| 17TH-CENTURY WRITING: RENAISSANCE, REVOLUTION, RESTORATION | LDCE2Y13 | 20 |
| This course explores 17th Century writing in diverse forms, familiar and unfamiliar: the masque, poetry, prose fiction, but also 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. |
| ADAPTATION: SHAKESPEARE ON STAGE AND SCREEN | LDCD2X45 | 20 |
| Case studies of selected plays and productions are used as a basis for examining the processes of adaptation and interpretation of Shakespeare's plays. Exclusive to students on Literature and Creative Writing programmes and all joint programmes with Literature. |
| ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND, C. 500-1066 | HISH2A93 | 20 |
| This is a general survey module of the history of England from the 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. |
| AUSTEN AND THE BRONTES: READING THE ROMANCE | LDCE2X28 | 20 |
| 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. |
| CONSPIRACY AND CRISIS IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND | HISH2H08 | 20 |
| 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. |
| CONTEMPORARY WRITING | LDCE2Z34 | 20 |
| 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. |
| CREATIVE WRITING : INTRODUCTION (AUT) | LDCC2W11 | 20 |
| 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. |
| CREATIVE WRITING: INTRODUCTION (SPR) | LDCC2W08 | 20 |
| 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. |
| CREATIVE WRITING: PROSE FICTION (AUT) | LDCC2W01 | 20 |
| This module enables students to test their abilities and potential as writers of prose fiction. 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. |
| CREATIVE WRITING: PROSE FICTION (SPR) | LDCC2W14 | 20 |
| 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. |
| CRITICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE | LDCE2X15 | 20 |
| This module will explore changing responses to the central questions of poetics. 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. |
| CULTURAL THEORY AND ANALYSIS | LDCE2X17 | 20 |
| This module introduces some major critiques of modern culture and encourages their critical assessment and application by students. It is organised historically and moves from Matthew Arnold's influential, Victorian, normative understanding of culture to twentieth-century approaches to mass culture, modernity and postmodernism in the work of critics who include Adorno, Horkeimer and Michel Foucault. The critical thinking about culture that is developed in this module should strengthen interdisciplinary ability. |
| EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE | HISH2B13 | 20 |
| 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. |
| EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WRITING | LDCE2Y11 | 20 |
| This lecture-seminar module provides an intensive introduction to British writing from the Glorious Revolution (1688) to 1780 considering such writers as Defoe, Swift, Pope, Richardson, Fielding and Sterne, and exploring the "rise of the novel", the development of literary periodicals and newspapers, and the relationship of neo-classical poetry to the development of the English landscape garden. The course considers literary writing in relation to the development of mercantilism and such new capitalist institutions as the stock market, the idea of the individual as entering a social contract with others to form society, and the changing status of women and the family. |
| ERASMUS EXCHANGE: AUTUMN SEMESTER | LDCE2A01 | 60 |
| 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. |
| ERASMUS EXCHANGE: SPRING SEMESTER | LDCE2A02 | 60 |
| 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. |
| EUROPEAN LITERATURE: ENCOUNTERS WITH 'OTHERNESS' | LDCE2X24 | 20 |
| 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 modern period. Works studied may include texts by eg Kafka, Sebald, Calvino, Celan. |
| FROM AGINCOURT TO BOSWORTH: ENGLAND IN THE WARS OF THE ROSES | HISH2B18 | 20 |
| 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. |
| FROM PUSHKIN TO CHEKHOV: NINETEENTH-CENTURY RUSSIAN FICTION | LDCE2Z33 | 20 |
| This unit 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 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. |
| FROM TRAGIC TO EPIC PERFORMANCE | LDCD2X47 | 20 |
| 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). |
| GOODBYE TO BERLIN? LITERATURE & VISUAL CULTURE IN WEIMAR GERMANY | LDCE2Z40 | 20 |
| 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. |
| HERITAGE AND PUBLIC HISTORY | HISH2H05 | 20 |
| 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. |
| IMPERIAL RUSSIAN AND SOVIET HISTORY, 1861-1945 | HISH2D89 | 20 |
| 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. |
| INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I | LCSU2F95 | 20 |
| 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.) |
| INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II | LCSU2F96 | 20 |
| A continuation of LCSU2F95. (Alternative slots may be available depending on student numbers.) |
| INTERMEDIATE GERMAN I | LCSU2G97 | 20 |
| An intermediate course in German for students with German GCSE, O-Level or LLTU1G11/12. Includes revision of basic grammar and introduction of new grammar. Not available to students with AS- or A-Level German. Can be taken in any year. |
| INTERMEDIATE GERMAN II | LCSU2G98 | 20 |
| A continuation of LLTU2G97. Open for students with AS-Level (below grade C). |
| INTERMEDIATE SPANISH I | LCSU2H11 | 20 |
| An intermediate course in Spanish for those with no more than GCSE, O-Level or Beginners' Spanish. Begins with an intensive revision of Indicative Mood. Can be taken in any year. 3 hours per week. Orals are arranged separately. Alternative slots available depending on student numbers. |
| INTERMEDIATE SPANISH II | LCSU2H12 | 20 |
| A continuation of LLTU2H11. Alternative slots available depending on student numbers. |
| INTRODUCTION TO BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE I | LCSU1OB1 | 20 |
| A beginners' course in British Sign Language assuming no prior knowledge of the language. It is designed to provide students with basic training in communication with deaf people and an awareness of life in the deaf world. Teaching and learning strategies include the use of conversation, role play, dialogue and video work. Assessment is based on a number of sign language tasks and tests plus one short essay. 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 (B2*B3*E4), 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm (C5*C6*C7) or 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm ( A9*10*EY), subject to student enrolment/timetables. |
| INTRODUCTION TO BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE I (SPRING START) | LCSU1OB4 | 20 |
| A beginners' course in British Sign Language assuming no prior knowledge of the language. It is designed to provide students with basic training in communication with deaf people and an awareness of life in the deaf world. Teaching and learning strategies include the use of conversation, role play and dialogue. Assessment is based on a number of sign language tasks and tests plus one short essay. Can be taken in any year. Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. These groups would be taught on Mondays from 10.00 - 12.30 pm (B2*B3*E4) or 5.00 - 7.30 pm ( A9*A10*EY) subject to student enrolments. |
| INTRODUCTION TO BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE II | LCSU1OB2 | 20 |
| A continuation of Introduction to British Sign Language I (LCSU1OB1). Alternative groups may be available depending on student numbers. Students will have to attend one of the groups which will be taught on Mondays at any of the following timeslots: 10.00 am - 12.30 pm (B2*B3*E4), 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm (C5*C6*C7) and 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm (A9*A10*EY), subject to student enrolment/timetables. |
| LANDSCAPE I: STRUCTURES OF LANDSCAPE | HISH2A51 | 20 |
| This unit 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 Middle and later Saxon periods. The unit 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 before the Norman Conquest. |
| LANDSCAPE II : BUILT AND SEMI-NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS | HISH2A52 | 20 |
| 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. |
| LATER MEDIEVAL EUROPE | HISH2A94 | 20 |
| This module focuses on the political, cultural and social history of later medieval Europe (c. 1100-c. 1500) looking particularly at France and Italy. We discuss the formation of cities, the position of the papacy, lay piety, the role of women, and other related topics. |
| LATIN FOR HISTORIANS | HISH2A62 | 20 |
| The aim of this module is to provide 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 contemplate proceeding to the MA pathways in Medieval History or in Local and Regional History. |
| LITERATURE AND VISUAL CULTURE II: AT THE FIN DE SIECLE | LDCE2Z24 | 20 |
| 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. |
| LITERATURE STUDIES SEMESTER ABROAD: AUSTRALIA (SPRING) | LDCE2A04 | 60 |
| A semester spent at an Australian university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on Q300U1, QT37U1, Q3W8U1, QV31U1, WW84, WQ43, W400 |
| MEDICINE AND GENDER | HISH2B97 | 20 |
| 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. |
| MEDICINE AND SOCIETY BEFORE THE 17TH CENTURY | HISH2B95 | 20 |
| 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. |
| MEDICINE AND SOCIETY IN MODERN BRITAIN | HISH2B96 | 20 |
| 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. In the context of background trends in social history, students can follow up special interests (eg, gender issues, rural services) in essay topics. |
| MEDIEVAL WRITING | LDCE2Y15 | 20 |
| 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, drama and prose, 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 units in medieval writing that may be taken within the School. |
| MODERN GERMANY, 1866-1945 | HISH2D53 | 20 |
| The history of few countries is as dramatic as that of modern Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. This module will examine the making of the German nation, the political consequences of Germany's transformation into an industrial superpower, why Germany plunged Europe into war in 1914, whether Weimar democracy had any chance of survival, the relationship of people to regime in Nazi Germany, what in Germany's history produced a regime as barbarous and destructive as that of Adolf Hitler, and the impact of Nazism on Germany since 1945. |
| MODERN ITALY, 1860-1945 | HISH2E08 | 20 |
| 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. |
| MODERNISM | LDCE2Z15 | 20 |
| 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. |
| NAPOLEON TO STALIN: THE STRUGGLE FOR MASTERY IN EUROPE | HISH2D02 | 20 |
| 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. |
| NINETEENTH-CENTURY WRITING | LDCE2Z30 | 20 |
| This module focuses on the novel and society in the nineteenth century, reading Scott, Austen, the Brontës, Dickens, Gaskell, Eliot, James and Conrad and considering how the writing responds to the material conditions of production - authorial biography, publishing economics, literary genres, contemporary politics, the subjection of women, the rise of the middle class and economic changes such as the growth of the city, the railway booms, Chartism and industrial relations and the development of the British empire. |
| NORMAN AND PLANTAGENET ENGLAND, 1066-1307 | HISH2B12 | 20 |
| 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. |
| POLITICAL THEATRE | LDCD2X02 | 20 |
| 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. |
| POST A LEVEL SPANISH LANGUAGE 2/I | LCSU2H21 | 20 |
| 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.) |
| POST A LEVEL SPANISH LANGUAGE 2/II | LCSU2H22 | 20 |
| 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.) |
| POST A-LEVEL FRENCH LANGUAGE 2/I | LCSU2F01 | 20 |
| 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.) |
| POST A-LEVEL FRENCH LANGUAGE 2/II | LCSU2F02 | 20 |
| 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) (A3*B4), ii) French Law and Society (C3*D4) 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. |
| PUBLISHING (AUT) | LDCE2X05 | 20 |
| 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. |
| PUBLISHING (SPR) | LDCE2X06 | 20 |
| 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. |
| QUEENS, COURTESANS AND COMMONERS: WOMEN AND GENDER IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE | HISH2F25 | 20 |
| 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. |
| REFORMATION TO REVOLUTION | HISH2H01 | 20 |
| 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. |
| ROMANTICISM 1780-1840 | LDCE2X26 | 20 |
| 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. |
| SHAKESPEARE | LDCE2Y04 | 20 |
| 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. |
| THE BRITISH EMPIRE, 1857-1956 | HISH2B74 | 20 |
| 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. |
| THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE TO NANCY ASTOR: WOMEN, POWER AND POLITICS | HISH2H12 | 20 |
| 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. |
| THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS | HISH2H10 | 20 |
| 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. |
| THE POWER OF THE PAST: MEMORY AND HISTORY | HISH2E02 | 20 |
| Ideas about the past have often been very political. This unit looks at popular ideas about history. The first part of the unit focuses on modern Britain and Europe c. 1848-1991. The second part of the unit looks at a range of case studies from earlier periods. |
| THE RISE AND FALL OF BRITISH POWER | HISH2B57 | 20 |
| 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 lowing its empire. |
| THE WRITING OF JOURNALISM (AUT) | LDCC2W27 | 20 |
| This module introduces students to key issues in newspaper journalism, providing the opportunity to learn through practice. Topics and activities will include reviewing and sub-editing, editorial policy and the techniques of excellent news and feature writing. 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. |
| THE WRITING OF JOURNALISM (SPR) | LDCC2W28 | 20 |
| This module introduces students to key issues in newspaper journalism, providing the opportunity to learn through practice. Topics and activities will include reviewing and sub-editing, editorial policy and the techniques of excellent news and feature writing. 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. |
| THEATRES OF REVOLT: NINETEENTH-CENTURY EUROPEAN DRAMA | LDCE2X07 | 20 |
| 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. |
| THREE WOMEN WRITERS | LDCE2Z38 | 20 |
| 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. Exclusive to students on Literature and Creative Writing programmes and all joint programmes with Literature. |
| TUDOR AND STUART ENGLAND | HISH2B35 | 20 |
| 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. |
| TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN: 1914 TO THE PRESENT | HISH2G01 | 20 |
| This module examines the themes of conflict and consensus in 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 nature and durability of consensus politics in the 1950s, or Britain’s role in the contemporary world. |
| VICTORIAN BRITAIN | HISH2B73 | 20 |
| 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. |
| WAR AND PEACE SINCE 1945 | HISH2G02 | 20 |
| 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 |
| WAR LIVES: WRITING BRITAIN IN WORLD WAR II | LDCE2X34 | 20 |
| 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. |
| WORLD LITERATURE: READING GLOBALLY | LDCE2X29 | 20 |
| 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. |
This programme provides opportunities to study cultures and societies through both literary and historical materials and approaches.
The School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing brings together writers, scholars, teachers and students in an exploration of the powers and possibilities of literature. Our aim is to make creative writing and critical reading confront one another in ways that sharpen and enliven both. We teach and research across the range of English Literature from the fourteenth century to the twenty-first. This coverage is supplemented by our interests in European Literature, in postcolonial writing in English across the world, and in literary and cultural theory.