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In this module, you will learn to critically read novels at undergraduate level. Building on your experience of reading fiction at school, college, or for leisure, you will develop deep analytical readings and apply your growing critical skills to a wide range of novels encountered throughout your degree. This module aims to get you thinking about how novels work and how, as readers, we can understand them from different perspectives. You will learn to recognise subtle changes in narrative position, when to trust or distrust a narrator, how to identify subgenres (e.g., Realism, Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism), and how to use literary criticism to uncover unexpected interpretations. You will integrate critical reading into your preparation for workshops and assessments to enhance your understanding of literary texts. This module provides the core academic skills in reading, writing, and research necessary for your time at university, alongside the analytical and communication skills that will, after graduation, make you attractive to future employers.

Assessment: Class Test (40%) and Research Essay (60%)

This module focuses on journeys and places, offering you the chance to explore key concepts underpinning your study of English language and linguistics. You will take a post-disciplinary approach to your studies, using techniques from diverse areas to address key questions related to journeys and places in relation to the use of English around the globe.

You will attend interactive lectures with students from across the School of Humanities and Performing Arts, and apply the concepts addressed in these lectures to the study of English language within subject-specific workshops and assessments.

Themes covered may include journeys, spaces, and the concept of welcome; (im)mobilities and journeys through time and space; representation and imaginative geographies; gender and placemaking; belonging and place attachment; journeys, places, and identities; as well as themes related to sustainability and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Assessment: Coursework (30%) and Essay (70%)

Mandarin Beginner

This module introduces Mandarin language at A1 level by focusing on the development of the receptive skills of listening and reading and the productive skills of reading and writing. The learning is based on introductory and basic words, phrases and structures about oneself, family, immediate surroundings and daily activities and routine. Students will also be introduced to basic social, cultural, political, historical and artistic topics from the Chinese world taken from authentic material. A two-hour practice and conversation session will be held weekly throughout blocks 1 and 2, and intensive workshops will happen during block 3.

Assessment: Reading Test (30%), Listening Test (20%), Speaking (25%), Writing Test (25%)

OR

Mandarin Post-Beginner

This module further develops the learning of Mandarin language at A2 level by focusing on the development of the receptive skills of listening and reading and the productive skills of reading and writing. The focus is on enhancing basic and personal communication skills and moving to more and more general topics. You will also be introduced to basic social, cultural, political, historical and artistic topics from the Chinese world taken from authentic material. A one-hour practice and conversation session will be held weekly throughout blocks 1 and 2, and intensive workshops will happen during block 3.

Assessment: Reading Test (30%), Listening Test (20%), Reading Test (25%), Writing Test (25%).

Through this module you will develop your understanding of poetic form and genre and consolidate your close-reading skills by scrutinising a range of poems and poets from different historical periods. You will explore the historical origins and development of specific poetic genres such as epic and pastoral and learn the conceptual tools and technical vocabulary needed for critical analysis of poetry at undergraduate level.

Assessment: Essay 1 (40%) and Essay 2 (60%)

This module looks at the birth of English literature, offering you an introduction to literature written between the medieval era and the early modern period. Texts will be considered in their national, cultural, and historical contexts. You will explore examples of poetry, drama and prose organised around key themes such as power, faith, love and sexuality. You will also be invited to compare early examples of English literature with some key works of European literature from this time.

Assessment: Commentary (30%) and Comparative Essay (70%)

This module is designed to prepare and support you towards the pursuit of post-degree pathways. It will focus on the specific skills, capabilities and knowledge needed to adapt and flourish in professional environments and contexts. There will be an emphasis on enhancement of core attributes, competencies and transferable skills as well as developing familiarity with the world and politics of work. The module will prepare you for applying for jobs and employment within diverse and dynamic working environments beyond university by introducing reflective practices to support your long-term professional development.

You will be introduced to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and invited to engage critically around themes including race, gender, identity, and geopolitical issues, to conceptualize a more equitable society, and environmentally sustainable world, as relevant to your career aspirations.

You will engage with subject-specific workshops to gain greater understanding of worlds of work open to graduates of English literature. You will take part in lectures, seminars, group discussion, independent learning, tutorial support and engagement with your peers.

Supported independent learning activities may include responding to real-world briefs, placements/shadowing, engagement with community projects or initiatives, creating proposals for projects or initiatives in a professional setting. These activities will be tailored to your English Literature with Mandarin programme.

Assessment: Portfolio (100%)

Mandarin Post-Beginner

This module further develops the learning of Mandarin language at A2 level by focusing on the development of the receptive skills of listening and reading and the productive skills of reading and writing. The focus is on enhancing basic and personal communication skills and moving to more and more general topics. You will also be introduced to basic social, cultural, political, historical and artistic topics from the Chinese world taken from authentic material. A one-hour practice and conversation session will be held weekly throughout blocks 1 and 2, and intensive workshops will happen during block 3.

Assessment: Reading Test (30%), Listening Test (20%), Reading Test (25%), Writing Test (25%)

OR

Mandarin Intermediate

This module reinforces the learning of Mandarin language at B1/B2 levels, by focusing on the development of the receptive skills of listening and reading and the productive skills of reading and writing beyond basic level. The focus will be on the use of a wider range of vocabulary and more complex structures and various means of communication. You will be able to understand, without difficulty, the most familiar topics and enhance their ability to discuss and comprehend general social, cultural, political, historical and artistic topics from the Chinese world, taken from authentic material. A one-hour practice and conversation session will be held weekly throughout blocks 1 and 2, and intensive workshops will happen during block 3.

Assessment: Reading Test 1.0, Listening Test 0.50, Reading Test 0.17, Writing Test 0.75.

This module introduces you to the exciting and significant range of literature from the Romantic and Victorian periods between 1780 and 1901. You will explore texts by writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, William Wordsworth, Jane Austen and Byron in relation to the huge social upheavals of the time (including the impact of the French Revolution) and the new and radical ideas about childhood, the rights of man, and of woman, the natural world and the imagination emerging at the time. We then examine how Romantic ideas mutate in the literature of the Victorian period (1837-1901). The primary focus in this part of the course is on the novel, the dominant literary genre of the period, and you will study writers like Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and Thomas Hardy, and examine the ways in which they represent issues such as class-conflict, urban poverty, faith, national identity and changing gender-roles. You will also look at the changing forms of Victorian poetry and the emergence of a distinctively female poetic tradition during the period.

Assessment: Coursework (40%) and Essay (60%)

You will propose, refine, develop, research and write a dissertation on a topic supervised by a member of the English team. We will support you throughout the year with skills-oriented workshops on devising and planning a project, engaging with scholarship, writing, editing and referencing. This will be complemented by workshops on key theoretical approaches such as structuralism and poststructuralism, Marxism, feminism, ecocriticism, queer theory or critical race theory as well as anti-theory or ‘against theory’ movements.

Assessment: Research Portfolio (20%) and Dissertation (80%)

This module explores the Gutenberg and Digital revolutions, focusing on how printing and computing have influenced writing. You will create your own texts using historical and digital technologies.

Assessment: Test (30%) and Report 1 (35%) and Report 2 (35%)

Mandarin Intermediate

This module reinforces the learning of Mandarin language at B1/B2 levels, by focusing on the development of the receptive skills of listening and reading and the productive skills of reading and writing beyond basic level. The focus will be on the use of a wider range of vocabulary and more complex structures and various means of communication. You will be able to understand, without difficulty, the most familiar topics and enhance their ability to discuss and comprehend general social, cultural, political, historical and artistic topics from the Chinese world, taken from authentic material. A one-hour practice and conversation session will be held weekly throughout blocks 1 and 2, and intensive workshops will happen during block 3.

Assessment: Assessment: Reading Test (30%), Listening Test (20%), Reading Test (25%), Writing Test (25%)

OR

Mandarin Advanced

This module refines and perfects the learning of the Mandarin language to the highest advanced C1/C2 levels, by focusing on the development of the receptive skills of listening and reading and the productive skills of reading and writing. This level will require the use of a wider range of vocabulary and complex structures. The material covered will enable communication to a high level of competence and the understanding of general and semi-specialised social, cultural, political, historical and artistic topics from the Mandarin-speaking world, taken from authentic material. A one-hour practice and conversation session will be held weekly throughout blocks 1 and 2, and intensive workshops will happen during block 3.

Assessment: Assessment: Reading Test (30%), Listening Test (20%), Reading Test (25%), Writing Test (25%).

This module investigates Anglo-American modernism and its publication in 'little magazines.' You will study modernist texts by authors like T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf and explore how these works responded to modernity.

Assessment: Essay (40%) and Research Portfolio (60%)