Joint Honours English year 1 modules

Compulsory modules 

Prose: Cultural and Critical Contexts

This introductory module provides students with a foundation for the study of prose as a literary medium. Through close analysis of a selection of prose texts, drawn from a broad range of historical and cultural contexts and representing a variety of literary forms, the module showcases the distinctiveness and diversity of English-language prose. It introduces students to modern critical and theoretical approaches to prose works, and requires them to pay close and sustained attention to style, form and rhetoric in analysing passages from the set texts. It also asks students to think carefully about the ways in which cultural and critical contexts shape the writing and reading of prose works over time, from the initial moment of composition to their continuing afterlives in popular and academic discourse. The module encourages students to practise writing clear and thoughtful sentences and paragraphs of their own, and aims to foster their development of a flexible and appropriate academic prose style.

Poetry: Cultural and Critical Contexts

This introductory module provides students with a foundation for the study of poetry. Through close analysis of a selection of poems, drawn from a broad range of historical and cultural contexts and representing a variety of forms and genres, the module showcases the distinctiveness and diversity of English-language poetry. It introduces students to modern critical and theoretical approaches to poems, and requires them to pay close and sustained attention to style, form and rhetoric in analysing them. It also asks students to think carefully about the ways in which cultural and critical contexts shape the writing and reading of poems over time, from the initial moment of composition to their continuing afterlives in popular and academic discourse. The module encourages students to practise writing clear and thoughtful critical analysis of and argument about poetry, and aims to foster their development of a flexible and appropriate academic prose style.

Reading English 

This module supports students’ transition to university, and helps them to develop basic skills in ways of reading and approaching literature, using the library, research, working with criticism, planning and writing assessments of different kinds (including close reading, essays, posters, presentations), and making the most of lectures and seminars. Students will be encouraged to understand the practices and principles of studying English literature, key disciplinary debates, and the purposes and pleasures of reading. Exercises in seminars will be tied to a particular literary work chosen from a short list selected by the Department.

English in the World 

This module encourages students to understand the role of English as it might be applied in the world. Students will be encouraged to understand the ways in which literature teaches us to understand ourselves and others, and our past, present and future, and to recognise how telling stories makes meaning in the world. They will learn the importance of being able to evaluate and rethink these stories, and how reading and rereading literature is important for understanding and making a difference in the world. Lectures and seminars will focus on topics such as ‘Literature and Human Rights’, ‘Literature, Science & the Environment’, ‘Telling Stories: Communities, Nations and the World’, ‘Literature, Medicine & Health’, ‘Everything to Everybody: Literature and Inclusive Heritage’, and ‘Reading Social Media’.