SCHOOL OF ENGLISH
MODULE DESCRIPTIONS
2014-2015
Modules Available in 2014-2015
STAGE 3
SEMESTER 1
SEMESTER 2
ENG3000 Double Dissertation module on an approved topic in English Literature
ENL3000 Double Dissertation module on an approved topic in English Language
ENH3000 Double Dissertation module in Creative Writing
ENL3004 Language in the Media
ENL3002 The Language of Broadcasting and
Identity
ENL3008 Stylistics: Bringing Language and
Literature Together
ENL3003 Speech Worlds:
Phonology in Communication
ENG3001 Critical History: Reading the Classics of
Literary Criticism
ENG3059 Reading Contemporary Irish & British
Poetry
ENL3110 The Structure of English
ENG3069 Televising the Victorians
ENG3020 Women’s Writing 1660-1820
ENG3087 Shakespeare on Screen
ENG3039 Critical Fictions
ENG3097 Literature and Science in the Nineteenth
Century
ENG3061 American Image and Text
ENG3064 Representing the Working Class
ENG3065 Romantic Rebels: Poetry and Prose in
the Age of Revolution, 1789-1832
ENH3003 Chaucer’s London Poetics
ENG3070 Contemporary Indian Literature in
English
ENH3004 Nineteenth-Century Irish Writing
ENG3096 Irish Fiction in the Twentieth Century
ENH3006 Mock Epic in the ‘Long EighteenthCentury’
ENG3178 Digital Textualities and the History of
the Book
ENH3007 British Poetry 1940-1995
ENG3180 Hamlet: Early Modern to Postmodern
ENH3008 Contemporary US Crime Fiction
ENG3198 Shakespearean Genres
ENH3013 Comic Fiction, Fielding to Austen (17401820)
ENH3014 American Fiction 1945-60
ENH3114 U. S. Fiction 1965-1980
Phonetics
and
ENG3011 Marvels, Monsters and Miracles in
Anglo-Saxon England
STAGE 3
Autumn Semester
English Dissertation Handbook
for ENG3000 and ENL3000
Module convenor: Dr Leon Litvack
Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Module description
3.
Aims
4.
Objectives and learning outcomes
5.
Undertaking research
(i) Process
(ii) Staff involvement
(iii) Ethical conduct of research
6.
The dissertation: notes on presentation
(i) Structure
(ii) Referencing and bibliography
(iii) Illustrations
1.
Introduction
The dissertation module is available to Stage 3 students who have successfully
completed ENG1001 and ENG1002 and who have also successfully completed Stage
2. The dissertation module is a double module and runs throughout the academic
year.
The maximum length for the double dissertation is 10,000 words.
2.
Module Description
In this module you will undertake a piece of independent research and write a
dissertation presenting that research and your conclusions. You will have the
guidance of a tutor, but the emphasis is on your independent research and writing.
Students will select a research topic in English Literary or Language Studies at a level
appropriate to Stage 3 and suitable in scope to the time and length constraints of the
dissertation; students must also devise an appropriate work regime. The module
allows students to pursue their own particular interests in the fields of English Literary
and Language Studies, so the dissertation may be based on e.g. an author, a period,
a genre or some question or issue in language studies. There should be no overlap
between the chosen topic and work that you do for other modules. If the dissertation
topic follows on from previous work, then it must add significantly to that work.
Students will be expected to develop and exhibit suitable theoretical and
methodological frameworks for their chosen topic.
The dissertation will help students to bring together analytical and critical skills in the
development of research questions, the formulation of a viable research topic, and
the evaluation of appropriate concepts in the course of writing a piece of work based
on independent research.
3.
Aims
The aim is to engage in a process of research and learning in the field of English
studies. To do this will require you to raise pertinent research questions, to read
broadly in the area of questioning, to relate the questions and reading to concepts
and theories, and to write up your conclusions in a sustained piece of argument. The
module will enable you to conduct an independent line of research in the field of
English.
4.
Objectives and Learning Outcomes
The module will provide an opportunity to explore, to investigate and to identify
themes for research within English. You will be able to draw from a variety of
theoretical, textual, analytical techniques, to examine and evaluate a given research
problem. By the end of the module you will:
 have a developed critical understanding of an area of literary or
language study;
 have developed the skills needed to conduct an independent line of
research;
 be able to write a cogent, well-illustrated dissertation, which displays
originality of consistent thinking and application of ideas, concepts and
theories.
5.
Undertaking Research
(i) Process
It is important to stress that the dissertation will be the outcome of your independent
work. Successful completion of the module will require students to work in a
sustained way throughout the year. To this end the student will be required to consult
with their supervisor a number of times during the module. (See below for suggested
schedule.) These meetings are viewed as components of the module and failure to
attend or complete will be subject to regulations regarding compulsory attendance
and the submission of medical or other appropriate documentation to explain
absences or delays. Failure to complete any part of the process as specified may
lead to the student failing the whole module.
In order to adhere to timetable, students will have to establish their topic and the
broad outline of their research at a very early stage. They will have to set aside an
appropriate amount of time each week (a suggested minimum is about 10-12 hours)
to ensure that they are keeping up with the work. It is in the nature of research that it
does not always go according to the initial plan, so failure to work in the early part of
the semester will have potentially disastrous consequences for the final mark.
Suggested schedule of meetings:
It is expected that students will arrange a meeting with their supervisor early in the
process to present and discuss a proposal for a suitable topic. At this meeting the
supervisor will give advice on how appropriate the proposal is in terms of level of
study, practicability of completion within the set time, initial reading, and, if necessary,
gathering of data. A second meeting could involve the presentation of an outline
structure of the eventual dissertation and an annotated working bibliography of both
primary and secondary material. Students may discuss their ideas about the primary
material and the suitability of different theoretical or methodological approaches. It is
the responsibility of students to deliver any material that they wish the supervisor to
read in advance of the meeting. The supervisor will usually set a cut-off date after
which he or she will no longer comment on written drafts. A final meeting may involve
comment on draft chapter(s) and advice on structure and presentation. Students
should note that supervisors will not give indications of any eventual mark for the
work. It is the responsibility of students to deliver any material that they wish the
supervisor to read in advance of the meeting.
The schedule of meetings will be appropriate to the time involved.
(ii) Staff involvement
The main aim of the dissertation module is for students to undertake a piece of
independent learning, but each student will be assigned to a supervisor whom they
can consult at each stage of the project. There will be a module co-ordinator who will
oversee the administration of the module.
(iii) Ethical conduct of research
It is possible that students may want to undertake projects which will involve others in
some way (e.g. collecting a linguistic corpus, interviewing for a reader-response
survey, requesting questionnaire completion on some aspect of literary or language
study). In such cases, the student should discuss these matters with their supervisor
at the earliest opportunity and should obtain written authorisation for the project
(which can be shown to participants) from the Head of School. In such cases then
students must:
 conform to the Data Protection Act;
 ensure that respondents/interviewees understand their participation in the
project;
 ensure that the anonymity of any respondents is guaranteed unless express
written permission to the contrary is obtained;
 ensure that no identifiable personal information is used without express written
permission;
 conform to the University’s guidelines on the ethical conduct of research:
ww.qub.ac.uk/rrs/webpages/download/Policy_on_the_ethical_approval_of_res
earch.
6.
Dissertation: Notes on Presentation
(i) Structure
Dissertations will be judged on the quality of their content, as is all written work in the
School.
The
School’s
marking
criteria
can
be
consulted
at:
www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/Education/StudentStudyInformation
Attention to the detail of presentation and scholarly apparatus is also a requirement.
The dissertation should therefore include (in this order)
 Student declaration
 Title page
- title, student's name & number, school, module code, date.
 Abstract
– a brief (no more than 50 words) outline of the dissertation.
 Acknowledgements
– if applicable.
 Contents
- giving chapter titles and page numbers.
 List of figures
– if needed (including illustrations, photographs or diagrams).
 The body of the dissertation
 Appendices
– if appropriate (this could include questionnaires, interviews or other original

data collected for the purposes of the dissertation).
Bibliography
The dissertation should be word processed in double spacing on one side of A4
paper.
Pages should be numbered consecutively throughout.
Two copies of the dissertation should be submitted.
Some form of binding will be necessary; it is the student’s responsibility to ensure that
the dissertation and any associated material (e.g. illustrations, appendices,
transcripts) are presented in the correct order.
The dissertation will be no longer than 10,000 words.
The maximum length is normally taken to include footnotes and written appendices
but to exclude the bibliography and any illustrative materials.
While it is necessary to divide longer pieces of work into chapters or sections
(including an Introduction and Conclusion) students should avoid an overly elaborate
structure. This is an area in which your tutor will be able to give you guidance.
(ii) References and Bibliography
See School of English Style Sheet (available on Queen’s Online) for detailed advice
on how to document your work and on how to lay out your bibliography.
NOTE: As the dissertation is an independent piece of research much will depend on
the sources that you use and on your ability to assess those sources. University level
work should not use primers such as Cole’s Notes or Spark Notes. The same is also
true for much web-based material. Students are warned that the quality and accuracy
of much that is available on the web is, to say the least, dubious. Web-based material
accessed through School of English links will generally be acceptable, but if in any
doubt either find a printed source or consult your supervisor.
(iii) Illustrations
If you use illustrations (for example photographs, diagrams, maps) these should be
clearly titled (with an acknowledgement of their source), and should be numbered
consecutively; these numbers can then be used for reference in the written text.
Illustrations should normally be on the same size paper as the text pages, but if there
is a need for large illustrations, these can be folded at the end of the dissertation.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
English Dissertation Handbook
for ENH3000: Double Dissertation (Creative Writing)
Module convenor: Dr Leon Litvack/ Dr Sinéad Morrissey
FOR CREATIVE WRITING PATHWAYS ONLY
Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Module description
3.
Aims
4.
Objectives and learning outcomes
5.
Undertaking an extensive Creative Writing project
(i) Process
(ii) Staff involvement
6.
The dissertation: notes on presentation
(i) Structure
(ii) Referencing and bibliography
(iii) Illustrations
1.
Introduction
The dissertation module is available to Stage 3 students who have successfully
completed ENG1090 at Stage One and at least TWO other creative writing modules
at Stage 2 (ENG2091 or 2092 or 2093). The dissertation module is a double module
and runs throughout the academic year.
The length of the dissertation is as follows:
Prose: 10000 words plus 3000 words of commentary.
Script: 40-50 pages (layout single-spaced and font size 12 Courier New), plus 3000
words of commentary.
Poetry: 30 poems plus 3000 words of commentary.
The creative writing component (prose/script/poetry) constitutes 70% of the overall
mark; the commentary constitutes 30% of the overall mark.
2.
Module Description
In this module students will undertake a piece of extensive creative writing in either
prose, or poetry, or scriptwriting. They will have the one-to-one guidance of a tutor,
but the emphasis is on their own independent thinking, reading and writing.
The self-reflexive commentaries required of students in Stage Two are similarly
expanded in both length and scope at Stage Three: for this module students must
complete a commentary which not only articulates the themes and justifies the
structure of the creative dissertation, but which also places the creative work in its
contemporary literary context.
To do this will require students to read broadly in their area of interest. They must be
able to identify key aspects of successful creative writing in other writers and
appropriate them accordingly in their own work. They must significantly develop their
own writing, both formally and thematically, in a piece of writing which is longer and
more ambitious than anything they have previously attempted.
3.
Aims
The key aim is to build on existing knowledge of the rules and techniques of
successful creative writing in prose, poetry or drama acquired during Stage 1 and
Stage 2 by undertaking a more sustained piece of creative work, and to contextualise
this creative work with reference to other existing works of literature in the same
genre.
4.
Objectives and Learning Outcomes
The module will provide an opportunity to concentrate on a single sustained piece of
creative writing while at the same time developing skills of practical literary analysis
and scholarly self-contextualisation.
By the end of the module students will have developed the skills needed to write
either prose, poetry or drama competently and at length, displaying both knowledge
of the rules of their chosen genre and originality of execution; and have developed the
skills needed to reflect in an informed way on one’s own creative practice. Students
should have successfully developed a creative voice/style of their own.
5.
Undertaking an extensive Creative Writing project
(i) Process
It is important to stress that the dissertation will be the outcome of your independent
work. Successful completion of the module will require students to work in a
sustained way throughout the year. To this end the student will be required to consult
with their supervisor a number of times during the module. (See below for suggested
schedule.) These meetings are viewed as components of the module and failure to
attend or complete will be subject to regulations regarding compulsory attendance
and the submission of medical or other appropriate documentation to explain
absences or delays. Failure to complete any part of the process as specified may
lead to the student failing the whole module.
In order to adhere to timetable, students will have to establish their topic and the
broad outline of their research at a very early stage. They will have to set aside an
appropriate amount of time each week (a suggested minimum is about 10-12 hours)
to ensure that they are keeping up with the work. It is in the nature of research that it
does not always go according to the initial plan, so failure to work in the early part of
the semester will have potentially disastrous consequences for the final mark.
Suggested schedule of meetings:
It is expected that students will arrange a meeting with their supervisor early in the
process to present and discuss a proposal for a suitable topic. At this meeting the
supervisor will give advice on how appropriate the proposal is in terms of level of
study, practicability of completion within the set time, and initial reading. A second
meeting could involve the presentation of an outline structure of the eventual
dissertation and drafts of work already completed. It is the responsibility of students to
deliver any material that they wish the supervisor to read in advance of the meeting.
The supervisor will usually set a cut-off date after which he or she will no longer
comment on written drafts. A final meeting may involve advice on structure and
presentation. Students should note that supervisors will not give indications of any
eventual mark for the work. The schedule of meetings will be appropriate to the time
involved.
(ii) Staff involvement
The main aim of the dissertation module is for students to undertake a piece of
independent creative writing and analysis, but each student will be assigned to a
supervisor whom they can consult at each stage of the project. There will be a
module co-ordinator who will oversee the administration of the module.
6.
Dissertation: Notes on Presentation
(i) Structure
Dissertations will be judged on the quality of their content, as is all written work in the
School. Attention to the detail of presentation and scholarly apparatus is also a
requirement. The dissertation should therefore include (in this order)
 Student declaration
 Title page
- title, student's name & number, school, module code, date.
 Acknowledgements
– if applicable.
 Contents
- giving chapter/poem titles as appropriate and page numbers.
 The body of the dissertation
 The commentary
 Appendices
– if appropriate
 Bibliography
The dissertation should be word processed and creative work should be in the
appropriate format for the chosen genre. Pages should be numbered consecutively
throughout. Two copies of the dissertation should be submitted.
Some form of binding will be necessary; it is the student’s responsibility to ensure that
the dissertation and any associated material (e.g. illustrations, appendices,
transcripts) are presented in the correct order.
The dissertation length is as follows:
Prose: 10000 words plus 3000 words of commentary.
Script: 40-50 pages (layout single-spaced and font size 12 Courier New), plus 3000
words of commentary.
Poetry: 30 poems plus 3000 words of commentary.
The maximum length is taken to include footnotes, written appendices, bibliography
and any illustrative materials.
(ii) References and Bibliography
See School of English Style Sheet (available on Queen’s Online) for detailed advice
on how to document your work and on how to lay out your bibliography.
(iii) Illustrations
If you use illustrations (for example photographs, diagrams, maps) these should be
clearly titled (with an acknowledgement of their source), and should be numbered
consecutively; these numbers can then be used for reference in the written text.
Illustrations should normally be on the same size paper as the text pages, but if there
is a need for large illustrations, these can be folded at the end of the dissertation.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Language in the Media
Module Number:
ENL3004
Teaching Method and Timetable: 5 one-hour and 6 two-hour lectures, alternate
weeks, and 1 weekly one-hour tutorial
Autumn Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Andrea Mayr
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENL2002,
Language and Power.
Module Content: This module aims to provide a strong background in English language by
focusing on the print and broadcast media in Britain. It will also introduce students to some of
the theoretical concepts and critical issues associated with Media studies. For students, one
of the most effective ways to begin understanding the media is to analyse in detail, media
texts such as newspaper articles, magazine advertisements, political speeches, television
and radio interviews, talk shows. Students will also look at non-verbal communication,
layouts, and images to see how language interacts with other modes of communication. The
course examines important media issues, such as the myth of a free press,
commercialization, tabloidization and crime and also provides important information on areas
of media studies essential for analysing media discourse, i.e. media practices (the way
reporters and editors work and how audiences shape and are shaped by the media).
Module Objectives: Students will be encouraged to develop an ability to analyse and
interpret critically a variety of written and spoken media texts. Another primary objective of
the course is to gain an understanding of some of the ideological functions of media
language.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this module, students should have developed skills in a
critical linguistic analysis of spoken and written media texts/textual and visual media. They
should also have gained an awareness of the place of the media in their broader political,
economic, social and cultural contexts.
Assessment: Assessment will be by essay (90%), seminar contribution and presentation
(10%).
Set Texts: The set text for this module is Media Discourses by Donald Matheson (2005,
Open University Press). A recommended list of books will be provided from which students
are expected to buy at least one. Other reading will be provided in the form of on-line articles.
Cost: Approximately £40
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Stylistics: Bringing Language and Literature Together
Module Number:
ENL3008
Teaching Method
and Timetable:
1 two-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial weekly
Autumn Semester
Module Convenor:
tbc
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including at least one
ENL module at Stage 2.
Module Content: Stylistics is a discipline in English language studies which combines
techniques and concepts in modern linguistics with the analysis and close-reading of literary
texts. This stylistics course therefore bridges the gap between the study of language and
the study of literature. The course works from the assumption that literary expression is a
creative exploitation of the resources of the language that we use from day to day. As well
as analysing different genres and registers of everyday language, the course examines the
language of poetry, prose and plays. In tandem with this, a host of different levels of
language organisation are covered, ranging from patterns of vocabulary, sound and
grammar, through cognitive structures in language such as metaphor and metonymy, to the
more broad-based pragmatic features of discourse such as speech acts and politeness
phenomena. In this way, the language of literature is approached from a variety of
perspectives and through a host of different levels of language organisation.
Module Objectives: The module has two main interrelated learning objectives. The first is
to do with the structure and function of language; the second with literary-critical
interpretation. Students therefore learn (i) how to analyse the language of literary texts and
(ii) how to balance this analysis with the sensitive and focussed interpretation of such texts.
Learning Outcomes: Students will be encouraged to use linguistic analysis as a means of
gaining new insights into a work, and as a way of supporting their intuitive responses to a
work. To this end, students will have the skills to work with texts, from systematic
description through to analysis and interpretation. It is hoped that the skills that form part of
the stylistic method will nourish and support students’ personal experiences of reading both
literary and non-literary texts.
Assessment: 90% of this module is assessed by two extended essays, consisting of 45%
each. The remaining 10% is made up by class attendance and participation.
Set Texts: The set text is the 2nd edition of Stylistics by Paul Simpson (Routledge, 2014) (It
is very important to get the 2nd edition of this book as the pagination varies greatly from the
first edition). Recommended reading is provided in an extensive course bibliography from
which you should purchase one more textbook of your choice. Other reading on more
localised aspects of the course, including references to work in scholarly journals, is provided
on lecture slides and on seminar handouts.
Cost of Module Texts: £40.00
Preparatory Reading: In advance of the course, students should read at least one of the
following books: Linguistic Criticism, 2nd edition, by Roger Fowler (Oxford, 1996); The
Language and Literature Reader edited by Peter Stockwell and Ronald Carter (Routledge
2007); Stylistics by Peter Verdonk (Oxford, 2002); Style in Fiction by G. Leech and M. Short
(Longman, 1981).
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Critical History: Reading the Classics of Literary
Criticism
Module Number:
ENG3001
Teaching Method and Timetable:
One weekly 3 hour seminar.
Autumn seminar
Module Convenor:
Professor Brian Caraher
Prerequisites:
This module is normally available only to students on English,
Linguistics or Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including
ENG2040, ENG2062 or ENG2070.
Module Content:
The module contains a selection of classical literary texts in translation,
including works by Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Plutarch and ‘Longinus’. A selection of
Enlightenment writers who make significant linkages between classical critical formulations and
modern critical and theoretical issues may also be considered (e.g., Hume, Burke, Kant or
Hegel). Alternatively, if students would prefer to read a selection of modern literary critical texts
which reform and remake classical critical formulations in relation to distinctly post-classical
constructions of literary form, taste, ideology and social psychology, then the seminar may opt
to study major critical statements by Wordsworth, Coleridge, P B Shelley, M Arnold, H Morley,
T S Eliot, V Woolf, M Bakhtin, K Burke, N Frye, A Rich, E Showalter, and J Derrida. Students
are encouraged to drop by and discuss with the tutor which of these pedagogical pathways
they would prefer the seminar to adopt. (Students have much preferred to do the earlier
classical material.)
Module Objectives:
To examine and discuss some of the earliest and most influential
statements on the nature, structure and effects of literary art, taste and judgement. To be able
to recognise and discuss in comparative historical and conceptual ways developments,
articulations and deformations of theories and practical critiques of the social functions, speech
genres, linguistic features, rhetorical forms and ideological constructions of a largely GrecoRoman and Eurocentric tradition and revision of critical history.
Learning Outcomes: Successful completion of this module should enhance and facilitate a
student's ability to recognise classical and foundational critical problems within the field of
literary studies and a refined awareness of the fundamental terminology of literary criticism and
the recurrent issues of critical history. Moreover, development and refinement of critical
reading skills, argumentative and rhetorical abilities and oral presentational skills should also
be integral features of successful completion of this module.
Method of Assessment:
Students are expected to prepare and present a segment of a
week's seminar. The effort and quality involved in the seminar presentation make up a 10%
oral presentational mark. An assessed essay on one of seven set topics (see model papers)
will require the student to display familiarity and knowledge concerning one of the major
segments of critical history studied on the module.
Set Texts:
Classical Literary Criticism (Oxford, 1989); David Hume, Selected Essays
(Oxford, 1993); Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry (Oxford, 1990); Immanuel Kant,
Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (California, 1991). Alternatively, if
students wish to adopt the second option with regard to content mentioned above, then the set
text would be Charles Kaplan and William Anderson's Criticism: Major Statements, 4th edition
(St Martin's/Palgrave).
Cost of Module Texts:
£20 to £28
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Reading Contemporary Irish & British Poetry
Module Number:
ENG3059
Teaching Method and Timetable: 1 weekly two-hour seminar, and 2 three-hour
workshops in Weeks 5 and 9
Autumn Semester
Module Convenor:
Prof Fran Brearton
Prerequisites:
This module is normally available only to students on English,
Linguistics or Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules.
Co-requisites: none
Module Content: This module will examine poetry collections by eight contemporary poets
from Britain and Ireland. Its focus will be on the individual poetry volume, rather than on
Selected or Collected poems, and the module will examine the work of new as well as more
established poets. The collections will be examined in terms of form and style; their relation
to each other; and the contexts of their production and reception. The particular texts to be
studied will vary each year according to the current state of poetry and the availability of
individual collections. Students will be advised of final texts in the semester before the
module commences. The following set text list is therefore illustrative only and subject to
alteration:
Sinead Morrissey, Between Here and There (Carcanet, 2001)
Simon Armitage, The Universal Home Doctor (Faber 2002)
Leontia Flynn, These Days (Jonathan Cape, 2004)
Seamus Heaney, District and Circle (Faber, 2006)
Paul Muldoon, Horse Latitudes (Faber, 2006)
David Wheatley, Mocker (Gallery, 2006)
Frances Leviston, Public Dream (Picador, 2007)
Paul Farley, the Dark film (Picador 2012)
John Lennard, The Poetry Handbook, Second Edition (OUP, 2006).
Module Objectives: To develop students’ understanding of the technical aspects of reading
poetry; to explore the social, cultural and political conditions in which contemporary poetry
finds its voice and its audience; to develop the ability to comprehend, and engage in, current
critical debate on modern poetry; to develop awareness of the range and diversity of poetry
in Britain and Ireland today.
Learning Outcomes: The following skills should be developed in the module: close reading
skills, including a grasp of technical vocabulary in the analysis of metre, rhythm and verse
form; the ability to form an independent judgment on texts; the ability to situate a text in the
context of a writer’s oeuvre and in the context of current critical debates; bibliographical
search skills.
Method of Assessment: Practical criticism exercise of 900-1,200 words (20%); 900-1,200
word essay (30%) and a 1,900-2,300-word essay (50%).
Set Texts: Please note that the choice of poetry collections to be used varies from year to
year according to availability, and in light of new publications.
Cost of Texts: £85 approx.
Preparatory Reading: please read in advance of the module; Paul Fussell, Poetic Meter
and Poetic Form (1979 – library copies available)
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Representing the Working Class:
British and Irish working-class life in twentiethcentury literature, drama and film
Module Number:
ENG3064
Teaching Method and Timetable: One-weekly three hour seminar
Autumn Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Michael Pierse
Prerequisites:
This module is normally available only to students on English,
Linguistics or Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules.
Co-requisites:
None.
Module content: This course aims to explore the writing and culture of the working class, to
ask how socio-economic distinctions inflect judgements of ‘taste’, and to develop an
understanding of the historical role of class in shaping identities across ethno-nationalist
lines. As you will learn, a good deal of scholarship in recent decades has signalled a growing
awareness of British working-class writing, though Irish Studies, by comparison, has tended
to neglect issues of social class. The legacies of Irish writers like Robert Tressell, Thomas
Carnduff, Séan O’Casey, Sam Thompson, Brendan Behan, Paula Meehan, Stewart Parker,
Christina Reid, Martin Lynch and many others have rarely been recognised for what they so
obviously are: part of a tradition of working-class writing. In this context, the more substantial
body of scholarship on British working-class literature presents established interpretative
paradigms and often contentious debates that will inform our discussion of working-class
writers across these islands, presenting new and exciting possibilities for future scholarship.
This comparative context – in which readings of British writers of the working class, like
Walter Greenwood, James Hanley, John Braine, Sid Chaplin, Barry Hines, Nell Dunn, Pat
Barker, James Kelman and Irvine Welsh, can connect fruitfully with readings of Irish workingclass writers – provides the basis of this course. We will also explore how the formation of
cultural taste, and the distinctions that define it, influence how we read the module’s core
texts, and how cultural materialist approaches can help us develop a more nuanced
understanding of both literature and society.
Module Objectives: This course aims to develop your understanding of how our conception
of literature is influenced by class positions and dominant discourses, and what the literature
of working-class life can tell us about society in general. How do we esteem literature from
classed perspectives? How does class influence our concepts of cultural analysis and what
themes emerge from working-class texts across diverse ethnic and national contexts? What
contradictions emerge? What does this tell us about historiography and the relationship
between culture and class —about how the concept of ‘literature’ itself has been formed?
You will explore key related debates in critical and cultural theory, applying your learning to a
range of core texts.
Learning Outcomes: On completion of this course, you will have refined your broad critical
understanding of key thinkers in cultural materialist and left-wing literary theory. You will
have applied this understanding to over a dozen key texts (including films), engaging a
range of historical and social contexts across twentieth-century British and Irish writing,
analysing the recurrence of key themes and ideas in working-class writing. You will also
have related these readings to developments in postcolonial, postmodern and feminist
theories, where applicable, drawing on a broad range of cultural and intellectual
perspectives.
Method of Assessment: One 2,900-3,300 word essay will constitute 90% of the marks, with
the remaining 10% for a seminar presentation, and overall attendance and contribution to
seminar discussions.
Provisional Seminar Schedule/set texts:











Introduction: ‘Distinction’ in Culture and Literature: Key Thinkers and Key Ideas
Utopian Dreams and Dystopian Realities: Robert Tressell’s The Ragged
Trousered Philanthropists (1914)
War and the Working Class: Seán O’Casey’s The Silver Tassie (1928)
Precarious Lives: Walter Greenwood’s Love on the Dole (1933)
‘You’ve Never Had it So Good!’ – Ireland, Britain and the 1950s: Brendan Behan’s
The Hostage (1958), John Braine’s Room at the Top (1957)
Ethno-nationalism and Class: Sam Thompson’s Over the Bridge (1960)
Working-class women: Pat Barker’s Union Street (1982)
Recession writing: Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments (1988), Mark Herman’s
Brassed Off (film, 1996)
Dysfunction: Irvine Welsh’s novel Trainspotting (1993) and its film adaptation by
Danny Boyle (1996)
Breaking the mould: Christina Reid’s Tea in a China Cup (1983) and Lee
Hall/Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot (film, 2000)
Chavs?: James Kelman’s How late it was, how late (1994) and Mark O’Halloran’s
Adam and Paul (film 2004)
Preparatory Reading: Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of
taste (Routledge Classics), Ian Haywood, Working-Class Fiction, from Chartism to
Trainspotting (Northcote 1997); Michael Pierse, Writing Ireland’s Working Class: Dublin After
O’Casey (Palgrave 2011)
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200-hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400-hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Televising the Victorians
Module Number:
ENG3069
Teaching Method and Timetable:
4 two-hour lectures (weeks 1-4), 6 one-hour
lectures, weeks 2,4,6,8,10,12 and 7 weekly twohour tutorials (weeks 5-6, 8-12).
Autumn Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Leon Litvack
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENG2070
Literature and Society 1850-1930.
Module Content: This module aims to raise questions about the relation between works of
fiction set in the Victorian period, and made-for-TV reappropriations of these texts. It
considers the way that we ‘read’ the Victorian period through visual image, and the impact of
technologies of the visual on the written word. It introduces different theoretical approaches
to film, and explains, by means of example, the differences between cinema and television. It
explores connection between cinematic practice (montage, the shot, editing, sound, space
and mise-en-scène) and notions of writing. It will ask questions about the nature of genre,
spectatorship, and issues of ideology and effect. The module will concentrate on identifying
the range of different resources required to understand the flow of images on the TV screen,
and will examine how ‘adaptation’ is conceptualised, particularly the ways in which the
comparison of book and film is haunted by notions of faithfulness and the ‘original’ primacy of
the literary work.
Module Objectives: To gain in-depth knowledge of four fictional texts and their made-for-TV
adaptations; to ‘read’ the visual image with critical acumen; to analyse reader/viewer
expectations in relation to the two media; to situate these debates within a wider cultural
context.
Learning Outcomes: Having completed this module, you should have refined your ability to
analyse literary texts sensitively in relation to films made for TV. You should have developed
your skills in constructing written and spoken analyses and arguments, based on assembling
appropriate primary and secondary evidence from textual and visual media. You should have
developed an ability to conceptualise ‘adaptations’, to speak in a theoretically informed
manner about reappropriations of works set in the Victorian period, to distinguish between
film and television as visual media, and to ‘read’ visual images in such a way as to
appreciate how literature and film work together to produce cultural artefacts.
Skills: This module should enable you to build upon and substantially enhance the skills that
you have already acquired during the course of your degree, and in particular will allow you
to acquire and demonstrate the following:




Broad comprehension of modern scholarly debates concerning ‘adaptations’
Understanding of how Victorian social and cultural contexts are translated or interpreted
for the modern age
Understanding of the fundamentals of film and television art
The ability to analyse critically the interrelation between works of fiction and their madefor-TV adaptations, in the process identifying their complexities and contradictions

Effective oral and written communication skills
Method of Assessment: An essay worth 75% (for which you design your own question) will
give you an opportunity to perform an extended critical analysis of the interaction between
film and text. A segment analysis worth 15% will test your facility with film and television
terminology, and will hone your visual sense. A presentation worth 10% will allow you to
enunciate your understanding of some of the key issues treated in the module, and will test
your ability to communicate your ideas orally in a structured, informed, and persuasive
manner.
Set Texts:
Film: Adaptations (all available through Queen’s Online):
Simon Curtis, Cranford (BBC, 2007)
David Innes Edwards, The Life and Adventures of Nick Nickleby (BBC, 2012)
Tim Fywell, The Turn of the Screw (BBC, 2010)
Geoffrey Sax, Tipping the Velvet (BBC, 2002)
Susanna White, Jane Eyre (BBC, 2006)
Fiction:
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)
Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (Oxford World’s Classics)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford Chronicles (Vintage)
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories (OUP Classics, 2008)
Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet (Virago, 1998)
Please note that eBooks are quite acceptable for class reading, eTexts of the novels will be
made available through Queen’s Online.
Film Theory:
Susan Hayward, Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (4th edition, Routledge, 2012)
Material on television adaptation and the mechanics of film will be made available through
Queen’s Online.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Shakespeare on Screen
Module Number:
ENG3087
Teaching Method and Timetable:
This module is taught primarily through
SIX day-long Workshops. Workshops
take place on Mondays from 11am-5pm.
Please do not register for this module
unless you can commit to this
timeslot.
Module Teacher:
Dr Ramona Wray
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English pathways who
have already completed twelve modules, including the Stage two module, ‘Introduction to
Renaissance Literature’. ‘Introduction to Renaissance Literature’ will have taught you how to
read early modern texts in a historical context. Building on your familiarity with the drama
and your ability to contextualise the Shakespearean text, this module continues to
interrogate issues of cultural production and the Shakespearean original but locates its
examples in twentieth-century visual culture.
Module Content: The late twentieth century has seen a proliferation of Shakespeare on
screen. This module investigates the phenomenon, looking at the work of directors such as
Michael Almereyda, Kenneth Branagh, Baz Luhrmann, Oliver Parker, Michael Radford and
Franco Zeffirelli. Debate will focus upon the following areas: the relationship between the
playtext and the film, the malleability of Shakespeare as a cultural icon, the relevance of
Shakespeare to a modern audience, and the shifting status of Shakespeare as a signifier of
gender, race, technology and politics.
Learning Outcomes: Having successfully completed this module, you will have become
familiar with a range of ways in which Shakespeare is appropriated in the cinema; you will
have learned how to utilise a theoretical filmic vocabulary in the interests of larger analyses;
you will be able to discriminate between various filmic versions of a play and to identify some
of their cultural and intertextual influences; you will have further honed your presentational
skills, and, through regular teamwork, learned the value of collaborative practice.
Method of Assessment: Collaborative work will be assessed via a presentational
exercises worth 10%. This team-based exercise will form part of the seminar structure and
will involve a practical demonstration of film theory. An essay worth 90% will require you to
demonstrate a familiarity with at least three appropriations of Shakespearean texts, a
knowledge of theoretical vocabulary and an awareness of contextual influences on the filmmaking process.
Set Texts: The Norton Shakespeare (purchased for Introduction to Renaissance Literature)
and a range of filmic Shakespeares.
Cost of Module Texts: £20
Preparatory Reading: Over the summer, students should read The Norton Shakespeare,
particularly, Henry V, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Literature and Science in the Nineteenth Century: Evolution,
Degeneration, and the Mind
Module number:
ENG3097
Teaching Method
and Timetable:
One weekly three-hour seminar
Autumn Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Caroline Sumpter
Prerequisites:
ENG2070 (Victorianism to Modernism). This module is normally
available only to students on English, Linguistics or Creative Writing pathways who have
already completed twelve modules.
Co-requisites:
None.
Module Content: This course will explore the diverse ways that writers responded to the
dramatic developments in science in the nineteenth century, from Darwinian evolution and
degeneration theory to the fascination with psychology, mesmerism and the mind. These
emergent bodies of knowledge transformed conceptions of the self and society, and we will
examine the strategies used by writers to engage with new conceptions of time, fears about
progress, and the challenge to religious beliefs presented by the prospect of a directionless
universe. Considering the emergence of social science and anthropology, as well as
developments in evolutionary biology, psychology and the occult sciences, we will explore
the ways science helped to shape nineteenth-century ideologies of race, class, and gender,
and led to experiments with new and popular subgenres (including science fiction, imperial
adventure, detective fiction and the utopian/dystopian novel).
Module Objectives: To both contextualise and question relationships between literature
and science in the nineteenth century, exploring the dynamic relationships between fictional
and non-fictional writings. To foster a critical awareness of the way science shaped (and
was shaped by) nineteenth-century literature, politics and culture. To explore the aesthetic
and ideological variety of nineteenth-century writing (from fiction and poetry to non-fictional
prose).
Learning Outcomes: You should gain an understanding of the ways science participated in
nineteenth-century theorisations of Empire and race, class and gender, and informed
debates over subjectivity and social relations. You should be able to relate developments in
biology, psychology and social science to fictional modes of representation, including
developments in realist fiction, fantasy, and subgenre fiction. You should gain a more
nuanced understanding of relationships between science, literature and culture in the
nineteenth century. You should also enhance your skills of independent thought and
research, your ability to work as part of a group, and your oral presentation skills.
Method of Assessment: A 2,900-3,300 word essay (90%); class presentation and participation
(10%).
Set Texts: Laura Otis ed., Literature and Science in the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology
(Oxford ISBN 9780199554652, £10.99)
Samuel Butler, Erewhon (Penguin: ISBN 97801440430578, £9.99)
Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies (Wordsworth, ISBN 1853261483, £1.99)
George Eliot, ‘The Lifted Veil’ in The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob (Oxford ISBN
0199555052, £7.99)
H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau (Penguin ISBN 9780141441023, £7.99)
H. Rider Haggard, She (Penguin, ISBN 9780140437638, £9.99)
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (Penguin, ISBN 0140439072 £.6.99)
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and other Tales of
Terror (Penguin ISBN 9780141439730, £5.99)
Extracts from Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man (module pack)
Selection of poetry, including Matthew Arnold, ‘Dover Beach’ and stories by Henry James
(module pack).
Cost of Module Texts: £62 approx (see above)
Preparatory reading: The set novels.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Chaucer’s London Poetics
Module number:
ENH3003
Teaching Method and Timetable:
Six lectures x one hour and seminar weekly x
two hours
Autumn Semester
Module Tutor:
Dr. Malte Urban
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed 12 modules, including ENG2040.
Students who have passed relevant Stage 2 modules in cultural Studies, with the permission
of their Advisor of Studies, may apply for admission to the module.
Co-requisites: None.
Module Content: This module focuses on Geoffrey Chaucer as a London poet. It offers
students the chance to approach a range of Chaucerian and other contemporary texts with
specific reference to late-fourteenth-century London as a socio-political backdrop for texts.
Chaucer himself spent most of his life in London, but as has often been pointed out rarely
writes about this particular city.
The first half of the module reads Troilus and Criseyde in the light of the myth of Britain’s
Trojan origins and the historical context of 1380s London. The second half of the module
moves on to the relationship between John Gower and Chaucer (Confessio Amantis and
Legend of Good Women, prologues), the representation of London in St Erkenwald and
Chaucer’s cultural poetics in the House of Fame. The final week is taken up by student-group
presentations for which they will have prepared during term-time on QOL.
Module Objectives: The module aims to impart a historically and theoretically-informed
sense of the concept of the city in literature. Students will have an opportunity to read a
range of texts by Chaucer and his contemporaries, and will be encouraged to develop their
own critical and theoretical ideas about the city in literature as well as late-medieval literature
in general. The module will seek to enhance writing skills through the provision of feedback
on formative essays and oral skills through presentations and group work on the part of
students.
Learning Outcomes: This module should enable you to build upon and substantially
enhance the skills that you have already acquired during the course of your degree, and in
particular will allow you to acquire and demonstrate the following:




broaden your understanding of critical debates on late-medieval literature and
Chaucer’s position in it
formulating your own theoretical position in relation to medieval literature
written and oral communication skills
e-skills (online research, online discussion)
Method of Assessment: A 2,900-3300-word essay will constitute 100% of the assessment.
Set Texts:
The Riverside Chaucer, Ed. C. David Benson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). [This
is the standard edition of Chaucer’s works and well-worth the price. ]
John Gower, Confessio Amantis*
Anonymous, St. Erkenwald*
As well as shorter essays and pieces which will be made available to students through
photocopies and/or on QOL
* Asterisk marked texts will be made available to students on QOL.
Cost of Module Texts: approximately £25.
Preparatory Reading: Students should ideally revisit their reading from 110ENG240 (Late
Medieval Literature) to refresh their knowledge of Geoffrey Chaucer’s texts.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Nineteenth-Century Irish Writing
Module Code:
ENH3004
Teaching Method and Timetabling:
5 one-hour lectures, alternate weeks and 1
weekly two-hour tutorial
Autumn semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Sinéad Sturgeon
Prerequisites:
This module is available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENG2081,
Irish Literature.
Module Content:
This module explores the diversity and power of Irish writing in the
nineteenth century, a period of upheaval that presented particular challenges—both aesthetic
and political—for writers of all backgrounds. Over the course of this module we will explore
the pressures shaping the literary representation of Ireland across a range of forms and
genres, including romanticism, the national tale, and the gothic, as well as poetry, the short
story, and the novel. Seminar discussion will identify and develop prevailing preoccupations:
the construction and narration of the nation; the depiction of recurring thematic motifs such
as violence, the Law, landscape, and the family; the recreation of Gaelic culture as a literary
and political resource; and the emergence of the Big House as a significant literary subgenre,
with its inherent concerns of gender, nationality, and history.
Module Objectives: The principal objective of the course is to familiarise students with the
scope and importance of nineteenth-century Irish writing before the Revival. The
chronological structure of the course aims to impart a broad understanding of the period's
history and politics, as well as its dynamic interaction with literary culture. Students should
also have gained an awareness of relevant critical debates, refining them into an
independent critical perspective.
Learning Outcomes: On completing this module students should have acquired and should
be able to demonstrate the following: solid understanding of the literature, politics and culture
in pre-Revival 19thC Ireland, and of the relationship between text and context; an ability to
identify and analyse recurring themes and tensions in literature of the period; discriminating
engagement with relevant critical debates; effective and scholarly writing, communication
and presentation skills.
Assessment: This module is assessed by a 2900-3300 word essay (90%), and by a seminar
presentation, as well as contribution (10%).
Set Texts: Maria Edgeworth, The Absentee [1812] (Penguin Classics, 2007); Gerald Griffin,
The Collegians [1829] (Atlantic Crime Classics, 2008); James Clarence Mangan, Poems, ed.
David Wheatley [set text from ENG2081]; Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas [1864] (Penguin
Classics, 2006); George Moore, A Drama in Muslin [1886] (Colin Smythe, 1981); Somerville
and Ross, The Real Charlotte [1894] (Capuchin Classics, 2011); Oscar Wilde, The Complete
Short Stories, ed. John Sloan (Oxford World’s Classics, 2010). A course-pack as well as
copies of other, shorter module texts will be supplied. Copies of the set texts listed above are
available to purchase in No Alibis, on Botanic Avenue.
Cost: approx. £30
Preparatory Reading: Inevitably, some of the set texts are substantial, so students will be at
an advantage if they have completed some of the readings in advance of the semester.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Mock Epic in the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’
Module number:
ENH3006
Teaching Method and Timetable: One weekly three-hour seminar
Autumn semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Deborah Russell
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENG2062,
Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Literature.
Co-requisites: None.
Module Content: This module will explore the evolution of the mock epic as a literary form in
the ‘long eighteenth century’ by studying representative poetry and prose of the period and
by assessing ways in which authors consistently appropriated, inverted and parodied the
conventions of classical epic as a means of satirizing their subject. After an examination of
the characteristic features of Homeric and Virgilian epic (achieved through reading a broad
selection of relevant extracts from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey [trans. Alexander Pope] and
through studying Virgil’s Aeneid [trans. John Dryden] in its entirety) we will focus on
Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock and Dunciad; selective eighteenth- century poetry
exemplifying the pervasiveness of the mock heroic; Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, and Byron’s
Don Juan. The module will also address the paradoxical issue of mock epic as both
trivialising the serious and lending grandeur to the trivial, and will situate the genre in the
broader social and cultural context of eighteenth-century neo-classicism.
Module Objectives: To develop a nuanced awareness of the relationship between neoclassical and classical texts; to impart a textually-informed sense of the evolution of mock
epic during the ‘long eighteenth century’; to familiarise students with the characteristic
features of a classical genre and of ways in which that genre was parodied; to show how a
close study of poetry and prose of the period in relation to classical epic in particular and
eighteenth-century neo-classicism in general can contribute to the making of meaning.
Learning Outcomes: Having completed this module, students should have acquired a
greater understanding of a major literary genre as manifested by a broad range of poetry and
prose over the ‘long eighteenth century’. They should have come to comprehend the
conventions of a classical genre, and ways in which those conventions are appropriated,
inverted and parodied. They should also have gained the ability to offer an informed
comparison of mock epic with its classical antecedents. They should have acquired an
awareness of the links between mock epic and satire and of the social and cultural contexts
in which eighteenth-century neo-classicism flourished. This module should enable students
to build upon and substantially enhance the skills that they have already acquired during the
course of their degree. It should develop their critical thinking, close reading skills, and their
ability to compare classical and neo-classical texts. It should also enhance their writing and
oral skills.
Method of Assessment: A 2,900-3,300 word essay will constitute 90% of the assessment;
the remaining 10% will be awarded for a seminar presentation.
Set Texts:
Coursepack (selections from Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, trans. Alexander Pope; selective
eighteenth- century poetry exemplifying the pervasiveness of the mock heroic)
Virgil, Aeneid, trans. John Dryden (Penguin Classics, 1997)
Alexander Pope, The Major Works, ed. Pat Rogers (Oxford World’s Classics, 2006)
Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, eds. John Bender and Simon Stern (Oxford World’s Classics,
1998)
Lord Byron, The Major Works, ed. Jerome J. McGann (Oxford World’s Classics, 2000)
Cost of Module Texts: approximately £44
Coursepack (selections from Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, trans. Alexander Pope; selective
eighteenth- century poetry exemplifying the pervasiveness of the mock heroic) £4.00
Virgil, Aeneid, trans. John Dryden (Penguin Classics, 1997) £9.99
Alexander Pope: The Major Works, ed. Pat Rogers (Oxford World’s Classics, 2006) £10.99
Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, eds. John Bender and Simon Stern (Oxford World’s Classics,
1998) £6.99
Lord Byron, The Major Works, ed. Jerome J. McGann (Oxford World’s Classics, 2000)
£11.99
Preparatory Reading: Students should ideally buy and read the editions recommended
above.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
British Poetry 1940-1995
Module number:
ENH3007
Teaching Method and Timetable: One weekly three-hour seminar.
Autumn semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Gail McConnell
Prerequisites:
This module is normally available only to students on English,
Linguistics or Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules.
Co-requisites:
None
Module Content: This module acquaints students with the work of some of the most
significant British poets of the period 1940-95. Starting with Dylan Thomas and Keith
Douglas it will move on to poets of the Fifties (Larkin and Gunn), and to the more formally
adventurous and self-conscious poetics which ensued with for instance Plath and Hill. It will
address such matters as the poetic response to the Second World War, especially to its
aftermath. It will consider different representations and accounts of contemporary society,
including the development of new myths of nation in Hughes and Hill, and explore the
relationship between poetry and gender, among others in Hughes, Plath and Carol Ann
Duffy.
Module Objectives: To provide an aesthetically discerning, formally and historically
conscious knowledge and understanding of the variety of types of poetry published in Britain
between 1940 and 1995, considering particularly the problem for the contemporary poet of
offering a large-scale interpretation of history and human experience, which may issue in the
refusal of grand narratives, or else in the construction of new myths, and which is
accompanied by a crisis in the representation of gender and of the relationship between the
sexes.
Learning Outcomes: On completion of this module, students should have refined their
ability to read different types of poetry with sensitivity, understanding and due precision,
including an ability to understand and analyse its formal devices and their implication in
interpretation. They should be able to explore the relationship of a range of poems to their
intellectual, literary and social contexts, with a special knowledge of how these contexts were
operative in the period 1940-1995.
Method of Assessment: A 2,900-3,300 word essay will constitute 90% of the assessment;
the remaining 10% will be awarded for a seminar presentation.
Set Texts:
Edna Longley, ed, The Bloodaxe Book of 20th Century Poetry (Bloodaxe, 2000).
Ted Hughes, Crow, 2nd edn (Faber, 1972, and subsequent printings).
Geoffrey Hill, Selected Poems (Penguin, 2006).
Tony Harrison, Selected Poems (Penguin, 2006).
Philip Larkin, Collected Poems (Faber, 2003).
Carol Ann Duffy, New Selected Poems (Picador, 2009).
(Some material will be available in photocopy.)
Dylan Thomas, Poems Selected by Derek Mahon (Faber, 2004)
Sylvia Plath, Poems Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy (Faber, 2012)
Cost of Module Texts: around £50
Preparatory Reading: Neil Corcoran, English Poetry Since 1940 (Longman, 2003).
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module title:
Contemporary U.S. Crime Fiction:
The Police, the State, the Globe
Module number:
ENH3008
Teaching method and timetable:
One weekly two-hour seminar and one fortnightly
one-hour lecture
Autumn semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Andrew Pepper
Pre-requisites: This module is available to students on English or Linguistics or Creative
Writing pathways who have completed twelve modules including ENG2072, Introduction to
American Literature.
Module content: This module examines some of the different manifestations of
contemporary U.S. crime fiction since the late 1960s. Beginning with a section on outlaws
and bandits, and how forms of primitive rebellion in turn requires us to think about what
constitutes crime in the first place, we move on to consider ‘policing the city’ and the ways in
which crime fiction negotiates the complex inter-relationship of race, class and capitalism.
The module, then, addresses the issue of state violence and public corruption and
accountability before concluding with an examination of the limitations of state power and the
international reach of some contemporary crime fiction. Rather than arguing for the genre as
a singular, static entity, the module examines its proliferation and diversity in the
contemporary era (focusing on novels, TV series and films) and explores connections
between crime fiction and other related genres (e.g. urban realism and espionage fiction). In
doing so, the module aims to encourage new readings of the genre and to situate crime
fiction more generally as a series of complex negotiations with different forms of political
authority (e.g. the police, the state, the dominant culture, capitalism etc.).
Module objectives: The main objective of this module is to examine the development of the
U.S. crime fiction genre in the post-1990s era; to explore the relationship between the crime
fiction texts and their social and political contexts (esp. race, class, capitalism and
globalisation); and to consider how crime fiction texts negotiate different forms of political
authority (the police, the state, the law etc.). The objective is also to subject different set
texts to critical scrutiny in the light of our understanding of particular theoretical approaches
and different theoretical approaches to critical scrutiny in the light of our understanding of
particular set texts. Additionally it is intended to enhance students’ spoken and written
presentational skills, through essay writing and class presentations, and their ability to study
both independently and as part of a group.
Learning outcomes: Having completed this module, students should have acquired the
ability to analyse a broad range of exemplary U.S. crime fiction (novels, films, TV programs)
in light of their understanding of particular theoretical approaches and different theoretical
approaches in the light of their understanding of particular set texts. They should have
developed an ability to identify particular generic traits, speak about the genre’s development
since the late 1960s in a theoretical informed way and situate this development in relation to
particular social, cultural, political and economic circumstances in the U.S and the global
realm. They should have developed their skills in constructing written and spoken arguments
drawing on appropriate primary and secondary evidence.
Method of assessment: Students will be assessed on the basis of their seminar
participation (5%), their class presentations (5%) and through a 2,900-3300 word essay
(90%) which will require you to demonstrate an understanding of the broad themes of the
module and a detailed knowledge of the module’s set texts. Students will be required to
consider a minimum of two texts, one of which has to be from the module’s set text list.
Set texts:; Daniel Woodrell, Tomato Red (1998); James Sallis, Drive (2005); George
Pelecanos, Hard Revolution (2004); The Wire [DVD] season 3 (2006); David Peace, 1974
(1999); Sara Gran, City of the Dead (2011); Don Winslow, The Power of the Dog (2005);
Traffic [DVD] (2001).
DVD copies of The Wire and Traffic will be available to borrow from the library.
Cost: £50 approx.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Comic Fiction, Fielding to Austen (1740-1820)
Module Number:
ENH3013
Teaching Method:
And timetable:
6 one-hour lectures, alternate weeks and 1 weekly twohour tutorial
Autumn Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Shaun Regan
Pre-requisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed 12 modules, including ENG2062,
Eighteenth-century and Romantic Literature.
Co-requisites: None.
Module Content: This module investigates the emergence and development of comic fiction
in English during the period 1740-1820: from its earthy beginnings in Henry Fielding’s ‘comic
romance’ to Jane Austen’s elegant novels of manners. By examining both ‘canonical’ and
long-forgotten texts, the module will explore the techniques and characteristics of comic
prose fiction; its interest in ideas about national identity and social organisation; its selfconscious play with the novel genre itself; and the positioning of these works in relation to
high and low culture, radical and conservative agendas, the popular and the polite. The
module will also consider the antecedents to eighteenth-century comic fiction (most notably
Cervantes’ Don Quixote), contemporary critical responses to these works, and competing
ideas about comedy that were current during the period, and that issued in the attempt – as
one commentator put it – to establish the ‘true standards of wit, humour, raillery, satire, and
ridicule’. By tracing the development of comic fiction in English from Fielding to Austen, the
module will thus provide a full picture of this important sub-genre of the novel, during the
early high-point in its history.
Module Objectives: To explore the emergence and development of comic fiction in English
during the period 1740-1820; to investigate contemporary ideas about comedy and the
status of prose fiction; to examine the roles of form, genre and authorial technique within a
specific sub-genre of the novel at a particular period in its history; to investigate the
relationship between prose fiction of this period and broader issues and concerns: society,
nationhood, gender, culture.
Learning Outcomes: Students should acquire knowledge of an important strand in prosefictional writing during the period 1740-1820, in relation to ideas about genre, authorship,
society and national identity. They should gain broad understanding of comic techniques in
this writing, competing definitions of comedy, and critical arguments concerning fiction
written during the ‘long’ eighteenth century. Students should learn to appreciate variations
within a specific sub-genre of writing, and to assess ideas about value and the literary canon
in relation to this sub-genre. The ability to construct cogent and well-supported arguments,
marshalling a range of primary and secondary sources, should be developed via seminar
discussions, formal presentations, and an assessed essay.
Skills: This module should enable you to build upon and substantially enhance the skills that
you have already acquired during the course of your degree, and in particular will allow you
to acquire and demonstrate the following:






Detailed knowledge and understanding of comic fiction in English, 1740-1820
Broad comprehension of critical issues concerning the novel during the ‘long’ eighteenth
century
Understanding of the roles of genre and authorial technique in comic fiction in English,
1740-1820
Awareness of the relationships between a selection of eighteenth-century prose fictions
and their social, material, and cultural contexts
The ability to analyse critically and in detail works written in a specific sub-genre
Effective oral and written communication skills
Method of Assessment: An essay worth 90% will assess your understanding of comic
fiction written during the period 1740-1820, and the critical issues that it raises. The essay
will require detailed analysis of works of comic fiction by at least 2 authors from the period
1740-1820, at least one of which must be a module set text. A short class presentation,
worth 10%, will test your ability to communicate your ideas orally in a structured, informed,
and persuasive manner.
Set Texts:






Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews (World’s Classics)
Francis Coventry, Pompey the Little (Broadview)
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (Penguin)
Frances Burney, Evelina (World’s Classics)
Jane Austen, Emma (World’s Classics)
Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (Penguin)
Cost of Module Texts: Approximately £50
Preparatory Reading: A start might be made on Frances Burney’s Evelina.
Reading the relevant sections in any of these general guides to the eighteenth-century novel
would also provide useful preparation: Brean Hammond and Shaun Regan, Making the
Novel: Fiction and Society in Britain, 1660-1789 (Palgrave, 2006); Clive T. Probyn, English
Fiction of the Eighteenth Century, 1700-1789 (Longman, 1987); John Richetti, The English
Novel in History, 1700-1780 (Routledge, 1999); Patricia Meyer Spacks, Novel Beginnings:
Experiments in Eighteenth-century English Fiction (Yale UP, 2006). Use the indexes to
search for key authors, texts and topics.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload. Back to top
Module Title:
U.S. Fiction 1965-80
Module Number:
ENH3114
Teaching Method:
Weekly Three-Hour Seminars
Autumn Semester
Module Teacher:
Dr Philip McGowan
Pre-requisites:
This module is normally available only to students on English,
Linguistics or Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including
ENG2072.
Module Content:
This module will examine a number of American fictions from the
period 1965-1980. It will cover women’s, Southern, African-American, Vietnam war, Native
American, Jewish, horror, crime and postmodern writing in the work of some of the major
twentieth-century US authors and their now lesser known contemporaries in a module that
spans the time period from America’s entry into the Vietnam war to the election of Ronald
Reagan as the 40th President of the United States.
Module Objectives: The module is designed to encourage students to develop their
knowledge of American fiction, to be able to contextualise the work of the authors studied
within particular American postwar contexts, and to read the novels under discussion within
particular critical and theoretical contexts.
Learning Outcomes: A detailed awareness of American fiction of the period, and display an
ability to engage critically with the connections and distinctions between different fictional
styles (postmodern/war/Jewish writing), an appreciation of the various racial, ethnic and
gender issues at play in the period, and an understanding of the major themes in American
fiction in this critical period of the mid-late twentieth century.
Assessment: 2,900 – 3,000 word essay (90%); tutorial contribution & presentation (10%)
Below is a list of the indicative texts that will form the nucleus of the module reading. A
choice will be made each year from this list depending on availability of titles and in
relation to student feedback on the module from the previous academic session.
[*students will be encouraged to read fiction off the set text list in any given year; to
facilitate this, an extended list of primary sources is provided below]
The Granta Book of the American Short Story: [8 stories covered in 2 sessions per year from
the following 16]
Stanley Elkin, ‘A Poetics for Bullies’ (1965)
Joyce Carol Oates, ‘Upon the Sweeping Flood’ (1966)
Donald Barthelme, ‘The Indian Uprising’ (1968)
William Gass, ‘In the Heart of the Heart of the Country’ (1968)
James Alan McPherson, ‘A Solo Song: For Doc’ (1968)
Robert Coover, ‘The Babysitter’ (1969)
Leonard Michaels, ‘City Boy’ (1969)
Gayl Jones, ‘White Rat’ (1971)
Raymond Carver, ‘Are These Actual Miles?’ (1972)
Joy Williams, ‘Train’ (1972)
William Kotzwinkle, ‘Fugue in A Minor’ (1974)
John Updike, ‘Here Come the Maples’ (1976)
Mary Robison, ‘Pretty Ice’ (1977)
Barry Hannah, ‘Testimony of Pilot’ (1978)
Ann Beattie, ‘Greenwich Time’ (1979)
Jayne Anne Phillips, ‘Lechery’ (1979)
The remaining 9 sessions will concentrate on a selection from the following novels:
John Williams, Stoner (1965)
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (1968)
Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969)
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970)
Saul Bellow, Mr Sammler’s Planet (1970)
William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist (1971)
Don DeLillo, Americana (1971)
Bernard Malamud, The Tenants (1971)
John Updike, Rabbit Redux (1971)
Philip Roth, The Great American Novel (1973)
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime (1975)
Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift (1975)
Richard Ford, A Piece of My Heart (1976)
Don DeLillo, Ratner’s Star (1976)
Richard Yates, The Easter Parade (1976)
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977)
Tim O’Brien, Going After Cacciato (1978)
Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer (1979)
Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (1980)
John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)
William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow (1980)
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
SPRING SEMESTER
Module Title:
The Language of Broadcasting and Identity
Module Number:
ENL3002
Teaching Method and Timetable: One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour seminar weekly.
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Derek Johnston
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules.
Co-requisites: None
Module Content: This module is concerned with the ways that the language of
broadcasting is involved with the construction, development and signalling of identity on
levels from the national to the individual. Students will engage with ideas regarding the
construction of national identities through television and radio, and the ways that these are
interacted with domestically, as well as internationally in the global broadcast market. This
will include the use of sporting and similar media events to encourage group and national
unity, together with the use of drama and factual programming to reflect ideas of the national
identity. Group identities are also considered, drawing on the ways that the language of
broadcasting has operated in relation to gender, ethnicity and sexuality, as well as other
groups and subcultures. We also engage with the question of how the language of
broadcasting is used by the individual to signal identity through membership of audiences,
fandom and through the creation of broadcast media. Overall, we will examine the range of
ways that the broadcast media and concepts of identity interact, utilising a range of
examples, including those selected by the students, together with a number of analytical
concepts about identity formation, the media and power.
Module Objectives: On completing this module, students should have acquired and be able
to demonstrate: a solid understanding of key theories of the relationships between the
language of broadcasting and identity, including national, group and personal identities; an
ability to analyse broadcasting texts and activities relating to broadcasting texts in relation to
theories and concepts of identity; engagement with relevant critical debates; and
development of their scholarly writing, communication and presentation skills.
Learning Outcomes: This module will refine students’ skills in analysing texts within various
cultural contexts and will improve their written and oral communication skills. Students will
develop skills in identifying topics for further research and in planning and completing an
independent research project.
Method of Assessment: An essay of 2,800-3,200 words will count for 90% of the
assessment; the remaining 10% will be determined by class discussion and oral
presentation.
Set Texts: The readings will be available through Queen’s Online. Students are asked to
undertake the following reading in advance of week 1, namely, Storey, J. (1993) ‘The
Frankfurt School’ in An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: Second Edition,
London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp.104-114.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
MODULE TITLE:
Speech Worlds: Phonetics and Phonology in Communication
MODULE NUMBER:
ENL3003
TEACHING METHOD:
1 one-hour lecture, and 1 one-hour practical session
weekly, plus 1 one-hour workshop in weeks 2,4,6,8,10 and
12
Spring semester
MODULE CONVENOR:
Dr. Orla Lowry
PREREQUISITES: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics
or Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENL2001
(Patterns of Spoken English).
CONTENT OF MODULE: The module focuses on three main areas of phonetics. First, you
will expand your existing skills in phonetic description and transcription by profiling speakers'
phonetic and phonological systems, using a range of appropriate models. The second
component of the module concentrates on intonational aspects of speech. Here, we will
examine recent theoretical developments alongside traditional accounts, and we will assess
the role of intonation in various communicative situations. Finally, you will gain knowledge of
and practical ability in the acoustic analysis of speech. Building on the basic acoustic skills
you acquired in Patterns of Spoken English, you will now move on to understand the role of
instrumental analysis in the quantification of speech production characteristics. In each of
these three areas, we will analyse speech from a wide range of contexts, including
disordered speech and children's speech.
MODULE OBJECTIVES: The central aim of this module is to develop your theoretical and
practical skills in phonetics. We will achieve this aim by examining the processes involved in
the production of speech and describing them in detail; by understanding and evaluating
models for phonetic analysis; by applying phonetic and phonological analysis as a means of
understanding the structure of normal and disordered speech, and by using techniques of
acoustic analysis in investigating phonetic data.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: This module should equip you with a firm understanding of the
role of advanced phonetic study in assessing and profiling speech. You should be in a
position to undertake a detailed analysis of a speaker's output and to account for
breakdowns in speech production using appropriate and informed explanations. Your
experience of this module should encourage you to appreciate the value of detailed phonetic
knowledge in, for example, English teaching where a detailed understanding of oracy skills
can be central to educational development, in foreign language teaching and learning, and in
clinical speech contexts.
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT: Three pieces of coursework (at 30% each) account for 90% of
the marks for this module. The coursework is issued at regular intervals through the
semester, and each piece enables you to apply your analytic skills and understanding to real
data. There are ample opportunities for you to submit unassessed work which will help
prepare you for the coursework questions. The remaining 10% is determined by class
contribution and participation.
SET TEXTS: There is no appropriate single set text for this module, since we will be drawing
material and data from a wide range of sources. Nevertheless, you should keep your Stage 2
textbook as a basic reference source. Particular reading, including just-published journal
articles, will be specified each week.
PREPARATORY READING: One of the helpful means of preparing for this module is to
revise the IPA symbols and the descriptive categories for vowels and consonants. You
should also do your best, before the module starts, to familiarise yourself with the location
and typical contents of the phonetics journals in the Main library.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Module Number:
The Structure of English
ENL3110
Teaching Method and Timetable: One weekly lecture (1 hour) and one weekly
seminar/tutorial (2 hours)
Spring Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Marc Richards
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including any linguistics
module at Stage 2.
Module Content: This module offers students the opportunity to explore the syntax and
morphology of English. Starting from the insight that sentences have structure, and that all
native speakers of English have knowledge of the rules that underlie that structure, this
course focuses on the grammatical tools and theoretical concepts that allow us to investigate
and describe the nature of our syntactic knowledge. Students are introduced to a basic
formal framework for syntactic analysis (a simple phrase-structure model informed by
modern Principles-and-Parameters Theory) and the kinds of questions and problems that
such a model allows us to address, including those relating to child language acquisition and
syntactic variation across different dialects of English. Throughout the course, the emphasis
is placed on developing practical skills for data analysis alongside scientific skills of
hypothesis formation and argumentation, and on setting the English language within the
wider context of human language more generally.
Module objectives: The primary aim of this module is to familiarize students with a basic
technical vocabulary and set of descriptive and analytical skills that can be applied to new
data sets, including tests for identifying syntactic categories and for determining syntactic
structure. A secondary aim is to develop an awareness of the kinds of linguistic facts that can
be revealed by a theoretical approach to language involving introspective methods, including
grammaticality judgments. In pursuing these aims, our purpose is not only to develop an
ability to solve linguistic problems using the tools and concepts provided, but also to gain an
understanding of how abstract structural notions can help us to capture and account for often
subtle and surprising empirical patterns and generalizations.
Learning outcomes: By the end of the module, students should have proficiency in linguistic
analysis using a theoretically-informed model of syntactic description, as well as an
appreciation of the value of using such a model to discuss and explain not only real language
data but also more abstract properties of linguistic competence. On a practical level, students
should be able to identify and describe the major types of syntactic categories and
constructions in terms of their formal characteristics and structural properties, as well as to
manipulate constituents in order to arrive at a structural analysis. They should be equipped to
evaluate alternative descriptions and analyses of linguistic phenomena and to argue for (or
against) a particular solution to a problem.
Assessment: One 1400-1700-word essay (30%); three analytical exercises (60%); seminar
contribution (10%).
Set Texts: This module will draw mainly from the following textbook (though other sources
will be used): Bas Aarts (2013), English Syntax and Argumentation (4th edition), Palgrave.
Other readings will be provided online.
Cost: Approximately £20
Module Title:
Marvels, Monsters and Miracles in Anglo-Saxon
England
Module Number:
ENG3011
Teaching Method and Timetable: 6 one-hour lectures, alternate weeks, and 1 weekly
two-hour tutorial
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Marilina Cesario
Prerequisites:
This module is normally available only to students on English,
Linguistics or Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules. Students
on other programmes may be admitted to the module, with permission of their Advisor of
Studies.
Module Content:
The very nature of marvels insists on their subjectivity: they are defined by the experience of
their viewer. To marvel from the Latin mirari, or to wonder, from the Germanic * wundar, is to
be filled with awe, surprise, admiration, or astonishment. When we try to generalise about
the meanings of marvels and the uses of wonder in the Middle Ages we are confronted with
multiplicity. How do we read marvels? What’s their role in medieval texts? Are monsters and
miracles to be read as marvels? One of the most critical tools for discussing the nature of
difference that is central to the marvellous is the idea of the ‘Other’, which offers both
psychological and political means of analysing the experience of wonder. The Anglo-Saxons
were fascinated by the idea of encounters with strangeness and difference - a fascination
that expressed itself in a rich and diverse range of textual, artistic and geographical
representations of such imaginings. Difference was considered both marvellous and
monstrous; terrifying and fascinating; disgusting and desirable.
This module examines the perceptions of the marvellous and monstrous in the literature of
the Anglo-Saxons. It investigates the nature of those phenomena which the Anglo-Saxons
experienced as marvels, how they interpreted their experiences of astonishment and how
they re-created them for others. It analyses the importance of ‘marvellous difference’ in
defining ethnic, racial, religious, class, and gender identities, as represented in different
genres including historiography (i.e. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), travel narratives (Wonders
of the East, Alexander’s Letter to Aristotle, etc.), Hagiography (i.e. The Life of S.
Christopher), and other literary texts including Beowulf, Judith, Genesis B.
Texts in Latin, Old Norse and Middle English may be used for comparative purposes.
Modern English translations will be provided for all the texts. Students are also expected to
be able to engage with texts in Old English.
Module Objectives:





To familiarise students with representations and constructions of the other in a range
of Anglo-Saxon texts and genres (i.e., hagiography, historiography, travel narratives,
etc.), as well as in material culture (maps and illustrations in particular);
To develop independent thought and academic research skills.
To develop an informed sense of the complexity of concepts covered in this module
(including ‘monstrosity’, ‘marvellous’, ‘superstition’, ‘miracle’, ‘religion’, ‘otherness’);
To develop an understanding of various literary texts in relation to their cultural
context and audience;
To develop an ability to engage critically with the primary material, as well as
familiarity with modern scholarly and critical approaches;

To think about how difference (racial, religious, gender, national) was conceptualised
in early medieval English culture;
Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the module students should be able to:






Demonstrate a critical awareness of a variety of early medieval concepts and
constructions of otherness and difference
Show a familiarity with a range of medieval texts, genres and cultural contexts;
Demonstrate the ability to engage with both contemporary critical concepts and their
applicability to pre-modern texts
Show evidence of independent research and study skills;
Use relevant electronic databases to further their written work;
Demonstrate a consistent level of contribution to seminar discussions.
Method of Assessment: One large essay (90%); the title for which may be decided in
consultation with the tutor. Seminar participation and group-based tasks (10%).
Set Texts: S. Heaney, Beowulf (Bilingual edition, Faber & Faber, 2007 (£12.99); J.R.R.
Tolkien, The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, Harper & Collins, repr. 2006 (£8.99)
Williams, Deformed Discourse, The Function of the Monster in Medieval Thought and
Literature, Exeter University Press, 1996 (£20.00)
Cost of Module Texts: Approximately £41.00
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Women’s Writing 1660-1820
Module Number:
ENG3020
Teaching Method and Timetable: One weekly three-hour seminar
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Prof Moyra Haslett
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENG2062
C18th and Romantic Literature.
Module Content: This module considers how women writers have been constrained by but
have also exploited literary traditions and traces the indexes of conformity and subversion in
their writing by placing them in contexts of prevailing discourses on femininity. In order to
situate women’s writing of this period, we will also examine constructions of femininity in
visual art and conduct writings. Key texts may include fiction by Sarah Butler, Eliza Haywood,
Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Austen, poetry by Aphra Behn, Anne Finch, Anna Laetitia
Barbauld and labouring women poets such as Mary Leapor and Ann Yearsley.
Module Objectives: To address the ways in which literary productions by women have
been marginalised by traditional syllabi and to redress the balance, so that the importance of
women’s writing in literary history can be examined and understood; to examine both the
ways in which women writers have adopted literary traditions and the cultural meanings of
femininity in the eighteenth century; to situate women’s writing in a range of contexts – the
material contexts of patronage and publishing, political and discursive contexts concerning
class, gender and nationality.
Learning Outcomes: In taking this module, students should acquire a knowledge of major
concerns in eighteenth-century women’s writing and should be expected to communicate
their understanding of the relationships between literary form and production and the social
and political issues of proper femininity, class and nationality. Seminars and assessments
should require students to address specific issues and to articulate conclusions from their
reading clearly and confidently, demonstrating an awareness of the critical debates
surrounding women’s writing of this period and independent engagement with these
debates.
Method of Assessment: An essay worth 90% will require you to demonstrate a knowledge
of key issues in the study of 18th-century women's writing in relation to at least two writers
studied in the module. A seminar contribution worth 10% will test your ability to articulate
your readings to the group.
Set Texts:
Course Pack containing selected poetry by Aphra Behn, Ann Finch, Mary
Leapor and Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Sarah Butler, Irish Tales (Four Courts Press), Jane
Austen, Persuasion (Oxford Worlds Classics), other texts to be confirmed in advance of
second semester.
Cost of Module Texts:
£55 approximately
Preparatory Reading:
semester.
Students should attempt to read Persuasion in advance of the
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Critical Fictions
Module Number:
ENG3039
Teaching Method and Timetable:
One weekly three-hour seminar.
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Professor Brian Caraher
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including at least one of:
ENG2062 (Eighteenth-century and Romantic Literature) or ENG2070 (Literature and Society,
1850-1930).
Co-requisites: None.
Content of Module: This module features selected work in modern and contemporary fiction,
but it also explores a specific set of theoretical problems. The seminar will examine an
emergent dimension of critical activity -- indeed, a new genre of critical writing -- that can be as
entertaining and instructive as it seems puzzling and heterodox. Since the 1960s there have
been an increasing number of "critical fictions," writings that cross generic boundaries between
works of prose fiction and works of literary criticism and theory. Frederick Crews's The Pooh
Perplex: A Freshman Casebook and Postmodern Pooh, Herbert Lindenberger's Saul's Fall: A
Critical Fiction, Marilyn French's The Women's Room, Catherine Clement's and Helene
Cixous's The Newly Born Woman, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, Foucault's
Pendulum and The Island of the Day Before, Harold Bloom's A Gnostic Fantasy, Terry
Eagleton's Saints and Scholars, Jacques Derrida's The Truth in Painting and The Post Card,
Ciaran Carson’s Fishing for Amber and Shamrock Tea, and Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World
and Vita Brevis provide just a few examples.
I would like to open a discussion of these unusual kinds of texts in this seminar. First, in order
to get our bearings, I would like to discuss a small set of 'imaginary conversations' composed
by such modern authors as Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. (Yeats, Joyce, Williams, among
others, compose other examples.) Such narrative strategies have been around since the time
of Plato, but quite a few modern and modernist authors reinvigorate the practice. Second, I
would like to discuss in some detail a range of contemporary 'critical fictions' written by critics
and theorists, on the one hand, and work by contemporary novelists who interweave fiction and
criticism in cunning ways--namely, Vladimir Nabokov, John Fowles and A S Byatt. Third, I
would like to consider whatever common set of features emerge from our survey. Are there
distinctive features or definitive characteristics of the genre? Are there discursive rules,
generic features and literary pragmatics of 'critical fictions'?
Module Objectives: To read and discuss a select set of modern and contemporary prose
writings which question and help to redefine such concepts as 'modern,' 'modernist,'
'postmodern,' 'poststructuralist,' 'rhetorical form,' 'discursive strategy,' 'narrative' and 'fiction.'
This module will also encourage the development of oral presentational skills, collaborative
work, and refined critical skills.
Learning Outcomes: Students should gain awareness of the ways in which generic and
critical problems get shaped, articulated and resolved. Also critical distinctions and barriers
often drawn up regarding 'modern' versus 'postmodern' and 'modernist' versus
'poststructuralist' modes of writing and criticism should be fully reconsidered and reconceived.
Methods of Assessment: A threefold or tripartite assessment strategy will be used on this
module. There will be a two-question, three-hour set paper which tests knowledge of the
primary texts and concepts taught on the module (60%). This examination is supplemented
by an oral seminar presentation (10%) which may then serve as the basis for an extended,
but more focussed, assessed essay (30%). Students may also choose to write an assessed
essay on a topic from a supplementary set list of projects.
Set Texts: Byatt, Possession: A Romance (London: Vintage, 1990); Crews, The Pooh Perplex
(NY: Dutton, 1965), Crews, Postmodern Pooh (2001); Eco, The Name of the Rose, Trans.
William Warner (London: Picador, 1984); Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman (London:
Pan); Gaarder, Vita Brevis, Trans. Anne Born (London: Phoenix House, 1997); Nabokov, Pale
Fire (London: Penguin); Wilde, Plays, Prose Writings and Poems (London: Dent/Everyman,
1996); Woolf, A Room of One's Own, Jed Rubenfeld, The Interpretation of Murder (Headline
Review, London, 2006).
Cost of Module Texts: £30 to £35
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
American Image and Text
Module Number:
ENG3061
Teaching Method:
1 weekly three hour seminar / workshop
And timetable:
Spring Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Catherine Gander
Pre-requisites: This module is normally available only to students on the English
programme who have completed 12 modules, including ENG2072, Introduction to American
Writing.
Co-requisites: None.
Module Content: Ranging from Walt Whitman’s fascination with the daguerreotype, through
documentary photo-texts to graphic novels, this course explores the connections and
interactions between the written word and the visual image in American literature, with an
emphasis on innovation and experimentation. Providing both a historical and conceptual
approach to the subject, the course engages with movements and practices key to the
exploration of American culture and identity, in which verbal and visual representations work
in relation or collaboration. There is no expectation that students will have a background in
art history; they will learn skills necessary to the interpretation of visual culture throughout
the course. It is hoped that, by participating in this course, students will develop an
understanding of the importance of the interrelation of different media to the representation
and communication of American identity.
Module Objectives: The module aims to:
-
allow students to understand and explore the ways in which the visual image and the
written word have combined in the modern American imagination in such ways as to
advance social, political and cultural understanding.
-
provoke inquiry into the reasons and methodologies of interdisciplinarity when
understanding culture
-
expose students to various realms of cultural production including painting,
photography, comics and documentary poetry
-
prompt students to question the cross-cultural and ethical implications of texts under
discussion and the wider social and national systems to which they relate
-
interrogate the notion of American exceptionalism
-
develop students’ spoken and written presentational and communication skills, as
well as independent and group-based research skills
Learning Outcomes: At the conclusion of this module, students will have:
o
Developed skills in the reading and analysis of visual culture
o
Learnt about historical and technical processes relating to the development of the
printed image, as well as its relations with the printed word
o
Developed cross-disciplinary research skills
o
Applied interdisciplinary methods of critical analysis
o
Examined and understood the formal and philosophical relations between the visual
image and the written word
o
Developed independent thought and academic research skills
o
Developed an informed sense of the complexity of issues covered in the module
o
Developed an understanding of various literary texts in relation to theoretical ideas
and their cultural contexts
o
Demonstrated an ability to engage critically with a range of primary materials, as well
as a familiarity with contemporary scholarship and critical/theoretical approaches to
that material.
Skills: In addition to the above, students will acquire and/or develop the skills of:
close critical reading of contemporary literary texts and an ability to articulate claims
regarding these texts in class discussions
the synthesis and weighting of different, sometimes competing interpretations of
literary texts
analysis of literary texts in relation to contemporary theoretical debates and a range
of historical and cultural contexts
interdisciplinary analysis
visual literacy
interrogation of how verbal and visual cultural representations combine to provide
new ways of articulating modern experience
Method of Assessment: One essay of 2,900-3,300 words: 90%; participation (including a
ten minute presentation): 10%.
Set Texts: Several texts and images will be provided or can be located online. These
may include: selections from documentary photobooks American Exodus (1939) by
Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor, You Have Seen Their Faces (1937) by Margaret BourkeWhite and Erskine Caldwell, 12 Million Black Voices (1941) by Richard Wright, art works by
Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Parmigianino, Grace Hartigan, Larry Rivers, Joan
Mitchell, Charles Demuth, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris; poetry by Frank O’Hara, William Carlos
Williams, John Ashbery, Gertrude Stein; photographs by Lee Marmon, Mathew Brady,
Alexander Gardner, Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times (1936).
Some you will need to buy or borrow. These are: Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of
Courage ((1895) W. W. Norton & Company, fourth edition, 2007), James Agee and Walker
Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Penguin Modern Classics (1941) 2006); Paul
Auster, City of Glass in New York Trilogy (Faber and Faber (1985), 2011); Paul Auster, Paul
Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, City of Glass – the Graphic Novel (Faber and Faber, 2005);
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Penguin, 2006); Leslie Marmon
Silko, Storyteller (Arcade reissue, 1989, or Penguin reprint 2012); Art Spiegelman, The
Complete Maus (Penguin, 2003).
Cost of Module Texts: Approximately £60
Preparatory Reading:
 James A. W. Heffernan, chapter 1, ‘Literacy and Picturacy’ from Cultivating Picturacy
(Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006)
 W. J. T. Mitchell, ‘What is an Image?’ New Literary History, Vol. 15, No. 3,
Image/Imago/Imagination (Spring, 1984), 503-537
 Mark Rawlinson, ‘Introduction’, American Visual Culture (Oxford and New York: Berg,
2009)
 Robert Atwan, ‘Introduction’, Convergences: message, method, medium (Bedford St
Martin’s, 2005)
All provided online.
Other notes: Additional required reading and images for each week will be posted online.
Make sure you read them in preparation for class.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Romantic Rebels: Poetry and Prose in the Age of
Revolution, 1789-1832
Module Number:
ENG3065
Teaching Method and Timetable: One weekly three-hour seminar
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Lucy Cogan
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENG2062
C18th and Romantic Literature.
Module Content: This module considers some of the major works of the Romantic era
(1789-1832) in the context of the enormous historical and political changes that occurred
over the course of the period. Reacting against this backdrop unprecedented political and
social upheaval that took in the French Revolution, the Revolutionary Wars, the Abolition
Movement and the Napoleonic Wars, Romantic era writers pushed the boundaries of
literature and redefined the role of poet or author for succeeding generations right up to the
present day. This module will explore some of the key concepts of the period, such as the
emerging discourses on human rights, social justice, individual liberty, and will of ‘the
people’, and consider how the writers of the time contributed to development of these ideas,
re-shaping the landscape of British literature in the process. It will also examine the ways in
which these works interrogate late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century attitudes towards
gender, sexuality, religion, class and race. The module will relate these questions of ideology
to Romantic era aesthetic theories and formal innovations. Beginning with the great
‘Pamphlet War’ that signalled the start of a unique moment in British political life, the module
will look at a range of poetry by canonical Romantic poets such as Blake, Wordsworth,
Shelley and Byron, alongside novels like Godwin’s Caleb Williams and Austen’s Sense and
Sensibility and non-canonical works like Mary Hays’ Emma Courtney.
Module Objectives: To enable students to develop a critical understanding of a range of
texts from across the Romantic era and, more generally, the key cultural concepts
associated with Romanticism; to introduce students to the great social, political, religious and
cultural debates of the period and enable them to relate these discourses to the literary
practices of the Romantic period; to examine the material contexts of Romantic period
literature, including printing, publication, book history, and the role of the periodical press.
Learning Outcomes:
On completing the module students will have acquired a broad
knowledge of Romantic era texts and they will have learned to analyse those texts in light of
their historical and social contexts. Students will also learn to consider Romantic period
literature in light of contemporary critical approaches such as historicism and critical theory.
Method of Assessment: An essay worth 90% will assess your knowledge of Romantic
literature and its contexts; the remaining 10% will be awarded on the basis of a presentation
and weekly class contribution.
Set Texts: Duncan Wu’s Romanticism: An Anthology (Blackwell), William Godwin’s Caleb
Williams (Oxford Classics), Mary Hays’ The Memoirs of Emma Courtney (Oxford Classics)
and Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (Oxford Classics).
Cost of Module Texts:
Approximately £50
Preparatory Reading: Students should attempt to read Emma Courtney in advance of the
semester.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Contemporary Indian Literature in English
Module Number:
ENG3070
Teaching Method and Timetable: One weekly three-hour seminar.
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Daniel S. Roberts
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules.
Co-requisites: None
Module Content:
Drawing on contemporary theories regarding new national and
postcolonial literatures, this module will introduce students to post-independence Indian
literature in English through a selection of texts including fiction, poetry, drama, travel writing,
and journalism. These will be accompanied by critical readings and discussions engaging
with issues such as the role of English in India; the politics of nationalism, regionalism, caste
and gender in contemporary India; India’s global reach and its (literary) diaspora; as well as
current media and travel writing in India. While the emphasis will be placed on canonical
literary texts (in printed form), other materials such as film, media, and internet resources will
be used to complement and contextualise these literary works.
Module Objectives: This module aims to introduce you to a selected range of texts, genres,
and critical theories representing post-independence literature in English from the Indian
subcontinent. We will consider what it means to produce literature in a language associated
with colonial domination but which is now regarded by many as being Indian, albeit of an
urbanised and elite nature. We will consider how the popular genres of prose fiction, drama,
and poetry in Indo-Anglian literature are influenced not only by western models but also by
national and regional forms of literature, and by narrative traditions that stretch back several
centuries in the oral and mythological traditions of India. The significance of this literature in
the context of national and international developments in education, economic growth, and
globalisation will be explored and debated through discussion and critical engagement.
Learning Outcomes: You should gain a broad understanding of contemporary Indian
literature in English within a framework provided by current critical theories regarding new
national and postcolonial literatures. You will engage in group work through oral
presentations which should enable you to develop communicational skills. Your formative
and summative written exercises should allow you to pursue specific interests in authors,
texts, and theories, in the form of a closely-argued essay which will generate feedback from
the tutor.
Method of Assessment: An essay of 2,400-2,800 words will count for 60%, two in-semester
assessments will count for 15% each and the remaining 10% will be determined by class
discussion and oral presentation. The first in-semester assessment due in week 4 will be a
book review of 900-1,000 words, including bibliography and footnotes, of one of the texts
below; the second in-semester assessment in week 7 will be an in-class test of 45 minutes
duration responding to a poetry extract (each group will be given a different extract). There
will be opportunity for formative work and feedback in the course of the semester.
Set Texts:
1. Jeet Thavil (ed).The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (Bloodaxe Books,
2008), £12.00.
2. Amitav Ghosh, The Shadow Lines (John Murray, 2011), £8.99
3. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (Flamingo, 1997). £5.99
4. Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters (Faber, 2002). £6.99.
5. Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland (Bloomsbury, 2013). £11.55
Book Review Texts:
You must read at least one of the following books for review by Week 4:
1. V.S.Naipaul, India: A Million Mutinies Now
2. William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India
3. Mark Tully, No Full Stops in India
4. Ramachandra Guha, India after Gandhi
5. Sam Miller, Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity
6. Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian
7. Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India
Note: as an alternative to the above you may suggest a title of your own choice. It will need
to be a non-fiction book dealing with contemporary India (travel, history, cultural analysis or
criticism) and agreed with the tutor by week 2.
Additional Readings:
A range of other set readings will be provided through library offprints and online resources.
Preparatory Reading:
Students should read all the set texts in advance of the module.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Irish Fiction in the Twentieth Century
Module Code:
ENG3096
Teaching Method and timetable:
One weekly three-hour seminar.
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Eamonn Hughes
Pre-requisites: This module is normally available only to students on English, Linguistics or
Creative Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENG2081 Irish
Literature.
Module content: The novel in Ireland has had a problematic history and is still to a large
extent seen as the poor relation in Irish writing. Critical approaches to the novel have only
recently moved to a consideration of the factors involved in this situation. This module will
engage with the emerging critical debate about the Irish novel and will examine its
development during the course of the twentieth century through a consideration of such
topics as realism in Ireland, the literary fantastic, experimental fiction, autobiographical
fiction; the ‘Big House’ novel, migrant fictions; fiction of the ‘Troubles’; contemporary fiction;
women’s writing; and representations of the city. Authors to be included will be drawn
(subject to the availability of novels in print) from: Somerville & Ross, James Stephens,
James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Flann O’Brien, Kate O’Brien, Liam O’Flaherty, Edna O’Brien,
Elizabeth Bowen, Aidan Higgins, Molly Keane, John McGahern, William Trevor, Brian Moore,
John Banville, Frances Molloy, Jennifer Johnston.
Module Objectives: To gain in-depth knowledge of 11 Irish novels; to develop an
understanding of the critical debate about the Irish novel; to understand the construction of
Irish literary history in relation to the novel.
Learning Outcomes: Students should be able to read and critically examine a range of
twentieth century Irish novels with an awareness of historical change and the construction of
literary history. They should be able to develop a critical understanding of the development
of the novel in Ireland and should expand their sense of the formal and thematic properties of
the Irish novel.
Skills: This module further develops skills that you have already acquired during the course
of your degree and, in particular, should allow you to acquire and demonstrate a knowledge
of the current debate about the history of the Irish novel; a knowledge of a broad range of
twentieth century Irish novels; an understanding of the different forms and sub-genres of the
modern and contemporary Irish novel, with an appreciation of the determinants acting on
those forms and sub-genres. You should also be able to refine your written and oral
communication.
Assessment: Essay 90%; presentation 10%.
Week 1: Introduction
A. The Big House Novel: Fictions of femininity and the Anglo-Irish
Week 2 Somerville & Ross, The Real Charlotte
Week 3 Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September
Week 4 Kate O'Brien, Mary Lavelle
Week 5 Molly Keane, Good Behaviour
B. Experimental Fiction: Ulysses and after
Week 6 James Joyce, Ulysses
Week 7 Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman
Week 8 Samuel Beckett, First Love
C. The Contemporary Novel
Week 9 Jennifer Johnston, How Many Miles to Babylon?
Week 10 Bernard McLaverty, Cal
Week 11 John McGahern, Amongst Women
Week 12 Robert McLiam Wilson, Eureka Street
Cost: £88
Other notes:
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Digital Textualities and the History of the Book
Module Number:
ENG3178
Teaching Method: One 1 hour lecture or IT session; one 2 hour seminar;
voluntary attendance at Information Services training.
Module Convenor: Dr Stephen Kelly
Pre-requisites:
This module is normally available to students on English,
Linguistics or Creative Writing programmes who have completed six modules. ENG2040
and/or ENG2050 would be beneficial.
Module Content: The book is arguably the most important technology in Western cultural
history. But with the advent of hypertext, e-readers and tablets, the death of the book is
being declared with greater frequency and urgency. This module introduces students to
the emerging disciplines of 'book history' and 'digital humanities' by taking the historical
development of the codex, the printed book, and electronic textuality as the basis for an
assessment of the materiality of textual meaning. The module will in turn assess alarmist
critiques of digital culture and its impact on 'traditional' literary practices and media by
exploring the manner in which textuality has played a key role in the articulation and
maintenance of cultural and political authority since the Middle Ages to the present.
Module Objectives: This module will explore the extent to which literary meaning is
dependent upon the materiality of textual transmission. With the development of the
codex in the early Middle Ages, to the 'advent' of print in the fifteenth century, culminating
in the age of hypertext, the module will explore what happens to text, as a medium both of
cultural information and aesthetic practice, when it is situated in and 'removed' from its
historically specific material frames, such as the manuscript or printed page. The module
will assess the extent to which the book as a technology is an instrument of cultural
authority and will trace the implications for literary culture of the contemporary development
of disaggregated modes of cultural creativity, represented by social media, folksonomies,
mash-ups, and so on. The module will invite students to reflect the periodisation of literary
cultures as they consider the future, if any, of literature in an age 'after' the book. Students
will have the opportunity to read medieval literary and interpretative texts (including a
range of religious lyrics, theological commentaries, and poetic fictions, including Piers
Plowman) which foreground their material contexts; early printed books which wrestle with
the traditions of the manuscript; and modern and post-modern, 'meta-fictions' which
deploy the book as an aesthetic device or play with their own status as texts (in work, for
example, by Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, B.S. Johnson, Italo Calvino, Mark
Danielewski, Michael Joyce, Ann Carson, among others). Practices of engaging with the
book such as marginalia and annotation, and visual representations of the act of reading,
will allow the module to better situate students in relation to reception history and
materialist hermeneutics.
Learning Outcomes: In association with Special Collections at QUB, the Linenhall
Library and Armagh Public Library, students will have acquired a knowledge of the
codicological and palaeographical skills required to study the pre-print book (i.e., they will
have developed an understanding of the historical development of writing and of the
processes of book manufacture before print). They will develop an understanding of
mechanical printing as a technology and will be able to historicise critically assumptions
about its significance and impact. They will learn the key assumptions and strategies of
textual criticism and will apply them to hypertextuality. They will have developed an
understanding of current issues in the presentation of digital texts, including the design
principles guiding the development of UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) models
for electronic reading, whether on the web or in e-readers. Students who are interested
can acquire valuable 'transferable skills' by developing a basic knowledge of HTML5 and
CSS in the interest of designing their own e-texts for assessment.
Method of Assessment: The module will be assessed by student projects (60%).
Students may respond to the materiality of texts in a variety of ways: by making their own
books, developing a website, or designing interfaces for electronic texts and e-readers. All
exercises will foreground the primary (literary) texts explored on the module and will reflect
directly on the relationship between materiality and textuality. Projects will be
accompanied by a 'learning journal' (30%) in which students explore the implications of their
projects in terms of the module's objectives. There will also be a contribution component
(10%).
Set Texts:
Cost of Module Texts:
Back to top
Module Title:
Hamlet: Early Modern to Postmodern
Module Number:
ENG3180
Teaching Method and Timetable:
6 one-hour lectures, alternate weeks and one
weekly two-hour tutorial
Spring semester
Module Teacher:
Prof Mark Burnett
Prerequisites: This module is normally available only to students on English pathways who
have already completed twelve modules, including the Stage two module, ENG2050,
Introduction to Renaissance Literature.
Module Content: This course explores one of the most important literary texts of the
western canon, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in a number of different manifestations. It addresses
the play in two ways, as a multiplicity of early modern texts/editions and as a screen
statement in several languages. The module separates into three parts. The first third of the
module introduces students to Hamlet as a text that exists in three separate versions, Q1,
Q2 and the first folio, discussing them in relation to the chimera of authorial intention and
subsequent editorial history. Emphasis will also be placed on strategies of contextual
reading and interpretation. The second part of the course introduces students to a number of
key film versions of Shakespeare’s play, notably those by Almereyda, Olivier, Branagh,
Zeffirelli and Kozintsev. A number of lesser known world cinema adaptations of the play from
China and Tibet will also feature. Finally, in the last part of the module, students will conduct
their own Hamlet on film projects from a sample of available examples, so enabling them to
test their early modern readings of the play inside and against postmodern instances of
adaptation and appropriation.
Objectives:
1. Students will be able to read, contextualize and adjudicate between different
manifestations of the same literary text.
2. Students will be able to contextualize Shakespeare’s play in terms of the institutions,
preoccupations and cultural practices of the period.
3. Students will refine skills in research, teamwork and the oral presentation of a project.
4. Students will have developed knowledge of critical writing about the drama of the early
modern period and Shakespeare on film.
5. Students will be able to develop a vocabulary for a discussion of film through the use and
application of appropriate terminology.
6. An ability to work in groups on a joint research project.
7. An ability to reflect on textual production and editorial tradition.
8. An ability to relate dramatic texts to their historical contexts.
9. The development of skills centred around film criticism and Shakespearean adaptation.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Students should have an ability to work in groups on a joint research project.
2. Students should have an ability to reflect on textual production and editorial tradition.
3. Students should have an ability to relate dramatic texts to their historical contexts.
4. The development of skills should be centred around film criticism and Shakespearean
adaptation.
Method of Assessment: One essay of 2,900-3300 words (90%) and seminar presentation
and participation (10%).
Seminar List:
Week 1: Introduction: Hamlet and Textual Multiplicity
Week 2: Hamlet Q1 and Q2
Week 3: Hamlet First Folio
Week 4: How to Read a Film
Week 5: Hamlet (Olivier, Branagh)
Week 6: Hamlet (Gibson, Almereyda)
Week 7: Reading Week
Week 8: Hamlet (Kozintsev, Prakash)
Week 9: Hamlet adaptations, The Banquet and Prince of the Himalayas
Week 10: Group Project Choices
Week 11: Group Presentations
Week 12: Revision
Set Texts: Shakespeare, Hamlet.
Please read Shakespeare's Hamlet in advance, as many other Shakespeare plays as
you can from the Norton anthology, and familiarize yourself with the major screen
adaptations of the play.
Cost of Module Texts:
Preparatory Reading:
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
Shakespearean Genres
Module Number:
ENG3198
Teaching Method and Timetable: One weekly three-hour seminar
Spring semester
Module Convenor:
Dr. Adrian Streete
Prerequisites:
This module is normally available only to students on English
pathways who have already completed twelve modules including ENG2050, Introduction to
Renaissance Literature. That module will have equipped you with the necessary skills for
reading Renaissance texts. This one will refine and enhance those skills in a close, critical
engagement with the central Shakespearean genres.
Content of Module: This course examines all the major genres that William Shakespeare
wrote in, namely history, comedy, poetry, tragedy, romance. In addition to thinking about the
interplay between genres and possible problems with generic categorisation, students will
also consider the following areas on the course; Shakespeare’s use of history; classical
ideas in Shakespeare’s works; religious Shakespeare; reception, readers and audiences; the
‘development’ of Shakespearean style; political Shakespeare; early modern laughter, jokes
and puns; poetic Shakespeare; Shakespearean rhetoric. A wide range of Shakespearean
texts will be studied on the course and, in addition to this reading, students are expected to
familiarise themselves with relevant modern critical writing on Shakespeare and on the
history of early modern culture more generally.
Module Objectives: To identify, describe and analyse the formal, thematic and generic
aspects of a range of Shakespeare’s writings; to show a critical awareness of the
relationship between Shakespeare’s works and the broader contexts of early modern
religion, politics, history and society; to demonstrate knowledge of the variety of historical
and critical approaches to the genres and be able to reflect critically upon these.
Learning Outcomes: Having completed this module, students should have refined their
ability to analyse literary texts sensitively and cogently. They should have developed their
skills in constructing a written and spoken case based on the marshalling of appropriate
primary and secondary evidence and the clear development of an argument. Students
should also be able to conceptualise and explore the various cultural, political and religious
contexts that inform Shakespearean genres.
Method of Assessment: The essay, which is worth 90%, will examine your ability to
critically examine, through close reference to text and context, Shakespeare’s texts. 10% of
the grade will be awarded on the basis of a short presentation that you will give before the
class and your tutor as well as on participation over the course.
Set Texts:
William Shakespeare, The Norton Shakespeare, ed., Stephen Greenblatt et. al. (Norton,
ISBN: 0393970876).
Russ McDonald, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare (Palgrave, ISBN: 0333947118).
Cost of Module Texts: Approximately £40
Vacation Reading: Students should read as widely as possible in both the Norton
Shakespeare and the Bedford Companion.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top
Module Title:
American Fiction, 1945-60
Module Number:
ENH3014
Teaching Method:
And timetable:
One weekly three-hour seminar
Spring Semester
Module Convenor:
Dr Paul Bunting
Pre-requisites: This module is available only to students on English, Linguistics or Creative
Writing programmes who have completed twelve modules, including ENG2072, Introduction
to American Writing.
Module Content: This course will examine some of the landmark texts in American fiction
in the period between the end of World War II and the beginning of Kennedy’s Presidency. It
covers Southern writing, African-American fiction, detective/crime fiction, Beat writing,
Jewish fiction, women’s writing and early postmodern fiction with some of the major
twentieth-century American authors included in the choice of ten novels for the course.
Module Objectives: The module is designed to encourage students to develop their
knowledge of American fiction, to be able to contextualise the work of the authors studied
within particular American postwar contexts, and to read the novels under discussion within
particular critical and theoretical contexts.
Learning Outcomes: There should be a detailed awareness of American fiction of the
period, an ability to engage critically with the connections and distinctions between different
fictional styles (postmodern/Beat writing), an appreciation of the various racial, ethnic and
gender issues at play in the period, and an understanding of the major themes in American
fiction after World War II, spanning the first decade and a half of the Cold War up to the
inauguration of President Kennedy.
Assessment: 2,900-3,300 word essay (90%); tutorial contribution & presentation (10%).
Semester Outline
Date of Class
Set Text*
Week 1
William Maxwell, The Folded Leaf (1945)
Week 2
Chester Himes, If He Hollers, Let Him Go (1945)
Week 3
The Granta Book of the American Short Story
Week 4
The Granta Book of the American Short Story
Week 5
Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café (1953)
Week 6
Raymond Chandler, The Long Good-Bye (1953)
Week 7
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)
Week 8
Saul Bellow, Seize The Day (1956)
Easter Break (25 March – 12th April 2013)
Week 9
Jack Kerouac, On The Road (1957)
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Bernard Malamud, The Assistant (1957)
John Updike, Rabbit, Run (1960)
Revision session
* All course texts are available at student discount in No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic
Avenue, Belfast.
Students should at least have read William Maxwell’s The Folded Leaf for the first week’s
class during which seminar presentations will be allotted for the remainder of the semester.
Cost: £75 approx.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to scheduled class times, all modules require you to undertake
independent study. Most undergraduate modules carry 20 CATS points each, which equate
to a 200 hour workload overall. The Double Dissertation module carries 40 CATS points, i.e.
a 400 hour workload.
Back to top