BA Literature and History (QV31)

Course Code UNU1QV31302
Duration 3 Years
Attendance Full Time
Award Degree of Bachelor of Arts

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Overview

Lit and History

This programme provides opportunities to study cultures and societies through both literary and historical materials and approaches.

The teaching is shared between two groups of specialists: the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (from which the programme is organised), and the School of History. It enables students to combine the study of literary texts with that of the social and political worlds in which they were made and circulated. Historians and literary critics sometimes read the same documents, but they have different approaches and employ different methods of analysis: this programme presents the opportunity to explore both approaches. The combination leads towards an understanding not simply of literature and history, but of culture and cultural studies.

Course Structure:

After the first year which is made up of introductory modules in literature, history and cultural studies, you are encouraged to construct a programme that suits your own intellectual interests and enthusiasms. The available modules enable you to make choices of nationality as well as of period and issue. In the second year, for instance, students can choose between historical modules that include Landscape, The Holocaust, Modern Spain and Medicine and Society as well as more traditional modules, such as Norman and Plantagenet England and Nationalism. Within Literature the choice ranges across modules such as The Politics of Language, Cultural Theory and Analysis, Nineteenth Century European Drama, From Pushkin to Chekhov: Russian Fiction, and Postcolonialism. The presence of ‘free choice’ modules enables more study of Literature and History, or study in other disciplines; and in the final year you can undertake three quarters of your study in just Literature or History if you wish.

Year 1

The first year entails study in both disciplines as well as an introductory course in cultural studies that is based on their inter-relationship.

Year 2 and Year 3

The degree incorporates considerable flexibility in years 2 and 3, allowing you to construct a programme that reflects your own intellectual interests and enthusiasms. For example, you may wish to concentrate some of your work around the literature and history of a particular period: the Middle Ages; the Renaissance; the Restoration; the Eighteenth Century; the Victorian Era; Modernism; the Contemporary. Alternatively, you may prefer to develop a specialised knowledge of the history of one of the literary genres: drama; poetry; prose, or you may wish to select modules that deal with topics such as feminist theory or visual culture. Literature-based modules may focus on a particular genre (eg Contemporary Fiction), or a theme (eg Literature and Desire), or a historical period (eg Modernism), or an author (eg Chaucer). History-based modules cover the medieval, early modern and contemporary periods, with a range of both broad-based modules and more specialised investigations of particular topics in English and British history. Examples of history modules which have been available to students on this programme include: Anglo-Saxon England, c.500-1066; Late Medieval Religion and Society in England; Early Modern England; The Rise and Fall of British Power; Medicine and Society Before the 17th Century; Women and Society in Modern Britain.

The provision of two free choice modules in year 2 enables you to introduce other disciplines (eg. film and visual arts) and/or to adjust the balance of the two strands to your own needs.

Teaching and Assessment

Modules of study are taught in a number of different forms – often lectures and smaller seminar groups – designed to encourage student participation. In every module your work is assessed; forms of assessment also vary, including essays, project work, presentation, examination or a combination of any of these methods. A third-year dissertation in either literature or history enables you to undertake in-depth study in either subject or to consider their inter-relationship further.

The opportunity to lean towards History or Literature continues in year 3 when students are able to take three modules in one School and only one module in the other if they wish. The requirement that they undertake dissertation work in this third year enhances their academic progression and skills.

Course Organiser

Dr Kate Campbell

Course Brochure

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Related Courses

Entry Requirements

We do not include General Studies in our offers. The combined English Language and Literature A-level is acceptable instead of English Literature. Students studying the IB programme must offer a second Arts or Humanities subject at Higher Level.

A Level AAB-ABB to include English Literature and History (one of which must be grade A)
International Baccalaureate 33-32 points overall with HL English and HL History, at least one of which must be at grade 6.
Scottish Advanced Highers AAB-ABB to include English Literature and History (one of which must be grade A)
Irish Leaving Certificate Please contact the university for further information
Access Course Please contact the university for further information
HND Please contact the university for further information
European Baccalaureate 80-75% overall including English and History (one of which must be at 75% and one at 80%)

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 School does not currently interview all applicants for undergraduate entry as standard, however we may interview mature students, those returning to study or applicants with alternative qualifications. All applicants who are made an offer are given 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

Normally there is not a problem in deferring entry for a year. Offers are made in the usual way to applicants who ask for deferred entry.

Special Entry Requirements

As part of the A level entry requirements, you should hold A-level English Literature and A-Level History, at least one of which must be grade A. Students taking the International Baccalaureate will be expected to have Higher Level English and Higher Level History, at least one of which must be at grade 6.

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 to 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 1

Compulsory Study (60 credits)

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

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Introduction to Cultural Studies This module will introduce students to the development of cultural studies in this country and the work undertaken in the field. While it is a core module for those in Literature and History, it is suited to all those interested in interdisciplinary study and the history of academic disciplines, and it will introduce students to a range of approaches in study. It is taught through seminars. more...	LDCE1F05	20	Semester 1
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

Option A Study (40 credits)

Students will select 40 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
History and the Environment This module is designed to provide a wide-ranging introduction to environmental and landscape history both for first year history students and those from other schools. It will examine the historical dimensions of a number of contemporary issues, such as conservation, pollution and globalization and it will also introduce students to the sources for landscape and environmental history. The module is taught by weekly lectures and by field trips to a variety of landscapes in the region. more...	HIS-1A24	20	Semester 2
Introduction to Early Modern Studies This module introduces key themes in early modern history: witchcraft, gender, rebellion, religious conflict, the reformation, warfare, state formation and other key aspects of the period 1500-1750. more...	HIS-1A15	20	Semester 1
Introduction to Medieval History This module is designed to provide an introduction to medieval history both for first year historians and students from other schools. It surveys the history of medieval Europe, including England, from c.1000 to c1300, and also examines some archaeology, literature, art, and architecture from the period. The module also aims to introduce students to a range of primary sources, including some of the physical remains to be found in East Anglia. more...	HIS-1A13	20	Semester 1
Introduction to Modern History This module provides a wide-ranging introduction to the political, social and economic transformation of Britain and Europe from the early nineteenth century to the First World War. Among the themes it considers are industrialisation and its impact; revolution and reform; nationalism and imperialism; gender and society; great power relations; the impact of war and the collapse of the old Europe in 1917-18. more...	HIS-1A19	20	Semester 1
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

Option B Study (20 credits)

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

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Analysing Film and Television The module is designed to provide students with core study skills and techniques and methods of textual analysis. The module will cover the analysis of a range of formal features and frameworks such as narrative, mise-en-scene, camera work, editing and sound used in the analysis of film and television. The study skills covered will include use of the library and internet for research, as well as note taking, essay planning and the conventions of academic writing. In the process the module will cover issues such as referencing and plagiarism. It will be taught by lecture, seminar and screening. more...	FTVF1F09	20	Semester 1
Beginners' French I This module is for students at beginners' level who have little or no prior experience of French. The module will develop students' reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The aim is to equip students with the linguistic understanding of a number of real life situations, as well as the ability to communicate effectively in those situations. There will also be opportunities to explore aspects of the cultures where French is spoken. Particular emphasis is placed on acquiring a sound knowledge of grammar. This module has three contact hours per week. more...	LCSU1F11	20	Semester 1
Beginners' French II A continuation of the beginners' course in French (LCSU1F11 or LCSU1F14). Can be taken in any year, but not by final-year LCS students. Students with a GCSE grade C or below (or equivalent experience) may join this module. (Alternative slots may be available depending on student numbers). This module has three contact hours per week. more...	LCSU1F12	20	Semester 2
Beginners' German I This module is for students at beginners' level who have little or no prior experience of German. The module will develop students' reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The aim is to equip students with the linguistic understanding of a number of real life situations, as well as the ability to communicate effectively in those situations. There will also be opportunities to explore aspects of the cultures where German is spoken. Particular emphasis is placed on acquiring a sound knowledge of grammar. This module has three contact hours per week. more...	LCSU1G11	20	Semester 1
Beginners' German II A continuation of the beginners' course in German (LCSU1G11). Students with a GCSE grade C or below (or equivalent experience) may join this module. This module cannot be taken by final-year LCS students. This module has two or three contact hours per week (dependent on enrolments) more...	LCSU1G12	20	Semester 2
Beginners' Spanish I This module is for students at beginners' level who have little or no prior experience of Spanish. The module will develop students' reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The aim is to equip students with the linguistic understanding of a number of real life situations, as well as the ability to communicate effectively in those situations. There will also be opportunities to explore aspects of the cultures where Spanish is spoken. Particular emphasis is placed on acquiring a sound knowledge of grammar. This module has three contact hours per week. more...	LCSU1H11	20	Semester 1
Beginners' Spanish I (Spring Start) This module is for students at beginners' level who have little or no prior experience of Spanish. The module will develop students' reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The aim is to equip students with the linguistic understanding of a number of real life situations, as well as the ability to communicate effectively in those situations. There will also be opportunities to explore aspects of the cultures where Spanish is spoken. Particular emphasis is placed on acquiring a sound knowledge of grammar. This is a repeat of module LCSU1H11 for those who wish to start their course in the Spring. This module is not available to LCS students. This module has three contact hours per week. more...	LCSU1H14	20	Semester 2
Beginners' Spanish II A continuation of the beginners' course in Spanish (LCSU1H11 or LCSU1H14). Students with a GCSE grade C or below (or equivalent experience) may join this module. This module has three contact hours per week. It cannot be taken by final-year LCS students. more...	LCSU1H12	20	Semester 2
Classic Readings in Philosophy This introductory module for first year students is designed to invite you into philosophical enquiry by way of a detailed study of some of the most famous books by the founding fathers of Western Philosophy. The set texts typically include a classic work by Plato, from the birth of philosophy in Classical Greece, and a classic work by Descartes, the father of modern philosophy. One or two texts by Aristotle or later Greek and Mediaeval thinkers may also be included. The texts are studied in modern English. No prior knowledge of philosophy is required, and this module is suitable for students from other disciplines who are taking no other philosophy modules It is taught annually. more...	PHI-1A01	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
Intermediate French I This is an intermediate course in French and is intended for students who have enough pre-A-Level experience of French and wish to develop their knowledge to a standard comparable to A-Level. The module is made up of three elements, each taught for one hour per week: Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, and Grammar. While the emphasis is on comprehension, the speaking and writing of French are also included. The module is not available to students with AS or A-Level French. This module can be taken in any year. (Alternative slots may be available depending on student numbers.) more...	LCSU2F95	20	Semester 1
Intermediate French II A continuation of LCSU2F95. (Alternative slots may be available depending on student numbers.) more...	LCSU2F96	20	Semester 2
Intermediate Spanish I An intermediate course in Spanish for those students who have taken Beginners' Spanish I and II or who have a GCSE in the language. This module aims to enable students to build on, and further enhance, existing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. A key component is the exploration of themes that develop interculturality. Specific aspects of language are revisited and consolidated at a higher level. The emphasis lies on enhancing essential grammar notions and vocabulary areas in meaningful contexts, whilst developing knowledge of contemporary life and society that focuses on culture and current affairs. Students will attend a seminar and a one hour oral. more...	LCSU2H11	20	Semester 1
Intermediate Spanish II A continuation of the intermediate course in Spanish (LCSU2H11). Students will attend a seminar and a one hour oral. more...	LCSU2H12	20	Semester 2
Introduction to British Sign Language I A beginners' course in British Sign Language assuming no prior or minimal knowledge of the language. It is designed to provide students with basic training in communication with deaf people and an awareness of life and culture in the deaf world. Teaching and learning strategies include the use of signed conversation, role play, games and exercises to embed vocabulary and principles unique to a visual language. Assessment is based on a Sign Language conversation and three in-class assessments. The module can be taken in any year. Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. Students will have to attend one of the groups which will be taught on Mondays, 10.00 am - 12.30 pm (B2B3E4), 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm (C5C6C7) and/or 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm ( A910EY/) or Wednesdays, 14.20 pm - 16.50 pm (E6E7E8), subject to student enrolment/timetables. more...	LCSU1OB1	20	Semester 1
Introduction to British Sign Language I (Spring Start) A beginners' course in British Sign Language assuming no prior or minimal knowledge of the language. It is designed to provide students with basic training in communication with deaf people and an awareness of life and culture in the deaf world. Teaching and learning strategies include the use of signed conversation, role play, games and exercises to embed vocabulary and principles unique to a visual language. Assessment is based on a Sign Language conversation and three in-class assessments. The module can be taken in any year. Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. Students will have to attend one of the groups which will be taught on Mondays, 10.00 am - 12.30 pm (B2B3E4), 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm (C5C6C7) and/or 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm ( A910EY/Wed 14.20 - 16.50), subject to student enrolment/timetables. more...	LCSU1OB4	20	Semester 2
Introduction to British Sign Language II A continuation of 'Introduction to British Sign Language I' (LCSU1OB1 or LCSU1OB4). Teaching and learning strategies continue with the use of signed conversation, role play, games and exercises to embed vocabulary and principles unique to a visual language. It is designed to provide students a follow-on in their understanding awareness of life, culture and use of equipment in the Deaf World. Assessment is based on a Sign Language conversation and two in-class assessments. The module can be taken in any year. Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. Students will have to attend one of the groups which will be taught on Mondays, 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm ( A910EY) . more...	LCSU1OB2	20	Semester 2
Introduction to Early Modern Studies This module introduces key themes in early modern history: witchcraft, gender, rebellion, religious conflict, the reformation, warfare, state formation and other key aspects of the period 1500-1750. more...	HIS-1A15	20	Semester 1
Introduction to Medieval History This module is designed to provide an introduction to medieval history both for first year historians and students from other schools. It surveys the history of medieval Europe, including England, from c.1000 to c1300, and also examines some archaeology, literature, art, and architecture from the period. The module also aims to introduce students to a range of primary sources, including some of the physical remains to be found in East Anglia. more...	HIS-1A13	20	Semester 1
Introduction to Modern History This module provides a wide-ranging introduction to the political, social and economic transformation of Britain and Europe from the early nineteenth century to the First World War. Among the themes it considers are industrialisation and its impact; revolution and reform; nationalism and imperialism; gender and society; great power relations; the impact of war and the collapse of the old Europe in 1917-18. more...	HIS-1A19	20	Semester 1
Introduction to World Dramatic Literatures 1 This module examines a wide range of influential plays in several genres, drawn from the work of major European dramatists, and with due attention given to issues of both text and performance. The plays are drawn from the work of Aeschylus, Euripides, Shakespeare, Webster, Wycherley, Moliere and Racine, as well as medieval and non-European theatre. A weekly lecture is accompanied by demonstrations/discussions of central scenes and/or video extracts. more...	LDCD1X39	20	Semester 1
Literature in History 1 This is the main introductory module to the study of literature. It aims to help new students to read historically, by offering a range of models of the relationship between literature and history, explored through the study of selected historical and literary moments. The module is taught by a weekly lecture, with an accompanying seminar. more...	LDCE1F01	20	Semester 1
Post A-Level French Language 1/i A Post A-Level module designed to develop overall competence, with emphasis on grammatical accuracy and on the promotion of autonomous learning and transferable skills. Consisting of a lecture, one hour oral, and two hours of 'travaux diriges' in small groups for which extra slots are available. Not available to French native speakers or those with equivalent competence. more...	LCSU1F21	20	Semester 1
Post A-Level French Language 1/II A continuation of module LCSU1F21. more...	LCSU1F22	20	Semester 2
Post A-Level German Language 1/i A basic module in post A-Level German (also open for students with AS-Level grade A) consisting of revision and extension of selected areas of advanced grammar and reading and discussion of newspaper articles. Its aim is to develop competence in all areas of spoken and written German. (The module may contain a component of 'Business German': "International trade fairs in Germany", depending on student interest and enrolment.) This module is not available to native speakers or those with equivalent competence. more...	LCSU1G21	20	Semester 1
Post A-Level German Language 1/II A continuation of post A-Level German I consisting of revision and extension of selected areas of advanced grammar and reading of texts and discussion of relevant topics. Its aim is to develop competence in all areas of spoken and written German. (The module may contain a component of 'Business German', depending on student interest and enrolment.) Not available to native speakers or those with equivalent competence. more...	LCSU1G22	20	Semester 2
Post A-Level Spanish 1/i A course in Spanish for students with Spanish A-Level, Intermediate Spanish (LCSU2H11 and 12), or any other equivalent qualification. This module aims to enable students to build on, and further enhance, existing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. It is designed to build up linguistic proficiency, cultural knowledge and learning skills in preparation for the year abroad. A key component is the exploration of themes that develop interculturality. Specific aspects of language are revisited and consolidated at a higher level. The emphasis lies on enhancing essential grammar notions and vocabulary areas in meaningful contexts, whilst developing knowledge of contemporary life and society that focuses on culture and current affairs. This module can be taken in any year. (Alternative slots may be available depending on student numbers.) Orals are arranged separately. This module is not available to native speakers or those with equivalent competence. more...	LCSU1H21	20	Semester 1
Post A-Level Spanish 1/II A continuation of module LCSU1H21. This module is not available to native speakers or those with equivalent competence. more...	LCSU1H22	20	Semester 2
Reading Translations: Tutorial Class This module provides the opportunity to work closely with texts in translation, looking at how we read and analyse them and how we consider their relationship to the originals. We aim to develop the skills necessary for working with foreign texts in English translation. A thorough reading knowledge of another language besides English is essential. more...	LDCE1F13	20	Semester 1

Year 2

Option A Study (20 credits)

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

Name	Code	Credits	Period
17th-Century Writing: Renaissance, Revolution, Restoration This module explores 17th-Century writing in diverse forms, familiar and unfamiliar: the masque, poetry, prose fiction, political prose and the antecedents of what we now call 'journalism'. We will consider the place of these works in society and in their intellectual and cultural contexts, and examine the traffic between literary writing and broader (popular?) print culture. more...	LDCE2Y13	20	Semester 1
Critical Theory and Practice Through a combination of lectures and seminars, this module will explore changing responses to the central questions of poetics, from Plato and Aristotle in the classical period to contemporary theory. What kinds of truth, if any, do poetry and fictional writing tell? What is the nature of the imagination or the role of invention? How does fictional writing relate to philosophy, religion, rhetoric or science? This module will approach these questions through a combination of historical, theoretical and practical approaches. This module enables students to identify, assess and employ a range of critical methods in their study of literature. more...	LDCE2X15	20	Semester 1
Cultural Theory and Analysis This seminar module introduces a range of critical approaches to ideas of culture and encourages their assessment and application, paying particular attention to the role of literature and visual culture (art, film, advertising). Organised broadly historically and focussing on the twentieth century, it considers different appraoches to 'culture', including key debates around the concept of 'high' and 'low' culture and power, the impact of mass culture, culture industries, gender and culture, modernism and postmodernism. Theorists to be studied include Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Dick Hebdige, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler and Fredric Jameson. Assessment is by means of joint or individual seminar presentation which is then written up and a longer essay. more...	LDCE2X17	20	Semester 1
Eighteenth-Century Writing This module reads major British fiction and some poetry of the eighteenth century in terms of its relation to the development of society which is recognisably modern. We will examine such writers as Defoe, Swift, Pope, Richardson, Fielding and Sterne, and exploring the `rise of the novel', the coming dominance of prose representation in journalism and fiction, the rise of the middle class, the move to an urban cash-nexus society governed by reason and contractual economic exchange, and the construction of new kinds of subjectivities for men and women according to the needs of middle-class patriarchy. In many ways, this module studies the development of the `modern mind'. more...	LDCE2Y11	20	Semester 1
European Literature: Encounters With 'Otherness' This module explores critical and aesthetic issues raised by general and comparative literature, issues of 'influence', reception, intertextuality, translation, formal and generic comparabilities, national identity and cultural borrowing. Theoretical questions will be examined through specific examples and case studies, ranging across different periods and geographies; however the focus is likely to be on the twentieth-century. Works studies may include texts by e.g. Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Sebald, Calvino, Celan. more...	LDCE2X24	20	Semester 2
Medieval Writing This module is designed to provide an introduction to the study of medieval English language and literature. In a series of lectures and seminars students will work through a small but representative selection of medieval texts, including lyrics, romance, and poetry, in order to develop a working knowledge of the language - Middle English - and an appreciation of different forms and genres found in medieval writing. Medieval texts and contexts will be used as a means of familiarising students with medieval language, and form the basis for further modules in medieval writing that may be taken within the School. more...	LDCE2Y15	20	Semester 1
Modernism The purpose of this module is to study the literature of the early decades of the twentieth century - very roughly 1900-1930 - in particular the work of those authors who attempted to break with received norms of literary style and content. The module is organised as a series of thematic explorations - poetic experiment, memory and desire, myth and innovation, and so on - and thus does not follow a chronological structure. The sequence of guiding lectures focuses its deliberations on a set of specific texts, with their contexts, and these are taken up for discussion in the accompanying seminars. 'Modernism' is this constructed gradually over the semester as a mosaic of closely related issues, each one reflecting on the others. As well as providing an overview of defining textual features, in prose and poetry, the module is concerned also with the interrelation of text and context, offering a range of ways of conceiving of modernist literature as both of, and self-consciously ahead of, its historical moment. more...	LDCE2Z15	20	Semester 1
Nineteenth-Century Writing This module introduces students to classics of nineteenth-century fiction, primarily British but also including two famous French novels to provide comparative foil. The lectures will direct attention to such formal and ideological matters as the free indirect style, literary realism, authorial omniscience and moral didacticism, the representation of history, comic and gothic elements, and the shift towards aestheticism and impressionism in the second half of the century. These features will be related to larger patterns of social change, notably changing relations between social classes, the role of the novel in bourgeois ideology, moral urgency and complacency, the repression of women, the retreat from progressive models of history and the development of a commodifying cultural sphere. more...	LDCE2Z30	20	Semester 2
Romanticism 1780-1840 Romantic Literature is often thought of as poetry, primarily work by Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and Bryon. But the signs and forms of Romantic sensibility can also be found in a much broader constituency of writing practice: the novel, letter writing, the essay, political and aesthetic theory, and writing of all kinds taken as social commentary. This module is taught through a combination of lectures and seminars. more...	LDCE2X26	20	Semester 2
Shakespeare The aim of this lecture-seminar module is to help you become a better reader of Shakespearean drama. He was writing between about 1590 and about 1610; obviously his plays speak to us over a great cultural distance, and we can find fresh ways of reading them by exploring the theatrical, generic and historical frameworks in which they were written and staged. The lectures, then, will introduce a range of contexts, and the seminars will seek to turn them to account in the reading of the dramatic texts themselves. more...	LDCE2Y04	20	Semester 2

Option B Study (60 credits)

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

Name	Code	Credits	Period
17th-Century Writing: Renaissance, Revolution, Restoration This module explores 17th-Century writing in diverse forms, familiar and unfamiliar: the masque, poetry, prose fiction, political prose and the antecedents of what we now call 'journalism'. We will consider the place of these works in society and in their intellectual and cultural contexts, and examine the traffic between literary writing and broader (popular?) print culture. more...	LDCE2Y13	20	Semester 1
Adaptation: Shakespeare On Stage and Screen This module explores the rich dramatic and cinematic traditions of Shakespearean adaptation. It considers a range of adaptations, from the seventeenth-century restoration versions of Macbeth, King Lear and The Tempest to more recent film versions of Shakespeare's plays, examining the light that adaptive transformations may cast on both the original plays and on the different social and cultural circumstances of the new productions. Through exploration of specific adaptations of Macbeth, King Lear and Henry V, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet, the module explores the place of Shakespeare's plays on the Caribbean stage, in Japanese film, in Germany and Britain in the 1930s and 1940s, and in more contemporary twentieth and twenty-first-century culture. more...	LDCD2X45	20	Semester 1
Anglo-Saxon England, C. 500-1066 This module surveys the history of the English from their arrival of the English in Britain in the fifth century until the end of the eleventh century and the conquest by the Normans. We shall cover topics such as the conversion of the English in the seventh century; the domination of England by Mercia in the eighth century; the Viking invasions and the reign of Alfred the Great; the emergence of Wessex as the dominant force in England in the tenth century; the conquest of England by the Danes in the eleventh century; and the Norman Conquest of England. more...	HISH2A93	20	Semester 1
Austen and the Brontes: Reading the Romance This module will consider three texts by Austen and the Brontes. A wide variety of literary and historical contexts will be discussed: feminisms, colonialism, impact of war, the social status of the woman writer, representations of governesses, madness and mad women, rakes, foreigners and strangers, minds and bodies, heroes and heroines. We investigate the ways that the lives of the authors of these novels have been told and read as romances. Opportunities will be available to work on film versions. Work on any text by these authors is welcomed in class, coursework and in the examination. more...	LDCE2X28	20	Semester 2
Conspiracy and Crisis in Early Modern England Assassination. Foreign invasion. Revolt and rebellion. Political and religious plots loomed large and posed a constant threat in Early Modern England. Conspiracy was not simply an imagined threat nor did it exist in theory; it was a social and political reality that elicited fear, shaped policies and gave rise to self-fulfilling prophecies. Did the greatest threat of subversion come from popular uprisings, foreign invasion or from the heart of the British government? From Mary, Queen of Scots and the Gunpowder Plot to the hidden agenda of Charles I, this module will survey a series of popular, elite and royalist conspiracies. Moving behind official narratives, it will draw on a host of resources to investigate alternative explanations for crisis over power, authority and legitimacy during this period. Each conspiracy will provide and point of entry into broader changes in early modern society as the crown and commons reimagined and realigned political, religious and social boundaries. more...	HISH2H08	20	Semester 2
Contemporary Writing This module aims to take an open snapshot of different modes of writing in the recent British scene, not a post-war history of the novel. Together with the question of exactly what it means to be contemporary, we shall concentrate on a small number of thematic and/or formal features, looking in particular at more adventurous examples of recent literature. more...	LDCE2Z34	20	Semester 2
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: 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: 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
Critical Theory and Practice Through a combination of lectures and seminars, this module will explore changing responses to the central questions of poetics, from Plato and Aristotle in the classical period to contemporary theory. What kinds of truth, if any, do poetry and fictional writing tell? What is the nature of the imagination or the role of invention? How does fictional writing relate to philosophy, religion, rhetoric or science? This module will approach these questions through a combination of historical, theoretical and practical approaches. This module enables students to identify, assess and employ a range of critical methods in their study of literature. more...	LDCE2X15	20	Semester 1
Cultural Theory and Analysis This seminar module introduces a range of critical approaches to ideas of culture and encourages their assessment and application, paying particular attention to the role of literature and visual culture (art, film, advertising). Organised broadly historically and focussing on the twentieth century, it considers different appraoches to 'culture', including key debates around the concept of 'high' and 'low' culture and power, the impact of mass culture, culture industries, gender and culture, modernism and postmodernism. Theorists to be studied include Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Dick Hebdige, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler and Fredric Jameson. Assessment is by means of joint or individual seminar presentation which is then written up and a longer essay. more...	LDCE2X17	20	Semester 1
Early Medieval Europe This module focuses on the geographical area covered by the Carolingian Empire - that is, the modern territorial units of France, Germany, Italy, and the Benelux countries. It begins in the late sixth century with the Merovingian dynasty and ends with the reform of the Papacy and the first crusade at the end of the 11th century. more...	HISH2B13	20	Semester 1
Eighteenth-Century Writing This module reads major British fiction and some poetry of the eighteenth century in terms of its relation to the development of society which is recognisably modern. We will examine such writers as Defoe, Swift, Pope, Richardson, Fielding and Sterne, and exploring the `rise of the novel', the coming dominance of prose representation in journalism and fiction, the rise of the middle class, the move to an urban cash-nexus society governed by reason and contractual economic exchange, and the construction of new kinds of subjectivities for men and women according to the needs of middle-class patriarchy. In many ways, this module studies the development of the `modern mind'. more...	LDCE2Y11	20	Semester 1
Erasmus Exchange: Autumn Semester LDC students going abroad under the ERASMUS exchange scheme for the Autumn semester must enrol for this module. Students going abroad under the ERASMUS exchange scheme to Dublin will need in addition to enrol for module LDCE2A02. Further details of the ERASMUS scheme are available from the Study Abroad Office. more...	LDCE2A01	60	Semester 1
Erasmus Exchange: Spring Semester LDC students going abroad under the ERASMUS exchange scheme for the Spring semester must enrol for this module. Students going abroad under the ERASMUS exchange scheme to Dublin will need in addition to enrol for module LDCE2A01. Further details on the ERASMUS scheme are available from the Study Abroad Office. more...	LDCE2A02	60	Semester 2
European Literature: Encounters With 'Otherness' This module explores critical and aesthetic issues raised by general and comparative literature, issues of 'influence', reception, intertextuality, translation, formal and generic comparabilities, national identity and cultural borrowing. Theoretical questions will be examined through specific examples and case studies, ranging across different periods and geographies; however the focus is likely to be on the twentieth-century. Works studies may include texts by e.g. Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Sebald, Calvino, Celan. more...	LDCE2X24	20	Semester 2
From Agincourt to Bosworth: England in the Wars of the Roses Through a close examination of the lives and reigns of four very different monarchs this unit investigates the workings of kingship and high politics in one of the most turbulent periods of English History (1415-1485). New interpretations of the Wars of the Roses, as well as original source material, will be studied. more...	HISH2B18	20	Semester 2
From Pushkin to Chekhov: Nineteenth-Century Russian Fiction This module offers students the opportunity to study some of the great works of nineteenth-century Russian fiction by authors such as Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Russian writers were convinced that their country's literature had been too dependent on European models and they set out consciously to create a distinctly 'Russian' tradition. What did this involve and why subsequently were the works of the authors like Dostoevsky and Chekhov received so rapturously when they became available in English translations at the beginning of the twentieth century? We will also examine this writing in its social, historical and political context, which raises questions regarding the significance of gender, censorship and empire. more...	LDCE2Z33	20	Semester 1
From Tragic to Epic Performance Through readings of classical and neo-classical generic criticism, as well as through an investigation of performance and staging demands, the module examines classical, post-classical and early modern forms of tragedy, and contrasts them with the complex emergent forms of tragicomedy and (later) epic, which, in different ways, re-model or resist the central experience of tragic reception. The course will look at plays selected from different genres, countries and periods, e.g. classical Greek (Sophocles) and Roman (Seneca) French Neoclassical (Racine), Spanish golden age (Lope de Vega Calderon), English Jacobean (Middleton and Rowley, Ford), Japanese Kabuki, post-revolutionary German (from Schiller to Brecht). By positing strategies for reading and performing such plays, it will thus develop a deeper knowledge of stage history and of complex theatrical styles. It will also engage with critical discourse, especially in aesthetics and genre criticism (Zeami, Aristotle, Castelvetro, Dryden, Lessing, Brecht). more...	LDCD2X47	20	Semester 1
Goodbye to Berlin? Literature & Visual Culture in Weimar Germany This module aims to explore some of the exciting developments in verbal and visual culture of the Weimar Republic between the First and Second World Wars, e.g. experimental theatre, Weimar cinema, cabaret, visual arts, the Bauhaus, etc. Texts considered will include writings by Brecht et al. Thomas and Heinrich Mann, and less familiar authors as well as key films by e.g. Pabst (Threepenny Opera), Lang (Metropolis), von Sternberg (Blue Angel) and others. A particular focus is likely to be representations of gender on page, stage and screen. Active seminar participation is expected. NB: A knowledge of German, while useful, is not a prerequisite; translations are available. more...	LDCE2Z40	20	Semester 2
Heritage and Public History Public history is history in the public sphere, whether in museums and galleries, heritage sites and historic houses, radio and television broadcasting, film, popular history books, or public policy within government. In the UK, it is a new and burgeoning area of academic interest and debate. The central challenge and task of public history is making history relevant and accessible to its audience of people outside academia, whilst adhering to an academically credible historical method. This module explores the theory and practice of public history in heritage, broadcasting and publication. The first half of the module considers the principles of visitor interpretation, museology and curatorship, asking questions such as, how is the past used? What is authenticity? What decisions are made in the presentation and interpretation of museums and historic houses? Must public ' or popular ' history mean `dumbing down', or can we satisfy the public's curiosity about the past in a way that also satisfies us as historians? The second half of the module seriously engages with the challenge of how to represent history in television documentaries, radio broadcasts, mainstream cinema, in the making of public policy, and as popular history or historical fiction. Outside speakers ' chosen from curators, interpreters, producers, and popular historians and broadcasters ' will lecture as part of this course. The course will also involve a field trip to Hampton Court Palace. more...	HISH2H05	20	Semester 1
Imperial Russian and Soviet History, 1861-1945 This module examines some of the main themes in Russian history between the Emancipation of the Serfs and the outbreak of the Second World War. We will look at the nature of industrialisation and the peasant economy, the autocracy and its fall in 1917, the revolutionary movement and the nationalities question. We will then examine how the Revolution of 1917 changed the state and the ways in which the Communists attempted to change society before 1929. We conclude by examining the country during the era of the five year plans and the impact of the Stalinist system on the Soviet Union before the outbreak of world war. more...	HISH2D89	20	Semester 1
Intermediate French I This is an intermediate course in French and is intended for students who have enough pre-A-Level experience of French and wish to develop their knowledge to a standard comparable to A-Level. The module is made up of three elements, each taught for one hour per week: Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, and Grammar. While the emphasis is on comprehension, the speaking and writing of French are also included. The module is not available to students with AS or A-Level French. This module can be taken in any year. (Alternative slots may be available depending on student numbers.) more...	LCSU2F95	20	Semester 1
Intermediate French II A continuation of LCSU2F95. (Alternative slots may be available depending on student numbers.) more...	LCSU2F96	20	Semester 2
Intermediate German I An intermediate course in German for those students who have taken Beginners' German I and II or who have a GCSE or an AS level grade D (or below) in the language. This module aims to enable students to build on, and further enhance, existing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. A key component is the exploration of themes that develop interculturality. Specific aspects of language are revisited and consolidated at a higher level. The emphasis lies on enhancing essential grammar notions and vocabulary areas in meaningful contexts, whilst developing knowledge of contemporary life and society that focuses on culture and current affairs. This module consists of three contact hours per week. more...	LCSU2G97	20	Semester 1
Intermediate German II A continuation of the intermediate course in German (LCSU2G97). Open to students with an AS Level grade B or below. more...	LCSU2G98	20	Semester 2
Intermediate Spanish I An intermediate course in Spanish for those students who have taken Beginners' Spanish I and II or who have a GCSE in the language. This module aims to enable students to build on, and further enhance, existing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. A key component is the exploration of themes that develop interculturality. Specific aspects of language are revisited and consolidated at a higher level. The emphasis lies on enhancing essential grammar notions and vocabulary areas in meaningful contexts, whilst developing knowledge of contemporary life and society that focuses on culture and current affairs. Students will attend a seminar and a one hour oral. more...	LCSU2H11	20	Semester 1
Intermediate Spanish II A continuation of the intermediate course in Spanish (LCSU2H11). Students will attend a seminar and a one hour oral. more...	LCSU2H12	20	Semester 2
Introduction to British Sign Language I A beginners' course in British Sign Language assuming no prior or minimal knowledge of the language. It is designed to provide students with basic training in communication with deaf people and an awareness of life and culture in the deaf world. Teaching and learning strategies include the use of signed conversation, role play, games and exercises to embed vocabulary and principles unique to a visual language. Assessment is based on a Sign Language conversation and three in-class assessments. The module can be taken in any year. Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. Students will have to attend one of the groups which will be taught on Mondays, 10.00 am - 12.30 pm (B2B3E4), 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm (C5C6C7) and/or 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm ( A910EY/) or Wednesdays, 14.20 pm - 16.50 pm (E6E7E8), subject to student enrolment/timetables. more...	LCSU1OB1	20	Semester 1
Introduction to British Sign Language I (Spring Start) A beginners' course in British Sign Language assuming no prior or minimal knowledge of the language. It is designed to provide students with basic training in communication with deaf people and an awareness of life and culture in the deaf world. Teaching and learning strategies include the use of signed conversation, role play, games and exercises to embed vocabulary and principles unique to a visual language. Assessment is based on a Sign Language conversation and three in-class assessments. The module can be taken in any year. Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. Students will have to attend one of the groups which will be taught on Mondays, 10.00 am - 12.30 pm (B2B3E4), 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm (C5C6C7) and/or 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm ( A910EY/Wed 14.20 - 16.50), subject to student enrolment/timetables. more...	LCSU1OB4	20	Semester 2
Introduction to British Sign Language II A continuation of 'Introduction to British Sign Language I' (LCSU1OB1 or LCSU1OB4). Teaching and learning strategies continue with the use of signed conversation, role play, games and exercises to embed vocabulary and principles unique to a visual language. It is designed to provide students a follow-on in their understanding awareness of life, culture and use of equipment in the Deaf World. Assessment is based on a Sign Language conversation and two in-class assessments. The module can be taken in any year. Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. Students will have to attend one of the groups which will be taught on Mondays, 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm ( A910EY) . more...	LCSU1OB2	20	Semester 2
Landscape I: Structures of Landscape This module will examine the development of the English landscape from early prehistoric times to the late Saxon period. We will examine the field archaeology of the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, discuss in some detail the landscapes of Roman Britain, and assess the nature of the Roman/Saxon transition. We will then investigate the development of territorial organisation, field systems and settlement patterns during the Saxon and Medieval periods. The module provides an introduction to archaeological theory and methods, as well as giving a broad overview of the development of society, economy and environment in the period up to c.1300. more...	HISH2A51	20	Semester 1
Landscape II : Built and Semi-Natural Environments This module will examine the development of the English countryside from late Saxon times into the eighteenth century. Topics covered will include woods and wood-pastures, enclosure, walls and hedges, the archaeology of churches and vernacular houses. There will be a substantial practical component to the module, involving the analysis of buildings, hedges and woods and other semi-natural environments. more...	HISH2A52	20	Semester 2
Later Medieval Europe This module examines the political, cultural and social history of later medieval Europe (circa 1100-1500) with a particular focus on France and Italy. The topics addressed include the formation of cities, the position of the papacy, lay piety, and the role of women. more...	HISH2A94	20	Semester 2
Latin for Historians This module provides an introduction to the linguistic skills in medieval Latin which enable students to read administrative documents such as charters, accounts, court rolls, etc. It is particularly suited for those who intend proceeding to postgraduate study in aspects of the past, such as medieval history, which require a reading knowledge of Latin. more...	HISH2A62	20	Semester 2
Literature and Visual Culture Ii: At the Fin De Siecle This interdisciplinary module investigates the interweaving of literature, painting and photography in Europe in the latter part of the nineteenth century, with a particular focus on France. It looks at the characteristic thematic preoccupations, styles and perceptual psychologies which drive Naturalism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Aestheticism and Decadence as modernist modes. We will be examining developments in the handling of narrative and poetry as well as experiments in theatre against the background of photography's emulation of painting, and painting's struggle to free itself from the academic. Writers to be studied include Baudelaire, Zola, Moore, Maupassant, Wilde, Yeats, Maeterlinck and Mirbeau alongside a selection of poets, painters and photographers of the period. Assessment is by means of a written image analysis and a longer individually designed project, both of which are supported by individual tutorials. more...	LDCE2Z24	20	Semester 2
Literature Studies Semester Abroad: Australia (Spring) A semester spent at an Australian university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on Q300U1, QT37U1, Q3W8U1, QV31U1, W400U1, WQ43U1. WW84U1. more...	LDCE2A04	60	Semester 2
Medicine and Gender This module offers a broad historical treatment of gender issues in medicine, examining women as providers and recipients of healthcare from Ancient Greece to the NHS. Topics for study include the female body, obstetrics and gynaecology, the female healer and the medical profession, women, witchcraft and popular healing, scientific medicine and professionalisation, nurses, nursing and reform, and women's health. more...	HISH2B97	20	Semester 1
Medicine and Society Before the 17th Century This module examines the theory and practice of medicine at all levels of English society during the medieval and early modern periods, and assesses the impact of medical ideas upon religious, literary and political thought. Topics include: the emergence of a healing profession and its attempts to secure a monopoly of practice; the role of women as both patients and practitioners; theories about the spread of disease and necessary measures for public health; medicine and the Church;and attitudes to mortality. Edited versions of original documents are used. more...	HISH2B95	20	Semester 1
Medicine and Society in Modern Britain This module considers the practice of medicine in Britain from the eighteenth century to the establishment of the NHS. Themes include the impact of science and professions, the organisation and control aspects of medical and hospital services and healthcare as seen by sufferers and patients. These are seen in the context of broader topics in modern British social history. more...	HISH2B96	20	Semester 2
Medieval Writing This module is designed to provide an introduction to the study of medieval English language and literature. In a series of lectures and seminars students will work through a small but representative selection of medieval texts, including lyrics, romance, and poetry, in order to develop a working knowledge of the language - Middle English - and an appreciation of different forms and genres found in medieval writing. Medieval texts and contexts will be used as a means of familiarising students with medieval language, and form the basis for further modules in medieval writing that may be taken within the School. more...	LDCE2Y15	20	Semester 1
Modern Germany, 1914-1990 The history of few countries is as dramatic as that of modern Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. This module will focus on themes such as: the making and re-making of the German nation; the political consequences of Germany's transformation into an industrial superpower; Germany's role in the origins of the war in 1914; the problems confronting Weimar democracy; the relationship of the German people to Hitler's regime; the rise and decline of the Nazi empire in Europe; and the impact of Nazism on the German nation since 1945. more...	HISH2D53	20	Semester 1
Modern Italy, 1860-1945 This module studies the social, political and economic history of Italy from its unification in 1860 until the end of the Second World War. It will begin by looking at the process of unification, the difficulties encountered in governing the new nation-state and the problems of uneven social and economic modernisation. The module then focuses on the First World War and the rise of Fascism after 1918, before assessing the nature of Mussolini's regime and the reasons for its downfall. more...	HISH2E08	20	Semester 2
Modernism The purpose of this module is to study the literature of the early decades of the twentieth century - very roughly 1900-1930 - in particular the work of those authors who attempted to break with received norms of literary style and content. The module is organised as a series of thematic explorations - poetic experiment, memory and desire, myth and innovation, and so on - and thus does not follow a chronological structure. The sequence of guiding lectures focuses its deliberations on a set of specific texts, with their contexts, and these are taken up for discussion in the accompanying seminars. 'Modernism' is this constructed gradually over the semester as a mosaic of closely related issues, each one reflecting on the others. As well as providing an overview of defining textual features, in prose and poetry, the module is concerned also with the interrelation of text and context, offering a range of ways of conceiving of modernist literature as both of, and self-consciously ahead of, its historical moment. more...	LDCE2Z15	20	Semester 1
Napoleon to Stalin: the Struggle for Mastery in Europe This module deals with the rivalries of the Great Powers from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the onset of the Cold War. We shall be examining topics such as the Vienna system; the Crimean War; Italian and German unification, the origins of the First and Second World Wars and the start of the Cold War. more...	HISH2D02	20	Semester 2
Nineteenth-Century Writing This module introduces students to classics of nineteenth-century fiction, primarily British but also including two famous French novels to provide comparative foil. The lectures will direct attention to such formal and ideological matters as the free indirect style, literary realism, authorial omniscience and moral didacticism, the representation of history, comic and gothic elements, and the shift towards aestheticism and impressionism in the second half of the century. These features will be related to larger patterns of social change, notably changing relations between social classes, the role of the novel in bourgeois ideology, moral urgency and complacency, the repression of women, the retreat from progressive models of history and the development of a commodifying cultural sphere. more...	LDCE2Z30	20	Semester 2
Norman and Plantagenet England, 1066-1307 This module follows the history of England from the Norman Conquest of 1066 down to the death of Edward 1 in 1307. The aim of this module is to look at the political, ecclesiastical, social and intellectual history of England in this period and to place English history in the wider context of European history in the Middle Ages. more...	HISH2B12	20	Semester 2
Political Theatre This module examines the use of theatre and performance - by the State, by oppositional groups, by political activists and by theatre and performance practitioners - to solidify or challenge structures of power. The course looks at specific examples of how theatre and public spectacles have been used in the twentieth century to control or contest the political stage. Examining American, South America, African, Russian, and Eastern European performance in the twentieth century, this class will document and explore through specific performances, videos, dramatic texts and theoretical essays, how performance in theory and practice can be used to explore issues to race, ethnicity, gender, political upheaval and social change within a society. more...	LDCD2X02	20	Semester 2
Post A Level Spanish Language 2/I This semester-long Spanish language module is compulsory for all second-year Single Honours Spanish students as well as being an option for any student who has done Post-A-Level Spanish Language I. Its aim is to build up language proficiency and cultural awareness of Spain and Latin America. (Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers.) more...	LCSU2H21	20	Semester 1
Post A Level Spanish Language 2/ii This semester-long module is compulsory for all second-year Spanish Honours students as well as being an option for any student who has done Post A-Level Spanish language 2/I (or equivalent). Its aim is to build up language proficiency and cultural awareness of Spain and Latin America. For one of the three weekly contact hours, students will be able to choose either Translation or Business as an option. (Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers.) more...	LCSU2H22	20	Semester 2
Post A-Level French Language 2/I This French Honours language module is compulsory for all second-year Single Honours French students. It is designed to build up linguistic proficiency, cultural knowledge and learning skills in preparation for the Year Abroad. Activities focus on promoting self-direction in language learning, and draw on a variety of resources, including electronic resources, for in-class, self-access and group project work (oral, aural, written). Seminars are taught in French. (Alternative groups will be available for seminars.) more...	LCSU2F01	20	Semester 1
Post A-Level French Language 2/ii This module is the continuation of the Post A-Level French Language 2/I module (LCSU2F01) and is compulsory for all second year French Honours students. There is a core element to this module which takes up the objectives of LCSU2F01 in a translation hour (D2 or E3) and a year abroad preparation oral class. There are three additional strands. Each student will take one of these strands: i) Introduction to Interpreting (obligatory for Q9R8 students) (A3B4), ii) French Law and Society (C3D4) or, iii) French for Business (obligatory for R9N2 students) (A7*A8). Non-Q9R8 and non-R9N2 students will be asked to state a preference in the Autumn semester. more...	LCSU2F02	20	Semester 2
Publishing (Aut) The module will be theoretical as well as practical including discussions around the design and editing of a text and what constitutes an editorial policy. Students will be taught how to set up, run and market their own publications (a magazine/book/fanzine) as well as to justify their editorial, marketing and business strategies. This course will be assessed by a portfolio and a piece of coursework. Training on Desktop publishing packages PageMaker and Photoshop will be provided as part of the course. more...	LDCE2X05	20	Semester 1
Publishing (Spr) The module will be theoretical as well as practical including discussions around the design and editing of a text and what constitutes an editorial policy. Students will be taught how to set up, run and market their own publications (a magazine/book/fanzine) as well as to justify their editorial, marketing and business strategies. This course will be assessed by a portfolio and a piece of coursework. Training on Desktop publishing packages PageMaker and Photoshop will be provided as part of the course. more...	LDCE2X06	20	Semester 2
Queens, Courtesans and Commoners: Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe This module examines the issue of gender in European history, between 1500 and 1750. Using a variety of written and visual sources, and including a comparative element, it focuses on the following themes: definitions of femininity and masculinity; life-cycles; family, kinship, and marriage; social exclusion, charity and the welfare state; law, crime, and order; witchcraft and magic; honour, sex, and sexual identities; work; learning and the arts; material culture; the impact of European expansions. more...	HISH2F25	20	Semester 1
Reformation to Revolution This module examines three centuries of European history connecting two unprecedented revolutionary epochs: the Reformation of the sixteenth century and the American and French revolutions at the end of the early modern era. We will look at key themes and movements in these centuries, including the politics of the Reformation; the Mediterranean work of the Ottomans and Habsburg Spain; the Dutch Golden Age; the great political and religious struggles of the seventeenth century, including wars in the British Isles, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Baltic; the Russia of the Romanov czars and Peter the Great; the growth of centralised states and absolutism in France, Prussia and Austria; the Enlightenment; the rise of the Atlantic economies; and the challenge to the Old Regime from revolutionary politics. more...	HISH2H01	20	Semester 1
Romanticism 1780-1840 Romantic Literature is often thought of as poetry, primarily work by Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and Bryon. But the signs and forms of Romantic sensibility can also be found in a much broader constituency of writing practice: the novel, letter writing, the essay, political and aesthetic theory, and writing of all kinds taken as social commentary. This module is taught through a combination of lectures and seminars. more...	LDCE2X26	20	Semester 2
Shakespeare The aim of this lecture-seminar module is to help you become a better reader of Shakespearean drama. He was writing between about 1590 and about 1610; obviously his plays speak to us over a great cultural distance, and we can find fresh ways of reading them by exploring the theatrical, generic and historical frameworks in which they were written and staged. The lectures, then, will introduce a range of contexts, and the seminars will seek to turn them to account in the reading of the dramatic texts themselves. more...	LDCE2Y04	20	Semester 2
The British Empire, 1857-1956 This module surveys the history of the British Empire from the mid-nineteenth century to the Suez Crisis, seeking to explain the Empire's growth and the early stages of its contraction. It examines the nature and impact of British colonial rule, at the political, economic and social/cultural levels, addressing the development of the 'settler' colonies/Dominions, the special significance of India and the implications of the 'New Imperialism'. Problems to be considered include theories of 'development' and 'collaboration', the growth of resistance and nationalism, and Britain's responses to these, and the impacts of the two World Wars and the Cold War on Britain's Imperial system. more...	HISH2B74	20	Semester 2
The Duchess of Devonshire to Nancy Astor: Women, Power and Politics This module explores female involvement in politics, from the Duchess of Devonshire's infamous activities in the 1784 Westminster election until 1919, when Nancy Astor became the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons. It will examine topics including the early feminists, aristocratic female politicians, radical politics and the suffragettes. It will investigate the changes and continuities with female engagement with the political process from the eighteenth century through to the twentieth century. more...	HISH2H12	20	Semester 2
The English Civil Wars This module looks at the causes, course and significance at what, in terms of relative population loss was probably the single most devastating conflict in English history; the civil wars of 1642-6, 1648 and 1651. In those years, families, villages and towns were divided by political allegiances and military mobilisation. Hundreds of thousands died, not just from warfare, but also from the spread of infectious disease, siege and the disruption of food supplies. In the rest of the British Isles, suffering was even more profound. The execution of the King in 1649, intended to bring an end to the wars, divided the country ever more deeply. By the late 1640s, radical social groups had emerged who questioned the very basis of authority in Early Modern Society, and made arguments for democracy and for the redistribution of land and power. Karl Marx thought that English revolution marked the beginnings of capitalism. Was he right? Focussing on ordinary men and women as well as upon important generals, politicians and monarchs, this module examines the following issues: the causes of the civil war; the reign of Charles I; the start of the warfare in Ireland and Scotland; the outbreak of the English Civil war; the course of the war; popular allegiances ' why did ordinary people fight?; the Levellers, Diggers and Ranters; the crisis of 1647-9; the trial and execution of Charles I; gender, women and revolution; the experience of warfare; print and popular political gossip; the failure of the English Republic and the Restoration of Charles II. Particular use will be made of the primary source extracts and web resources. more...	HISH2H10	20	Semester 2
The Power of the Past How do communities collectively remember the past? Through public memorials? Through historical fiction? Through published memoirs? Through ritual? How have various governments used the past to validate their policies? The module looks at the relationship between history and memory ' both academic and non-academic. It is assessed on the basis of a 2,000 word essay and a4,000 word project, which you design with help and advice from the module organiser. The lectures cover a wide range of topics ' but because this is a coursework based module, you are not expected to become an expert on every subject! The idea of lectures is to raise ideas and concepts, as well as to deliver historical information about the ways in which the past has been used, abused, hidden and explored by a variety of differing societies, cultures and states. The lectures are based around case-studies, each of which explores a wider theme (e.g., state repression of memory, gender and memory; memory and ward; etc). These include; history and the state in modern Europe; working class memory, war and memory in the 20th Century, memory, forgetting and the Spanish civil war; post-war Britain and wartime memories; racism, national identity and memory in modern Australia; the internet and history, popular memory in early modern Europe; the uses of the past in Nazi Germany; peasant memory in Latin America. Particular use is made of Web resources and in the first few weeks we will be looking at contemporary uses of the past in the print and electronic media. After that, the focus will be on thinking through your own project through group work and individual advice. more...	HISH2E02	20	Semester 2
The Rise and Fall of British Power This module examines Britain's expansion and decline as a great power, from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the 1950s. It considers the foundations of British power, the emergence of rivals, Britain's relationship with the European powers and the USA, and the impact of two World Wars and Cold War. It investigates the reasons for Britain's changing fortunes, as it moved from guarding the balance of power to losing its empire. more...	HISH2B57	20	Semester 1
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
Theatres of Revolt: Nineteenth-Century European Drama Beginning with Ibsen and Strindberg, this module examines the development of modern forms of drama during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, addressing modern concerns - self and society, gender, sexuality, social and class conflicts, creation and destruction, the unconscious - and deploying experimental types of theatre by Chekhov, Maeterlinck, Wilde, Hauptmann, Buchner and Wedekind, as well as the two seminal Scandinavians. We will be looking at versions of Naturalism, Symbolism and Expressionism as modernist modes in drama and suggesting ways in which these shape and anticipate later developments. There will be opportunities to view some of the plays on film. Assessment is by means of seminar participation, one piece of textual analysis and one longer essay. Drama students may include a performance element as part of the assessment. more...	LDCE2X07	20	Semester 1
Three Women Writers The writings of Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf intersect with discourses of 'new women' and gender as well as feminism, and social and cultural history. This second level seminar develops historicist and generic understanding as well as exploring women's identity through these authors' writings, which move between realism and modernism. Special attention to just one writer is possible in the final essay. Particular attention will be given to some of Virginia Woolf's lesser known writing. more...	LDCE2Z38	20	Semester 2
Tudor and Stuart England This module seeks to identify patterns of continuity and change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a view to defining the early modern period in practice. Through an examination of both political and constitutional history from the top down, and social and cultural history from the bottom up, it seeks to understand the period dynamically, in terms of new and often troubled relationships which were formed between governors and governed. Topics include: Tudor monarchy, the Protestant Reformation, the social order, popular religion and literacy, riot and rebellion, the Stuart state, the civil wars, crime and the law, women and gender. more...	HISH2B35	20	Semester 1
Twentieth-Century Britain, 1914 to the Present This module offers an in-depth history of Britain from the Great War to the present day, both through the study of political life and also by assessing the impact of economic, social and cultural change. There are opportunities to re-evaluate issues such as the impact of war on society, `landmark' General Elections such as those of 1945 and 1979, the rise of consumer society, post-colonialism, the sexual revolution, the politics of immigration, unrest in Northern Ireland, as well as Britain's changing role in the world. more...	HISH2G01	20	Semester 1
Victorian Britain This module will examine the leading themes in British history during Victoria's reign (1837-1901). It will include political, social, economic, religious, urban, gender and intellectual topics. more...	HISH2B73	20	Semester 1
War and Peace Since 1945 This module analyses the use and non-use of force in inter-state relations. It first asks why wars occur between states and examines the political, legal and ethical constraints on military action. We then consider peaceful alternatives and civil society. The themes include: the causes of wars; the history of warfare; the Cold War; nuclear strategy and arms control; the laws of war; peace theories; UN peacekeeping; disarmament, and non-violent resistance more...	HISH2G02	20	Semester 2
War Lives: Writing Britain in World War II World War II brought the horror of war home to the British. War invaded the country in new ways: it reshaped Britain's landscapes, radically altered the social practices of everyday life, and shattered people's very sense of what it meant to live. As one writer remarked, the war "worked at a thinning of the membrane between the 'this' and the 'that'. War life, for many, was hallucinatory, and the struggle to write the war, and its peculiar relation to Britain's home-front, invades the writing of the 1940s in strange and unpredictable ways. This module examines both fiction (short stories and novels) and non-fiction (essays and letters) by writers such as Elizabeth Bowen, A. L. Barker, Angus Wilson, Henry Green and Patrick Hamilton, as well as critical work on the literature of the period, to examine how writing in and about Britain during the Second World War struggled to account for the uncertainties and instabilities of war lives. more...	LDCE2X34	20	Semester 2
World Literature: Reading Globally The term 'world literature', coined by Goethe as a means for promoting universal understanding, and then taken up by Marx and Engels as a symbol of modernity, has today become not only a booming area of academic research, but also a publishing phenomenon. This module introduces literature from around the globe, specifically texts that have had and continue to have an impact on an international readership and that frequently demand a self-consciously different mode of reading, one that recognises otherness while simultaneously finding points of commonality. Primary texts will include the ancient Babylonian epic Gilgamesh, the classical Japanese Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, The 1001 Nights, the King James Version of the Bible, as well as more contemporary works by authors such as Bei Dao, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, Tayeb Salih and Yoko Tawada. To contextualise our diverse readings, a range of critical and theoretical explorations of what it means to read (or to write) beyond the borders of a national literature will also be studied. The vital role of translation, understood in both the linguistic and cultural sense, in creating the world literature text will further ground much of the discussion. more...	LDCE2X29	20	Semester 1
You may also pick any of the modules that begin with: HISH2X03 LDCE2X03 LDCE2Z07 HISH2X02 LDCE2X30 LDCE2X32

Free Choice Study (40 credits)

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

Year 3

Option A Study (60 credits)

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

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Writing Life: Biography and Creative Non-Fiction How do writers attempt to capture 'life' in all its various forms? What, if any, are the different requirements in writing the life of a famous (or not so famous) person and that of a city or landscape? What about the 'life' of travel or food and how do you approach writing about the natural world? These are just some of the questions that this module sets out to address. We will be reading a wide variety of texts, from the 'traditional' biography to some of the more experimental examples of creative non-fiction. From Samuel Johnson to essays in The New Yorker, all human (and non-human) life will be there! Students may choose between writing their own piece of Biography or creative Non-Fiction as their final project or submitting a critical essay. more...	LDCE3X46	30	Semester 2
Britain At War and Other Modern Myths This module invites students to critically analyse popular understandings of the recent past in modern Britain. You will investigate the political uses of certain histories, shifts in meaning over time and preoccupations with the past in British politics and culture. Students will have the opportunity to examine why particular events in modern British history'such as the Second World War'have become so central to British national identity. In the first semester, we will focus on individual experiences and collective memories of the First and Second World Wars. We will look to popular poetry and public policies which worked to make sense of the horrors and sacrifices of modern warfare. You will have the opportunity to analyse a wide range of source material, including film and television, oral testimonies, diaries, state memorials and political speeches. In the second semester, we turn, firstly, to the contested memory of the British Empire, to memories of colonial violence and to the making of a `post-imperial' Britain. Lastly, we will consider myths of a youth revolt in 1960s Britain as well as modern nostalgia for Britain's `lost' traditional society. In the second semester, also, you will be trained in oral history techniques and have the chance to contribute to a collective oral history project on UEA and student protest in the 1960s. more...	HIST3L4Y	60	Year Period
Chaucer This module explores Chaucer's major writings in their historical, cultural and literary contexts. The module will introduce Chaucer's writing in a range of genres and will examine his works' representation and exploration of society, identity, chivalry, politics, religion and gender, and will also consider the medieval reception of Chaucer's writing. Previous experience of medieval literature will be useful but is not required. more...	LDCE3Y05	30	Semester 1
Children's Literature This module offers students the chance to learn about children's literature and its development and also to try to write a piece of children's literature themselves. It starts with the history of children's literature, looking at its use as a pedagogical tool, moving through Aesop's fables, fairy tales, Mother Goose, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and examining other authors such as A.A. Milne, Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, Sherman Alexie and Nancy Garden, amongst others. The course looks at issues of genre and content as well as historical context. By studying the development of children's literature, this module also analyses the development of the concept of childhood in Western society. more...	LDCE3X67	30	Semester 1
Cold War in Europe This module will combine analysis of grand strategies and Cold War flashpoints with consideration of counter-culture and civilian resistance in Soviet-controlled Europe, and the circumstances which led to the peaceful end of the Cold War in 1989. more...	HIST3J4Y	60	Year Period
Communism and Nationalism in Yugoslavia This module will look at the creation of the Communist state of Yugoslavia after the Second World War. We shall examine the course of the war and the bitter fighting between fascists, nationalists and communists which resulted in the eventual victory of the partisans led by Tito. After 1945, he and his followers built a state which survived until 1991. With the demise of Communism, Yugoslavia fragmented into new nations. In some cases this transition was largely peaceful, but the wars for independence in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo gave rise to the bloodiest fighting in Europe for decades. We shall look at the role of individuals and ideas, including the career of key figures such as Milosevic and end by assessing at the international community's response to the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia at the Hague Tribunal. more...	HIST3H8Y	60	Year Period
Death, the Body and Disease: From Galen to the NHS Documents and a wide range of visual material from contemporary sources are used to examine the theory and practice of medicine in English and European society from the early modern period to the recent past. Topics include: changing perceptions of death, disease and the body; medicine and religion; the impact of medical ideas upon literary and political thought; the emergence of a healing profession; and women as healers and patients. We also examine the changing function of institutional care; concepts of `orthodox' and `alternative' medicine; the dissemination of medical knowledge and the rise of questioning of scientific medicine. more...	HIST3E5Y	60	Year Period
Dissertation in History This module offers students the opportunity to submit a dissertation of 9,000 words on a topic approved by the School. more...	HISH3P2Y	30	Year Period
Drama and Literature: the Question of Genre This seminar will explore the boundaries between drama and other genres (kinds, art-forms, media) in an attempt to investigate a number of interrelated theoretical questions. We shall explore these issues via various types of activity - practical criticism, critiques of literary theory, performance analysis, dramatising prose narrative. The set texts are works of literature which do not quite fit generically - particularly plays that seem to be in some sense 'epic', or novels in some sense 'theatrical', ranging from Shakespeare in the 17th century through to Gay and Fielding in the 18th and Dostoyevsky and Chekhov in the 19th. more...	LDCE3X06	30	Semester 2
Early English Drama This module focuses on the medieval and early sixteenth century period, exploring conceptions and deployments of drama. Comparative work of different forms of drama, the drama and other artistic media, and the drama and social attitudes will be encouraged. You will explore whether drama successfully produces civic unity; how audiences are addressed and constructed; the theatricality of how the Biblical past is imagined, the significance of staging, place, and gesture; the social and political functions of drama, the representation of women; and protests against the drama from various quarters. Our period ends just as the suburban professional theatre was establishing itself in London in a form that was fundamentally influenced by these much earlier dramatic activities. We shall explore how spectacle and ceremony enabled pre-Reformation communities to celebrate their existence and assert an often contested or otherwise problematic sense of their cultural identity. more...	LDCE3Y81	30	Semester 1
Fascist Revolutions and Reactions This module will explore fascist movements and regimes in the twentieth century. A prime objective is to introduce students to the methods of comparative history. To provide a firm foundation for comparative analysis, the first semester is devoted to an examination of fascism in Italy and Germany, with comparative analysis of themes such as the causes of the collapse of liberal democracy, the rise and path to power, and the nature of fascism in Italy and Germany. A comparison of the two classic `fascist' dictatorships will also be made throughout the first half of the course: the mass culture, base of support, resort to consent and coercion, social, family, and racial policies, political structures, economies, limits to power, and aims and ideologies of these regimes will be analyzed in depth through primary and secondary sources. The questions of whether National Socialism shared enough with Italian Fascism to be classified as part of the same genus of political ideologies and movements, whether it had more in common with communism of the Stalinist variety, or whether it was an exceptional case entirely will be considered. A wider geographic and chronological perspective broadens the comparative approach further. Outside of the two `core' countries, nations as diverse as Britain, France, Spain, Japan, Hungary, Romania, South Africa and Greece will also be covered, but students are welcome to examine any variety of fascism which they wish to investigate. Questions such as the aims of movements, the nature of party organization, and the social bases of support will be discussed in order that students gain a deep and broad understanding of one of the most successful, elusive, and enduring political movements and social forces of our time. more...	HIST3K1Y	60	Year Period
Fin De Siecle: Fantasies of Decadence and Degeneration Max Nordau's 1892 Degeneration, attacking fin de siecle decadence, draws together fears of cultural decline and corrupting artistic practice through pseudo-Darwinian thinking about devolution. Yet Nordau's urgent and apocalyptic claims about 'diseased' art draw an ambivalent response from contemporary writers, such as those associated with the aestheticism and decadence of The Yellow Book. It is within the fantastic, however, that Nordau is most directly confronted and social norms most explicitly deformed by art. Wilde's swift move from pedestal to pederast may remove a key figure, but texts such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; The Novel of the White Powder; Dracula; Wells' science fiction dystopias and, more recently, Moore and Campbell's From Hell, rehearse, react to, or reflect upon such concerns. These writings share a central tension: are the effects of decadence and degeneration offering pessimistic prophesy or optimistic alternatives? This module would complement nineteenth-century options and offer a perspective on the Modernist module. For students also taking the Gothic it would be related, although usefully focusing on the closing years of the nineteenth century with a different emphasis. more...	LDCE3X50	30	Semester 2
Henry James: Questions of Art, Life and Theory In this module students engage with the range of Henry James's writing and also the reproduction of his life and work in contemporary culture. This module aims not simply to add to understanding of James but also to explore the issues that his work raises in relation to the art and history of fiction, philosophy and cultural reproduction. It is suitable not only for literature students who want to study this writer who spans realism and modernism, and short stories, literary criticism and fiction, but also for creative writing students and literature and philosophy students. The final assignment will have a creative writing option that comprises a piece of creative writing with a critical reflection. It can be taken by students who have studied modules in nineteenth-century writing or modernism. more...	LDCE3Z42	30	Semester 2
Henry Viii: the Making of A Tyrant? The reign of Henry VIII was a major turning point in British history, and `bluff King Hal' continues to horrify and fascinate us in equal measure. This special subject uses the preoccupations, ambitions, and character of Henry VIII as a route into the political, religious and cultural changes of this tumultuous period. Starting with the acclaimed young king, his Spanish bride, Katherine of Aragon, and his consummate minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the course works chronologically and thematically through to the declining years of Henry VIII's reign, when a paranoid, obese and cruel monarch presided over an irrevocably changed religious and political landscape. It examines in detail the divorce crisis, the establishment of the Church of England, the Henrician Reformation, the politics and factionalism of the Court, war and foreign policy, magnificence, and opposition to the king, and engages with the intense historiographical debates on all these issues. The module considers some of the most colourful personalities in British history - Wolsey, More, Boleyn, Cromwell, and Cranmer - as well as structures, and the falls of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell are given particular attention. Finally, the module draws on material culture, art history, literature, film, and even dress, as well as relying on the more usual documentary sources, such as the State Papers. Above all, we will try to answer: did Henry VIII really become a tyrant? more...	HIST3L2Y	60	Year Period
Isolation to World War: Britain and the Origins of WWI This module examines the development of British foreign policy between 1880 and 1914. In the first semester we will undertake a detailed examination of Salisbury's foreign policy and the debate surrounding Britain's international 'isolation' up to the conclusion of the French entente. The second semester will see us examining the cause of British foreign policy under Sir Edward Grey until the outbreak of war in August 1914. more...	HIST3G3Y	60	Year Period
John Milton's Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is perhaps the finest poem in the language. Its ambition is breathtaking: it begins before time, ends with time, spans the whole of the created universe, and yet focuses on a single, human relationship, on betrayal, recrimination and reconciliation. It is an attempt to explain the co-existence of evil and an omnipotent good God, a response to defeated political aspirations, and an attempt to create a republican poetics. In the module we will read the poem intensively, and seek to understand it in its historical context. Was there a republican aesthetic? How did writers respond to the collapse of radical political ideals and (comparative) religious toleration when 1660 brought the restoration of Charles II? How have literary historians participated in the occlusion of Britain's republican traditions? While there are no pre- or co-requisites, some knowledge of seventeenth-century literature or history, especially through LITE2Y13 Seventeenth-Century Writing, would be an advantage. more...	LDCE3Y70	30	Semester 2
Landscape Special Subject This Special Subject deals with the development of the English landscape from c.1450 to 1950. We will focus on agricultural change in the period up to 1870, before moving on to consider the landscape and architecture of the English country house and landed estates. We will discuss developments in architectural design, spatial planning and the changing appearance of parks and gardens during this period, as well as discussing the social and political ideologies that underpin these developments. We will also consider the development of the rural landscape in the period after 1870; the decline of the great estates, the effects of the agricultural depression and the impact of war and suburbanisation. Finally, we will discuss changing attitudes towards the conservation and preservation of the countryside. There will be a number of field trips during the year. more...	HIST3A5Y	60	Year Period
Literature and Deconstruction In an interview with Derek Attridge, Jacques Derrida describes literature as `this strange institution which allows one to say everything'. This module explores the writings of Derrida and related thinkers alongside a range of literary texts, including works by Keats, Shakespeare and Joyce. Through a combination of lectures and seminars, we will think about the strangenesses of literature, look at the ways in which it is an `institution' and consider the kinds of freedom ' of speech, writing and thinking ' it permits. Our aim throughout will be to establish the possibilities for literary criticism opened up by deconstruction. The module is open to everyone, but may be of particular interest to those who studied critical theory in the second year. more...	LDCE3X87	30	Semester 1
Literature and Human Rights Reading key philosophical, political, legal and literary texts, this module will track the emergence of human rights as a cultural idea from their conception in the eighteenth century, through to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and beyond in the period after World War Two. The module will address the following questions: What type of human being was presupposed by the declarations of rights? How did the novel help form perceptions about rights and human sympathy? In what ways did the UDHR re-imagine concepts of human rights after the Holocaust? How were these changes reflected in new forms of post-war writing, such as post-colonial and late modernist writing? How can we think about the relation between rights and literature today? This module will suit students who have enjoyed the challenges of philosophy and literary theory. It should also appeal to those who are interested in thinking seriously about the relationship between literature and its `real world' applications and significance. more...	LDCE3X54	30	Semester 2
Literature and Philosophy This module explores the relations between literature and philosophy and differing understandings of the self, love and ethics through close reading of philosophical and literary texts. It is organised chronologically and moves from the classical writing of Plato to modern literature. The module designed for final year students who are studying Literature and Philosophy. It is also open only to students in Literature who have taken modules in Philosophy in years one and two; or by special concession at the discretion of the module organiser to other students who have substantial experience in both Honours level Literature and Honours level Philosophy. more...	LDCE3X45	30	Semester 1
Literature Dissertation: Post-1789 (Aut) This module is an advanced-level module, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period from 1789 to the present day (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3X15	30	Semester 1
Literature Dissertation: Post-1789 (Spr) This module is an advanced-level module, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period from 1789 to the present day (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3X18	30	Semester 2
Literature Dissertation: Pre-1789 (Aut) This module is an advanced-level unit, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period up to 1830 (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3Y77	30	Semester 1
Literature Dissertation: Pre-1789 (Spr) This module is an advanced-level module, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period up to 1830 (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3Y78	30	Semester 2
Madness, Medicine, Science and Women's Writing in the Regency This module will study late 18th-century and early 19th-century writings in the context of scientific and medical innovation. We consider whether it may be appropriate to view the work of novelists such as Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley as a response to, and even a protest against these newly (or, more correctly, nearly) professionalised, male-dominated worlds. These women writers often concern themselves with the 'consumers' as well as the providers of the services offered by these professions; this module considers why that might be and how this kind of contextualisation might impact upon our readings of their work. more...	LDCE3X75	30	Semester 1
Medieval Arthurian Traditions From Welsh folklore to Monty Python, the tales of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have excited and intrigued generations. Why? To answer this question we explore the development of the legend from its twelfth-century Celtic roots through to a number of twentieth-century film adaptations. How the legend has been translated across form, genres, cultures and ages will be studied, including examples from Middle English Arthurian Texts, translations of the Welsh Mabinogion, of Monmouth's Latin chronicle and French romance texts. This module will enable students familiar with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to enhance their awareness of the wider Arthurian traditions within which this text belongs, but is also suitable for students who are encountering medieval literature for the first time. more...	LDCE3Y82	30	Semester 2
Mind, Body and Literature The sense of loss in a Hardy poem, the parallel universe of a science fiction story, the sombre world of a Scandinavian crime novel: all have in common that they make the reader think, feel and possibly act. Drawing on an understanding of literature as writing which both engages and affects us, we look at a variety of literary texts (e.g, by Blake, Hardy, Lawrence, Hughes) and consider what they have in common with the everyday (clocks, teddy-bears, congregation ceremonies) and the bizarre (zombies, unicorns, ghosts). We consider how we understand text worlds, how metaphor relates to the body, whether real emotions can arise from fictional texts. Participants should have an open mind, a desire to understand literary theories, and a readiness to think outside the box. more...	LDCE3X09	30	Semester 1
Nervous Narratives `We all say it's nerves, and none of us knows what it means', says a character in Wilkie Collins' 1860 novel, The Woman in White. Our aim is to think about how a discourse of the `nerves' ' the `nervous temperament' and nervous illness ' can be both so pervasive culturally and so slippery in its meaning. This interdisciplinary module takes you from the late 17th century, when the concept of `neurologie' first emerged, to the 21st century, linking literary, medical and philosophical writing to explore the representation of the `nerves'. The historical range of the module is not meant to imply a transhistorical understanding of nervous illness or temperament, but rather will enable us to analyse the historically specific nature of the nervous body and what it is made to mean, culturally, within different contexts. In this way, we will be working with issues as diverse as religious `enthusiasm', hysteria and hypochondria, sensibility, sensation, fear of modernity, manliness and effeminacy, shell-shock, PTSD and the concepts of the healthy or fragile body of the nation. Spanning time and genre, the literary texts studied will take us from the earliest, Jonathan Swift's satire, A Tale of a Tub (1704) up to the contemporary: Siri Hustvedt's novel, What I Loved (2003) and her analytical memoir, The Shaking Woman, Or, A History of My Nerves (2010). more...	LDCE3X83	30	Semester 1
Poetry After Modernism This module will survey a wide range of post-war British poetry actively engaged with the Modernist tradition of Eliot, Pound and others. Reading critical texts alongside poems, it will introduce students to lesser-known writers, such as the Welsh poet Lynette Roberts and the Scottish poet W.S. Graham, as well as considering well-known English poets such as Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes from a Modernist perspective. Recognising the influence of contemporary American verse on experimental poets such as J.H. Prynne and Paul Muldoon will also be an important theme. A chronological syllabus will take students from 1945 up to the present day, and there will be a chance to write creatively as well as critically as part of the assessment. Students wishing to take this module must have taken LDCE2Z15 Modernism. more...	LDCE3Z60	30	Semester 2
Poetry of the Long Nineteenth Century The poetry of the nineteenth century is often thought of as being caught between the two stools of Romanticism and Modernism. This module examines the development of poetry from Romanticism to Modernism, and asks in particular whether the poetry of the nineteenth century can claim our attention in its own right, rather than as a late avatar of Romanticism or as a foretaste of the excitements of Modernism. The focus of the module, then, is on close critical engagement with a large range of nineteenth century poetry and poetics, including the work of poet-critic Matthew Arnold, poet-priest Gerard M. Hopkins, and of other writers from Christina Rossetti to Algernon Charles Swinburne. Due notice will also be taken of nineteenth-century continental and American poetry. more...	LDCE3X71	30	Semester 1
Queer Literature and Theory This module offers students the chance to learn about LGBTQ literature and its development in English-speaking countries, as well as approaches to queer theory. This means analysing sexuality and gender and the representation of such identities in literature. Authors studied may include Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Alison Bechdel, Gore Vidal, and Sarah Waters, as well as children's books and young adult novels by Alex Sanchez, Nancy Garden, Ellen Wittlinger, and Marcus Ewert. Authors of theoretical texts looked at may include Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, Leo Bersani, and Teresa de Lauretis. Understanding how LGBTQ characters are featured in literature also helps us to see how queer people are understood in a given society in general. This course also aims to look at a variety of genres in order to see how these different text types work and how they approach similar material in different ways. more...	LDCE3X58	30	Semester 2
Regency Women Writers This module situates the work of various women writers of the Regency period in literary and historical contexts. The main texts under discussion are by Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Hays, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Maria Edgeworth. The unit considers themes which - although not exclusive to women's writing at this time - occur strikingly frequently in the work of Regency women. These themes include sanity, madness and ideas about the mind, and literary devices such as the love-mad woman. Health, ill-health and the development of medicine are central to these fictions and the course, and we also discuss the figure of the doctor, the quack and the 'psychiatrist' in these texts. We look at writings by Regency women travellers whose destinations ranged from Italy to Bath, Sweden and Revolutionary France. more...	LDCE3X80	30	Semester 2
Revenge Tragedy: Ancient and Modern This seminar explores the different ways in which the concept of revenge has been conceived and represented in a range of dramatic texts. The module covers three distinct groups of primary materials: classical tragedy (in translation) including Aeschylus's Oresteia; early modern revenge tragedy including works by Shakespeare, Tourneur and Kyd; and modern cinematic explorations of the revenge formula including Get Carter, Old Boy and Tarantino's Kill Bill movies. Topics discussed include the relationship between classical and Christian attitudes to revenge, contemporary strictures upon private vengeance, the representation of justice through the ages, the limitations of the revenge tragedy formula. more...	LDCE3Y86	30	Semester 2
Satire `Satire is problematic, open ended, essayistic, ambiguous in relation to history, uncertain in its political effects, resistant to final closure, more inclined to ask questions than provide answers, ambivalent about the pleasures it offers' (Dustin Griffin). The aim of this module is to investigate the problematic territory of satire. Using examples from modern and contemporary fiction and journalism alongside early modern and classical satire, we will formulate a critical and conceptual map, which will in turn allow us to discuss some of the problems of satire (those of genre, of gender, of politics, of morality, of history), and to explore some of the paradoxes of its strategies and functions (freedom versus limits; subversion versus conformity; transformation versus stasis). Writers under discussion will include Juvenal, Horace, Swift and Pope; John Dryden, Aphra Behn, and Lady Mary Wortley Montague; Evelyn Waugh, Stella Gibbons, and Jonathan Coe. more...	LDCE3X62	30	Semester 2
Shakespeare: Shadow and Substance Platonist epistemology permeated Elizabethan culture: the aim of this module is to explore the relationship of Shakespeare's topic of the world as a stage to Neoplatonic conceptions of perception, politics, poetry and love. more...	LDCE3Y36	30	Semester 2
Stalin and Stalinism: the USSR 1924-1953 This special subject will examine the Stalin era in the context of other 20th-century dictatorships. There will be a particular focus on: Stalin's rise to power; Stalin's revolution; terror and its impact on Soviet society; war and dictatorship; decline and fall - Stalin and destalinization. more...	HIST3H6Y	60	Year Period
The Condition of England Novel 1818-2000 This module will examine the classic nineteenth-century 'Condition of 'England' novel alongside mid-to-late twentieth-century representations of England (and myths of national identity). Attention will be given to post-colonial writing as a significant part of the question: What is it to be English (or British)? more...	LDCE3Z09	30	Semester 1
The Devil??s Brood: the Angevin Kings of England (1154-1225) This Special Subject focuses on the lives and actions of three of the most charismatic kings of the English. It begins by an examination of the creator of the Angevin dynasty, Henry fitz Empress, who, by the time he was twenty-one, dominated more than half of France as well as being king of the English. On the continent, Henry was a successful military commander; in England, he was the creator of the English common law and a centralising administration. And it was of him that St Bernard is supposed to have declared `he came from the Devil and he will go to the Devil'. His son and successor, Richard the Lionheart, was one of the greatest knights of his age as well as being a crusader and hugely successful military commander who seemingly placed the Angevin Empire on a solid footing. After these two great makers of empire, the third ruler of the dynasty almost brought the whole edifice crashing down. King John lost the continental lands, and by the time of his death his lands were being ravaged by a foreign prince, his barons were in revolt having gathered themselves behind a document we know as Magna Carta, and his dynasty on the verge of extinction. This Special Subject has at its core the story of the creation and near destruction of this dynasty; and seeks further to examine the politics, culture, and society of the lands over which the Angevin dynasty held sway. This was an age of profound intellectual, religious, and political change, and this Special Subject will be set within this wider context. Students will be expected to become conversant with the primary sources in translation and to be aware of current historiographical debates. Teaching will be through student-centred seminars. Students will be expected to do weekly gobbets both as a way of becoming familiar with the sources and as preparation for the examination. more...	HIST3C1Y	60	Year Period
The English in America 1607-1692 This module explores the colonization of America by seventeenth-century English people. The memory of the Mayflower Pilgrims has obscured the fact that the first three generations remained English, unaware of the political and cultural distinctiveness to come. We will therefore be concerned with 'the repatriation of early American history'. We shall examine settlers' lives from the foundation of Jamestown in 1607, through the creation of Massachusetts in the 1630s, to the wars and rebellions of 1670-90. Not confined to New England, this module looks at a range of colonial experiences from Maine to the Caribbean, especially the mentalities of people moving between old and new worlds. more...	HIST3J2Y	60	Year Period
The Gothic This module seeks to cover some 'canonical' texts of the Gothic Novel (1764-1820) in Walpole, Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, and to consider some later developments of the gothic mode in later 19th and 20th centuries: Poe, Le Fanu, Stevenson, MR James, Elizabeth Bowen, David Storey and Angela Carter. The course also seeks to introduce students to some of the theoretical and historical arguments around the contested nature of the term 'gothic', the Uncanny, the subversiveness or otherwise of this kind of writing, and its relation to the novel genre. more...	LDCE3X41	30	Semester 1
The Literature of World War One The module will examine representations of World War One. As a Level 3 module, the focus will be inter-disciplinary. Literary materials will be contextualised using historical and other sources. Use will also be made of memoirs, letters, diaries, and photographs. Students will be encouraged to conduct research using the internet and other facilities. more...	LDCE3Z10	30	Semester 2
The Third Reich This module studies the history of the Third Reich from an international and comparative perspective through the extensive use of primary sources. It examines the origins and the rise of National Socialism, the seizure and consolidation of power, the nature and political structure of the dictatorship, and the transformation of German society under Nazi rule, but there is a particular focus on foreign policy and the impact of the regime's policies on Europe and the world. Aspects covered include Nazi Germany's relationship with other autocracies and right-wing forces in Europe, German geopolitical thought and the role of the Foreign Office, the formation and administration of the Nazi empire, issues of collaboration and resistance in occupied territories, combat motivation and war crimes of ordinary soldiers, the importance of non-German perpetrators of the Holocaust, the German home front and the effects of Allied aerial bombings, the various plans for a post-war Europe, and the problem of ethnic cleansing both before and after 1945. more...	HIST3D6Y	60	Year Period
Through the Looking-Glass: Nonsense and Modern Writing It's widely recognised that modernist literature is characterised by a revolution of the word. Less widely recognised, and little explored, is the relationship between modernist linguistic experimentalism and literary nonsense, as practised by Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, and others. This course will begin with these well-known nonsense writers and explore their roots in earlier nonsense, including Shakespeare's, before going on to examine some of the adventures in language of major modernist and postmodernist writers. Authors studied are likely to include late Joyce, early Auden, Stein, Stevens, Cummings, Crane, Nabokov, Koch, Muldoon, Ashbery. The course will also set these avant-garde writers in the unfamiliar context of the mainstream fantasy writers who also come out of Carroll and the nonsense tradition, most likely Tolkien and Peake, whose imaginary worlds are based on their own invented languages. This is not a course on children's literature, but on some very challenging modern literature, though it should appeal to those who take a childish pleasure in wordplay and fantasy, and equally to those intrigued by philosophical issues around language. It would follow on very well from the second-year Modernism module. more...	LDCE3X01	30	Semester 1
Traumaturgies: Reading and Writing Trauma Across Contexts Trauma haunts the writing of the twentieth century. Slavery, war, patriarchy, terrorism, genocide, colonialism, modernity, technology and post-modernity: these legacies demand to be written and read, and engender a writing singular to their traumas. Yet the writing of these wounds, and the critical work that reads it, raises fundamental questions about whether trauma can ever be represented or understood. Spreading beyond their contexts, these questions effect their own traumas, cracking open our assumptions about what it is possible to read, to write, and indeed to think. Working roughly from the turn of the twentieth century to the present, this module reads a selection of theoretical, literary and critical texts that aim to write and read trauma across cultural, historical, personal and public contexts. more...	LDCE3X91	30	Semester 1
Ulysses This module will provide students with the opportunity to read one of the most famous, yet notoriously unread, novels of the twentieth century. The module has a number of aims. First, it will give students the time and opportunity to try to read and understand James Joyce's Ulysses. Secondly, the module will introduce students to some of the formal innovations typical of modernist writing through the close analysis of techniques such as interior monologue and mythic analogy. Thirdly, it will allow students to read a wide range of responses to Ulysses, both among Joyce's contemporaries, and in the history of twentieth century criticism. Fourthly, the module will situate the text historically, with a particular focus on the way that the text's obscenity affected its reception and circulation in the 1920s and 1930s. more...	LDCE3Z50	30	Semester 2
Virgil's Classic Epic This module will explore the centrality of Virgil's Aeneid to Medieval and Renaissance culture. It will examine developing attitudes to the Classical literary legacy and accommodation and reinvention of Virgil's epic poem within new religious, political and literary contexts. The course will begin with exploration of Virgil's poem on its own terms before turning to reworkings of the 'Aeneid' by Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Douglas and Marlowe, the Renaissance invention of a 13th Book to 'complete' Virgil's poem, and the recasting of classical epic within the very different conventions of medieval and Renaissance romance. Previous experience of classical or medieval literature is not required. more...	LDCE3Y18	30	Semester 2
World War I and the Central Powers 1900-1920 The First World War represented a defining moment in modern European history. Nowhere were the consequences more devastating than in Central Europe - the area controlled in 1914 by the two Great Powers responsible for starting the war, Austria-Hungary and Germany. This module starts by looking from a comparative perspective at the role of Austria-Hungary and Germany in the outbreak of the First World War. It then focuses on the experience of WWI, examining a number of themes: the military and economic mobilisation of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires for war; the role of propaganda; the Home Front; social and national conflicts; military defeat, revolution and the internal collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires. more...	HIST3J3Y	60	Year Period
You may also pick any of the modules that begin with: LDCD3X46 LDCE3X37 LDCE3Z64 LDCE3X94

Option B Study (60 credits)

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

Name	Code	Credits	Period
'Redcoats': British Military Power in the Age of the First Global Wars, 1754-1783 This module concerns the experience of the British army in the period of the Seven Years War and American War of Independence. It will examine the organisation and conduct of war in both Europe and America from a British perspective and discuss how the British army coped with the demands of conducting operations in the era of the first truly 'global' wars. more...	HISH3F87C	30	Semester 1
Writing Life: Biography and Creative Non-Fiction How do writers attempt to capture 'life' in all its various forms? What, if any, are the different requirements in writing the life of a famous (or not so famous) person and that of a city or landscape? What about the 'life' of travel or food and how do you approach writing about the natural world? These are just some of the questions that this module sets out to address. We will be reading a wide variety of texts, from the 'traditional' biography to some of the more experimental examples of creative non-fiction. From Samuel Johnson to essays in The New Yorker, all human (and non-human) life will be there! Students may choose between writing their own piece of Biography or creative Non-Fiction as their final project or submitting a critical essay. more...	LDCE3X46	30	Semester 2
British Intelligence in the 20th Century - Myth and Reality The study of intelligence history has seen considerable growth over the last 20 years, as a result of new archival evidence and above all a growing realisation that intelligence has for long been the "missing dimension" in historical interpretation of 20th century diplomacy, defence policy and strategy and in the operational history of two world wars. A consideration of the impact of intelligence assessment, its acceptance (or rejection) and its proponents has well known areas of historical analysis, particularly in the period from the 1930s to the Cold War. The aim of this module is to examine the current historiography of this "missing dimension" and assess its impact in the interpretation of British strategic and defence policy and to some extent, in internal and imperial security as well as considering popular and fictional interpretations of the intelligence service. more...	HISH3F97C	30	Semester 1
British Intelligence in the 20th Century - Myth and Reality The study of intelligence history has seen considerable growth over the last 20 years, as a result of new archival evidence and above all a growing realisation that intelligence has for long been the "missing dimension" in historical interpretation of 20th century diplomacy, defence policy and strategy and in the operational history of two world wars. A consideration of the impact of intelligence assessment, its acceptance (or rejection) and its proponents has well known areas of historical analysis, particularly in the period from the 1930s to the Cold War. The aim of this module is to examine the current historiography of this "missing dimension" and assess its impact in the interpretation of British strategic and defence policy and to some extent, in internal and imperial security as well as considering popular and fictional interpretations of the intelligence service. more...	HISH3F96C	30	Semester 2
Castles, Cannon and Concrete: Landscapes of Fortification From the Middle Ages to the Cold War The module examines the landscape of fortification from the origins of the castle to the Cold War, with the aim of assessing the landscape `footprint' of defended sites. The module starts with the castle and an examination of the place of `fortified residence' in medieval war. We will then go on to assess the artillery forts of the Tudors and the archaeology of the English Civil War. Thereafter we will examine the various schemes for national defence up to 1900 before looking at landscapes of `Total War'. The latter includes both World Wars and the archaeology of Britain's nuclear deterrent. more...	HISH3K06	30	Semester 2
Chamberlain, Churchill and Appeasement, 1935-1940 Britain's response to the aggression of the fascist powers in the inter-war period has been the subject of fierce debate for decades, and is still hotly disputed between historians. This module examines British foreign policy in the era of 'appeasement'. It will focus on the period between 1935 and 1940, analysing a range of primary source material in detail. It will explore the role of key policy-makers, their critics, and the domestic context in which policy was constructed. more...	HISH3G13C	30	Semester 1
Chaucer This module explores Chaucer's major writings in their historical, cultural and literary contexts. The module will introduce Chaucer's writing in a range of genres and will examine his works' representation and exploration of society, identity, chivalry, politics, religion and gender, and will also consider the medieval reception of Chaucer's writing. Previous experience of medieval literature will be useful but is not required. more...	LDCE3Y05	30	Semester 1
Children's Literature This module offers students the chance to learn about children's literature and its development and also to try to write a piece of children's literature themselves. It starts with the history of children's literature, looking at its use as a pedagogical tool, moving through Aesop's fables, fairy tales, Mother Goose, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and examining other authors such as A.A. Milne, Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, Sherman Alexie and Nancy Garden, amongst others. The course looks at issues of genre and content as well as historical context. By studying the development of children's literature, this module also analyses the development of the concept of childhood in Western society. more...	LDCE3X67	30	Semester 1
Dissertation in History This module offers students the opportunity to submit a dissertation of 9,000 words on a topic approved by the School. more...	HISH3P2Y	30	Year Period
Drama and Literature: the Question of Genre This seminar will explore the boundaries between drama and other genres (kinds, art-forms, media) in an attempt to investigate a number of interrelated theoretical questions. We shall explore these issues via various types of activity - practical criticism, critiques of literary theory, performance analysis, dramatising prose narrative. The set texts are works of literature which do not quite fit generically - particularly plays that seem to be in some sense 'epic', or novels in some sense 'theatrical', ranging from Shakespeare in the 17th century through to Gay and Fielding in the 18th and Dostoyevsky and Chekhov in the 19th. more...	LDCE3X06	30	Semester 2
Early English Drama This module focuses on the medieval and early sixteenth century period, exploring conceptions and deployments of drama. Comparative work of different forms of drama, the drama and other artistic media, and the drama and social attitudes will be encouraged. You will explore whether drama successfully produces civic unity; how audiences are addressed and constructed; the theatricality of how the Biblical past is imagined, the significance of staging, place, and gesture; the social and political functions of drama, the representation of women; and protests against the drama from various quarters. Our period ends just as the suburban professional theatre was establishing itself in London in a form that was fundamentally influenced by these much earlier dramatic activities. We shall explore how spectacle and ceremony enabled pre-Reformation communities to celebrate their existence and assert an often contested or otherwise problematic sense of their cultural identity. more...	LDCE3Y81	30	Semester 1
Fin De Siecle: Fantasies of Decadence and Degeneration Max Nordau's 1892 Degeneration, attacking fin de siecle decadence, draws together fears of cultural decline and corrupting artistic practice through pseudo-Darwinian thinking about devolution. Yet Nordau's urgent and apocalyptic claims about 'diseased' art draw an ambivalent response from contemporary writers, such as those associated with the aestheticism and decadence of The Yellow Book. It is within the fantastic, however, that Nordau is most directly confronted and social norms most explicitly deformed by art. Wilde's swift move from pedestal to pederast may remove a key figure, but texts such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; The Novel of the White Powder; Dracula; Wells' science fiction dystopias and, more recently, Moore and Campbell's From Hell, rehearse, react to, or reflect upon such concerns. These writings share a central tension: are the effects of decadence and degeneration offering pessimistic prophesy or optimistic alternatives? This module would complement nineteenth-century options and offer a perspective on the Modernist module. For students also taking the Gothic it would be related, although usefully focusing on the closing years of the nineteenth century with a different emphasis. more...	LDCE3X50	30	Semester 2
From `Manchester Manufacturer?? to `International Man??: the Victorian Worlds of Richard Cobden This module will relate the career of Richard Cobden (1804-1865), Britain's leading mid-nineteenth-century Radical statesman, to many different facets of Victorian Britain ' an entrepreneur in Manchester engaged in the new world of the industrial city; as Radical crusader for the repeal of the Corn Laws; as Liberal politician campaigning for the ballot, economic reform, state education and peace; it will examine his career in relation to the 1848 revolutions, the Crimean Wear, the Anglo-French Commercial treaty of 1860, the Cotton Famine, the British Empire and American Civil War. It will draw on Cobden's diaries, writings, published and unpublished letters, providing a unique insight into middle class politics and culture and into British liberalism in its European n international contexts. more...	HISH3H07	30	Semester 1
Henry James: Questions of Art, Life and Theory In this module students engage with the range of Henry James's writing and also the reproduction of his life and work in contemporary culture. This module aims not simply to add to understanding of James but also to explore the issues that his work raises in relation to the art and history of fiction, philosophy and cultural reproduction. It is suitable not only for literature students who want to study this writer who spans realism and modernism, and short stories, literary criticism and fiction, but also for creative writing students and literature and philosophy students. The final assignment will have a creative writing option that comprises a piece of creative writing with a critical reflection. It can be taken by students who have studied modules in nineteenth-century writing or modernism. more...	LDCE3Z42	30	Semester 2
John Milton's Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is perhaps the finest poem in the language. Its ambition is breathtaking: it begins before time, ends with time, spans the whole of the created universe, and yet focuses on a single, human relationship, on betrayal, recrimination and reconciliation. It is an attempt to explain the co-existence of evil and an omnipotent good God, a response to defeated political aspirations, and an attempt to create a republican poetics. In the module we will read the poem intensively, and seek to understand it in its historical context. Was there a republican aesthetic? How did writers respond to the collapse of radical political ideals and (comparative) religious toleration when 1660 brought the restoration of Charles II? How have literary historians participated in the occlusion of Britain's republican traditions? While there are no pre- or co-requisites, some knowledge of seventeenth-century literature or history, especially through LITE2Y13 Seventeenth-Century Writing, would be an advantage. more...	LDCE3Y70	30	Semester 2
Landscape III Field Course The field course builds on the landscape archaeology units to provide forty hours of practical instruction in the field. The field course runs for one week in June, concentrating on the recording and analysis of archaeological earthworks, buildings and historic landscapes. Assessment will take the form of a short report and an extended project. THIS 20 CREDIT VERSION IS AVAILABLE TO NON HUM STUDENTS ONLY. more...	HISH3P4Y	30	Year Period
Literature and Deconstruction In an interview with Derek Attridge, Jacques Derrida describes literature as `this strange institution which allows one to say everything'. This module explores the writings of Derrida and related thinkers alongside a range of literary texts, including works by Keats, Shakespeare and Joyce. Through a combination of lectures and seminars, we will think about the strangenesses of literature, look at the ways in which it is an `institution' and consider the kinds of freedom ' of speech, writing and thinking ' it permits. Our aim throughout will be to establish the possibilities for literary criticism opened up by deconstruction. The module is open to everyone, but may be of particular interest to those who studied critical theory in the second year. more...	LDCE3X87	30	Semester 1
Literature and Human Rights Reading key philosophical, political, legal and literary texts, this module will track the emergence of human rights as a cultural idea from their conception in the eighteenth century, through to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and beyond in the period after World War Two. The module will address the following questions: What type of human being was presupposed by the declarations of rights? How did the novel help form perceptions about rights and human sympathy? In what ways did the UDHR re-imagine concepts of human rights after the Holocaust? How were these changes reflected in new forms of post-war writing, such as post-colonial and late modernist writing? How can we think about the relation between rights and literature today? This module will suit students who have enjoyed the challenges of philosophy and literary theory. It should also appeal to those who are interested in thinking seriously about the relationship between literature and its `real world' applications and significance. more...	LDCE3X54	30	Semester 2
Literature and Philosophy This module explores the relations between literature and philosophy and differing understandings of the self, love and ethics through close reading of philosophical and literary texts. It is organised chronologically and moves from the classical writing of Plato to modern literature. The module designed for final year students who are studying Literature and Philosophy. It is also open only to students in Literature who have taken modules in Philosophy in years one and two; or by special concession at the discretion of the module organiser to other students who have substantial experience in both Honours level Literature and Honours level Philosophy. more...	LDCE3X45	30	Semester 1
Literature Dissertation: Post-1789 (Aut) This module is an advanced-level module, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period from 1789 to the present day (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3X15	30	Semester 1
Literature Dissertation: Post-1789 (Spr) This module is an advanced-level module, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period from 1789 to the present day (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3X18	30	Semester 2
Literature Dissertation: Pre-1789 (Aut) This module is an advanced-level unit, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period up to 1830 (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3Y77	30	Semester 1
Literature Dissertation: Pre-1789 (Spr) This module is an advanced-level module, for final year students only. It provides students with the opportunity to write an 8000-word dissertation on literature of the period up to 1830 (excluding American literature). The dissertation topic must be agreed by a supervisor, and both topic and supervisor approved by the module organiser by the end of the previous semester. more...	LDCE3Y78	30	Semester 2
Madness and Medicine This module considers the practice of medicine in Britain from the eighteenth century to the establishment of the NHS. Themes include the impact of science and professions, the organisation and control aspects of medical and hospital services and healthcare as seen by sufferers and patients. more...	HISH3F62C	30	Semester 2
Madness, Medicine, Science and Women's Writing in the Regency This module will study late 18th-century and early 19th-century writings in the context of scientific and medical innovation. We consider whether it may be appropriate to view the work of novelists such as Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley as a response to, and even a protest against these newly (or, more correctly, nearly) professionalised, male-dominated worlds. These women writers often concern themselves with the 'consumers' as well as the providers of the services offered by these professions; this module considers why that might be and how this kind of contextualisation might impact upon our readings of their work. more...	LDCE3X75	30	Semester 1
Medieval Arthurian Traditions From Welsh folklore to Monty Python, the tales of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have excited and intrigued generations. Why? To answer this question we explore the development of the legend from its twelfth-century Celtic roots through to a number of twentieth-century film adaptations. How the legend has been translated across form, genres, cultures and ages will be studied, including examples from Middle English Arthurian Texts, translations of the Welsh Mabinogion, of Monmouth's Latin chronicle and French romance texts. This module will enable students familiar with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to enhance their awareness of the wider Arthurian traditions within which this text belongs, but is also suitable for students who are encountering medieval literature for the first time. more...	LDCE3Y82	30	Semester 2
Mind, Body and Literature The sense of loss in a Hardy poem, the parallel universe of a science fiction story, the sombre world of a Scandinavian crime novel: all have in common that they make the reader think, feel and possibly act. Drawing on an understanding of literature as writing which both engages and affects us, we look at a variety of literary texts (e.g, by Blake, Hardy, Lawrence, Hughes) and consider what they have in common with the everyday (clocks, teddy-bears, congregation ceremonies) and the bizarre (zombies, unicorns, ghosts). We consider how we understand text worlds, how metaphor relates to the body, whether real emotions can arise from fictional texts. Participants should have an open mind, a desire to understand literary theories, and a readiness to think outside the box. more...	LDCE3X09	30	Semester 1
Napoleonic Europe This module examines the impact of Napoleonic rule on Europe. Beginning with an examination of the foundations of the French Empire, the unit goes on to examine different aspects of Napoleonic rule: social and economic change; culture and ideology; warfare and the state; collaboration and resistance. It will look comparatively at the experience of France, Italy, Germany and Spain under Napoleon, before assessing the reasons for the downfall of the Napoleonic regime. Material used will include memoirs, literature and other contemporary documents. more...	HISH3K01C	30	Semester 1
Nervous Narratives `We all say it's nerves, and none of us knows what it means', says a character in Wilkie Collins' 1860 novel, The Woman in White. Our aim is to think about how a discourse of the `nerves' ' the `nervous temperament' and nervous illness ' can be both so pervasive culturally and so slippery in its meaning. This interdisciplinary module takes you from the late 17th century, when the concept of `neurologie' first emerged, to the 21st century, linking literary, medical and philosophical writing to explore the representation of the `nerves'. The historical range of the module is not meant to imply a transhistorical understanding of nervous illness or temperament, but rather will enable us to analyse the historically specific nature of the nervous body and what it is made to mean, culturally, within different contexts. In this way, we will be working with issues as diverse as religious `enthusiasm', hysteria and hypochondria, sensibility, sensation, fear of modernity, manliness and effeminacy, shell-shock, PTSD and the concepts of the healthy or fragile body of the nation. Spanning time and genre, the literary texts studied will take us from the earliest, Jonathan Swift's satire, A Tale of a Tub (1704) up to the contemporary: Siri Hustvedt's novel, What I Loved (2003) and her analytical memoir, The Shaking Woman, Or, A History of My Nerves (2010). more...	LDCE3X83	30	Semester 1
Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan World After forty years of relative obscurity, Oliver Cromwell emerged as a leader in the parliamentary opposition to the king during the English Revolution and became the most powerful man in Britain. This module will explore the life and times of Cromwell and provide a point of entry into political, religious and social change in early modern England from the long Reformation to the Restoration. It will draw from a host of primary sources to enter into Cromwell's puritan mental world and seek to understand his personal and national aspirations. It will build on this to explore Cromwell's conquest of Ireland and Scotland and his ambitious plans to undermine Spanish power in the Atlantic. Finally, the module will consider Cromwell's controversial reception by contemporaries and his diverse representations in popular culture, film and history. more...	HISH3K05C	30	Semester 1
Poetry After Modernism This module will survey a wide range of post-war British poetry actively engaged with the Modernist tradition of Eliot, Pound and others. Reading critical texts alongside poems, it will introduce students to lesser-known writers, such as the Welsh poet Lynette Roberts and the Scottish poet W.S. Graham, as well as considering well-known English poets such as Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes from a Modernist perspective. Recognising the influence of contemporary American verse on experimental poets such as J.H. Prynne and Paul Muldoon will also be an important theme. A chronological syllabus will take students from 1945 up to the present day, and there will be a chance to write creatively as well as critically as part of the assessment. Students wishing to take this module must have taken LDCE2Z15 Modernism. more...	LDCE3Z60	30	Semester 2
Poetry of the Long Nineteenth Century The poetry of the nineteenth century is often thought of as being caught between the two stools of Romanticism and Modernism. This module examines the development of poetry from Romanticism to Modernism, and asks in particular whether the poetry of the nineteenth century can claim our attention in its own right, rather than as a late avatar of Romanticism or as a foretaste of the excitements of Modernism. The focus of the module, then, is on close critical engagement with a large range of nineteenth century poetry and poetics, including the work of poet-critic Matthew Arnold, poet-priest Gerard M. Hopkins, and of other writers from Christina Rossetti to Algernon Charles Swinburne. Due notice will also be taken of nineteenth-century continental and American poetry. more...	LDCE3X71	30	Semester 1
Powerful Words: Education, Culture and Politics in the Middle Ages This module will cover two centuries (1050-1250) during which a cultural revolution took place: the written word, from being remote and confined to a small elite, became conspicuous and increasingly necessary to medieval people - even to those who could not read for themselves. The reasons for this radical change will be explored, as will the new knowledge, the new institutions and the new social groups that the growing role of writing created. The contents of books, as well as their availibility, changed deeply. New Schools (some eventually turning into the first universities) developed, and higher learning moved from monastic to urban settings, training much larger numbers of men. These men were more likely to turn to the secular world for employment after they left the schools, and kings and princes needed the new learned elite to be their courtiers and bureaucrats. The new importance of written words transformed the face of Europe in the realms of religion, culture and politics. more...	HISH3K14	30	Semester 2
Queer Literature and Theory This module offers students the chance to learn about LGBTQ literature and its development in English-speaking countries, as well as approaches to queer theory. This means analysing sexuality and gender and the representation of such identities in literature. Authors studied may include Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Alison Bechdel, Gore Vidal, and Sarah Waters, as well as children's books and young adult novels by Alex Sanchez, Nancy Garden, Ellen Wittlinger, and Marcus Ewert. Authors of theoretical texts looked at may include Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, Leo Bersani, and Teresa de Lauretis. Understanding how LGBTQ characters are featured in literature also helps us to see how queer people are understood in a given society in general. This course also aims to look at a variety of genres in order to see how these different text types work and how they approach similar material in different ways. more...	LDCE3X58	30	Semester 2
Regency Women Writers This module situates the work of various women writers of the Regency period in literary and historical contexts. The main texts under discussion are by Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Hays, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Maria Edgeworth. The unit considers themes which - although not exclusive to women's writing at this time - occur strikingly frequently in the work of Regency women. These themes include sanity, madness and ideas about the mind, and literary devices such as the love-mad woman. Health, ill-health and the development of medicine are central to these fictions and the course, and we also discuss the figure of the doctor, the quack and the 'psychiatrist' in these texts. We look at writings by Regency women travellers whose destinations ranged from Italy to Bath, Sweden and Revolutionary France. more...	LDCE3X80	30	Semester 2
Revenge Tragedy: Ancient and Modern This seminar explores the different ways in which the concept of revenge has been conceived and represented in a range of dramatic texts. The module covers three distinct groups of primary materials: classical tragedy (in translation) including Aeschylus's Oresteia; early modern revenge tragedy including works by Shakespeare, Tourneur and Kyd; and modern cinematic explorations of the revenge formula including Get Carter, Old Boy and Tarantino's Kill Bill movies. Topics discussed include the relationship between classical and Christian attitudes to revenge, contemporary strictures upon private vengeance, the representation of justice through the ages, the limitations of the revenge tragedy formula. more...	LDCE3Y86	30	Semester 2
Russia in Revolution 1905-1921 This module will look at the upheavals in Russia between 1905 and the introduction of a limited Parliament, and continue by examining the First World War and the downfall of the Romanov monarchy. We will then study the year 1917 in some detail and discuss the causes of the Bolshevik seizure of power. The Civil War and the reasons of the Communist victory will be analysed. The module will place the Russian Revolutions in their historical, political and geographical context and will consider the impact that these events had in the history of the twentieth century. more...	HISH3F18	30	Semester 2
Satire `Satire is problematic, open ended, essayistic, ambiguous in relation to history, uncertain in its political effects, resistant to final closure, more inclined to ask questions than provide answers, ambivalent about the pleasures it offers' (Dustin Griffin). The aim of this module is to investigate the problematic territory of satire. Using examples from modern and contemporary fiction and journalism alongside early modern and classical satire, we will formulate a critical and conceptual map, which will in turn allow us to discuss some of the problems of satire (those of genre, of gender, of politics, of morality, of history), and to explore some of the paradoxes of its strategies and functions (freedom versus limits; subversion versus conformity; transformation versus stasis). Writers under discussion will include Juvenal, Horace, Swift and Pope; John Dryden, Aphra Behn, and Lady Mary Wortley Montague; Evelyn Waugh, Stella Gibbons, and Jonathan Coe. more...	LDCE3X62	30	Semester 2
Shakespeare: Shadow and Substance Platonist epistemology permeated Elizabethan culture: the aim of this module is to explore the relationship of Shakespeare's topic of the world as a stage to Neoplatonic conceptions of perception, politics, poetry and love. more...	LDCE3Y36	30	Semester 2
The Condition of England Novel 1818-2000 This module will examine the classic nineteenth-century 'Condition of 'England' novel alongside mid-to-late twentieth-century representations of England (and myths of national identity). Attention will be given to post-colonial writing as a significant part of the question: What is it to be English (or British)? more...	LDCE3Z09	30	Semester 1
The Crusades This module will consider the history of the Crusades and the Crusader States from 1095 to 1291, covering a broad range of themes, religious , military and social, and taking into consideration the relations between Christians and Moslems in the Holy Land. Particular attention will be paid to primary sources, which are abundant and available in English translation. more...	HISH3A61C	30	Semester 1
The Gothic This module seeks to cover some 'canonical' texts of the Gothic Novel (1764-1820) in Walpole, Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, and to consider some later developments of the gothic mode in later 19th and 20th centuries: Poe, Le Fanu, Stevenson, MR James, Elizabeth Bowen, David Storey and Angela Carter. The course also seeks to introduce students to some of the theoretical and historical arguments around the contested nature of the term 'gothic', the Uncanny, the subversiveness or otherwise of this kind of writing, and its relation to the novel genre. more...	LDCE3X41	30	Semester 1
The Industrial Revolution In the two hundred years following 1700, the British economy and population entered a sustained and unprecedented phase of growth. The economic, demographic, social and cultural changes that ensued were so far reaching, that by 1850, commentators were agreed that an 'industrial revolution' had taken place. This module seeks to illuminate the many facets of this transformation, and to explore the extensive historiography surrounding them. This module introduces students both to the economic processes which underpinned industrialisation, and to many ways in which Britons of all social levels ranks experienced and thought about their changing world. more...	HISH3E37C	30	Semester 1
The Literature of World War One The module will examine representations of World War One. As a Level 3 module, the focus will be inter-disciplinary. Literary materials will be contextualised using historical and other sources. Use will also be made of memoirs, letters, diaries, and photographs. Students will be encouraged to conduct research using the internet and other facilities. more...	LDCE3Z10	30	Semester 2
The Norman Conquest This module will examine the Old English and Norman states before 1066, the Conquest and the colonisation of the Kingdom of England. Particular attention will be given to the processes by which England was brought under Norman rule, both in the ecclesiastical and secular spheres. The module will be taught through original sources in translation. more...	HISH3K10	30	Semester 2
Through the Looking-Glass: Nonsense and Modern Writing It's widely recognised that modernist literature is characterised by a revolution of the word. Less widely recognised, and little explored, is the relationship between modernist linguistic experimentalism and literary nonsense, as practised by Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, and others. This course will begin with these well-known nonsense writers and explore their roots in earlier nonsense, including Shakespeare's, before going on to examine some of the adventures in language of major modernist and postmodernist writers. Authors studied are likely to include late Joyce, early Auden, Stein, Stevens, Cummings, Crane, Nabokov, Koch, Muldoon, Ashbery. The course will also set these avant-garde writers in the unfamiliar context of the mainstream fantasy writers who also come out of Carroll and the nonsense tradition, most likely Tolkien and Peake, whose imaginary worlds are based on their own invented languages. This is not a course on children's literature, but on some very challenging modern literature, though it should appeal to those who take a childish pleasure in wordplay and fantasy, and equally to those intrigued by philosophical issues around language. It would follow on very well from the second-year Modernism module. more...	LDCE3X01	30	Semester 1
Traumaturgies: Reading and Writing Trauma Across Contexts Trauma haunts the writing of the twentieth century. Slavery, war, patriarchy, terrorism, genocide, colonialism, modernity, technology and post-modernity: these legacies demand to be written and read, and engender a writing singular to their traumas. Yet the writing of these wounds, and the critical work that reads it, raises fundamental questions about whether trauma can ever be represented or understood. Spreading beyond their contexts, these questions effect their own traumas, cracking open our assumptions about what it is possible to read, to write, and indeed to think. Working roughly from the turn of the twentieth century to the present, this module reads a selection of theoretical, literary and critical texts that aim to write and read trauma across cultural, historical, personal and public contexts. more...	LDCE3X91	30	Semester 1
Tudor Rebellions This module looks at the nature of rebellions, riot and popular politics in Tudor England. The early part of the module proceeds in a chronological format; and after that, we analyse rebellion in more thematic terms, individual sessions look at: late medieval rebellion; early Tudor rebellion; The Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536; the 1549 rebellions Kett's rebellion, popular rebellion in the 1580s and 1590os; gender and ritual; seditious speech; popular culture; Shakespeare, drama and popular protest; food and enclosure rioting. A lot of use is made of extracts of primary material . After we have studied Kett's Rebellion of 1549, there will be a fieldtrip to examine key sites in Norwich associated with those events. This may possibly end in one of the oldest pubs in Britain; the Adam and Eve. more...	HISH3K08	30	Semester 2
Twentieth Century Sport History This module explores key themes and topics in the history of twentieth century sport, from the founding of the modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 to the impact which the collapse of socialism had upon sport at the end of the century. Sport's interaction with empire, nationalism, fascism , socialism and capitalism will be considered, demonstrating that the political history and international relations of the century are deeply entwined with sport. A range of examples are examined, from Franco's Spain to the superpower competition of the Cold War. As an aspect of social history, issues of gender, race and disability are inseparable from this topic, as are the harnessing and exploitation of sport as a means of war or reconciliation at various periods throughout the century. more...	HISH3F76	30	Semester 2
Tyranny and Revolution: the Age of Richard II This module explores the `Age of Richard II' (1377-99) as revealed in an exceptionally-rich corpus of primary sources. Richard's was a tumultuous reign. To many contemporaries it seemed as if the world was turning upside down as those who traditionally wielded power in English society ' the king, the church and the aristocracy ' faced unprecedented challenges to their authority. Through weekly seminar discussions, members of the class will learn to assess the significance of the reign based on a close reading of selected texts. Two sources in particular will provide the documentary spine of the course: the `Parliament Rolls of medieval England' (recently re-edited in translation and freely available online) and the great chronicle of Thomas Walsingham, a monk of St Albans and perhaps England's foremost chronicler of the period. We will also explore a range of other records and narratives as well as the verse of some of England's most famous medieval poets, many of whom (notably Geoffrey Chaucer) were closely connected to the court of Richard II. The module falls into two parts. Part 1 investigates the political developments from the dying days of Edward III through the Peasant's revolt (1381) to Richard II's final years of `tyranny' (1397-9). Part two adopts a thematic approach. Topics here include parliament, political society, heresy, the Hundred Years War, chivalry and courtliness. We conclude by examining the revolution of 1399, which resulted in Richard's deposition and death. more...	HISH3K17	30	Semester 1
Ulysses This module will provide students with the opportunity to read one of the most famous, yet notoriously unread, novels of the twentieth century. The module has a number of aims. First, it will give students the time and opportunity to try to read and understand James Joyce's Ulysses. Secondly, the module will introduce students to some of the formal innovations typical of modernist writing through the close analysis of techniques such as interior monologue and mythic analogy. Thirdly, it will allow students to read a wide range of responses to Ulysses, both among Joyce's contemporaries, and in the history of twentieth century criticism. Fourthly, the module will situate the text historically, with a particular focus on the way that the text's obscenity affected its reception and circulation in the 1920s and 1930s. more...	LDCE3Z50	30	Semester 2
Victorian Underworlds This module introduces students to the darker side of life in Victorian Britain. Though this was undoubtedly a period of economic prosperity, not everyone shared in the gains. In this module we shall look at those who, for reasons of poverty or `deviance' were confined to the margins. Topics will include the poor, the criminal and insane, prostitution, drink, child-workers, the workhouse, the London Irish, homosexuality and the Oscar Wilde case. By looking at the margins and the misfits, we will seek to gain a deeper understanding if British society in the nineteenth century. more...	HISH3H12	30	Semester 2
Virgil's Classic Epic This module will explore the centrality of Virgil's Aeneid to Medieval and Renaissance culture. It will examine developing attitudes to the Classical literary legacy and accommodation and reinvention of Virgil's epic poem within new religious, political and literary contexts. The course will begin with exploration of Virgil's poem on its own terms before turning to reworkings of the 'Aeneid' by Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Douglas and Marlowe, the Renaissance invention of a 13th Book to 'complete' Virgil's poem, and the recasting of classical epic within the very different conventions of medieval and Renaissance romance. Previous experience of classical or medieval literature is not required. more...	LDCE3Y18	30	Semester 2
Working in the Historic Environment This module will provide students with the opportunity to undertake a work placement with an employer working in the historic environment sector. A number of placements based on specific projects will be arranged with host organisations, and students will choose their placement from these options. Every student will be expected to attend an informal interview with their host organisation prior to starting their placement. Alternatively, a student may arrange their own work placement but this must be approved in advance by the module organisers. Past placements have been hosted by the National Trust, Norfolk Historic Environment Service, Suffolk County Council and the Peak District National Park Authority. Placements must be undertaken between June and December, and will be followed up by a series of practical seminars in the spring semester. A list of provisional placements and projects will be available in Spring 2012. Please note that enrolment on this module will only be confirmed after a short interview with the module organisers. more...	HISH3H1Y	30	Year Period
You may also pick any of the modules that begin with: LDCD3X46 LDCE3X37 LDCE3Z64 LDCE3X94

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.

Literature, Drama and Creative Writing Courses

Literature, Drama and Creative Writing

BA Literature and History (QV31)

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