Summer Reading for September 2014 Entrants – all English Programmes
N.B. Please ensure you chose the correct unit reading for your BA programme- the
units you will study on each programme are listed below.
BA English (single honours students)
Critical Dialogues
Approaches to Narrative
Approaches to Poetry
Approaches to Drama
BA English and Creative Writing (ECW)
Critical Dialogues
Approaches to Narrative
Language and Technique
Story and Structure
BA English and Film (EF)
Critical Dialogues
Approaches to Narrative
Questions of Cinema
Histories of Cinema
BA English and American Literature (EAL)
Critical Dialogues
Approaches to Poetry
Approaches to Drama
Approaches to American Literature
Combined Honours Students (all CH students studying English at Level 4)
Critical Dialogues
Approaches to Narrative
In addition to the unit based texts listed below, please can ALL students buy:
 Rebecca Stott et al, Making Your Case: A Practical Guide to Essay Writing
(Harlow: Longman, 2001).
 MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors and Editors (London: MHRA, 2013,
3rd edn).
Recommended further reading for all programmes
 Cottrell, Stella, The Study Skills Handbook (Houndsmill: Palgrave, 2013, 4th
edn).
 Eaglestone, Robert, Doing English (London: Routledge, 2009, 3rd edn).
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Critical Dialogues (Dr Ginette Carpenter)
This unit is an introduction to a number of key topics in critical and cultural theory
and to a range of distinct approaches to the analysis of literary texts. It will provide
you with the skills required to identify, explain and compare particular critical and
theoretical arguments and how to use this material effectively in the construction of
a critical argument about a text. The unit also develops key skills in the areas of
planning and researching essays at degree level. The theoretical readings you are
required to read will be provided digitally or via hand-out.
Please ensure that you buy the Norton editions of James, Shelley and Stevenson as we
will be using other material in these editions.
 Dickens, Charles, A Christmas Carol– any version/edition is OK, it will usually
be in a compilation with other short stories.
 James, Henry and Deborah Esch and Jonathan Warren (eds), The Turn of the
Screw: A Norton Critical Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 1999).
 Shelley, Mary and Paul J. Hunter (ed), Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2011, 2nd edn).
[This is also available as an e-book.]
 Stevenson, Robert Louis and Katherne B. Linehan (ed), Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde: A Norton Critical Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003).
Approaches to Narrative (Dr Paul Wake)
BIBLIOGRAPHY *= paper copy provided in class
Core Texts
These are the texts that we will be studying in seminars, it is essential that you read
these texts in advance of seminars/lectures. While extracts of some of these texts
will be provided, you’ll get more out of the seminars/lectures if you read the full text
(if you decide to write on a text this is essential).
Brontë, Charlotte, Jane Eyre(London: Penguin Poplar Classics, 2007).
*Carter, Angela, ‘The Werewolf’, in The Bloody Chamber (London: Vintage, 1979),
pp.108-110.
Defoe, Daniel, Robinson Crusoe (London: Penguin Popular Classics, 2007).
Dickens, Charles, Great Expectations (London: Penguin Popular Classics, 2007).
Fforde, Jasper, The Eyre Affair (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2002).
*Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. 2011. ‘Little Red Cap’. In D. L. Ashliman, ed. Folktexts.
<http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html> [Accessed 12 April 2011]
Kay, Jackie, Red Dust Road (London: Picador, 2011).
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Phillips, Caryl, Cambridge (London: Vintage, 2008).
Seacole, Mary, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (London:
Penguin, 2005)
*Woolf, V. 2008. Selected Short Stories (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Approaches to Poetry (Dr Angelica Michelis)
The critical literature on poetry is vast; most of the books listed below are
introductions, and students will need to examine further critical works, particularly
for poetry before 1900.
Students will be required to buy their own copy of the set text below;
Set text (This is the only book you have to buy)
Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy (eds), The Norton
Anthology of Poetry, 5th edn (New York and London: Norton, 2005)
Approaches to Drama (Dr Aidan Arrowsmith)
The set text for this unit, and the only text you need to buy, is:
W.B. Worthen (ed.), The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama, (Florence, KY: Heinle &
Heinle Publishers Inc, 4th edition). ISBN. 9780838407509
NB. There are other editions of this Anthology, but it is important you buy this 4th
edition.
This unit will introduce you to the practice of reading drama in various forms – on
the page and stage, and on the cinematic and television screens. We will survey the
history of drama from the Greeks to the present day, focussing on a series of key
dramatic texts contained in the Wadsworth Anthology, plus specific film and TV
drama, and, wherever possible, plays in production locally.
This Wadsworth Anthology contains all the play texts you will need for the year, plus
useful critical materials. Set plays will be confirmed nearer the beginning of term, but
you can get a head start by beginning to read the plays of, and critical materials
relating to, playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Aphra
Behn, Henrik Ibsen, Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Becket, Amiri Baraka, and Caryl Churchill.
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Approaches to American Literature (EAL) (Dr Sarah MacLachlan)
This unit introduces a diverse range of American literature - from early colonial writing
to contemporary fiction - in order to explore continuities and discontinuities within the
American tradition. The Norton Anthology of American Literature (8th Edition, Vols. AE) is highly recommended for purchase by students – we will study material contained
in the anthology throughout the year (it contains several of the texts listed below), as
well as in years two and three on your American units. You will need to buy other
texts (mainly novels) to use alongside the anthology for your American literature units
and you may well be able to find material contained in the anthology elsewhere, either
online or in the library - but the anthology is a really good way to familiarise yourself
with the American literary tradition. If you find earlier editions of the anthology are
available and less expensive, please feel free to purchase them instead of the 8th
Edition (contents vary slightly from edition to edition, but the basic body of material is
the same).
Please read as many of the following texts as you can over the Summer, prioritising the
Autumn Term and the longer texts marked with an asterisk:
Autumn Term
Thomas Harriot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588) –
online.
John Winthrop, ‘A Model of Christian Charity’ (1630) – online / Norton Anthology.
Handsome Lake, ‘How America Was Discovered’ (1923) – online.
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, ‘What is an American?’ in Letters From an American
Farmer (1782) – any edition / online / Norton Anthology.
Edgar Allen Poe, 'Ligeia' (1838), 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (1839) and 'The
Masque of the Red Death' (1842) – any edition of Poe short stories / online / Norton
Anthology.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850) * - any edition / Norton Anthology.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) * - any edition / online.
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1884) * - any edition / online / Norton Anthology.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1926) * - any edition.
Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1926) * - any edition.
Spring Term
John Steinbeck, ‘The Leader of the People’ (1936) – in Steinbeck’s The Red Pony, any
edition / online / Norton Anthology.
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (1949) - any edition / Norton Anthology.
Sylvia Plath, 'Lady Lazarus', 'Daddy' and 'The Applicant' (1965) - any edition / online /
Norton Anthology.
Martin Luther King, ‘I Have a Dream’ (1963) – online.
Malcolm X, 'The Ballot or the Bullet' (1964) – online.
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[Highly recommended additional reading - The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)]
E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime (1975) – any edition.
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (1975) – any edition.
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977) – any edition.
Language and Technique (ECW) (Mr Adam O’ Riordan)
Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy (eds), The Norton
Anthology of Poetry, 5th edn (New York and London: Norton, 2005)
Optional supplementary reading:
Mark Strand and Eavan Boland (eds), The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of
Poetic Forms (London: W.W. Norton and Co., 2001).
Story and Structure (ECW) (Ms Julie Wilkinson)
Advance reading list.
The only text you need to buy in advance, specifically for this unit is:
W.B. Worthen (ed.), The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama, (Florence, KY: Heinle &
Heinle Publishers Inc, 4th edition). ISBN. 9780838407509
WAD = available in The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama
APN = as indicated on the reading list for Approaches to Narrative
[ ] indicates books we will refer to from other units’ reading lists.
MOO = will be available in digitised form on theMoodle site for the unit.
You do NOT need to buy anything that is available on MOO and the APN texts you
will have already bought for that unit.
Autumn term:
WAD: Euripides Medea
Carl Grose ‘Gargantua’ in connections 2011 (London: Methuen Drama, 2011)
MOO: Roshni Rustomji Elephants and Jaguars in Shamsie (ed.) Leaving Home:
towards a new millenium (Oxford: OUP, 2001) pp. 412-417
WAD: William Shakespeare Hamlet and Twelfth Night
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WAD: Aphra Behn The Rover
Spring term:
[APN: Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe]
[APN: Charles Dickens Great Expectations]
WAD: Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and her Children.
WAD: Samuel Beckett, Endgame
[APN: Caryl Phillips Cambridge]
MOO: Tanya Barfield, Medallions in Antigone Project: a play in 5 parts, eds. Chiori
Miyagawa and Sabrina Peck (South Gate, CA: No Passport Press, 2009) pp. 47- 50
MOO: James Miller, What is Left to See in Beacons: stories for our not so distant
future ed. Gregory Norminton (London: One World, 2013) pp. 81 - 97.
Questions of Cinema (EF) (Dr Sorcha Ni-Fhlainn)
Set Texts:
There are two set texts and you are expected to buy them both. Both will be used
extensively across the unit and the Haywood book will be used across your degree:
Barsam, Richard and Dave Monahan, Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film (NY
& London: WW Norton, 2010).
Hayward, Susan, Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2006).
Histories of Cinema (EF) (Dr Andy Moor)
Our 'Primary Texts' are the films we watch during the year (these are screened for
you). The ‘Required Reading’ you need to buy for this unit are:

Jeffrey Geiger & R L Rutsky, Film Analysis: A Norton Reader (W W Norton &
Co, New York and London, 2005)
 Bill Nichols, Engaging Cinema: An Introduction to Film Studies ((W W Norton &
Co, New York and London, 2010)
Get both of these - they form really useful background reading for the unit but you’ll
find them useful for the next 3 years.
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