Modules – Humanities
English Session 1 Popular Literature in English: Children’s Literature Module code IS058 Level II Session 1 S ESS, PRE, TUT In this module you will trace the development of British children’s literature, examining the ways in which literary representations of children and for children correspond to changes in our cultural understandings of childhood. From Dickens, Kingsley and
Carroll, to Dahl, Rowling and Pullman, societal anxieties about children have always been pivotal. You consider the legacy of children’s literature through such issues as 19th-century working children, the dilemma of the orphan, concerns over children’s education and their position within the family, always taking account of changing attitudes towards age, gender, and class. We also explore the relationship between adult author and child reader within the overall framework of the module and identify the British cultural specificities that influence the literature.
Modules – Humanities
Modules – Humanities
Popular Literature in English: the Thriller Module code IS059 Level II Session 1 S ESS, PRE, TUT The thriller remains one of the most popular literary genres. It has changed and adapted since its first great manifestation in the mid-19th century, resulting in a number of sub-genres including the detective novels of the Golden Age, the American ‘hard boiled school’, the spy novel and neo-noir. This module will question what we understand by the term ‘thriller’ and what we expect from thrilling narratives. You will analyse texts in the political and social contexts of their original publication and will compare content and style across a range of diverse novels. You will trace the progression of the thriller from Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin stories to postmodern variants of the genre. You will examine developments in the genre, and will consider the impact of issues including race and gender.
Shakespeare on Film *
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Module code IS251 Level l Session 1 S, F, Film ESS, PRE, TUT Field trip fee: £60 William Shakespeare is perhaps the best-known playwright in the English language. In this module you will examine four of Shakespeare’s most popular plays in the context of the fascinating period of English history in which they were written. The Elizabethan and Jacobean eras were a time of fundamental social change, a period of enormous religious upheaval, with an increasing emphasis on the importance of the individual, more widespread literacy, geographical exploration and increased social mobility; a time in which people were radically rexamining the world and their place in it. Examining the texts of Hamlet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night and Macbeth in conjunction with a number of well-known film productions, we will be looking at the plays from varying critical theoretical viewpoints, including
psychological theory, feminist and gender theory, postcolonial theory and politics and the relations of power. There will be a field trip to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London so that you may experience what it meant to be a ‘groundling’ playgoer in Shakespeare’s day.
Writing the Self Module code IS237 Level II Session 1 S ESS, PRE, TUT This module will address varieties of life-writing through the ages (but with a particular focus on the 19th and 20th centuries). Considering diaries, autobiographies, biographies, blogs and other forms of life-writing (both published and unpublished), we will ask: how do we write the self? What kinds of narratives are generated by lifewriting and how do we compare these narratives with, for example, overtly literary narratives? Where do the lines lie between fact and fiction and how does life-writing traverse these lines? In class, we will consider a variety of texts, from the celebrity autobiography to the newspaper obituary to the online blog. You track the ways in which changing conceptions of the self are performed through life-writing and how various ideological movements (for example, the psychoanalytic and feminist movements) generate specific kinds of life-writing, often for particular purposes.
Session 2 Brighton in Literature * Module code IS258 Level l Session 2 S ESS, PRES, TUT Brighton and the south coast feature in a wide variety of texts which indicate the region’s complex relationship with London and other parts of the UK. You will analyse the textual construction of Brighton and the south coast over a period of four hundred years; considering how the representation have changed over time and addressing the
implications of the choice of genre used in a range of literary and non-literary texts. Brighton as it appears in texts is a place of escape, a place of family fun, but also a place of menace – a location housing crime and degredation just behind the holiday crowds, a site of sexual excitement and erotic unease. The textual development of Brighton and the surrounding region will be considered in its historical context, tracing the change and the growth of the region while analysing the transformation of its literary manifestations.
Love, Sex and Death: English Renaissance Tragedy * Module code IS252 Level ll Session 2 S, Film ESS, PRE, TUT Field trip fee: £60 The Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in English history were periods of enormous religious and social upheaval. Written against this background of social unrest, the ‘Renaissance Tragedies’ are some of the most astonishing and memorable dramatic works ever written. In their seemingly persistent overturning and perversion of all social niceties, in their insistence upon violence, cruelty, bloodletting and illicit sexual activity, they can still shock us today. You will study four of the best-known and most enduringly popular of these tragedies, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling, and Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy. We will be examining them from a range of critical viewpoints, including psychological literary critical theory, feminist and gender theory, ideology and religion, and politics and the relations of power, asking how the plays may reflect contemporary early-modern anxieties and preoccupations. There will be a field trip to the new Wanamaker Theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, which is a reproduction of one of the first indoor theatres, and which will allow you to experience what it meant to be a playgoer in Jacobean London.
Nordic Noir: the Dark Side of Crime * Module code IS261 Level l Session 2 S ESS, PRE, TUT The course will consider some of the works of the ‘big names’ within the genre: Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Henning Mankell, Jan Nesbo, Peter Hoeg, Stieg Larsson among others. We will discuss the popularity and influence of the crime genre and try to discover the reason for its popularity, looking at books, TV and film adaptations. We may consider whether this interest in crime is a new phenomenon or whether other such examples of ‘blood and gore’ can be identified even as early as in Jacobean drama. The view(s) of society which are revealed with the works studied will also be of interest. Materials will be studied in English translation, although original versions will be available.
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