Texts and Contexts is your introduction to the study of English Literature at degree level. The module is the English Literature foundation course, taken by all students studying English and English Literature.

You will study a range of texts from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, including Shakespeare, Romantic poetry and a Victorian novel. You are also introduced to an array of critical approaches to literature, which are applied to the selected texts.

Aims of the Module

• To provide a foundation for the study of Literature at Level 2 and 3;
• To introduce you to the advanced study of the three main genres of Literature: prose, poetry, drama;
• To introduce the breadth of critical approaches to texts;
• To encourage good habits - reading, writing, research, participation;
• To enhance your communication skills through group discussions and presentations.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module you should be able to:

• Express yourself clearly in writing on literary topics;
• Understand and comment on a range of fictional, dramatic and poetic texts;
• Describe and evaluate basic theoretical positions and arguments;
• Participate confidently in group discussions;
• Appreciate the relation between critical theory and the analysis of literature;
• Prepare material for a group presentation and respond to questions about texts and theories;
• Reflect upon literature's treatment of a range of issues.

Reading List

• Bronte, Anne (1994; 2001) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Ed. Peter Merchant. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics
• Lewis, Matthew (1998) The Monk. Ed. Emma McEvoy. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics
  Rogers, Jane (2000) Island. London: Abacus
• Sanders, Andrew (2004) The Short Oxford History of English Literature. 3rd Edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Shakespeare, William (2002) Measure for Measure. Ed. J. W. Lever. London: Thomson / Arden

You will also study some Romantic and Renaissance poetry from an Edge Hill anthology, available via the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Reading Contemporary Literature develops your study of English Literature at first year level, and complements the LIT 1000 foundation course.

You will study a range of recent and contemporary texts. You are also introduced to key critical approaches to literature, which are applied to the selected texts.

Aims of the Module

• To introduce you to contemporary debates about literature and criticism;
• To examine new thinking about the subject;
• To develop skills in reading and communicating;
• To develop your own critical responses;
• To engage with literary theory to enhance your experience of the texts and provide the basis for further exploration of the subject.

Learning Outcomes

Students who have successfully completed the module will be able to:

• Respond critically to a range of contemporary writing;
• Develop their own ideas about contemporary literature and criticism;
• Apply their knowledge of critical approaches to a range of literary texts;
• Present their ideas using appropriate academic conventions;
• Demonstrate effective learning skills, including the selection and deployment of printed and electronic resources;
• Reflect on the development of their skills and identify their personal learning goals.

Reading List

• Ali, Monica (2004) Brick Lane. London: Black Swan
• Barry, Peter (2002) Beginning Theory. 2nd Edn. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Bennett, Alan (2004) The History Boys. London: Faber. ISBN: 0571224644
• Clark, Polly, Zoe Lambert, Jane Rogers (2006) Ellipsis 2: Comma Modern Shorts. London: Comma Press
• McEwan, Ian (2005) Atonement. London: Vintage
• Baxter, Judith (ed.) (1996) Four Women Poets: Liz Lochhead, Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, Fleur Adcock (Cambridge Literature). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

This module, taken by first-year single honours English Literature students offers an introduction to the theory and practice of narrative in a range of formats and genres.

The module will provide you with a basis for the analysis of narrative in literary and other contexts. Through the analysis of key texts, you will consider such matters as competing traditions of storytelling, genre, and interpretation. The module provides important theoretical and practical foundations for further study.

You will be provided with the means to develop your understanding of the codes and conventions that govern the structure, reception and interpretation of narrative in Literature and culture more broadly. The module studies such topics as reading fairy tales and folk tales, myths and legends, modern myths and narrative, intertextuality, narrative transformation, theories of narrative, narrative genres, case studies such as Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Joan of Arc, and postmodern forms of narrative. These explorations will provide a useful adjunct to study of Literature in other level 4 modules, LIT 1000 and LIT 1002.

Assessment

The module will be assessed as follows:

• Formal academic essay on a single text (2000 words) (25%)
• Portfolio of seminar responses and exercises (2000 word equivalent) (25%)
• Collaborative group presentation using appropriate technology (25%)
• Research-based essay on an aspect of narrative theory, title to be negotiated with tutor (25%)

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Carter, Angela (2006) The Bloody Chamber. London: Vintage
• Heaney, Seamus (2000) Beowulf. London: Faber
• Massie, A. (2004) Arthur the King. London: Phoenix

For further details, contact: Dr. Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module introduces first-year single and major honours English Language and English Literature students to degree-level study of their subjects.

Through a structured programme of generic and subject-related tasks, you will develop the knowledge and understanding of academic conventions that are needed for successful study. The module encourages you to acquire and consolidate key skills in critical thinking, the development of argument, written and verbal communication, referencing and bibliographical skills, appropriate research skills, time management, IT skills, and (where relevant) numeracy skills associated with the interpretation of linguistic data presented in graphs, charts and statistical format.

Additionally, we will reflect on academic and personal development through the use of integrated Personal Development Planning. This approach will prepare you for the requirements of Language and Literature study at second and third-year level, ensuring youhave sufficient practice and experience of the demands of degree-level study to cope successfully. As well as providing a solid foundation for academic study and helping you move towards autonomous learning, the more general aspects of the Personal Development Plan will equip you with transferable skills and abilities that will be invaluable to future employment prospects. 

Assessment

• Academic essay (2000 words approx.) on a topic negotiated with tutor (25%)
• Group oral presentation with bibliography and handouts (2000 word equivalent) on an agreed topic (25%)
• E-portfolio (PDP) (25%)
• Portfolio of programme –specific tasks (25%)

Essential Reading (for purchase)

Please note that there is no advanced primary reading list for this module.

For further details, contact: Dr. Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

This 30-credit interdisciplinary module will explore the literature of the English Renaissance from c.1450 to c.1680, tracing the development of the three key literary genres: poetry, prose narrative (including autobiography) and drama in a period of extraordinary civil tumult and cultural change. 

You will be encouraged to consider Renaissance textual production, dissemination and consumption, evaluating the remarkable literary output of the reigns of ten different monarchs beginning with the Tudors and ending with the restored House of Stuart. 

The complexity and diversity of the literature categorised under the broad term ‘Renaissance’ will be acknowledged and the term will be problematised as much as it is defined. Although the challenges of female authorship at this time will be explored and the inequalities between male and female agency examined, texts by male and female authors will be studied alongside each other, not separated, thus male and female voices and concerns will be regarded as part of a coherent whole.

The course will be split into three genre-based sections (drama, poetry, prose) and eight weeks will be spent tracing the development of each genre over time. Themes which will be examined in each of the three genre-led sections of the course could include: monarchy, rebellion, the people, class, nationalism, religion, heresy, superstition, witchcraft, gender identity, self-fashioning, anti-feminism, proto-feminism, sexuality, the body.

Assessment

• Class test (20%)
• Individual presentation (30%)
• 2000-word essay (50%)

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Corbin, Peter and Douglas Sedge (eds.) (1986) The Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays: Sophonisba; The Witch; The Witch of Edmonton. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Henry VIII by William Shakespeare – please purchase the Arden edition.
• Graham, Elspeth; Hinds, Hilary; Hobby, Elaine et al. (eds.) (1989) Her Own Life: Autobiographical Writings by Seventeenth-Century Englishwomen. London: Routledge.
• Hollander, John and Frank Kermode (eds.) (1973)The Literature of Renaissance England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN-10: 0195016378 / ISBN-13: 978-0195016376.
• Barry, Peter (2002) Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

For further details, contact: Dr Mari Hughes-Edwards, edwardsm@edgehill.ac.uk.

This 30-credit module provides an introduction to texts, authors, genres and central themes during the ‘long’ eighteenth century, 1700-1830. This period encompasses a shift from a poetry of public argument towards a poetry more personal and introspective in nature, focused on individual, subjective experience; the high-water mark of Augustan neo-classical satire; profound changes in reading practices leading to the birth of the novel as a dominant literary form; the ever-greater emergence of women and labouring-class writers; and the rise of the ‘Romantic spirit’.

Students will consider critically a variety of themes including the meaning of Romanticism and the aesthetic debates that produced it; the place of art and artists within society; anxieties about social change; sex and marriage within literature; debates about human nature; the rise of the novel; landscape and society; sensibility; and women and labouring-class writers. The module aims to enable you to develop a range of critical / theoretical approaches to literature, as well as close-reading skills.

Assessment

• Close reading of poetry (15%): Early in semester one
• Annotated critical bibliography on the C18 novel or drama (15%): Towards the end of semester one
• Exam (2 hours) (30%): Towards the end of semester two
• Critical essay (40%): Towards the end of semester two

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Austen, Jane (1811; 2003) Sense and Sensibility. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• Burney, Frances (1778; 2003) Evelina. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics.
• Fielding, Henry (1742; 1999) Joseph Andrews. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics.
• Fairer, David, and Christine Gerrard (eds.) (2003) Eighteenth-Century Poetry: an Annotated Anthology. 2nd Ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Shelley, Mary (1818; 1996) Frankenstein. New York and London: Norton.
• Wu, Duncan (ed.) (2006) Romanticism: an Anthology. 3rd Ed. Oxford:Blackwell

For further details, contact: Dr Steve Van Hagen, hagens@edgehill.ac.uk.

The impulse to imagine perfect worlds (utopias) and nightmarish environments ( dystopias) has appeared throughout English and American literature. LIT 2103 begins by examining examples of Classical and Renaissance utopias before turning its attention to the utopian and dystopian fiction of the twentieth century. As such, it considers some of the key narratives of the twentieth century: Gilman's Herland, Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time.

For further details, contact: Dr Peter Wright, wrightp@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module gives you the opportunity to study post-war British drama, emphasising the diversity of practice, from the growth of “kitchen-sink” realism in the fifties to the rise in experimental theatre in the sixties and seventies to the contemporary engagement with political issues.  Representative texts, by writers such as Caryl Churchill and Tom Stoppard will be studied to enable you to gain insight into the variety of theatrical writing and to provide material for reflection on this dynamic and important area of literary expression.

Assessment

Assessment is through two assignments, each weighted at 50%, as follows:

• Assessment 1 – Project (2000 words equivalent) on a negotiated topic. The object of the piece (which might take the form of a short audio presentation, a web page, a film or other medium) will be to introduce one aspect of the module content to a stated audience. For example, a student might choose to produce and record a radio introduction to Absurdist drama. Students will be assessed on the finished piece, and on the associated documentation.
• Assessment 2 – Two-hour, two-question examination, covering all the writers studied.

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Churchill. C. (1987) Serious Money. London: Methuen.
• Lochhead, L. (2002) Misery Guts. London: Nick Hern.
• Hare, D. (1990) Racing Demon. London: Faber.
• Osborne, J. (1956) Look Back In Anger. London: Faber.
• Stoppard, T. (1975) Travesties. London: Faber

For further details, contact: Dr Rob Spence spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

The eighteenth century was a time of exploration, during which an intrepid range of English travellers roamed the world, and particularly Europe, in the period sometimes labelled “the Age of Pergrination.” The pinnacle of a gentleman’s education (and that of some ladies) was a Grand Tour of the splendours of European civilisation. This period also saw the rise of the Novel as the major literary genre.

These journeys are recorded in letters, journals, factual books and more fanciful novels, reflecting the period’s fascination with travel, and the idea of the journey as a means of self-revelation and self-improvement.

In this module we will examine the travel literature of the time and chart its relationship to the emerging form of the novel. You will read a wide range of extracts from travellers, and also some novels of the time that reflected the contemporary interest in travel.

The module will be organised as a one-hour lecture followed by a two-hour seminar, with a text as the weekly focus. Assessment is by a single piece of coursework, of roughly 3000 words, on a title negotiated with the tutor.

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Bohls, E. and Ian Duncan (eds.) (2005) Travel Writing 1700 – 1830: An Anthology Oxford: Oxford University Press (£12.99)
• Sterne, L. (1767; 2003) A Sentimental Journey. Oxford: Oxford University Press £4.99
  and possibly one other novel …

For further details, contact: Dr Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module is concerned with texts that are specifically about crime and criminality. Crime is an important element in a great deal of ‘serious’ and ‘popular’ literature and much writing about crime blurs the boundary between these two categories. But how much do we really know about the social and cultural significance of crime and indeed our own interest in it? Although we think of ‘crime’ as ‘fiction’ or ‘fact’, the truth is much more complex.

The module is concerned with crime and criminality as cultural and social ‘texts’ and will explore the possibility that may be there is no such thing as ‘crime’ outside of the narratives in which we think, read and even gossip about it. The module will be taught through a series of ‘lectures’ and seminars but will be mainly seminar focussed.

This is a challenging module which will raise many issues and subjects that will be new to you. We will look at the history of crime, criminality and criminology and ask questions about texts that few critics have asked previously. Exploring the narrative lurking in Oliver Twist that few dare mention we will also consider why Sherlock Holmes is a cultural icon; examine the ‘codes’ in Agatha Christie’s writing and evaluate what Phillip Marlowe hides; the appeal of gangsters and gun molls; our voyeuristic interest in violent crime; and why so many people appear to misread American Psycho.

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Chandler, Raymond (1939) The Big Sleep. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• Christie, Agatha (1930) The Murder at the Vicarage. London: Harper Collins.
• Conan Doyle, Arthur The Sign of the Four (any edition)
• Dickens, Charles Oliver Twist (any edition)
• Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho (any edition)
• Ellroy, James (1987) The Black Dahlia. New York: Mysterious Press.
• Rankin, Ian (1997) Black and Blue. London: Orion.
• We will also look at a novel by Sara Paretsky, to be announced later.

For further details, contact: Professor Linden Peach, peachl@edgehill.ac.uk.

Please note: You do not have to be a woman or a feminist to enjoy this course…

This 15-credit course will explore textual representations of the female body in English Literature from the Middle Ages and in English Literature from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It will draw on a range of literary texts (prose and poetry) from these two periods and effort will be made to understand the literary works studied within their historical and cultural contexts.

This course will also theorise its textual representations of the body using some clearly-expressed material from the work of key contemporary feminist and gender theorists, exploring changes and continuities in the textual representation of the female form over time in an interdisciplinary and theoretical way. 

You will be encouraged to regard contemporary attitudes to the body as part of a much larger and longer historical continuum.  The problematisation and challenge of past and present representations of the body will be enabled and the body will be revealed as a crucial signifier of cultural/ social values.  The course will in this way make cross-period links in its consideration of such topics as: body image, idealisations of the female form, brutalisation, self-brutalisation, the sexual body, the aging body, the dying body, the grotesque, the suffering body.

The course will be split into the following sections:

• Week 1 & 2: Introductions
• Weeks 3, 4, 5, & 7: The Suffering Body
• Weeks 8, 9, 10, & 11: The Body Beautiful
• Week 12: Conclusions

In each of these themed sections time will be spent considering each particular bodily manifestation from a medieval and a modern perspective.  Contemporary critical theory will be studied from week 1 onwards. 

Assessment

• 2000-word essay (70%)
• Class test (30%).

Essential Reading (for purchase)

Medieval texts:

All medieval texts are in the course sourcebook which can be purchased from the English department office a week before week one.
 
Modern texts:

• Conboy, Kate, Nadia Medina, Sarah Stanbury (eds.) (1997) Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory.  Columbia: Columbia University Press. This is your theory reader.
• Duffy, Carol Ann (1999) The World's Wife. London: Anvil Press Poetry.
• Nichols, Grace (1984) The Fat Black Woman's Poems. London: Virago Press Ltd. ISBN-10: 0860686353 / ISBN-13: 978-0860686354
• Jackson, Shelley (2002) The Melancholy of Anatomy. Peterborough: Anchor Books.
• Winterson, Jeanette (1993) Written on the Body.New York: Knopf.

For further details, contact: Dr. Mari Hughes-Edwards, edwardsm@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module introduces students to a range of texts from twentieth century American fiction, concentrating on fiction written by American and Canadian women during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Feminist and postmodern writerly practices will be investigated, with particular emphasis on topics such as oppression and nurture. Other aspects of this fiction that will be examined include: narrative strategies, diversity of tradition and the possibility of predominantly 'female' genres such as romance, confessional, gothic, feminist, epistolary and saga novels. Researching the two major themes of this module (oppression and nurture) will also involve the study of topics such as female identity and the creation of selfhood in modern America; immigration and ethnicity; survival strategies; mothers and daughters; incest; political awareness; and depictions of childhood will also be discussed as well as the position of outsiders in American culture.

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Erdrich, L. (1984) Love Medicine (Flamingo)
• Morrison, T., (1988) Beloved (Picador)
• Shields, C. (1997) Larry's Party (4th Estate)
• Tan, A. (1989) The Joy Luck Club (Cambridge U.P.)
• Walker, A. (1993) Possessing the Secret of Joy (Vintage)

For further details, contact: Ms Lisa Ratcliffe, ratclifl@edgehill.ac.uk.

What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be masculine? Is male identity something you ‘do’ or something you ‘are’? Is contemporary masculinity in crisis?

These are some of the questions that you will have an opportunity to answer on this 15-credit module that will explore twentieth- and twenty-first-century fictional representations of men written in English (both British and American).

Each week, we will analyse a key American or English literary text in order to gain a better understanding of contemporary masculinities. From Queer to Female, Ethnic to Postmodern, we will trace the variable and diverse forms of masculinity within their historical, cultural and ideological contexts. At the end of the module, students will have knowledge and understanding of the various manifestations of masculinity (such as queer, trans, adolescent and female masculinities) and an appreciation of not only the literary form but also the political and cultural forces at work during the period.

Assessment

• 1,000-word critical review (40%)
• 2,000-word essay (60%)

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Bissett, Alan (2001) Boyracers
• Cooper, Dennis (1994) Closer
• Copeland, Douglas (1991) Generation X
• Easton Ellis, Bret (1991) American Psycho
• Hornby, Nick (1998) About a Boy
• Hornby, Nick (2002) Fever Pitch
• Lee, Gus (1994) China Boy
  
• Miller, Arthur (1949) Death of a Salesman
• Palahniuk, Chuck (1996) Fight Club
• Swofford, Anthony (2003) Jarhead
• NB. Please contact the tutor (see below) for set editions etc.

For further details, contact: Dr. Ben Brabon, brabonb@edgehill.ac.uk.

This 15-credit module will introduce students to key trends and recent developments within the field of postcolonial literary theory and will be grounded in the study of fictional works by writers originating from a range of ‘postcolonial’ locations. Over the last twenty years a distinct body of cosmopolitan literature has emerged from migrant and diasporic writers, which articulates a concern with issues of identity, displacement and belonging within an evolving postcolonial world. Such concerns have become more acute in the post-9/11 period and impact upon understandings of both indigenous, and migrant and diasporic traditions of writing.

The module will examine novels published in recent decades which engage with the particular diaspora spaces located in contemporary Britain, situating the primary texts within particular understandings of migrant and diasporic communities. Placing Rushdie’s ‘Imaginary Homelands’ as a significant temporal and intellectual pivotal moment, the module will examine how representations of migrant and diasporic figures in literature have evolved, and been transformed by recent global events which impact upon constructions of identity. As particular historical moments impact explicitly or implicitly upon the lived experience of various cultural groups, students will explore the literary forms used by writers to articulate a response. The course will juxtapose contemporary canonical authors with less well-known writers, and will contextualise texts within specific theoretical discourses, in order to encourage students to develop their critical skills and extend their theoretical understanding of relevant concepts.

Assessment

• A diagnostic / formative essay of 1,000 words (30%)
• An essay at the end of the module:  2,000 words (70%)

Essential Reading

The module will study texts by writers including Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Leila Aboulela, Nadeem Aslam, Hari Kunzru, Ahdaf Soueif, Kamila Shamsie, Meera Syal, Romesh Gunesekera, Caryl Phillips, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Hisham Matar, Mohsin Hamid. Please contact the tutor (see below) for details of set editions etc.

For further details, contact: Karen D’Souza, dsouzak@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module will examine the textual representation(s) of the supernatural, specifically of ghosts and of haunting and the haunted, in works of English Literature from the nineteenth century to the present day.

It will explore the operation of three key genres - short fiction, the novella and the novel and drama -  and will compare and contrast the ways in which each genre communicates its ghosts and ghostliness.  Fear - the generation of terror and dread as a dramatic device, and fear as both individual terror and cultural anxiety – will be of crucial importance to the module and students will be encouraged to regard the textual constructions of the supernatural as culturally anxious (about, for example, issues of class, issues of gender, issues of race, issues of religion). 

The course will be organised thematically and, wherever possible, chronologically.  It will explore supernatural subjects (i.e. both the ghost and the haunted subject) and supernatural space. Possible themes under consideration could include:  

Supernatural Subjects

• Residual energy hauntings (past events on continuous loop);
• Supernatual speakers versus spectral silence;
• Age and youth (child hauntings and adult spirit manifestations);
• The malignant and the malign versus the kindly and the benign: spirits that harm and spirits that heal;
• Ghosts of the living: Doppelgangers, Astral travel – although chiefly only those which die shortly after their ghostly appearances will be studied;
• Ghosts from the past, and spirits from the future;
• Anamorphic ghosts (shape shifters);
• Supernatural sexuality.

Supernatural Space

• Things that go bump in the night…supernatural forces and the inanimate (this can include ghostly scent which often accompanies spiritual speakers);
• Haunted locations: Space and Place (e.g. haunted houses and/or other haunted buildings). These can be compared usefully with analysis of haunted individuals (where the location has no effect upon the haunting);
• Rural haunting;
• Urban haunting;
• Ghosts in season – the yearly cycle and the spirit world (this could look especially at Christmas and its implications for supernatural literature);
• Day and Night…haunting in the dark and the light;
• Ghostly weather.

Assessment

• 2000-word essay (70%)
• Class test (30%)

Essential Reading (for purchase)

Short Fiction

• Le Fanu Sheridan (2007) In A Glass Darkly. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.
• James, M.R. (1988) Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. New York:Dover.
• Dalby, Richard (ed.) The Virago Book of Ghost Stories. London: Virago.

The Novel

• James, Henry (1994) The Turn of the Screw. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics.
• Hill, Susan (1998)The Woman in Black. London:Vintage. 
• Waters, Sarah (2005) Affinity. London: Virago.

Drama

• Ridley, Arnold (1931)The Ghost Train. London:Samuel French Ltd.
• McPherson, Conor (2001) The Weir. London: Nick Hern Books. 

For further details, contact: Dr Mari Hughes-Edwards, edwardsm@edgehill.ac.uk.

Do we read for entertainment or for intellectual reasons? This module examines the short fiction of the fin de siècle (c. 1880-1910), a transitional period between Victorianism and Modernism that saw the emergence of a mass reading public but also witnessed early Modernist experiments. We will explore both popular and elitist short fiction from the period. You will come across well-known writers (e.g. Rudyard Kipling, Henry James) and less-known names (e.g. Grant Allen, George Egerton).

The module will acquaint you with the fragmentation of the literary marketplace in the 1890s. It explores a number of literary genres relevant to the short story format, including the serial detective story, New Woman writing, the ghost story, Literary Naturalism, lower-middle-class humour, and the proto-Modernism of the period. The module addresses the rise of the fiction magazine in the period and relates this to the coming of universal literacy. The focus on the short story format allows us to deal effectively with developments in the publishing industry, in reading and writing practices, and in generic developments in the late nineteenth century, all also relevant to the study of twentieth-century fiction. 

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Doyle, A.C. (1891-92) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• James, Henry, The Ghost Stories of Henry James. Ware: Wordworth
• Kipling R. (1888), Plain Tales from the Hills. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Lee V. (1890), Hauntings. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview
• Marsh R. (1900), The Seen and the Unseen. Kansas City: Valancourt

For further information, contact: Dr Minna Vuohelainen, Minna.Vuohelainen@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module gives you the opportunity to study post-war British drama, emphasising the diversity of practice, from the growth of “kitchen-sink” realism in the fifties to the rise in experimental theatre in the sixties and seventies to the contemporary engagement with political issues.  Representative texts, by writers such as Caryl Churchill and Tom Stoppard will be studied to enable you to gain insight into the variety of theatrical writing and to provide material for reflection on this dynamic and important area of literary expression.

Assessment

Assessment is through two assignments, each weighted at 50%, as follows:

• Assessment 1 – Project (2000 words equivalent) on a negotiated topic. The object of the piece (which might take the form of a short audio presentation, a web page, a film or other medium) will be to introduce one aspect of the module content to a stated audience. For example, a student might choose to produce and record a radio introduction to Absurdist drama. Students will be assessed on the finished piece, and on the associated documentation.
• Assessment 2 – Two-hour, two-question examination, covering all the writers studied.

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Churchill. C. (1987) Serious Money. London: Methuen.
• Lochhead, L. (2002) Misery Guts. London: Nick Hern.
• Hare, D. (1990) Racing Demon. London: Faber.
• Osborne, J. (1956) Look Back In Anger. London: Faber.
• Stoppard, T. (1975) Travesties. London: Faber

For further details, contact: Dr Rob Spence spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module introduces you to the main currents of English literature in the Victorian period (1837-1901). The module covers fiction and poetry written mainly in the period 1837-1880, since another Level 6 module, ‘Late-Victorian Gothic’ (LIT3116), is concerned with fin-de-siècle writing.

The study of nineteenth-century fiction is a core element of any Literature degree. This year-long 30-credit module provides students with a thorough grounding in the fiction and poetry of the Victorian era, giving students ample opportunities to study a wide a range of Victorian literature in its various contexts.

The main focus of the module will be on canonical authors and texts, read through recent critical and theoretical ideas, and set in their historical contexts. In addition, you will encounter forms of popular publication from the period, enhancing your’ understanding of the wider contexts of Victorian literature.

The module is organised thematically in order to situate Victorian literature in its contexts. Themes covered will include Victorian reading habits and writing and publishing methods; the Condition-of-England debate; the Victorian ‘crisis of faith’; Victorian gender roles; and the lighter side to the Victorians, their zest for entertainment, consumerism and scandal. The module aims to present the Victorians as innovative, enterprising and socially conscious people and seeks to challenge the prevailing view of Victorian society as strait-laced and prudish.

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Braddon, M.E. (1861-62) Lady Audley’s Secret. Ed. Natalie M. Houston. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press.
• Brontë, E. (1847) Wuthering Heights. Ed. Pauline Nestor. London: Penguin Classics.
• Collins, T.J. and V.J. Rundle (eds.) (1999) The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview.
• Collins, W. (1859-60) The Woman in White. Ed. Matthew Sweet. London: Penguin Classics.
• Dickens, C. (1837-9) Oliver Twist. Ed. Philip Horne. London: Penguin Classics.
• Eliot, G. (1871-2) Middlemarch. Ed. Felicia Bonaparte & David Carroll. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics.
• Gaskell, E. (1854) North and South. Ed. Sally Shuttleworth & Angus Easson. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics

For further details, contact: Dr. Minna Vuohelainen, Minna.Vuohelainen@edgehill.ac.uk.

Modernism is the dominant literary movement of the twentieth century. As such, it had a profound effect on the ways in which literature was produced and perceived. Modernism altered the relationship between reader and writer, creating the conditions in which further late twentieth century upheavals in the field of literary production occurred. Modernism is thus a central influence on the literature of the last century, and continues to resonate in contemporary literature. This module enables you to explore the texts which contributed to this major shift in literary culture.

On this 30-credit module you will look at the concept of modernism, and consider how it manifests itself in the arts generally, and then focus on a series of key modernist texts. The module will be delivered through lectures and seminars, with seminars providing an opportunity for student presentations on key topics.

Assessment

• Assignment 1 - Research paper on the concept of modernism (2500 words, 40%)
• Assignment 2 - Critical evaluation of a modernist text or texts (2000 words, 30%)
• Examination: Two-hour paper with questions on a range of topics (30%)

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Rainey, Lawrence (ed.) (2005) Modernism: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Ford, Ford Madox (1999) The Good Soldier. Ed. Thomas C. Moser. USA: Oxford World’s Classics.
• Sinclair, May (2003) The Life and Death of Harriet Frean. Ed. Francine Prose. London: Virago.
• Please only buy the editions of these texts listed above.

For further details, contact: Dr Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

William Shakespeare

This 15 credit module will study a wide range of the plays and poetry written by the Renaissance writer William Shakespeare in the light of recent critical and theoretical approaches. We will explore how Shakespeare came to be regarded as a canonical author; how his texts were assessed in his own times, and how later centuries (particularly our own) have responded to them critically and in terms of theories of authorship.

Jane Austen

This module will study Jane Austen's novels in the light of recent critical approaches. Beginning with a survey of nineteenth and early twentieth-century assessments, we will consider how Austen came to be regarded as a canonical author; how her texts began to be reassessed in the mid-twentieth-century; and how readings of her work have been affected by recent developments in critical theory. Her views on the position of women, and of marriage and other relationships, will be considered against a background of the political and social events of the era.

For further details, contact: Professor Harriet Devine, devineh@edgehill.ac.uk.

Science fiction is the premier literature of ideas; it is, perhaps, the defining literature of the twentieth century. As such, it provides a fascinating subject for study, inviting readers to speculate on the nature of reality, of time, of awareness, of what makes us human. It provides visions of new technology, of alien worlds, and of changes in relations between genders, classes, and cultures.

The module adopts a historical approach to introduce you to the wide variety of science fiction available ranging from H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895) to the work of Philip K. Dick (whose stories are providing the source material for Hollywood blockbusters) to the alien contact stories of Gene Wolfe and the gender satires of James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon). Not only will you learn how to read science fiction but you will also recognise how sf has often been used to consider and criticise inequality and injustice in the real world.

Essential Reading (for purchase):

A diverse and exciting collection of short stories will be available for you to buy at the start of the semester. In addition we will be reading the following novels:

• Wells, H. G. (1895) The Time Machine
• Wyndham, John (1951) The Day of the Triffids
• Wolfe, Gene (1972) The Fifth Head of Cerberus

For further details, contact: Dr. Ben Brabon, brabonb@edgehill.ac.uk.

The oldest recognised literary works belong to the realm of the fantastic. Throughout history, fantastic literature has remained a vibrant and evolving genre which is open to a variety of cultural and psychological interpretations. LIT 3014 concentrates on how the fantastic has manifested itself in the twentieth century. It considers epic fantasy (e.g Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings), sword and sorcery fiction (the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard, for example), comic fantasy (most obviously the work of Terry Pratchett), magic realism (e.g. Angela Carter) and the 'new weird' of writers like China Mieville.

For further details, contact: Dr Peter Wright, wrightp@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module will examine the work of a range of innovative writers, concentrating upon the relationship between what they say about poetry outside of their poems (in interviews, for example) and the work itself, to determine exactly what their ideas about poetry as an art are. Sometimes the ideas will be in the creative work itself!

For further details, contact: Professor Robert Sheppard, shepparr@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module offers students an opportunity to develop their appreciation of recent and contemporary writing in Britain. In particular, the module focuses on fiction that challenges conventional notions of the literary text. Students will examine the major characteristics of postmodernism as expressed in recent and contemporary British fiction writing and develop their critical response to this important area of literary production.

The module examines postmodernism as a phenomenon, and applies its insights to a series of texts written between the emergence of postmodernism as an area of literary activity to the present day.

The module is organised as a one-hour lecture followed by a two-hour seminar.

Assessment:

• A 2000-word assignment focusing on selected texts (60%)
• A two-hour examination (40%) in which students will be expected to show knowledge and understanding of literary theory as applied to postmodern texts

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Adair, Gilbert (1999) A Closed Book. London:Faber
• Ackroyd, Peter (1987) Chatterton. London: Abacus
• Barnes, Julian  (1984) Flaubert's Parrot.London: Picador
• Byatt, A. S. (1990) Possession. London: Vintage
• Crumey, A. (2004) Mobius Dick. London: Picador

For further details, contact: Dr. Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module explores the nature of the short story as a genre through a wide range of (mostly contemporary) collections and anthologies. We will be asking what distinguishes the short story from other genres, focussing especially on the short story’s handling of time. You will be introduced to concepts drawn from Bakhtinian and Bergsonian theory, which will combine with the close reading of texts and research into specific authors. You will also participate in a group project, preparing a short anthology based on published stories.

The research, editing and organisational skills activities required for the group project are particularly important in developing important vocational skills. You will advance your understanding of the nature of genre within its historical and cultural context. You will also develop an ability to combine complex theoretical concepts with textual analysis.

Assessment

• 1,500-word assignment;
• Group project – selection of themed anthology of four published stories, each between 1000 and 4000 words;
• 2000-word research paper;

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Atkinson, K. (2003) Not the End of the World. London: Doubleday
• Carver, R. (1995) Where I’m Calling From. London: Harvill
• Munro, A. (1998) The Love of a Good Woman. London: Chatto & Windus
• Blincoe, N. and T. Thorne (eds.) (2001) All Hail the New Puritans. London: Fourth Estate

For further details, contact:

Dr. Ailsa Cox, coax@edgehill.ac.uk.

Through the study of a variety of literary genres and non-literary sources, this 15-credit, one-semester module will explore eighteenth-century writings on empire and colonialism.

These texts deal – at varying levels of explicitness – with concomitant issues such as writing the nation / writing the self, slavery, “race”, imperial conquest, nationalism, abolition, gender, Orientalism, the ‘civilizing mission’, and the noble savage.The module aims to trace the relations between these themes in the light of the texts studied and, as a level-three module, to provide you with an opportunity to engage in more autonomous and innovative analysis.

It is also part of the intention of this module to foster a perceptive and historical awareness, that you might become sensitive to cultural diversity and important ethical issues relating to differences of nation, ethnicity, “race”, and gender in the context of increasing globalisation.

Assessment

The module will be assessed by a written essay of 3000 words (100%).   

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Behn, Aphra (1688; 1997) Oroonoko. Ed. Joanna Lipking. New York and London: Norton.
• Gregg, Stephen H. (ed.) (2005) Empire and Identity: An Eighteenth-Century Sourcebook. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
• Defoe, Daniel (1719; 1994) Robinson Crusoe. Ed. Michael Shinagel. New York and London: Norton.
• Equiano, Olaudah (1789; 2001) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Ed. Werner Sollors.
• New York and London: Norton.

For further details, contact: Dr. Steve Van-Hagen, hagens@edgehill.ac.uk.

Please note: This is not a difficult theory module. It uses only short, clear and highly-readable theoretical extracts every two weeks and they are fully related to the primary text under study in each two-week text block.

This 15-credit module is devoted to understanding textual representations of sexuality and sexual identity.  In particular it explores the textual representation of same-sex desire and of sexual dissidence in the British novel from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.  One novel is studied every two weeks.

A central aim of the module is to historicise and theorise literary representations of the intersections between text, sex and gender. The module problematises established perceptions that sexual dissidence and radicalism originated in the late twentieth century by demonstrating its representations in earlier literature.  It seeks above all to bring together text, context and theoretical methodology in order to explore changes and continuities in the textual representation of subversive or dissident sexuality and sexual identity over the course of the last century.

Thematic topics which the module may interrogate include: sexuality, crisis and sexualised scandal, sexual/textual subversion, sexual deviance, sexual stereotyping, ‘coming out’ narratives, homosexuality, lesbian and gay identity, bisexuality, transgendered sexuality.

This module does theorise its textual representations of sexuality using some of the work of key theorists working in the fields such as gender theory, sexuality theory, feminism(s), lesbian & gay theory and queer theory but all short theory excerpts are all taken from one clear and readable theory reader. As a part of its theorisation of sexuality, the historical context of this interdisciplinary module will emerge. This may negotiate censorship (e.g. the Radclyffe Hall and D. H. Lawrence obscenity trials), images of deviance, pornography, the Gay Liberation Front, radical feminism, and gender & identity politics.

Assessment

Individual Presentation (30%) and 2000-word Essay (70%)

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Essential Theory Text: Jeffrey Weeks, Janet Holland & Matthew Waites (eds.) (2002) Sexualities and Society: A Reader. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Hall, Radclyffe (1982) The Well of Loneliness. London: Virago.
• Waters, Sarah (1998) Tipping the Velvet.  London: Virago.
• Hollinghurst, Alan (2004) The Swimming Pool Library.London: Vintage.
• Kay, Jackie(1998) The Trumpet. London: Random House.
• Vincent, Norah (2006) Self-Made Man: My Year Disguised as a Man. London: Atlantic Books.

For further details, contact: Dr Mari Hughes-Edwards, edwardsm@edgehill.ac.uk.

LIT 3013 Beyond Books examines how we understand and read stories in a variety of narrative forms. Accordingly, the module considers literary narratives (in the form of novels and short stories), role-playing and interactive computer narratives, graphic novels and film. No previous knowledge of the non-literary forms is assumed or required as the module develops from first principles. Although the content will be unfamiliar to you, the lectures, seminars and group work are all designed to introduce you to new concepts you can explore and practice under guidance.

Specimen Reading List

Given the rather unusual content of the module, the reading list is varied:

• Michael Ende (1984) The Neverending Story
• James Hogg (1824) The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
• A Marvel comic (Spiderman, X-Men, etc.) and a DC comic (Batman, for example)
• A copy of the British comic, 2000 AD and an American independent from a company like Dark Horse
• A Fighting Fantasy gamebook (new or secondhand – try Oxfam, etc.)
• An interactive adventure game for either PC or any platform (X-Box, PS 2 preferably)

For further details, contact:
Dr Peter Wright, wrightp@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module is concerned with poetry's relation to place, and its role in the self-definition of communities. Poets whose work engages with the history and geography of their region have produced much that is noteworthy in recent times, demonstrating a political as well as a literary commitment.

The module offers a chance for students to complement their study of more mainstream canonical poetry with a study of some lesser-known poets, as well as some mainstream work by poets whose work is strongly identified with particular places.

The module engages with the issues and internal tensions within the various communities of the British Isles as evinced in the work of poets strongly associated with particular regions, including Tony Harrison, George Mackay Brown, Douglas Dunn, Gillian Clarke, Lucy Newlyn, Kathleen Jamie and others. The aim is to give representative coverage to recent and contemporary poets from all corners of the British Isles.

Essential Reading

An anthology of key poems will be available for purchase from the English office before the commencement of the module.

For further details, contact: Dr Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

NB. This module is available only to Major & Single Honours students taking 60 credits of Literature (and with 60 credits of Literature from Level 5).

This 30-credit two-semester module will provide the opportunity for you to study any topic of your choice in depth and to enable you to develop your own ideas through individual research. The topic may be a particular interest of yours and one that you feel confident in tackling, or may arise from a desire to study in more depth an issue or topic that you have encountered elsewhere in the degree programme.

It is expected that you will be prepared to engage with your topic at a high level of sophistication and the module aims to foster a considerable degree of independent learning.

Assessment

This module is assessed on the basis of an initial proposal of c. 500 words (5%), a 2000-word chapter draft (15%) and a final written piece of work of c.8,000 words (80%), which may or may not incorporate the earlier chapter draft.

Essential Reading (for purchase)

There is no essential reading for this module, but suggested guides will be provided in the module handbook.

For further details, contact: Dr Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

This module offers an introduction to the substantial rise in labouring-class poetry in England between 1730 and 1800. Poets studied include Stephen Duck, Mary Collier, Mary Leapor, James Woodhouse, Ann Yearsley and Robert Bloomfield. Students examine a range of aesthetic, political and thematic questions, such as:

• The relationship between labouring-class poetry and existing poetic form(s);
• The degree to which political 'radicalism' might exist in labouring poetry of the period and of whether the resulting works suggest a nascent 'class consciousness';
• Whether it is appropriate to think of these poets as constituting a discernible poetic 'tradition';
• Whether there is anything distinctive about how labouring poets represent labour itself;
• The function of religion in labouring-class poetry.

Contextual issues are also addressed, such as the effect upon labouring-class poetic production of 'polite' patronage, and of publication by subscription.

For further details, contact: Dr Rob Spence, spencro@edgehill.ac.uk.

This 15-credit module will examine Romanticism’s Gothic impulse during the period 1764-1830. Each week, we will analyse key literary texts from the period – including poetry, and both prose fiction and non-fiction – alongside a theoretical issue in order to establish a critical vocabulary from which to interpret and understand Gothic’s many Romantic manifestations.

By considering the historical, cultural, aesthetic and ideological background to this mode of writing, we will trace the ways in which the Gothic Romance is both a conservative and a reactionary genre, supporting and challenging our conceptions of nature / nurture, individual / society, self / other, wild / domestic, natural / supernatural, male / female, beauty / monstrosity, intercourse / rape.

By the end of the module, you will have knowledge and understanding of the origins of the Gothic Romance and an appreciation of not only the literary form but also the political and cultural forces at work during the period 1764-1830. Students will be able to answer the following questions: What is Gothic? What is the quality and value of such writing? What did it aim to achieve?

Assessment

• A 1,500-word critical history (40%) requiring students to write a critical history of a concept key to the module, providing a definition of the term, considering its history and giving examples of its use, whilst referring to at least one text studied on this module.
• A 2,500-word essay (60%)

Essential Reading (for purchase)

• Austen, Jane (1818) Northanger Abbey.
• Maturin, Charles (1820) Melmoth the Wanderer.
• Radcliffe, Ann (1790) A Sicilian Romance.
• Walpole, Horace (1764) The Castle of Otranto.

NB. For details of set editions etc please contact the tutor.

For further details, contact: Dr. Ben Brabon, brabonb@edgehill.ac.uk.

Are you prepared for an encounter with Count Dracula, Dr Jekyll (and Mr Hyde), and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed? This module charts the gothic revival of the late nineteenth century. The module examines urban and imperial gothic fiction of the period alongside contemporary social and cultural developments and a range of current critical theories. You will encounter both well-known and relatively obscure gothic texts, and will be expected to explore parallels between their key themes.

The module allows you to gain an in-depth understanding of the fiction and culture of the late-Victorian period (c.1880-1900). It further allows you to deepen your understanding of the gothic mode and to relate fiction to its historical and cultural contexts. You will be expected to apply current critical theory to the fiction studied.

Essential Reading (for purchase):

• Conrad, J. (1899) Heart of Darkness. London & New York: Norton.
• Haggard, H. Rider (1886) She. London: Penguin.
• Lee, V. (1890) Hauntings. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview.
• Marsh, R. (1897) The Beetle. Kansas City: Valancourt (forthcoming)
• Stevenson, R. L. (1886) The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. London: Penguin
• Stoker, B. (1897) Dracula. London & New York: Norton.
• Wilde, O. (1891) The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: OUP.

For further details, contact: Dr. Minna Vuohelainen, Minna.Vuohelainen@edgehill.ac.uk.

This 15-credit, one-semester module offers students an opportunity to extend their knowledge of literature written in English by concentrating on Irish and Northern Irish fiction published since 1980.

Whilst there are similarities between Irish and British fiction, there are also distinct differences arising from the different social, historical and cultural contexts and from the different literary traditions. The module will emphasise not only difference and diversity but also social and cultural change within Ireland and Northern Ireland, the nature of identity, gender and gendered issues, nationalism and religion. It will not only provide a richer understanding of the history and culture of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but also question, given the geographical, social and cultural diversity of Ireland and Northern Ireland, what is meant by terms such as ‘Ireland’, ‘Northern Ireland’ and ‘Irish’ themselves.

The module will be student-centred and ‘discovery led’, providing you with opportunities to research and explore, individually and in groups, key questions relating to the texts and their historical and cultural contexts.

Assessment

• A research-based assignment (50%)
• An essay focussed on the set texts (50%) 

Essential Reading

Texts will be selected from a list including:

• Anderson, Linda (1984) To Stay Alive.
• Bolger, Dermot (1997) Father’s Music.
• Donoghue, Emma (2002) The Woman who Gave Birth to Rabbits.
• Doyle, Roddy (1990) The Snapper.
• McCabe, Patrick (1997) The Butcher Boy.
• Morrissy, Mary (1995) Mother of Pearl. AND / OR
• Morrissy, Mary (1993) The Lazy Eye.
• O’Connor, Joseph (1991) Cowboys and Indians.
• Patterson, Glenn (1992) Fat Lad.

For further details, contact: Professor Linden Peach, peachl@edgehill.ac.uk.