Media and English Literature BA (Hons)

On this module you will explore some of the theories and concepts relating to the analytical interpretation of the media. We will introduce you to major issues that relate media to social and cultural contexts and to key You will also have the opportunity to assess and evaluate approaches to critical and analytical investigation.

This module will help you to become more confident in working with literature at degree level. You will engage with a range of texts written before the 19th century. This includes prose, drama, poetry, speeches, letters and articles. Through this you will start to think about how literature and history can be brought together, and why the study of English Literature remains a popular and important subject.

On this module we will examine some well known classic texts alongside more unusual selections. These texts will help you to question the social, political, cultural and historical values through which we approach literature. This includes an exciting range of texts across different media and forms, from 19th century poetry to early cinema and 1930s nonfiction. Along the way we will consider questions of gender, class, war, empire, form, genre and much more.

The critic Michel Foucault once wrote that ‘power is everywhere’. On this module we will uncover how economic, social and cultural power is portrayed and exerted through the written word. We will explore who has power in a literary text, and we as readers can identify this. We will discuss these issues as they relate to identity politics and the intersections between class, gender, race, sexuality, ability, nation, and age in selected literary works.

This module will help you to build the skills you need to succeed in higher education, and specifically for researching and analysing media. This includes skills in:

• Researching
• Referencing
• Critical thinking
• Academic writing
• Presenting
• Group work. 

We will make sure you are ready to take on the challenges of degree level study.

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.

On this module you will investigate the relationship between media and power. This includes discussing the role of new media technologies in facilitating self expression and agency through creations like mash ups and fan fiction. You will also explore how these technologies impact the power and dominance of more traditional forms of media. We also discuss the positive and negative aspects of social media, from its role as a platform for activism to concerns about surveillance and privacy.

On this module you will think critically about how media informs, intersects and engages with concepts of identity. You will engage with contemporary discussion and debate surrounding identity, which will include considerations of:

• Race
• Gender
• Nationality
• Age.

You will use these varied perspectives to evaluate the theoretical, historical and socio-political influences and implications that contemporary mediated identities may communicate.

This module is your introduction to media ecology, which encourages you to understand media as anything in which meaning or communication takes place. You will explore the deep history of media and allied technologies (for example writing, printing and painting) to examine how media can determine the possibilities of communication, creative activity and understanding. You will examine how traditional, new and emergent technologies influence our relationship with information and culture. You will also think about how these factors affect social organisation, aesthetic practice and political structure.

On this module you will explore the concept of ideology by analysing the viewing behaviour and beliefs of media audiences. You will study media communication models and their histories, engaging with research surrounding audiences. Through this you will explore the nature of contemporary mass communication and consider how ideology and meaning impact the communication process.

On this module we will introduce you to 2 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.

As you progress towards your final year you will become increasingly independent in your learning. You will write a dissertation (an extended project which runs for the whole of the academic year) on a topic of your choice, and with the support of an academic supervisor. 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.

In this module we will explore and analyse different forms of animated film and video games. This will include analysis of the different visual styles and genres in animation. You will examine the production, distribution and consumption of animated films and video games in contemporary culture. You will consider both large media companies like Disney and Studio Ghibli and smaller, independent studios, engaging in debates about realism, hybridity and ideology in animation.

On this module you will explore how new and emergent media, communications and technologies shape our way of living, acting and understanding the world and our place in it. Building on previous modules, you will learn about the development of various technologies and consider our changing relationship with them. You will consider how they contribute to and challenge philosophy, ethics, morals and meaning. We will also think about how these developments might influence aesthetic trends in production, consumption and cultural value.

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.

On this module we will examine texts from the English speaking and Creole Caribbean, a region that has produced2 Nobel Prize winners in Literature. We will introduce you to a range of writing from and about the Caribbean, allowing you to appreciate the longstanding global impact of this writing and 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 investigate how the novel form was developed, challenged, and experimented with in the Victorian period. You will consider how the novel engages with and represents social issues in the period, but also how the novel form itself adapted and transformed as a vehicle of expression. You will discover how novels transformed from realist texts which set out to depict believable and probable events and characters to varied and experimental genres, including:

• Science fiction
• The sensation novel
• Romance
• Mystery and adventure.

By the beginning of the 20th century many of the religious, philosophical and cultural assumptions of the West had been overturned, and new aesthetic movements emerged whose radical call was to ‘make it new’. On this module we will introduce you to these restless modernists and the consequences of their work in 20th century culture. You will examine how the Civil Rights Movement, feminism, and queer subcultures used emerging ideas and experimental aesthetics as tools in their politically radical activism.

This module explores 'the gothic' as a discrete and specific genre. You will trace its early origins and evolution, with particular attention to its emergence a recognisable literary aesthetic in the second half of the eighteenth century. We will consider the genre alongside a range of other literary and philosophical movements, such as Romanticism, the Enlightenment, and the Culture of the Sentiment. You will read late eighteenth-century canonical works of Gothic Literature by writers such as Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis, considering them as part of both a longer tradition and broader contemporary cultural trends interested in terror, affect and the sublime.

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.

This module 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 selection will reflect the variety of twentieth century American experience. 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 9/11.

On this module you will examine texts from a variety of locations, including Europe and the USA, Africa and the Asian subcontinent. Using these texts we will debate 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 explore issues surrounding gender and sexuality. We will debate whether various elements of gender are natural or cultural, as well as how different genders and sexualities are presented in film and literature. We will investigate how do 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 you will explore concepts and issues surrounding globalisation, localisation, regionalism and national identity, particularly in relation to city cultures. You will consider the representations, symbolic and social structures, development, uses and experiences of the modern city. This will involve the experiential exploration of contemporary cities, as well investigating technological advances and futuristic narratives of the city. You will also have the opportunity to take part in an international field trip as part of this module. previous locations have included Istanbul, Madrid and Amsterdam.

This module is an opportunity to explore and participate in contemporary literature. You will start to develop the relationship between your creative practice and the theory, philosophy, and politics that uniform and inspire contemporary work. You will engage 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.

On this module you will engage in debates concerning American mass culture and its relationship to social formation, cultural movements and modes of expression. We will examine contemporary popular culture as site of ideological, political and cultural discourse, considering how it uses and subverts America’s ideas and imagery. Through this we will assess how popular forms react to social and cultural changes. These forms include:

• Animation
• Comic books
• Movies
• Television
• Websites
• Music.