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English Current Students Intranet

Term 2

See TalisAspireLink opens in a new window for further reading recommendations.

Unit 3

Strange, Magickal, Uncanny: Histories and Futures

Leading on from your work on folkhorror but branching into new territories, this unit thinks about the strange pasts, presents, and futures of Britain, its identity and its people, its lands and its narrative. We will do so through a range of texts that engage with ghostly, weird, haunting, strange atmospheres and themes of the paranormal, the magickal/occult, the unexplained and the ambiguous in relation to "Britain". The texts in this unit blur genres and forms - fiction, pseudo-nonfiction, hybrids of dramatization and documentary, urban fantasy, travel writing, gothic novel, short form, novels, podcasts - and that is an aspect that will be key to our discussions as well.

There is reading/listening guidance for each text which you may find useful for note-taking but should not feel limited by these.

If you follow the hyperlinked book titles, they will take you to second-hand copies of the recommended edition.

Week 1

REQUIRED PRIMARY - Helen Cresswell, Moondial Link opens in a new window(1987) AND Episode One of the BBC adaptationLink opens in a new window from 1988.

REQUIRED SECONDARY - Beth Rodgers,. "Children’s Ghost StoriesLink opens in a new window." The Routledge Handbook to the Ghost Story. Routledge, 2017. 338-347.

Optional extra: Fiona Cameron, "‘Oh please, let us come undone!’States of independence: Female temporality in the supernatural children’s television and literature of the 1970s and 1980sLink opens in a new window." Horrifying Children: Hauntology and the Legacy of Children’s Television (Bloomsbury, 2024): 37-52.

  • Recommended edition is Faber and Faber 2015 but any edition from any year is fine for this text (and would be great to see some originals!).

  • C.304pp but a comparatively quick read as it was aimed at younger readers.

  • The rest of the TV series from 1988 is strongly recommended as an extra (3 hours total viewing time, over 6 episodes)
  • Before you begin the texts, look through and consider using this Reading Guidance

Week 2

REQUIRED PRIMARY - Danny Robins, The Witch Farm, (2022)

REQUIRED SECONDARY -

  • Listen to episodes 1-9 (including case updates)

Week 3

REQUIRED PRIMARY - Jeremy Dyson, The Haunted Book (2012)

REQUIRED SECONDARY -

  • Recommended edition is the Canongate Books hardback (mostly for aesthetics) but the paperback will serve fine.
  • About 240pp but there are a lot of different components and stories to read which might take more time to process.
    Ensure to read right until the very end of the book...
  • Reading Guidance

Week 4

REQUIRED PRIMARY - Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black Link opens in a new window(2005)

REQUIRED SECONDARY -

  • Any edition is fine (the one pictured is 2023 but I have linked to an older cheaper edition).
  • Note this is a fairly long read (and dense in its style) at c.450pp.
  • Recommended unabridged version on Audible narrated by Anna Bentinck (17 hours listening time) with usual caveat about note-taking.
  • Reading Guidance

Week 5

REQUIRED PRIMARY - Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London (2011)

REQUIRED SECONDARY -

  • Recommended edition of Aaronovitch is Gollancz 2011 (either hardback or paperback is fine).
  • This is the first in the PC Peter Grant series. The others are strongly recommended but we are only reading the first one for the module.
  • c. 390pp but a comparatively quicker read. I also recommend the unabriiged audible version (but as always, make sure to take notes!)
  • Reading Guidance

Unit 4

Neo-Victorian Crimes and Mysteries: Facts and Fictions

The final unit navigates neo-Victorianism through historical crime and/or mystery fiction in the various forms of non-fiction novels, fragmented prose novels, graphic novels, television episodes. Our critical questions will circulate around why there is a continued fascination with the Victorian period and particular its perceived darker, more criminal side, and what the ways in which the period is reimagined tell us about national histories and identities.

Content note: ALL of the texts in this unit containing upsetting material - murder, sexual violence and misogyny, psychological torment, economic degradation, some racial slurs and offensive stereotypes. Come and speak to me if needed ahead of reading/class.

There is reading/listening guidance for each text which you may find useful for note-taking but should not feel limited by these.

If you follow the hyperlinked book titles, they will take you to second-hand copies of the recommended edition.

Week 7

REQUIRED PRIMARY - Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2008)

REQUIRED SECONDARY -

  • Recommended edition of Summerscale is Bloomsbury Publishing 2008

  • Content note: As might be expected, the text contains some rather gruesome and upsetting imagery.
  • Reading Guidance

Week 8

REQUIRED PRIMARY - George Macrae Burnet, His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick MacraeLink opens in a new window (2015)

REQUIRED SECONDARY -

  • Recommended edition of Summerscale is Bloomsbury Publishing 2008

    • Content note: As might be expected, the text contains some rather gruesome and upsetting imagery.
  • Reading Guidance

Week 9

REQUIRED PRIMARY -

Peter Akroyd, Dan Leno and the Limehouse GolemLink opens in a new window (1994)

REQUIRED SECONDARY -

  • Suggested edition is the Vintage Publishing 1995 but the Sinclair-Stevenson 1994 hardback (red cover) is also fine.
  • Reading Guidance

Week 10

REQUIRED PRIMARY - selection of different literary and cultural representations of the Whitechapel Murders

You will be placed into groups and each given a representation of the 1888 Whitechapel Murders to examine.

Each group will have 10-15mins to lead the seminar - see the group briefing.