Title

Modes of WritingLink opens in a new window

Convenor: David Morley

Instructors:

Nat Reeve

Neda Popova

Robert Gainer

James Loveard

This module is available to first year QW38 English Literature and Creative Writing students ONLY. This is a core module for first-year undergraduates reading for the degree QW38 English Literature and Creative Writing. The module is 100% fully assessed. The module complements The Written World and prepares you for the more specialist writing modules in years two and three such as Composition and Creative Writing, The Practice of Poetry, The Practice of Fiction and The Personal Writing Project.

CW101

The Written WorldLink opens in a new window

Convenor: Jodie Kim

Instructors:

Jodie Kim

Elif Gülez

This module will introduce students on the BA in English Literature and Creative Writing to ideas and theories from literary studies, linguistics, critical theory, translation studies and cultural studies that will underpin more specialised scholarly and creative study in the second and third years. You will study some of the writing and concepts that shape our understanding of the purpose, complexities and challenges of reading, writing, translating and interpreting literature in the present day. Each week pairs a conceptual text or texts with a literary text or texts to enable students to consider the relationship between abstract ideas/concepts/theories and concrete literary and cultural products and contexts.

CW102

Epic into NovelLink opens in a new window

On this module you will delve into some of the great works of literary history. Tracking the transition from the epics of the ancient world to the novels of modernity, you will study a selection of the most influential and formative works in world literature. Reading across history and cultures, between languages and genres, you will develop your skills in analysing narrative, character, and style, and lay the foundations for your future studies in literature.

Texts you might encounter include two of the cornerstone works of the classical world, Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid, the ancient Indian epic The Mahabharata, Milton’s poem of the battle between good and evil, Paradise Lost, Henry Fielding’s bawdy comedy Tom Jones, or Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s novel of decolonising Kenya, Petals of Blood.

Medieval to Renaissance English LiteratureLink opens in a new window

This course gives you the opportunity to discover some of the most significant earlier works of English literature in their social and historical contexts, including Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, and Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

Taking you from the mythical court of King Arthur to the real world of ambition, intrigue, and danger in the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the course introduces you to texts in a range of genres (romance, epic, fabliau, etc) and poetic forms. The works studied express some of the period’s highest ideals—‘trawthe’ or integrity, holiness—as well as exploring some of humanity’s darkest impulses: greed, deception, revenge, and aggressive sexual desire.

You will develop your skills in close reading of earlier forms of English as well as tackling some of the critical themes broached by these texts, including the value and power of literature itself.