| Module | Credits | Compulsory/optional |
|---|
| Studies in Twentieth Century Literature, 1900-1945 | 15 Credits | Optional |
| Building on the study of narrative begun at Level One this course will examine some key texts published in the period 1900 - 1945 and offer an historical and theoretical framework in which the set texts can be read. A central part of the course will be the attempt to explain the literary developments of the period by reference to a central concept in twentieth century cultural history: Modernism. The course will make clear that the chronological division indicated here does not imply that all texts of this period can be called `Modernist'. As students will be invited to consider, this is simply a convenient label whose meaning is itself a source of controversy and debate. Attention will also be given to such common thematic motifs such as urban ambience, the 'presence of the past', social class and sexual politics. The writers studied on the course will vary from year to year but are likely to include such key figures as Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, May Sinclair, Jean Rhys, James Joyce and T.S. Eliot. |
| American Literature to 1900 | 15 Credits | Optional |
| This module will trace the development of American literature from the colonial period through to 1900, examining texts from multiple genres (autobiography, captivity narrative, political propaganda, novel, poetry, short story). It will examine how writers responded to the American environment and sociopolitical events to create a distinctively American literary tradition. Attention will be paid to issues such as New England Puritanism; the treatment of Native Americans; slavery; the War of Independence; Americas relationship with England; Manifest Destiny, expansionism and the frontier; transcendentalism; the Civil War; industrialization and the growth of the city; gender and sexuality. Authors who may be studied include: Mary Rowlandson, Phylis Wheatley, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allen Poe, Harriet Jacobs, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, Sarah Orne Jewett. |
| Ways of Reading: Literature and Theory | 15 Credits | Compulsory |
| Ways of Reading is an introduction to theoretical approaches in literary criticism. The module will offer a survey of twentieth- and twenty-first-century trends in critical thinking about literature such as, for example, Marxism, psychoanalysis and feminism, together with later developments such as spatial criticism, disability criticism and ecocriticism. The emphasis will be on learning to apply concepts which are characteristic of these approaches within the context of your own critical writing about literature. This module is compulsory for students intending to take an independent project module or dissertation in Literature at Level 6. |
| Images of Contemporary Society: British Literature and the Politics of Identity | 15 Credits | Optional |
| Drawing on writing produced since the Second World War, this module focuses on the changing situations of both writers and readers of British fiction, theatre, and poetry. The module undertakes an examination of realism in post-war writing and students will be asked to consider the cultural representations of the period as they are evinced in both fiction, drama, and poetry including those of the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time of unprecedented change in British society. The module provides examples of this writing in authors, such as Sam Selvon, John Braine, Caryl Churchill, Zadie Smith, Irvine Welsh, and Linton Kwesi-Johnson. It considers the ways in which the set texts deal with such issues as class antagonisms, race and ethnicity, masculinity and femininity, and sexual expression, and how they effectively represent, and are representative of, contemporary British society. |
| Writing for the Stage | 15 Credits | Optional |
| Building on critical and practical skills developed at Level Four, this module continues the study of genre but also investigates writing as a collaborative process. Focusing on stage drama, we will analyse a selection of twentieth century and contemporary works. Teaching seminars (weeks 1-8) will explore character, dialogue, the world of the play, action, plot, narrative, and audience. We explore how the playwright evokes the World of the Play through creation of the imaginary place, aspects of setting, music and props. Students will be expected to workshop their own dramatic writing (weeks 9-12) with a view to completing a short dramatic text (8-12 pages in length). They will write a supporting reflective commentary, exploring the craft choices they made in developing their dramatic work. |
| Language and Imagination: The Art of the Poem | 15 Credits | Optional |
| Building on previous work, this module will develop your knowledge and understanding of poetic craft and technique including voice, sound, patterns and shape, rhyme and rhythm, imagery and metaphor. You will develop your own creative writing through the use of exercises and create your own portfolio of poetry. You will be asked to practise reading and thinking about poems of many different styles and periods, for example, sonnets, villanelles and free verse. You will consider ways in which the material presentation of poetry is significant. For example, you might examine poetry that exists somewhere other than a printed page: written on a wall, as a film, as a performance, etc. |
| Literature at Work | 15 Credits | Optional |
| This module enables you to incorporate practical experience into your study of English Literature and/or Creative Writing. It focuses on how literature (the writing process, the marketing and retailing of texts, their critical analysis, or literary history) is encountered by an audience outside academia. To take this module, you must find a suitable work placement by the end of the previous semester, with guidance from the module leader. Suitable sites for work experience might include: a school, or further education college; a heritage site associated with a writer; a literary festival; a publishing company; a bookshop; a funding body or arts organisation; a theatre. Your time spent on placement should total up to at least 24 accumulated hours, though in practice you may spend longer. |
| A Nation of Readers: British Identity and Enlightenment Culture | 15 Credits | Compulsory |
| This module focuses on British literature first published between 1640-1740 and is designed to build on your ongoing close-reading and analytical skills. The module considers many key cultural themes during this turbulent period of history, including power and political authority, national identity, class hierarchies, print culture, gender and sexuality, and religion, and encourages students to consider texts from a historicist approach. Texts include works by Dryden, Marvell, Milton, Gay, Pope and Swift as well as lesser-known female authors such as Mary Chudleigh and Mary Wortley Montagu. Prose works include Behn's 'Oroonoko' and Defoe's 'Moll Flanders'. You will therefore be looking at both the work of writers whose works are often identified within the 'canon' of 'great' English literature as well as others who have, until more recently, often been excluded from literary histories. |
| Revisiting the Renaissance | 15 Credits | Compulsory |
| This module takes a historicist approach to British literature first published between 1550 and 1642 and is designed to build on your ongoing development of close-reading and analytical skills in relation to many key cultural themes during this turbulent period of history, including power and political authority, national identity, class hierarchies, print culture, gender and sexuality, and religion. Texts include plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson, and poetry by Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser and Donne as well as lesser-known female Renaissance authors such as Whitney, Wroth and Lanyer. Prose works such as Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia' and the Tilbury speech of Queen Elizabeth I will also be considered. We will therefore be looking at both the work of writers whose works are often identified within the 'canon' of 'great' English literature as well as others who have, until more recently, often been excluded from literary histories. |
| Poetry, Prose and Publishing | 15 Credits | Compulsory |
| This module will introduce you to the world of literary magazine and anthology publishing, considering both print and online publications. In groups, you will work towards planning your own publications and developing your editorial skills. Key questions of craft and motivation will be asked: what are the attributes of a successful publication? What useful selection criteria might an editor employ? Publications studied might include Poetry Magazine, Granta, Ambit and the Paris Review. You will also spend around half the course producing and workshopping your own creative work, and learning to identify suitable outlets for publication. |
| Employability Skills | 15 Credits | Optional |
| Producing graduates who are highly employable is a key aim of the University of Hertfordshire. This module aims to help you bridge gaps between your specialist academic studies and the world of graduate employment. As well as allowing you to reflect on and further develop your employability skills we will explore the changing nature of employers' needs. Using case studies, we will consider a range of issues (legal, gender, equality) that can arise in recruitment and the workplace.
The module will also focus on career planning and job searching, as well as recruitment and selection processes including the work of assessment centres and pyschometric testing. Overall the intention is that you will be able to develop your job-market awareness and identify and explore potential career pathways. The module is worth 15 credits and may be chosen in place of a 15-credit subject module at Level 5, or as an additional module at Level 6, alongside 120 credits of modules in your subject(s). |
| The Short Story Workshop | 15 Credits | Optional |
| 'For sale, baby shoes, never worn.' (very short story attributed to Ernest Hemingway).
From flash-fiction to weird fiction, and from historical fiction to dirty realism, this module will deepen and expand the critical and creative study of the short story begun at Level 4. Key questions of craft and motivation will be asked: How does the content of a story relate to its form? What makes a successful anti-hero or -heroine? How do you build suspense? When does a short story become a flash fiction? We will read some of the best short stories from the UK, the US and around the world, and you will develop your own creative writing by working towards a portfolio of short fiction. Authors studied may include Lydia Davis, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chris Adrian, Sarah Hall, James Baldwin, Stephen King, Raymond Carver, Katherine Mansfield, Miranda July, Angela Carter, Jhumpa Lahiri and William Trevor. |
| Real Stories Well Told | 15 Credits | Compulsory |
| This module aims to develop understanding of how close reading of non-fiction, including forms such as travel and history writing, biography and memoir, can help develop students' own creative writing abilities within these genres. It aims to explore the nature of the self, its presentation in text, and the depiction of other lives, with the aim of helping students adopt different narrative structures and styles in their own work. The module explores the notion of place and voice in non-fiction writing and aims to give an understanding of how research informs practice. Students will be encouraged to develop an understanding and practice of the range of styles found within the various types of non-fiction writing, as well as gain an understanding of the current creative non-fiction market. |
