English Literature and History BA (Hons)

You must either choose this module or History, Community and Culture.

Employability is discussed a lot at universities, but where does this idea come from, and what can literature teach us about work? This module interrogates the purpose of Literature, as both a degree and subject matter. It shows the value of literary study to understanding and navigating issues around the gendered, classed, and racialised nature of work. The module also provides opportunities for external placements, career planning, and work-related learning. You will reflect on and learn to articulate your key skills and strengths, including in mock interviews. Guest speakers will share experiences and introduce you to career pathways such as publishing, teaching, journalism, and the civil service.

You must either choose this module or Literature at Work.

This module is a great opportunity to improve your employability and start thinking about your career. You will consider how history, and the skills you have developed by studying it, relate to potential career paths. As part of this module you will participate in a 75 hour work placement. You will need to secure this placement yourself with staff support, but you can take advantage of the many connections we have established with heritage organisations in York and the wider region.

This module builds on the Year 1 module Research and Presenting the Past, helping you to develop your research skills even further. You will do this by conducting project work in groups and engaging in independent research which will prepare you for the Dissertation module in your final year.  We we will discuss the importance of primary sources for understanding an event, period or theme, as well as exploring various schools of historical theory and methodology. The module may also include opportunities to work with local archives.

Despite the horrors of the Black Death, devastation of famine, and the ravages of the Hundred Years War, 14th century England was also full of artistic and literary achievement. On this module you will explore the ideals and ideas existing alongside the trauma of conflict. This will also involve assessing developments in political culture, to better understand the challenges and achievements of the period.

On this module you will learn about early modern English society, from the beginning of the Reformation in the 1540s to the Restoration in the 1660s. We will explore how people negotiated their everyday lives in a world that was becoming ever more watchful of their political loyalties and personal morality. You will investigate this period through a range of primary sources, engaging with them in creative ways to understand the everyday lived experiences of the time. These could include:

• State papers
• Court records
• Petitions
• Documents relating to parish life

On this module you will take a cultural and gender-focused approach to 16th century British history. This is a fascinating period in which to study the changes in power, autonomy and image of women. You will find new perspectives on a much discussed period in history, exploring how political and religious movements affected the lived experiences of women from across society. Through this we will consider how these women presented themselves, and how they have been represented since.

On this module you will study the history of the Soviet Union, from the October Revolution in 1917 to the collapse of the Soviet experiment in 1991. In doing so you will identify the underlying reasons for both the rise and the fall of the Soviet state, as well as assessing its impact on the rest of the world. This will involve examining Soviet communism from various different perspectives, taking in political, economic, social, military and cultural history.

On this module you will study the Victorian period from a social and cultural historical angle, exploring food and eating from various overlapping perspectives. You will consider how food and eating were shaped by broad historical changes such as:

• Colonialism
• Industrialisation
• Science and technology
• Medical advancements
• Print culture

You will also examine cookbooks as historical documents, along with other primary sources relating to food production and consumption in Britain, France and their empires. Through case studies you will engage with debates about the connections between food and everyday life, class, gender, race and civilisation.

On this module you will focus on the experience of African Americans both as enslaved people and in the years following the abolition of slavery. You will learn about the origins, development and abolition of slavery in the USA, assessing the impact and nature of the American slave system. We will discuss contemporary responses of both African Americans and white Americans to slavery, relationships between races after slavery ended, and the emergence of cultural expression among African Americans.

On this module you will learn about the social and political history of Britain from the union of Scotland and England in 1707 until the crowning of Queen Victoria. This was a period of enormous political, social and economic change, which also saw Britain rapidly assuming a leading position amongst the world’s major powers. Topics you cover may include:

• The Hanoverian succession
• The Jacobite rebellion
• Imperial expansion
• Industrialisation
• Trade, commerce and capitalism, including the slave trade
• The American Revolution
• The Napoleonic Wars

On this module you will examine, confront and evaluate the historical debates surrounding the American Civil War. You will learn about the campaigns and strategies of the war itself, as well as its social and political impact and its lasting cultural legacy. You will also consider the social and political forces that have shaped how this period has been retold in historical and pop culture representations. This will open wider discussion about how wars are remembered and commemorated.

The 1960s were a turbulent time for the USA. President Lyndon Johnson was embarking on a series of reforms aiming to create “the Great Society” at the same time as the seemingly endless war in Vietnam. It was also a time of great achievements, with America leading the first moon landings. Topics you will cover on this module include:

• The image and domestic policies of the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon presidencies
• Radicalism and dissent, including counterculture, urban riots and student protests
• The domestic impact of the Vietnam War

On this module you will examine the traumatic history of China throughout the lifetime of Mao Zedong. You will confront and evaluate the historical debates surrounding China’s transition from the world’s oldest imperial power to a revolutionary Communist state. In doing so you will consider the political, ideological, economic, military, social and cultural forces that shaped these events. Given China's modern status as a major world power, learning about its turbulent past and Mao's legacy will help you to understand wider global developments.

This module will focus on the Roman Empire in the first century AD, exploring what life was really like under imperial rule across society and across the empire. This will mean looking in depth at famous figures like Tiberius, Caligula and Nero, known for their violence and cruelty, as well as those like Vespasian whose legacy is more favourable. You will engage closely with different kinds of primary materials, including  archaeology, art, coins and inscriptions as well as written sources.

On this module you will have the chance to get involved with some of the research taking place within our department. The content will be different every year, depending on the current research taking place in the academic team, the resources available, and what you and your course mates are interested in. This is an opportunity to be part of our ongoing contribution to historical knowledge, and to build your research skills before starting your Dissertation in the final year. 

This module will give you the opportunity to explore a range of nonfiction texts including:

• Journalism
• Creative non-fiction
• Fictocriticism
• Manifestos
• Blogs and online journals
• Documentary, travel and life writing

You will develop your understanding of voice, structure and audience in relation to these forms and consider the blurred lines between fact and fiction in nonfiction writing. By viewing, reading and watching a range of nonfictional texts we will ask you to make the links between creative and critical writing, and to produce your own nonfictional texts.

On this module we will consider the different ways books and films tell stories, and what happens to literature and literary characters when they are translated onto the screen. We will introduce you to the theory, methods and conventions behind the process of adaptation. In addition to examining specific examples of film adaptation, you can choose to experiment creatively on an adaptation project of your own, using what you have learnt.

On this module you will consider the relationship between American literature and the physical and symbolic spaces of its settings. In American culture concepts of space and setting have a particular relevance that dates back to events such as the declaration of independence, the founding of civic spaces, and the Californian gold rush. You will be challenged to think creatively, critically, and innovatively about physical space and literature. In doing so we will explore the relationship between American socio-economic history and the development of a specifically American literary tradition.

On this module we will consider whether we can meaningfully approach literary texts outside of their historical contexts. We will question whether a text can mean anything to anybody, or if are there more objective ways of understanding them. This module engages with some of the most fundamental questions in literary studies. It will equip you with the theoretical background and skills you need to offer insightful readings of any text, irrespective of when and where it was published.

This module explores the ways new forms of news and entertainment in the eighteenth century revealed the unstable boundaries between truth and fiction. This led to the emergence of literary forms that came to typify the literature of later periods, such as the novel. Print provided a forum for writers to express concern over different forms of power, an issue debated in terms of empire, political and religious authority and personal identity, and responsibility. On this module you will consider how the literature of this period deals with questions of personal liberty, love, sexuality, and desire. 

Science fiction has a history of encouraging readers and viewers to reflect on their post industrial choices, and consider how they have affected the wellbeing of the planet and its inhabitants. On this module we will draw on a range of critical perspectives around utopianism to approach landmark texts in the history of science fiction. You will also have the opportunity to get involved with our ongoing science fiction writing project, Terra Two: An Ark for Off-World Survival

This module considers the sentimental turn literature took at the end of the eighteenth century, and explores its impact on what followed in both the Romantic movement and the Gothic revival. The writers we study on this module reckon with the power of the imagination, the limits of perception, the nature of human society, and the affective potential of literature itself, as well as processing the events of an age characterised by revolution. The literature of this period not only reflects the reader's world, but seeks to change it. 

On this module we will consider how diseases and contagion are represented in narratives from the late Eighteenth century to the present day. We will trace connections, similarities and differences in the literary representation of the spread, symptoms, and management of disease, covering contagions from rabies to zombie viruses. The module considers how diseases in texts can reflect contemporary anxieties about society. As well as covering a broad range of historical periods, the module also draws on a number of genres from novels to films to TV series, and introduces texts such as medical handbooks and advertisements alongside literary works.

This is a dynamic module which explores Shakespeare’s works in their present day and early modern contexts through a range of perspectives. Considering their creative potential for performance, we will look at contemporary stagings of his plays, film and television adaptations. We will discuss Shakespeare's place in a national and global culture, and explore current discussions around colour/gender-conscious casting, considering the implications of casting on the way we understand the texts. Through this you will engage with a range of theoretical approaches, from new historicism, cultural materialism and postcolonialism, to feminist and queer readings.  

On this module you will encounter varied and interesting texts produced within and written about major conflicts of the 20th and early 21st centuries. We will start with depictions of the mechanised horror of the Western Front and progress through representations of:

• The Second World War
• The Spanish Civil War
• Vietnam
• The Troubles in Northern Ireland
• 9/11 and the War on Terror

We will read texts by writers as diverse as Martha Gellhorn, George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut, and examine the complex relationship between language, experience, trauma and memory.

20 credits

This module is an opportunity to read and produce a range of fictional forms, from flash fictions to novellas, short stories to novels. You will develop an understanding of:

• Characterisation
• Voice
• Plot
• Narration
• Dialogue
• Point of view

By the end of the module, you will have written your own fiction portfolio.

20 credits

This module will give you the opportunity to explore a range of creative nonfiction texts including:

• Memoir
• Biography
• The creative essay
• Hybrid forms
• Nature writing

You will develop your understanding of voice, structure and audience in relation to these forms and consider the blurred lines between fact and fiction in nonfiction writing. By viewing, reading a range of nonfictional texts we will ask you to make to produce your own creative nonfiction texts.

20 credits

From the sonnet to the prose poem, on this module you will learn about the formal qualities of poetry and discover how to produce dazzling imagery and perfect rhythm; manipulating voice and pace. You will study a range of contemporary poets, supplemented by visits and readings from some of them. You will produce your own portfolio of work by the end of the module.

This module addresses the essential elements of scriptwriting. This includes writing convincing dialogue, creating interesting characters and constructing coherent stories. We will also introduce you to the cultural, theoretical and industrial contexts of scriptwriting. You will develop your expressive and technical skills in writing scripts for 1 or more of the following disciplines:

• Radio
• Television
• Stage and film

You will then create your own original script.

On this module you will examine the history of the United States since the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. You will explore a range of issues that have impacted American politics, culture and society in the years since these events. Your learning will be informed by the wider ideological, cultural and political history of the United States.

Topics may include:

• The War on Terror
• Fake news
• LGBTQ+ rights
• American conspiracies such as the birther movement and Q-Anon
• Response to crises such as 2008 recession and the Covid 19 pandemic