Creative Writing and English Literature BA (Hons)

This module will help you to become more confident in studying literature at degree level. You will engage with a range of texts written before the 19th century, considering various different forms including prose, drama, poetry, and autobiographical writing. Through this you will start to think about how literature and history can be brought together, and why Literature remains a popular and important subject to study.

Good writers are good readers first and foremost. This module will introduce you to theories, debates and practices in narrative, enhancing your understanding of narrative as it functions both within literature and culture generally. You will examine some of the codes and conventions that govern the production, structure, reception and interpretation of narrative. To do this you will explore films, novels, poetry and plays, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to Hitchcock’s Vertigo.  By engaging with these varied narrative forms you will consider the relationship between narrative and culture and think critically about the historical development of those forms.

This module will introduce you to the variety of professional contexts you could work in as a creative writer. You will start to develop the professional skills needed to work as a writer, working to deadlines and writing to briefs. You will engage with many different forms of writing, from memoirs to scripts and graphic novels to blogs. As part of this module you will have the chance to meet a variety of inspiring visiting writers, who can share their expertise with you. 

What sort of social, political, cultural, and historical values do we bring to the study of literature? And in what ways have literary texts addressed important issues, major events, and social changes? This module explores these questions and more, using a diverse range of texts from the turn of the 19th century to the present day. The selection includes canonical works, as well as works which have often been neglected or overlooked, including those by marginalised authors. Through close examination of texts including poetry, drama, short stories and novels, we will consider issues including:

• Gender
• Class
• War
• Empire
• Racialisation
• Form
• Genre

On this module you will learn the basics of academic writing and research at university level. Drawing on a range of classic and contemporary short stories and poems, you will develop skills such as:

• Using the library catalogue
• Choosing secondary sources
• Planning essays
• Developing arguments
• Close reading texts.

These will allow you to write about and discuss the works that inspire you with confidence and flair.

This module introduces you to core skills in creative writing, including creating setting, poetic form, working with dialogue, and characterisation. You will also develop skills in workshopping and collaborating on creative work, familiarising yourself with the workshop environment which will be central to your learning on this course. You will have the opportunity to experiment with a range of forms and ideas in group writing activities, and through this module will become more confident in sharing your work with others.

On this module we will consider representations of economic, social and cultural power, and the ways in which they connect with various forms of identity. We will discuss how identities are formed, and how they can shift and change. We will consider, for example how sex, gender, sexuality, disability, race and ethnicity relate to power. We will discuss the representation of both power and identity in a variety of texts, including novels, films, novellas, and graphic novels, helping you to develop the critical vocabulary needed to analyse and theorise those representations.

On this module we will introduce you to two key concepts that will recur throughout your academic study: the idea of literary value, and the concept of the canon. This will provide a context for you to reflect on what you study at university and why. We will question how assumptions about what is and isn't great literature can influence our reading and writing choices, potentially restricting us from exploring beyond the classics. 

This module emphasises the role of research in the production of creative work. We will introduce you to a range of research techniques to help stimulate creative projects and contextualise your writing. There will be opportunities to use different types of research materials to generate your own work, as well as studying texts that have been produced using different research methods. You will have the opportunity to take part in creative projects based on archival work. 

As you progress towards your final year you will become increasingly independent in your learning. YYour  dissertation is an extended project which runs for the whole of the academic year, focusing on a topic of your choice, and with the support of an academic supervisor. If you choose to focus on Creative Writing, your creative work will be accompanied by a Contextual Reflection which will demonstrate your analytical and research skills. For many students this is one of the most enjoyable parts of their degree, as it gives you the opportunity to specialise in something you are passionate about and explore it in great depth.

On this module you will consider the historical, theoretical, cultural and political dimensions of genre, as well as exploring the conventions which are attributed to specific genres. You will also be given the opportunity to critically explore differentiations between high and low culture, and investigate genres such as tragedy, satire and the Gothic, romance, horror, and noir. The module will help you to develop an awareness of literary and generic concepts between and across different forms. Through this you will develop skills in original composition, drafting and editing. 

This module is an opportunity to explore and participate in contemporary literature. Through this you will start to develop the relationship between your creative practice and the theory, philosophy, and politics that uniform and inspire contemporary work. This will involve engaging with writing that challenges the traditional boundaries of literature and is fresh, exciting and innovative. You will also consider a broad range of materials and techniques that will help you to develop your own innovative creative practices.

The Victorian poet Matthew Arnold said of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre that “the writer’s mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion, and rage.” These are also themes that characterise much of the writing of the Victorian period. Whether the issues are societal or individual, many Victorian novels protest against the privations and injustices writers saw around them. At the same time, there were also funny, rude, and sensational texts, and texts which imagined a different kind of future in the emergent genre of science fiction. This module includes a variety of writing from across the Victorian era, and considers texts within the political, environmental, and social contexts in which they were produced.

Twentieth-century literature was formed in the crucible of revolutions, global conflicts, shifts in the planet’s ecology, and profound technological and social challenges to traditional patterns of life. This was an age of both genocide and Apartheid on the one hand, and an upsurge of claims for self-determination and human rights on the other. Literature developed in equally radical and often contradictory fashion, responding to political, social, and wider cultural shifts. On this module you will examine experimental and provocative texts across a range of forms, interrogating how modernity unfolded in the twentieth century, and asking questions about its continuing role in shaping the present.

This module takes literary trends, such as the vogue for young adult vampire fiction during the late 2000s, or the enthusiasm for fantasy fiction we’re experiencing in the 2020s, and situates them in a longer historical view. We will encourage you to consider broader narratives of subversion and experimentation, and confront questions about literary value, originality, and influence. We may look, for instance, at a recent work of Gothic fiction such as Colleen Hoover’s Verity (2018), alongside nineteenth-century sensationalist novels, eighteenth-century Gothic novels, the occult works of early modern figures, and even trace the novel’s influences all the way back to Dante’s thirteenth-century exploration of hell in Inferno. 

On this module you will investigate the theatrical experimentation that took place over the last century, and consider its impact on the contemporary stage. You will consider the major movements and perspectives of the period against the background of wider intellectual, cultural and aesthetic debates. Through this we will explore the creative dynamics between:

• Tradition and innovation
• Word and image
• Writing and performance
• Reading and spectatorship.

On this module you will examine a selection of texts from 20th century American literature, and relate these works to their cultural, social and political backgrounds. We will focus on texts that demonstrate formal innovation and experimentation, and the module reading list will reflect the huge variety evident in twentieth century American narrative and representation. You will read Native American, African American and Chinese-American texts alongside literature produced in the wake of radical social change such as Beat writing, Vietnam narratives, and responses to queer San Francisco.

On this module we will examine texts from the English-speaking Caribbean, a region that has produced two Nobel Prize winners in Literature. We will introduce you to a range of writing from and about the Caribbean, so that you can appreciate the longstanding global impact of this writing, and consider how it is currently being marked and remembered. We will particularly focus on the close connections of the past and present between Britain and the Caribbean.

On this module you will examine texts from a variety of locations, including Europe, the USA, Africa and the Asian subcontinent. Using these texts we will debate some of the contradictions of contemporary global society. You will consider:

• Whether local traditions or global culture has more impact in the modern world
• What those in one part of the world do or do not owe to those living in another
• Whether the popularity of literary texts which aim to represent and understand ‘the other’ is something to celebrate, or simply another form of exoticism.

On this module we will examine how different genders and sexualities are presented in film, literature, TV and a host of other media. We will investigate how different cultural groups use popular culture and literature to reinforce, challenge, transgress, or disrupt traditional gender expectations. This module challenges you to draw on all of the skills, theories and approaches encountered throughout your degree to interrogate the representation of gender roles and sexuality in popular culture.

On this module we will introduce you to a range of very contemporary publishing and literary cultures, helping you to position your own work in the contemporary literary landscape. You will be encouraged to think critically about literary culture, and develop a sense of how your own work might contribute to or challenge contemporary modes of writing. The module also has a practical focus which will help you to develop a professional portfolio you can use as a springboard into your career.

This is an opportunity to get involved with a current staff research project. The topics on offer in any particular year will reflect the research being carried out by your tutors. This is a great way to be part of the research culture within the department and add to the creation of new knowledge. You will build further on the research skills you have already developed, which will help you with your own independent dissertation.