BA American Literature with Creative Writing (T7W8)

Course Code UNU1T7W8401
Duration 4 Years
Attendance Full Time
Award Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Overview
Why Choose Us
Study Abroad
Requirements
Course Profile
Fees and Funding
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Overview

The American Studies with Creative Writing degree provides an introduction to the demands and challenges of creative practice. In this degree, Creative Writing is offered as a subsidiary subject taken in conjunction with the study of American Literature. The UEA has a long tradition of providing courses in the writing of fiction, poetry and drama and has close and active links with the world of contemporary writing.

Course Structure

The first year is designed to give a thorough grounding in the study of American literature.

In your second and fourth years, you will have a choice of Creative Writing modules to choose from. The Creative Writing element, which makes up about a quarter of the degree, is taught in seminar workshops designed to help you improve your skills as a writer under the guidance of experienced pratitioners. They increase your ability to initiate and develop new creative material through technical exercises, group discussion and the exploration of strategies for drafting and re-drafting new work. In your second year, modules cover the writing of poetry, fiction and drama, and the advanced final year module is a smaller-scale foretaste of the MA in Creative Writing.

Assessment

Key skills, issues and ideas are introduced in lectures given by all members of faculty. These are accompanied by more specialist study, undertaken in small seminar groups. You will also spend time studying and researching in the library. You will be assessed at the end of each semester on the basis of coursework, and at the end of each year by examination. In your final year, you will write a dissertation on a topic of your choice and with the advice of tutors. There is no final examination. Your final degree result is determined by the marks you receive in years two and four.

Course Organiser

Dr Thomas Smith

Course Brochure

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Related Courses

Why Choose Us?

First Class Teaching

The School of American Studies prides itself on achieving the highest standards of teaching, as well as offering first rate provision of course information, grading, and feedback to students on their work. Our teaching is monitored internally by a comprehensive programme of reporting by the students themselves, and by annual review of these reports. All external audits of teaching quality in the last ten years have rated us as "Excellent".

Choice

Modules taught in the School range across American culture, literature, history, politics and film. This means that in your second and final years you shape your own degree, by choosing from over fifty lecture or seminar modules on topics as diverse as the cultural history of American music, US foreign policy, visual culture, African American and Native American history and culture, drama, poetry, the classic novels of the nineteenth century, and much more besides.

Academic Support

To help you shape your degree and chose your modules you will have an Academic Adviser who is a member of faculty within the School, and who stays with you throughout your time at UEA.

Friendly Community

The School of American Studies provides an academic and social ‘home’ for students and teaching staff. Offices are located close together, and all teaching staff hold regular ‘open door’ Office Hours. Students can join the UEA American Studies Society, which organises social events, and use the society’s Facebook page to stay in contact with their friends even when abroad.

Lively Academic Environment

Here at UEA we are engaged in cutting-edge interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research that seeks to break new ground in the field of American Studies. As committed university teachers, we translate that work into an exciting and constantly evolving range of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Why not take a tour of our website and find out what we are researching and teaching in the School of American Studies?

Unrivalled Year Abroad Programme

We offer every one of our undergraduate students enrolled on a four year degree programme the opportunity to study abroad at one of forty American universities located across the country, from New England to California, Alaska to Louisiana. We also have placements in Canada, and some of our students may elect to spend the first half of their year abroad in the USA or Canada and the second half in Australia.

Half Year's Fee

Our students pay only half a year’s UK fees for their entire academic year spent overseas. This means that you pay the equivalent of only 3 ½ years’ worth of fees for your four years of study.

Great Sources of Financial Support.

American Studies students will be eligible for University bursaries (as outlined in the University's general information). In addition, however, we offer half of our first years £1000 Arthur Miller Scholarships to those scoring top marks in their A level exams, to help finance their year abroad. This is awarded only to students in the school who will be going abroad and is paid out at the end of the second year.

Employment Opportunities

Our graduates find work in a very wide range of occupations, from research to publishing, and from teaching to banking. The extra skills and confidence gained from Study Abroad gives American Studies graduates an advantage in the job market.

Internationally renowned Literary Festival

Each year, UEA brings major writers from the USA and around the world to its International Literary Festival, open to the public and – of course – our students, too. Visitors have included Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, Elmore Leonard, Gore Vidal, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen and Margaret Atwood.

Why Study in the School of American Studies?

Why American Studies at UEA?

What Our Students Say

Entry Requirements

Qualification BA (Hons)
A Level AAB - ABB at A Level inc Grade B in English Literature
International Baccalaureate 33 - 32 points inc Grade 5 in English Literature
Scottish Highers At least one Advanced Higher preferred in addition to Highers
Scottish Advanced Highers AAB - ABB inc Grade B in English Literature
Irish Leaving Certificate AAAABB - AABBBB
Access Course Please contact the university for further information
HND Please contact the university for further information
European Baccalaureate 80% - 75%

Students for whom English is a foreign language

If English is not your first language you must have a recognised English Language qualification: Minimum IELTS 6.5 with a 6 in each sub-section, or TOEFL 585 (238 CBT / 93 IBT). Please contact us for more information about other qualifications that we may consider.

Interviews

The majority of candidates will not be called for an interview. However, for some students an interview will be requested. These are normally quite informal and generally cover topics such as your current studies, reasons for choosing the course and your personal interests and extra-curricular activities.

Students will have the opportunity to meet with an academic on a Visit Day in order to gain a deeper insight into the course(s) you have applied for.

Gap Year

We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year.

Deferred Entry
We also welcome applications for deferred entry, believing that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry and may wish to contact the appropriate Admissions Office directly to discuss this further.

Special Entry Requirements

Students must have a grade B or above in English Literature

Applicants will also be requested to submit a portfolio of their most recent creative writing samples. These can be in the form of scriptwriting, poetry or prose or a combination of genres. Applicants will be contacted by the Admissions Office directly if a portfolio is to be requested.

Intakes

The School's annual intake is in September of each year.

Alternative Qualifications

If you have alternative qualifications that have not been mentioned above then please contact university directly for further information.

GCSE Offer

Students are required have Mathematics and English at Grade C or above at GCSE Level.

Assessment

For the majority of candidates the most important factors in assessing the application will be past and future achievement in examinations, academic interest in the subject being applied for, personal interest and extra-curricular activities and the confidential reference. We consider applicants as individuals and accept students from a very wide range of educational backgrounds and spend time considering your application in order to reach an informed decision relating to your application. Typical offers are indicated above. Please note, there may be additional subject entry requirements specific to individual degree courses.

Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4

Year 1

Compulsory Study (100 credits)

Students will select 100 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Creative Writing and Identity: Tutorial Unit This Autumn semester module is dedicated to incoming members of the American Literature with Creative Writing programme. They will meet with a tutor to explore the relationship between writing and identity. This may raise issues of race, class, or gender: of sexuality: of place (local, regional, national, global): of ethnicity or religion: and of memory or history, among others. Students should expect writing workshops, and that they may variously encounter the writing of either fiction or non-fiction, or of both. Genre will be determined by the tutor. This module is only available to students on U1T7W8401 and is not available to Visiting Students. more...	AMSA1F13	20	Semester 1
Imagining America: Literature I Imagining America: Literature I is a level one module designed to introduce the major writers and themes of literature in the United States. For this module there will be a weekly lecture and a two-hour seminar. Lecture Slot: Monday, 1200-12.50. Further information on the timing of the seminar can be found in the published timetable. more...	AMSA1F07	20	Semester 1
Imagining America: Literature II Imagining America: Literature II is a level one module designed to expand upon an introduction to the major writers and themes of literature from the United States. For this module there will be a weekly lecture and seminar. Further information on the timing of the seminar can be found in the published timetable. more...	AMSA1F02	20	Semester 2
Reading Cultures I: American Icons This module provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary research methods and writing skills that are essential for students undertaking a degree programme in the School of American Studies. Students will be encouraged to look at reading American culture across disciplines and media, and to develop their own strategies for learning, from note taking and planning, through locating and engaging with critical opinions, to producing and evaluating academic writing. This module is intended as an introduction to interdisciplinary scholarship and its transferable skills. more...	AMSA1F17	20	Semester 1
Reading Cultures Ii: Ideas and Ideologies The module develops and expands the research methods, writing skills, and oral skills acquired in Reading Cultures I: American Icons. By continuing the exploration of contemporary American culture and introducing cultural and critical theory as a means to engage with current ideas and ideologies circulating around American cultural icons, the module will encourage exploration of America's changing position in the world. The module is intended to further facilitate skills in reading, writing, analysis, synthesis, independent thinking, and confidence as self-supporting learners in order to provide a strong foundation for work at levels 2 and 3. more...	AMSA1F18	20	Semester 2

Option A Study (20 credits)

Students will select 20 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Containing Multitudes: American History II This module continues where Containing Multitudes I leaves off and tracks the historical narrative through from the end of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century, covering industrialisation and America's emergence as a world power, the Progressive era, the New Deal, the Cold War and its legacy, and the impact of the dramatic changes of the 1960s. Students attend a weekly seminar and an associated lecture series. more...	AMSA1F04	20	Semester 2
Discourse and Power This module focuses on the role of discourse in the structuring of social relations. Its aim is to show that the linguistic features that make up our texts and verbal exchanges reflect the purpose language is put to in a specific context. Particular consideration is given to the discourse of the media, advertising and politics and how it affects and is affected by ideology and socio-cultural assumptions and by the relationship between individuals and social groups. Students are introduced to the main concepts and essential analytical tools and are encouraged to select their own material for analysis (class practice and assessed exercises) on the basis of relevance to their studies and interests. This module equips students with the necessary skills to undertake their own critical analysis of any texts encountered in the course of their studies and beyond and is, therefore, suited to students majoring in political and social sciences, media and cultural studies, literature, philosophy and languages. more...	LCS-1L20	20	Semester 2
Literature in History II This module follows on from Literature in History I, taking in more recent history, and including discussion of how writers of the present make use of the past. The module is taught by lectures, with an accompanying seminar. Attendance at both lectures and seminars is compulsory. more...	LDCE1F10	20	Semester 2
Reading Texts II This module seeks to build on and develop the work of the Autumn semester, in particular that of Reading Texts and Reading Translations. The focus will fall again on small-group discussion and on the reading of a small number of texts - one creative, and one critical - chosen by the tutor from a set list. With this close attention to reading at its core, the module will also look at a number of the terms and ideas central to the study of literature and to the practice of interpretation. Not available to Visiting Students. more...	LDCE1F08	20	Semester 2
Reasoning and Logic Philosophy is the study of arguments. But what exactly are philosophical arguments and how can we handle them? How should we read, understand and interpret philosophical texts? And how can we develop arguments ourselves? This module is designed to equip students with basic philosophical skills for answering these questions. The module is taught annually. more...	PHI-1A06	20	Semester 2
The Holocaust in History In the last twenty years there has been a sustained and remarkable growth of historical and public interest in the `Holocaust'. The proliferation of academic work on all aspects of the history of the Holocaust, accompanied more recently by a burgeoning scholarship on genocide in general, has been matched by an enormous output of `private' and `public' history, from memoirs and recollections by `survivors' to films and documentaries, websites of all kinds and the official commemoration of the Holocaust in museums, exhibitions and days of remembrance. The Holocaust has thus been transformed from a specialised branch field of historical enquiry into a contemporary cultural phenomenon. This module encourages you to reflect critically on this phenomenon by setting the history of the Holocaust into its wider context. This will involve study of: the history of the persecution of the Jews since the Middle Ages; the changing nature of antisemitism in Europe over the centuries; the emergence of a racial-political antisemitism at the end of the 19th century; the impact of the First World War on attitudes to minorities and on the propensity for more violent assertions of nationhood; Nazi practices of isolation, Aryanisation, deportation and ghettoisation; the German war of racial annihilation in the East and the implementation of the `Final Solution'; the experience, motivations and psychology of the `ordinary' perpetrator; the testimony of those who survived the Holocaust; the relationship of the Holocaust to other genocides; the challenges of representing and teaching the Holocaust. The module will therefore enable you to reflect more widely on what history is, how we do it, and why we do it; on the methods one can use, the questions one can ask, the variety of sources one can tackle and why history matters. more...	HIS-1A26	20	Semester 2
Witchcraft, Magic and Belief in Early Modern Europe This module examines the history of early modern Europe through the history of witchcraft, witch-beliefs, and especially witchcraft prosecutions after 1500. Through learned demonology and folk traditions, we explore the development of the idea of the witch, and see how during the turbulent era of the Reformation this thinking translated into legal trials and, occasionally some savage witch-panics. We look in detail at subjects such as gender, fear and anxiety, state building, and scepticism, ranging across early modern Britain, continental Europe and colonial America. more...	HIS-1A22	20	Semester 2
Writing Texts This module explores the culture and anthropology of writing, and addresses issues such as the differences between writing and speaking, between literary and non-literary texts, and the writer's relationship with readers. In weekly lectures and seminar groups, we will look at the writing process itself - drafting, revising, editing, translating - and will explore how and why texts come into being, and how they work to position the reader or to generate readerly interaction. The module is taught by a lecture, with an accompanying seminar. more...	LDCE1F14	20	Semester 2

Year 2

Option A Study (60 credits)

Students will select 60 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
19th Century American Writing This module aims to build on and develop your knowledge of the range of American literature in the nineteenth century. We will consider the rise of a distinctly American literary tradition in modes like realism, the gothic, romanticism, naturalism and the detective story, looking to make new connections both among writers and between literature and such larger issues as slavery, economics and feminism. more...	AMSA2L59	20	Semester 1
20th Century American Poetry This module provides a broadly chronological view of American poetry from the start of the twentieth century to the present day. It wonders about what the consequences might be if we consider seriously Emerson's claim (made in 1844), that America might be seen as a poem. Through detailed examination each week of groups of three related poets, the module aims both to question what constitutes an American poetics, and to examine how this conception has changed over the course of the twentieth century. As well as tracing a trajectory in American poetry from modernist to postmodernist modes, one of its primary concerns is also to start exploring how ideas of what an American poetry might be are inflected differently in `mainstream' and in more avant-garde (or `experimental') poetries. Indeed, by explicitly thinking about these differences the module will pay particular attention to the ways in which ideas of nationhood, of political dissent and protest, of poetic `groupings' and canon-formation, are instrumental in determining what we choose to see as America's representative poetry. By the end of the module students should have a wide knowledge of a range of different twentieth-century American poetries, as well as a strong sense of how the political, cultural and literary `tastes' of America across the century have delivered it the sorts of poetry it deserves. more...	AMSA2L24	20	Semester 2
Adolescence in American Culture Post-1950 This module will suggest that there is a preoccupation with adolescence in postwar and contemporary American culture, and will explore why this is the case. It will do so by introducing students to representations of adolescence in various disciplines, focusing particularly on literature, film, psychoanalysis and cultural studies. Questions to be explored will include: What is 'American' about adolescence? How do representations of adolescence vary according to factors such as gender, race and region? Is there a particular discipline or artistic form which is especially suited to depictions of adolescence? more...	AMSA2S53	20	Semester 1
American Masculinities This interdisciplinary module will examine how national identity and white masculinity are entwined in a conflicting discourse of hegemonic and challenging narratives in the US. It will focus on a specific construction of white masculinity as it has become embedded and legitimized as the normative national identity against which all others are subordinated. The module will examine gender discourses that radically challenge this accepted link between masculinity, whiteness and national identity. more...	AMSA2S02	20	Semester 2
American Music The first book published in the New World was a hymn book. Music, sacred and profane, has been at the centre of American lives ever since. Accordingly, this module will explore the history of American music - but it will also examine the way that its development tells a larger story. Focusing largely on the vernacular musical traditions we will encounter a wide range of musical styles and musicians, each of which has something vital to tell us about the shaping of America. After all, as Plato knew, "When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake." more...	AMSA2S45	20	Semester 1
American Paris Between the Wars This module introduces some of the styles, ideas and ideologies of trans-Atlantic modernism as elements in the creation of a myth. It centres on the American expatriate colony in Paris and, from this, works to contextualise and re-imagine some of the century's most notorious literary and artistic moments. Initial studies of the little magazines, manifestos, publishers, painters and photographers provide a sense of the driving political and aesthetic energies of the period, while the module's middle weeks uses this context to re-read a group of expatriate novels. The final three weeks of the course shifts the emphasis to considerations of memory, memoir and the construction of myth. more...	AMSA2L65	20	Semester 1
American Voices: Oratory and Speech in American Culture As annual readings of the `Declaration of Independence' remind us, the United States was born through voice. Public speech has profoundly shaped American life and various types of oral expression ' such as sermons, lectures, conversation and song ' have had a seminal influence on cultural development. Thinking about voice in America raises fascinating questions. Why has oratory been so important and how has its symbolism changed? In what ways has voice unified, divided or transformed society? Whose voices have been heard, and whose silenced? What happens when the voice is written down? In this module, we will examine verbal expression in American culture from the oratory of the Iroquois to that of Barack Obama. We'll embark on a chronological survey of public speech, thinking about place of the `oral' in American writings, and the representation of voice in literary history. Each week will involve the active class exploration of passages from speeches, novels, videos and other texts, demonstrating how attention to oral contexts and rhetoric can enrich an appreciation of cultural history. more...	AMSA2S10	20	Semester 2
American Women Writers of the Twentieth Century This module surveys the prose of some of the twentieth century's most important American women writers, writers who (or whose 'other' works) tend to disappear from reading lists that include books by women only out of duty. Along the way we will seek to interrogate the terms with which we begin: American, women and prose. Assuming that biology does not define literature, we will instead seek to understand the social pressures on these women writers, and their responses to them, in an effort to maintain the specificity, diversity and range of these women's literary pursuits. more...	AMSA2L63	20	Semester 1
Contemporary American Fiction The purpose of this module is to expose students to a range of prose works by important contemporary American writers. In particular, we will be concerned with some of the key concepts associated with contemporary American fiction, including the definition of the contemporary: postmodernism; metafiction; historiography; postcolonialism; and memory. more...	AMSA2L78	20	Semester 2
Doing It Yourself: Punk and America Although the exact provenance of `punk' remains a contested issue, since its emergence in the mid-1970s this transnational musical and cultural phenomenon has become very much a part of the American grain. Indeed, punk's capacity to adopt, appropriate, assimilate, and re-invent a vast and eclectic range of cultural styles, forms, and ideas, as well as its `do-it-yourself,' places it in a longstanding American intellectual tradition of self-reliance and innovation. In this interdisciplinary module, we will attempt to define punk, and consider what it means to be punk, by examining its influence in music, film, poetry, and fiction. The unit will also explore the socio-political implications of punk in terms of gender, sexuality, and community, and question the possibility of punk in an increasingly globalised and commoditised world. more...	AMSA2S05	20	Semester 1
Films That Made US American: the 1980s Through the Movies The module will examine America in the1980s. It will look at youth culture, post-Vietnam revisionism and the `remasculinization of America', yuppie culture, and the impact of both AIDS and drug addiction. Core factors of study in this module are the effects of both New Right morality upon the American socio-cultural landscape, and Ronald Reagan as postmodern president administrating to a `celluloid America' of his own fantastic imagining. Overall, the module will offer the chance to analyse the tensions and contradictions of the decade as they were played out in both the content and structure of contemporary American film. more...	AMSA2S03	20	Semester 1
Living On the Hyphen: Cuban America Since the mid nineteenth century Cuban nationals have been exiled in the United States and created a body of literature alerting the reader to the specifically transnational nature of Cuban identity. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the concomitant political, economic and cultural isolation of the island, the case of Cuba and Cuban exiles in the USA has been seen to be an exceptional and singular phenomenon with few commonalities with other ethnic groups in the United States. Moving beyond a nation-based model and utilising a transnational theoretical framework this course looks at contemporary Cuban and Cuban-American literature and film from both on and off the island in order to reconceptualise the relationship between the island and its exiles, analysing the evolution of the Cuban exile life and the ways in which questions of exile, return, family, belonging, identity, language and memory are explored and how they differ from previous generations for a variety of political, historical, sociological and ideological reasons (to be explored). more...	AMSA2L15	20	Semester 1
Looking At Pictures: Photography and Visual Culture in the USA Photographic portraits, family albums, anthropological illustrations, lynching postcards, advertisements, food packaging and fashion photos are just some of the pictures that will be "read" and analysed in this module. Students will explore how visual texts can contribute to an understanding of nationhood, class, race, sexuality and identity in the USA. Opening sessions will focus on ways of "reading" visual texts. [No previous experience of working with images is necessary]. Most of the semester will be devoted to analysing how photographic images both reflect and contribute to constructions of American culture. more...	AMSA2S48	20	Semester 2
Radical Cousins Or Rival Siblings? U.s. and Australian Literatures. This module takes as its point of departure critic Joseph Jones' representation of America and Australia as 'radical cousins' and extends this formulation to ask whether they might equally be thought of as rival siblings. From its establishment as a penal colony in 1788'in large part as a result of the newly independent United States' refusal to harbour Britain's convicts any longer'Australia remained loyal to the Empire, even as it looked increasingly to the United States for guidance in matters of politics and popular culture. The module compares American and Australian literature from the past century or so in order to examine how both countries have engaged and explored shared questions about settler and post/ colonial identity; the staging of cultural independence from Great Britain; the size and scope of the natural environment; and gender performance, among others. more...	AMSA2L18	20	Semester 2
The Beats and the Limits of Writing This module covers the writers known as `The Beats' in terms of their antecedents, the literary and cultural traditions in which they worked, and the social and critical debates that raged during their heyday. Students will be asked to read widely, to compare and contrast different writers' styles, and to make informed judgements about the writers' relationships to the times in which they wrote. The module aims to foster an understanding of the Beat literary phenomenon in literary, political and social contexts. It will also examine the debts Beat writers owed to `American Renaissance' writers including Emerson and Whitman, to wider ideas of the `avant-garde' in the Twentieth Century generally, and to European Romantic traditions. It will investigate how a Beat poetics developed as a response to Cold War `consensus culture', and sought to establish a countercultural (though distinctly American) `tradition'. more...	AMSA2L84	20	Semester 2
The Holocaust in American Literature This module aims to explore representations of the Holocaust in American literature. Students will explore how the Holocaust is represented by American Jewish and non-Jewish authors. Students will consider whether, and how, the Holocaust is `Americanised' by American writers; they will consider some of the ethical and philosophical debates concerning representation of the Holocaust in art; they will examine how American Jewish writers engage with the Holocaust to negotiate questions of Jewish identity; and they will consider the problematic uses and definitions of the term `holocaust' in American culture. more...	AMSA2L82	20	Semester 2
You may also pick any of the modules that begin with: AMSA2S06

Option B Study (20 credits)

Students will select 20 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Creative Writing : Introduction (Aut) An introductory module open only to second year students. It is not available to students on the Creative Writing Minor and is offered as an alternative to other Level 2 Creative Writing modules. The teaching uses structured exercises based on objects, handouts, discussion and visualisation to stimulate the production of prose fiction and poetry. In the first half of the seminar students will write about 'what they know', drawing on notebooks, memories and family stories. In the second half the focus will shift to the work of established authors, using sample texts as a stimulus to students' own writing. more...	LDCC2W11	20	Semester 1
Creative Writing: Scriptwriting (Aut) WW84 STUDENTS TAKE THIS MODULE AND THE SPRING MODULE (LDCC2W24) AS COMPULSORY MODULES. STUDENTS ON OTHER PROGRAMMES MAY TAKE EITHER THE AUTUMN MODULE OR THE SPRING MODULE, BUT NOT BOTH. This module develops students' abilities to invent and understand dramatic texts. Methods include structured exercises in writing drama and the exploration and analysis of a range of plays. Students may specialise in writing for stage/radio or film/television. more...	LDCC2W05	20	Semester 1
Creative Writing: Scriptwriting (Spr) WW84 STUDENTS TAKE THIS MODULE AND THE AUTUMN MODULE (LDCC2W05) AS COMPULSORY MODULES. STUDENTS ON OTHER PROGRAMMES MAY TAKE EITHER THE AUTUMN MODULE OR THE SPRING MODULE, BUT NOT BOTH. This module develops students' abilities to invent and understand dramatic texts. Methods include structured exercises in writing drama and the exploration and analysis of a range of plays. Students may specialise in writing for stage/radio or film/TV. more...	LDCC2W24	20	Semester 2
Creative Writing: Introduction (Spr) An introductory module open only to second year students. It is not available to students on the Creative Writing Minor and is offered as an alternative to other Level 2 Creative Writing modules. The teaching uses structured exercises based on objects, handouts, discussion and visualisation to stimulate the production of prose fiction and poetry. In the first half of the seminar students will write about 'what they know', drawing on notebooks, memories and family stories. In the second half the focus will shift to the work of established authors, using sample texts as a stimulus to students' own writing. more...	LDCC2W08	20	Semester 2
Creative Writing: Poetry (Aut) This module enables students to test the range of their abilities as writers of poetry. The first half of the course will be exploratory and practical, using structured exercises and handouts to consider such issues as voice, persona, sound, imagery, metaphor, structure and form. In the second half the emphasis will shift to constructive group discussion of students' own work. Aims: The aim of this module is to develop students' expressive and technical skills in writing poetry and to improve students' abilities as editors and critics of their own and other people's work. more...	LDCC2W07	20	Semester 1
Creative Writing: Poetry (Spr) This module enables students to test the range of their abilities as writers of poetry. The first half of the seminar will be exploratory and practical, using structured exercises and handouts to consider such issues as voice, persona, sound, imagery, metaphor, structure and form. In the second half the emphasis will shift to constructive group discussion of students' own work. Aims: The aim of this module is to develop students' expressive and technical skills in writing poetry and to improve students' abilities as editors and critics of their own and other people's work. more...	LDCC2W20	20	Semester 2
Creative Writing: Prose Fiction (Aut) This module enables students to test their abilities and potential as writers of prose fiction. It is not intended for beginners, or those with no experience of a formal creative writing environment. The first half of the course will be exploratory and practical, using structured exercises and handouts to consider such issues as character, genre voice, dialogue and point of view. In the second half the emphasis will shift to constructive group discussion of students' own work. Aim: The aim of this module is to develop students' expressive and technical skills in writing prose fiction and to improve students' abilities as editors and critics of their own and other people's work. THIS MODULE IS EXCLUSIVE TO CREATIVE WRITING MINORS, VISITING STUDENTS FROM EQUIVALENT COURSES AND LIT STUDENTS WITH SOME PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE OF CREATIVE WRITING. ALL OTHER STUDENTS SHOULD ENROL ON LDCC2W08/11 CREATIVE WRITING: INTRODUCTION. more...	LDCC2W01	20	Semester 1
Creative Writing: Prose Fiction (Spr) This module enables students to test their abilities and potential as writers of prose fiction. The first half of the seminar will be exploratory and practical, using structured exercises and handouts to consider such issues as character, genre, voice, dialogue and point of view. In the second half the emphasis will shift to constructive group discussion of students' own work. The aim of this module is to develop students' expressive and technical skills in writing prose fiction and to improve students' abilities as editors and critics of their own and other people's work. THIS MODULE IS EXCLUSIVE TO CREATIVE WRITING MINORS, VISITING STUDENTS FROM EQUIVALENT COURSES AND LIT STUDENTS WITH SOME PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE OF CREATIVE WRITING. ALL OTHER STUDENTS SHOULD ENROL ON LDCC2W08/11 CREATIVE WRITING: INTRODUCTION. more...	LDCC2W14	20	Semester 2
The Writing of Journalism (Aut) The Writing of Journalism is concerned with journalism as a practice, and a genre. By examining different types of writing involved in a range of journalism, including short news stories, running stories, online journalism, reviews, and feature writing (including interviewing), we will identify and develop the skills needed to produce these. In addition to writing journalism themselves, students will examine journalistic writing and critical work about issues in the writing of journalism to probe and challenge their own ideas and assumptions about the practice and production of journalism. Rather than see the practice of journalism and the critical study of journalism as distinct activities, this course aims to engage students as critical readers and writers whose work is informed by both contexts. In so doing, students will gain a greater understanding of the demands and conventions of journalistic writing, develop and sharpen their own work, and gain the discursive flexibility to navigate the writing of journalism today. The module demands a high level of participation, as it is based on discussion, peer-workshops, and practical experience of reading and writing news and feature articles. Regular writing and participation in workshops count towards assessment. Due to the nature of this module, students who work in English as a second or foreign language should meet LDC's EFL score of 6.5. All prospective students are advised that the module involves weekly work to develop effective - and professional - journalism practices. more...	LDCC2W27	20	Semester 1
The Writing of Journalism (Spr) The Writing of Journalism is concerned with journalism as a practice, and a genre. By examining different types of writing involved in a range of journalism, including short news stories, running stories, online journalism, reviews, and feature writing (including interviewing), we will identify and develop the skills needed to produce these. In addition to writing journalism themselves, students will examine journalistic writing and critical work about issues in the writing of journalism to probe and challenge their own ideas and assumptions about the practice and production of journalism. Rather than see the practice of journalism and the critical study of journalism as distinct activities, this course aims to engage students as critical readers and writers whose work is informed by both contexts. In so doing, students will gain a greater understanding of the demands and conventions of journalistic writing, develop and sharpen their own work, and gain the discursive flexibility to navigate the writing of journalism today. The module demands a high level of participation, as it is based on discussion, peer-workshops, and practical experience of reading and writing news and feature articles. Regular writing and participation in workshops count towards assessment. Due to the nature of this module, students who work in English as a second or foreign language should meet LDC's EFL score of 6.5. All prospective students are advised that the module involves weekly work to develop effective - and professional - journalism practices. more...	LDCC2W28	20	Semester 2

Free Choice Study (40 credits)

Students can select modules worth 40 credits from the course catalogue with the approval of their School.

Year 3

Essential Study (120 credits)

Students will select 120 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
American Studies Semester Abroad: America A semester spent at an American university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on American Studies 4 year programmes. more...	AMSA2Y03	60	Semester 1
American Studies Semester Abroad: Australia A semester spent at an Australian university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on 4 year programmes. more...	AMSA2Y02	60	Semester 2
American Studies Year Abroad A year spent at an American university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on 4 year American Studies programmes. For students on programmes:U1T700401, U1TQ73401, U1TW76401, U1T7W8401, U1V238401, U1V2L2401, U1TW76401. more...	AMSA2Y1Y	120	Year Period

Year 4

Compulsory Study (60 credits)

Students will select 60 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
American Studies Year Abroad Dissertation Final year dissertation involving research into a specific issue or topic in American culture, society, history or literature. Restricted to students on the 4 year American Studies degree programmes. Topics will already have been approved on the basis of dissertation proposals submitted during the year abroad. more...	AMSA3Y05	30	Semester 1
Creative Writing-Fiction In this course you will write original works of fiction and present them to your peers for feedback in a workshop environment. The instructor will guide you in critiquing your peers' writing, and advise you as you work your way through the drafting process. This module is only available to students on U1T7W8401 American Literature with Creative Writing and U1T7WV301 American Literature with Creative Writing (3 year). more...	AMSA3L66	30	Semester 2

Option A Study (60 credits)

Students will select 60 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
American Autobiography This module examines the fascination of American literature with questions of selfhood, identity and autobiography. Opening sessions of the module will look at ways in which the very idea of America and its literature emerges from early-national attempts to 'write the self' and discuss changing theories of selfhood, identity and individuality as they are played out in America's historical development from colony, to nation, to postmodern superpower. Subsequent sessions will focus on specific texts of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries which engage questions of selfhood in order to define, maintain and develop an idea of what being an American might mean. more...	AMSA3L07	30	Semester 1
American Drama 1970-Present This module will be concerned with exploring the work of American dramatists in the context of the social, political and cultural life of the country. In particular, it will give attention to the work of new women and African-American writers as well as to that of established dramatists. more...	AMSA3L19	30	Semester 1
American Gothic American fiction began in the period of the European Gothic novel, which thus marked the American tradition from the first. In this seminar module we will establish the meaning of gothic conventions and consider their persisting effects in American fiction. more...	AMSA3L62	30	Semester 2
Gender in American Culture The aim of this module is to think about democracy in the United States through a gendered lens. The Declaration of Independence declared that "all men were created free and equal", but throughout the history of the United States certain social groups have been denied their rights to citizenship and democracy. Therefore this module will be focusing upon the ways in which gender has been central to the construction of citizenship and democracy in the US. These concepts are critical elements in the formation of a modern American identity, and this module will provide a broader understanding of this distinctive feature of American history and society. more...	AMSA3S22	30	Semester 2
Mark Twain and the Gilded Age According to William Faulkner, Mark Twain was 'the first truly American writer ['] the father of American literature.' This module will test such paternity claims and examine their wider ramifications. We will explore Twain's writing, his relationship to the Gilded Age, his contemporaries, and his influence on later American writers. As both author and man, Twain contained multitudes. Few writers have straddled so many genres and styles, and few Americans have embodied so many of the nation's animating forces and tensions. He was, as his friend William Dean Howells felt, 'incomparable', and this module is an opportunity for significant reading and research into his life, work and beyond. more...	AMSA3L20	30	Semester 2
Multi-Ethnic American Writing America has long been interpreted as the location of social possibility founded upon a desire to assimilate and negate ethnic 'others'. This module traces the literary responses of four distinct 'American' cultures: Native American; African American; Asian American; and Mexican American. Each group of texts engage with the specific historical, cultural and political relationships between the US and each author's country of origin or national/cultural history, across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics will include race and racism, colonisation, imperialism, slavery, segregation, immigration, and illegality/invisibility, with an emphasis upon contemporary experiences. more...	AMSA3L12	30	Semester 2
Native American Writing and Film This module considers Native American writing and film as sites of cultural and political resistance, analysing the ways in which a diverse range of Native authors, screenwriters and directors within the United States respond to contemporary tribal socio-economic and political conditions. Taking popular ideas of 'the Indian', this module considers the ways in which stereotypes and audience expectations are subverted and challenged. Topics include race and racism, indigeneity, identity, culture, gender, genre, land and notions of 'home', community, dialogue, postcolonial theory in its application to those who remain colonised, and political issues such as human rights and environmental racism. more...	AMSA3S02	30	Semester 2
Place, Race and Space: American Migration and Citizenship This module will examine the contradictions of place-making, spatial mobility, and citizenship in the Americas by looking at the movement and settlement of immigrants and migrants since the 1870s. Although the concepts of place-making and spatial mobility appear to be contradictory, immigrants and migrants in their quest to find a home, move across regions, borders, and continents. Their ability to settle in certain places, depends on the economic and cultural conditions that prevail in the host locality and on the political-economic structure of the host society. Citizenship becomes an important variable in this process, because non-citizens are more vulnerable to social, political, and economic changes. more...	AMSA3S11	30	Semester 1
Tales of the Jazz Age This module examines American prose of the 1920s in the context of the Jazz Age. American literature of the 20s is often conflated with modernism, or the expatriate experience, or the Harlem Renaissance; this module will consider 1920s writing in the context of the market and the rise of professional authorship, anxieties about imitation and the middlebrow and conformism, and the pressures of commercial success on fiction. It will draw on reception studies and the influence of publication formats (mass-market magazines, serial publication, the burgeoning market for film adaptations). Texts will be drawn from a mix of 'high' and 'low.' After considering the pressures of commercialism on the publication of The Waste Land, texts could include the short stories of Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby, Babbitt, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Winesburg, Ohio, Glimpses of the Moon, and Manhattan Transfer. Students will also be expected to research journalism of the day, such as The New Yorker and the New York Times, which have accessible online archives. more...	AMSA3L31	30	Semester 1
The American Body This module reads the changing values, presentations and representations of the body that move through and construct American culture. This module will involve pairing theoretical perspectives with current and historical ideas of the body to allow us to interrogate intellectual and popular meanings assigned to and played out through the body, reading particular moments in American writing, art, photography and popular forms for the things they might tell us about corporality and self presentation, but also about the wider structures of the social and cultural environment. We will engage with canonical debates about race, gender, sexuality and ideas of `representation', but also with categories that cut across and through these modes of reading ' with the normal and the ideal, ideas of illness and wellness, ability and disability, of the organic and the machine, of the body under servitude, or under punishment, and with the whole idea of embodiment in itself. This module ' like all other modules at this level - requires a substantial, regular, reading commitment. more...	AMSA3S30	30	Semester 2
The Great Society: America From Jfk & Lbj to Nixon, 1960-74 This module follows the American story from 1960-1974, from the promise and tragedy of JFK's Camelot, through the achievements and frustrations of LBJ's Great Society, to the period of adjustment ' and disillusionment ' during the Presidency of Richard Nixon and the era of Watergate. The work covers the key political events of a period that saw a defining struggle between liberalism and conservatism ' one which continues to resonate to this day. In part it focuses upon the politicians who helped define the era ' such as Bobby Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, and George Wallace as well as the Presidents. But consideration is not confined to Washington politics: we will look at popular protest, from the Civil Rights movement and Black Power to the New Left, the peace movement, women's liberation, and Stonewall. We consider the war on poverty, the politics of race, the emergence of a new environmental awareness, the questioning of gender, and the sexual revolution. In addition, the unit includes discussion of the continuing significance of the Cold War, not least in respect of Vietnam and the Space Race. Students are also invited to consider the ways in which the dramatic changes and conflicts of the era shaped American culture, especially movies, music, art, and literature more...	AMSA3H01	30	Semester 1
The Literary 1960s When thinking of the sixties, literature, in general, is not what immediately springs to mind - pushed, as it is, to the background of music and the counterculture. Yet the decade brought about many profound changes in the paradigms of literature. Amongst such changes was the proliferation of metafiction as a narrative response to both the 'exhaustion' of literature in the light of the period's dramatic events, and to the new literary and philosophical developments in critical theory (poststructuralism). There was also the emergence of two 'new' genres: new journalism, and the non-fiction novel. This module is an examination of literary responses to the many changes and challenges brought about in this decade. It will discuss whether literature simply recoiled into solipsistic abstraction or whether it was a motivating force in the general struggle to conceptualize a `new' or countercultural American consciousness. more...	AMSA3L23	30	Semester 1
The Poetics of Place: Post 1945 American Poetry and Environment The American poet Charles Olson famously declared: `I take SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America, from Folsom cave to now. I spell it large because it comes large here. Large, and without mercy.' This module explores how a range of linguistically innovative American poets, from 1945 to the present, have engaged this question of space and environment in their writings. There will be a particular focus on how scientific literature, natural history writing, field guides, and eco-criticism have contributed to poets' theories of poetry and poetics as well as an emphasis on the role environmental notions of place and space play in forming and critiquing ideas of American identity. more...	AMSA3L24	30	Semester 2
The Rising Tide of the Transpacific This module considers the ways in which American literature has engaged with the opening up of Pacific space from the early nineteenth century to the present. From Melville's adventures on whaling vessels throughout the Pacific, to Pearl Harbour and anxieties about Japanese presence in and beyond the borders of the United States, to writing by contemporary Asian-American authors whose work evinces influences from China, Korea and India, the texts on this course chart the ways in which the Pacific Ocean and its peoples have contributed to, created, and contested American national narratives. The module will develop students' insights into issues of U.S. national history and cultural geography, and deepen their engagement with current theories of nationalism and transnationalism either in preparation for, or as a frame for reflection on, their studies abroad. more...	AMSA3L35		Semester 1
US Interventionism, the Cia and Covert Action The covert activities of the CIA represent arguably the most notorious face of US foreign relations. Yet to what extent is clandestine American interventionism consistent with official overt policies? And how do we come to understand covert action campaigns? This module will introduce the main conceptual and historic debates relevant to the analysis of covert action as a tool of US foreign relations. In so doing it will consider the institutions and processes behind covert action, especially the role of the CIA. It also considers the mediums that narrate and explain American covert action. This will provide a fuller and richer understanding of the United States' place in the international system since World War II, its relationship to other states and non-state actors, and discussions about American identity and the nation's role in the world. more...	AMSA3H26	30	Semester 2
Writing and New Media in Early America Contemporary life is dominated by emergent media forms and new means of apprehending reality. But how unprecedented is this? American culture from the Colonial period through the nineteenth-century also witnessed the escalating influence of various forms of `media': an explosion of magazines and newspapers; newly instantaneous telegraph communication; daguerreotypes and photography; mass circuits for public speaking; early sound recording. This was not only a technological and social process but also a literary phenomenon. Just as with today's 'new media,' these changes transformed American writing and are responsible for much of what is striking about classic American literature. This module focuses on the relationship of literary art to this media landscape during 1750-1900, from the age of Franklin to that of Brady, Edison and Pulitzer. Throughout the semester, we will be defining what we mean by `media', considering the interaction between genre and medium, channels of information, data storage and transmission. Subjects the module will cover include: the emergence of literary journalism; the rise of the foreign correspondent; the symbolic figure of the photographer and journalist in American fiction; the effect of early sound recording on literary aesthetics. Questions it poses include: what effect did fresh modes of writing, listening and seeing have on fiction or poetry?; have `journalism' and `literature' always been mutually-exclusive? How have ethnic groups used such media as distinct modes of expression? These issues will be approached thematically by media type, with two sessions each on: 1) Colonial newsprint; 2) literary magazines; 3) the mass penny press and telegraph; 4) the lyceum; 5) the phonograph. Authors to be considered along the way include Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Horace Greeley, Margaret Fuller, Henry James, Nellie Bly and Upton Sinclair. more...	AMSA3L28	30	Semester 2

Disclaimer

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules and regular (five-yearly) review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff or sabbatical leave. Where this is the case, the University will endeavour to inform students.

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American Studies

BA American Literature with Creative Writing (T7W8)

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