BA (Hons) English

In this module you will explore the relationship between message and style in literary and non-literary texts and conversations. You will study a wide range of text types such as poetry, drama, literary prose, news texts and broadcasts, political speeches, social media, advertisements and others. You will be introduced to key concepts and theories in stylistics, including linguistic deviation, the structure of oral and written narratives, narrative point of view, the representation of speech and thought, the representation of groups and events in the news, persuasion in politics, the use of metaphor, and multimodality. This module will equip you with the skills to carry out detailed linguistic analysis to uncover how writers and speakers use language creatively and persuasively. You will acquire techniques for close reading and analysis, preparing you for work in areas of education, journalism, editing, copy-writing and a range of professional and business contexts.

This module aims to provide both a thorough introduction to the main areas of contemporary literary criticism and theory, with a particular emphasis on textual/cultural constructions of identity. It will also trace how these critical theories have materially influenced the afterlives of these texts, particularly in dramatic performance and modern reception. You will be equipped with a set of theoretical terms and concepts that will enable you to understand what is at stake in current debates in critical and cultural theory, and the way in which such debates inform the politics of literary and cultural representation. You will encounter a variety of texts and artistic and cultural practices that have broadened and expanded our notions of how art works. You will explore the concept of the “new” in some of its classifying and critical uses, developing and deploying reading skills across a selection of materials. You will be able to recognise and define some of the formal constituents and characteristics of texts associated with various artistic and cultural movements. These developments in artistic practice will be located in historical, political and philosophical contexts, and will also examine the role of language in shaping the human subject and his/her world. Topics covered may include Structuralism/Post-Structuralism; Psychoanalysis; Marxism; Feminisms; Postcolonialism; Disability Studies; Animal Studies and Queer Studies, with particular emphasis on thinkers from beyond the white, European-American 'canon' of theory.

Bodies, nature, space and the environment have always been the subject of art, literature and popular culture. How do we think of ourselves within space, nature (however we define it) and the ecosystem? Are we part of, above or against our environment? How do our bodies filter our experience of the world? This module examines the ways in which creative work and cultural movements from Medieval drama, Victorian ‘freak’ shows to empire, politics and even the rave scene develop ways of being within the world. You will look at the conventions and traditions of texts associated with literary movements that interrogate and express issues of ecology, climate, colonialism and migration. These will be contextualised in history, politics and philosophy, examining the role of literature in navigating key debates around these themes. You will interrogate a range of texts and cultural practices addressing debates around what limits should and can be imposed on representation. We will explore examples of both ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultural texts that are hidden from mainstream society, challenging material that has been forgotten or absorbed, and rejected.

This module aims to give you insight into word meaning. You will explore lexical meaning, such as polysemy and sense relations, and the types of meaning represented by different word classes. You will also examine how meaning is affected by the context it is produced in. You will be introduced to key theories in semantics, including conceptual, cognitive semantics and componential approaches to the study of meaning. The module also covers central theories and concepts from pragmatics, such as entailment and presupposition, conversational implicature, relevance and speech act theory, and politeness and impoliteness theories. In addition, you will learn how to use freely available language corpora and corpus analysis tools to carry out original semantic and pragmatic analyses of both spoken and written texts.

This module provides the opportunity for you to conduct your own research into a negotiated subject of their choice within the areas of English Language or English Literature. It allows you to produce a substantial piece of work in your own chosen specialist area, and requires you to demonstrate the analytical, research, interpretive and study skills acquired during their English degree. This includes the abilities to construct and sustain an argument, and to support it using credible researched evidence and theory. Independent research and self-motivation are key to this module and you will be required to organise and navigate your projects autonomously. You will be allocated a project supervisor to support your work and specialist lectures and writing retreats will be timetabled to instruct you in a variety of research methods.

This module introduces you to the key concepts in language acquisition across those acquiring spoken language and those acquiring signed language. You will learn how children acquire their first language(s), how caregivers assist with this process and what we can do when language acquisition does not proceed as expected. We will examine the ways in which speakers process language coming into their brain and formulate their responses. You will gain knowledge of how medical and educational professionals measure language acquisition and come to understand how we can assist speakers who experience problems understanding and producing language should they experience head injury, dementia, a strokes or other conditions.

The whole story of English literature is one of adaptions, sequels and retellings, from Chaucer to Clueless to Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet and Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. This module examines the ways in which people have borrowed, stolen, adapted, embroidered and re-presented old stories in new ways to suit new times and new media, from film to fan-fiction, examining the cultural context of adaptations, the demands of different genres and the techniques required to tailor familiar texts for new audiences. You will study the original plays, poems and novels alongside a wide variety of sequels, films, TV series, fan-fictions and cultural phenomena from merchandise to tourism. In doing so, we’ll seek out news of thinking about originality and adaptation through formal experimentation and through radical (sometimes controversial) retellings.

This module looks at language in its social context. We examine together how sociological factors like the region you grow up in, your friendship networks, your ethnicity, your social class and even your gender may interact with the kind of language you acquire and how even this may change across your lifespan. We cover a range of social theories which you will then apply to real data to examine how social factors may or may not affect the language variet(ies) people produce. We will examine those people who acquire one language variety and discuss what happens in situations where people routinely speak more than one language from birth.

On this module you will encounter and analyse a range of texts and cultural practices in order to address debates around what limits should and can be imposed on representation. We will examine some examples of both ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultural texts that are hidden from mainstream society, challenging material that has been forgotten or absorbed, and some which are rejected in their entirety by both/either the populace and the academy. Our objects of enquiry will be representational strategies, and their real effects on individuals and on society, and our purpose will be to equip you with knowledge and skills to negotiate the continued presence of extreme and problematic cultural texts and social practices.