either to complete a graduate or professional level work placement – or, as an alternative an enterprise or citizenship project with a tangible end product (e.g. feasibility study for turning hobby/idea into a personal business or setting up campaign group/developing volunteering/charity initiative) plus associated documentation – plus a self-reflective evaluation of the process. In preparation for this you will undertake career planning and placement research, supported by workshops and tutorial meetings.

In this module you will focus on the period 1485-1660, mainly on England, and will examine changes in religious practice and belief, social structure and the development of royal power, especially in terms of central policy and its effects on the localities. You will explore the dramatic religious, social and political changes of the Tudor and Stuart era.

This module deals with the theory and practice of oral history in relation to the history of childhood and youth. You'll conduct at least one interview, and provide all the relevant ethical and archival documentation to accompany it. You'll be introduced to the key problems in oral history of memory, ethics, intersubjectivity and narrative. Finally, in order to write about the experience of childhood and youth in the past, you'll learn the analytical techniques which can be applied to oral history data.

This module focuses on the potential of spoken-word material as a source of data for quantitative and qualitative research in the study of History, English Language and Literature. It aims to improve your skills in data collection through the introduction of the theory and practice of interviewing for research, and aims to enhance your analytical skill set by introducing you to a range of methods from like thematic tagging, concordances, and descriptive and analytical statistics. You will explore the interview as a means of data collection in, for example, sociolinguistics and oral history, conducting your own interviews in line with best practice. You will then use spoken-word data collected by yourself or other scholars as the basis for investigation of textual material using a variety of analytical tools.

When did the Victorians become Victorian? What does 'Victorian' mean to us in the twenty-first century? This module explores some of the literature and culture of 1837 to discuss Victorianism as a period and an idea. We’ll encounter some of the greats of early Victorian literature (Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Thackeray) and look at themes such as colonialism, childhood, travel, neo-Victorianism, and legacies of Romantic literature. We’ll use creative techniques to understand our relationship with early Victorian literature today.

This module gives you the chance to study some of the most exciting and experimental novels ever written. Beginning at the start of the twentieth century, with ground breaking works of modernist fiction by the likes of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, you will study innovative new developments in form, style, and technique, as well as the historical context behind these transformative texts. The module then introduces you to the postmodernist experimentation of the later twentieth century. Together, we will explore new departures in narrative, style and language; the relationship between fiction, history and text; and the breakthrough novels that shaped the twentieth century.

This module takes a tour through modern and contemporary American poetry. We’ll explore history, politics, identity, and competing ideas of what is means to be ‘American’, by studying the work of 10 extraordinary poets. We’ll be exploring American poetry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, looking at significant poetic movements and sociopolitical contexts. The module explores a range of poets which may include Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Claudia Rankine, and Robert Lowell.

No English degree would be complete without the opportunity to study the greatest writer in the language – Shakespeare. This module is your chance to do just that, both by situating Shakespeare’s plays in relation to their historical and cultural backgrounds, and by considering their rejuvenation in recent film and stage productions. For a greater understanding of Renaissance drama, the module will also compare Shakespeare’s work to some of his contemporaries, such as Marlowe, Jonson, or Webster.

This module takes a tour through modern and contemporary American poetry. We’ll explore history, politics, identity, and competing ideas of what is means to be ‘American’, by studying the work of 10 extraordinary poets. We’ll be exploring American poetry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, looking at significant poetic movements and sociopolitical contexts. The module explores a range of poets which may include Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Claudia Rankine, and Robert Lowell.

You will study the origins of the war, the military course of the conflict, its effect on domestic society and reactions to the war through literature, art and memorial architecture. The focus of the module is on the British experience, though it will consider continental European and imperial experiences too. Throughout the module, you will also reflect upon public commemoration across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This module aims to develop skills enabling you to communicate the value and importance of literary study to a non-specialist audience. More broadly, you'll be encouraged to think about the real-world applications of a degree in English Literature, and about the role of the humanities in challenging and changing society. The module is based around, and explores numerous strategies for community and public engagement, with an emphasis on considering different ways in which literary study can be taken outside the academy and into society.

World Literature is a module that invites you to look beyond the “Englishness” of English Literature. Your reading list will take you on a voyage of discovery around different cultures, countries, and continents, which you will explore through their literary texts. These texts will reflect both the global reach of the English language and the enthralling experience of reading works in translation. Besides embracing the challenges posed by studying works from unfamiliar cultures and traditions, this module will consider some of the important questions raised by the study of world literature, such as the nature of hybridity, the limitations of the canon, and the globalisation of literature.

This module examines the history and memory of the French experience of World War II, focusing on the German Occupation, the Vichy Regime, French collaboration, and the development of internal and external resistance. You will use a broad range of primary and secondary source material to develop a cultural historical analysis of the era, rooted in the debates over silence, truth and representation. This module falls into the ‘Conflict’ and ‘Communities and Welfare’ research groups.

On this module you will study the aftermaths of the First World War and attempts at peacebuilding and post-war reconstruction. You will also consider the idea of the ‘Greater War’ to examine conflicts that extended beyond the armistice in 1918. You will investigate the work of new international organisations such as the League of Nations and Save the Children Fund in this period of conflict and flux, as well as the experiences of individuals and cultural responses. The module’s geographical focus is Britain, but this is set in the context of international movements and global challenges.

This is a specialised module which engages you, through the study of primary and secondary sources, in examining the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). It aims to develop your understanding of key themes in the early modern era, such as gender, politics, foreign policy and religion.

On this module we will study the Holocaust through the words of those who survived and/or bore witness to it. Bringing together both literary and historical perspectives, we will approach this bleak yet defining episode of human history in a unique interdisciplinary fashion, focusing on non-fictional texts such as memoirs, diaries, and verbatim theatre. By studying how those who witnessed the events of the Holocaust chose to put the experience into words, we will attempt to understand these events neither in terms of traditional history textbooks nor in terms of their representation in our culture, but in terms of some of the individual stories behind it. This will allow us better to grasp issues such as trauma, memorialisation, the relationship between testimony and truth, and the difficulties involved in putting the events of the Holocaust into words.