Download University of Salford School of English, Sociology, Politics

University of Salford
School of English, Sociology, Politics &
Contemporary History
MODULE OPTION BOOKLET
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BA (Hons) English, Drama & Performance Studies
LEVEL 6
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Academic Year
2011-2012
Contents
NOTES ON THE BOOKLET ...................................................................... 2
MODULES: SEMESTER 1.......................................................................... 3
MODULES: SEMESTER 2…………. ........................................................ 8
UNIVERSITY WIDE LANGUAGE PROGRAMME ............................. 12
Notes on the Booklet
All undergraduate students currently in Level 5 must now choose their module options for next
year. This booklet gives you a brief description of all modules available to Level 6 BA (Hons)
English Drama & Performance Studies students next year. This list is reproduced on your module
option form. Please make sure that you use the correct form. You will take one core module in
semester 1, and select two further modules from the options choices available.
In semester 2 you select three modules – there is no core module in semester 2.
You MUST ‘balance your timetable so that you are taking THREE ‘drama’ modules and THREE
‘English’ modules across the year as a whole. However, you can, of course, take these modules in
whichever semester you choose (for instance, you can take all drama modules in Semester 1 and
all English modules in Semester 2) When you have decided on the modules you would most like
to take, please indicate this on the module option form. Please follow the instructions on this
form carefully. We will endeavour to give your first/second/third choices, but this cannot be
guaranteed due to timetabling constraints. Also, some modules will be ‘capped’ at a maximum
number of students, and unless otherwise stipulated, these will operate on a ‘first come, first
served’ basis. There are also strict deadlines to which the School must adhere, so please decide
quickly.
Hand in your completed option form to the ESPaCH School office by 2pm on 1 April 2011. Some
modules will be ‘capped’ at a maximum number of students, and unless otherwise stipulated, these
will operate on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. There are also strict deadlines to which the School
must adhere, so please decide quickly.
All forms must be returned by 2.00
pm, 1 APRIL 2011
Modules in this booklet are provisional, and may be subject to change. Students will be notified if
this happens and will be given their next module choice.
Information regarding the modules on offer for this level in 2011-12 is contained in the following
pages. If you require any further details, please contact the module convenor specified.
Please consider your options carefully as once you have submitted your form you will be
unable to change them.
As you are not necessarily guaranteed your preferred modules, please indicate your preferences
for each semester in rank order (number them 1, 2, 3, etc.). Modules which under-recruit will
not run, and some modules will operate with restricted numbers. If you are not able to take
your preferred modules due to ‘caps’, you will default to the next available module on your list.
All students take six modules per year; three per semester. This means that you take 120 credits in
total over the academic year (but see UWLP for exceptions).
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Semester 1, 2011-12
CORE MODULE (DRAMA)
PERFORMANCE AND THE POST-DRAMATIC
LEVEL 3, SEMESTER 1: EDPS ONLY (CORE)
In this CORE module you will explore the development of post-dramatic theatre forms and examine the work of a
number of contemporary practitioners in order to develop an understanding of key aspects of 21st century performance
making. Key topics that may be included are: dramatic dialogue versus the intertextual script; aural, virtual and visual
performance environments; deconstructing the ‘unities’ – time/place/action; hypernaturalism and the ‘intrusion of the
real’.
You will be encouraged to identify and formulate research strategies for the presentation of material in a variety of
forms (performed, seminar-based, multi-media) and for the first assignment (30%), you will construct and either
perform or present (in a form agreed with your module tutor) original work, which is informed by the relationship
between practice and theory. For the second assignment (70%), the ‘project’ – you will be expected to combine a
synthesis of case-study, critical and theoretical materials and original creative or methodological writing. With
negotiation it is possible that you may combine a written project with some element of performance practice.
Primary texts will vary from year-to-year but may include several of the following:
Becket, Samuel (1958) Waiting for Godot/Act Without Words
Churchill, Caryl and David Lan (1986) A Mouthful of Birds
Dixon, Steve (2000) Chameleons 2: Theatre in a Movie Screen CD (view in library) Published/ Distributed by TDR:
The Drama Review, 43 (1), NYU/MIT Press.
Kane, Sara (2000) 4.48 Psychosis
Forced Entertainment (2002) Making Performance Video (view in library)
Friel, Brian (1977) Faith Healer
Wooster Group (1993/2006) The Emperor Jones by Eugene O’Neill Performance text on DVD (view in library)
Sellar,Tom, ed. Theater and Violence: 35, 2005 (Special Issue of Theater) Duke University Press
Tomlin, Liz (2007) Point Blank Performance Texts and Critical Essays 2002-5 Intellect
ENGLISH OPTION MODULES
DISSERTATION (10373)
Professor Sue Powell (Convenor)
Level 6, Semester 1
An English undergraduate dissertation can be in the area of Language or Literature. Language dissertations can be
taken in either the School of ESPaCH or the School of Languages, depending on the supervisor and subject. Please
contact Sue Powell if you need advice ([email protected]).
English dissertations are worth 20 credits and replace one option module in semester 1. A dissertation involves
substantial independent study, and it is advisable to start your research in the summer vacation before level 6. The
finished product must be 8-10,000 words to be submitted in mid-January. A dissertation is of exactly the same
weighting as any other option and carries no special status at all.
EVEN IF YOU WISH TO UNDERTAKE A DISSERTATION, YOU MUST FILL IN YOUR OPTION MODULE
FORM WITH TWO OPTIONS IN SEMESTER 1 AND THREE IN SEMESTER 2 . IF YOU ARE GIVEN
PERMISSION TO WRITE A DISSERTATION, YOUR SECOND OPTION CHOICE IN SEMESTER 1 WILL BE
REMOVED AND THE DISSERTATION SUBSTITUTED INSTEAD.
WHAT TO DO:
• Only consider a dissertation if you are achieving good academic marks, are a good manager of your time,
have a real desire to write a long extended essay, and know clearly what subject area you would like to
research and write on!
• Discuss your proposal with an appropriate member of staff (i.e. one whose research interests relate to the
topic and/or whose module has interested you in the proposed topic).
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•
•
•
•
After discussion, submit a preliminary proposal to Sue Powell ([email protected]) by the deadline
(which will be announced early in 2011).
The proposal should cover 1-2 pages of A4 and consist of: i) an outline of the proposal, ii) an indication of
the possible structure of the dissertation, listing chapters, chapter titles, and a brief synopsis of each chapter,
iii) a brief bibliography of some preliminary reading (primary and secondary texts).
The proposal will be considered by a committee who will consider such factors as: its viability as a
dissertation topic, your previous academic performance (including time management), the availability of a
suitable supervisor.
If the proposal is approved, you will be allotted a supervisor appropriate to the chosen research topic. The
supervisor will offer 6 hours’ supervision over the course of semester 1, with email and telephone contact
during term time only. A dissertation handbook will set out the requirements of the dissertation.
GREEN WRITING (29611) CAPPED AT 40 STUDENTS
Professor Sharon Ruston
Level 6, Semester 1
This module explores literary representations of nature from first-generation Romanticism to the present-day, looking
at the pervasive influence of Romantic images and tropes within different forms of green writing, such as ideas of
dwelling and rootedness, the relationship between place and space, the country and the city, landscape, memory and
subjectivity, animals, environment and gender, eco- and anthro-centrism. Beginning with Romantic-period literature
and visual art, we discuss a range of cultural forms, including paintings, travel writing, guidebooks, poetry and novels.
Primary texts include:
Poetry by John Clare, Robert Burns, and William Wordsworth in Romantic Natural Histories, ed. Ashton Nicholls
(Houghton Mifflin, 2004).
Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals. Ed. Pamela Woof. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2002.
Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree, ed. Simon Gatrell (Oxford World Classics, 1999).
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Civil Disobedience, ed. Michael Meyer (Penguin, 2007).
Cormac McCarthy, The Road (Knopf, 2006).
Assessment: The module will be assessed by a 2,500-word essay (50%) and a 2-hour exam (50%)
NEW DEPARTURES: READING AND WRITING INNOVATIVE POETRY (CRN TBC)
Dr Scott Thurston
Level 6 Semester 1
This is a brand new module which combines critical and creative study of some of the most exciting poetry written in
the last fifty years. This module starts with definitions of the aesthetic approach and critical stance of innovative
poetries produced on both sides of the Atlantic since 1950. The main areas for consideration include: Beat poetry, the
New York School and the Language Poets in the USA and the British Poetry Revival and Linguistically Innovative
Poetry in the UK. By focusing on discrete groupings of related writers (e.g. Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Jack
Kerouac) we will examine their common textual strategies and seek to understand a shared politics of form. Each
seminar-workshop will offer practical exercises in composition in order to aid understanding of the aesthetic and
political decisions being made.
Reading list:
Joris, P, and Rothenberg, J, eds, Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and
Postmodern Poetry, Volume 2: From Postwar to Millennium (Berkeley: UCAL Press, 1998)
Secondary reading (indicative list)
Andrews, B., and Bernstein, C., eds., The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book (Southern Illinois University Press, 1984)
Etter, C., ed. Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Exeter: Shearsman, 2010)
Hartley, G. Textual Politics and The Language Poets (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989)
Hilson, J. ed. The Reality Street Book of Sonnets (London: Reality Street, 2008)
Arnold, D. Poetry and Language Writing: Objective and Surreal (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008)
Sheppard, R., The Poetry of Saying (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005)
Sheppard, R. and Thurston S., eds. Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry (Gylphi, 2009-).
Thurston, S. 2010. ‘Innovative Poetry in Britain Today’, Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 60, pp.15-30.
Online resources
The British Electronic Poetry Centre at Southampton at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~bepc/
The Electronic Poetry Center at SUNY, Buffalo at http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/
Ubu Web at www.ubuweb.com
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Penn Sound at http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/
Assessment: Close reading of an innovative poem of 1,500 words (30%); a reflective statement on the uses and value
of innovation of 500 words (20%); a selection of five poems based on workshop exercises OR a critical analysis of
five poems by an innovative poet (each poem to be between one and two pages long; critical analysis to be 2,500
words) (50%).
WOMEN BEHAVING BADLY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION (18630) CAPPED AT 60
STUDENTS
Dr Janice Allan
Level 6, Semester 1
This module aims to further your understanding of the position and construction of women and femininity in
Victorian literature and society and to enhance your ability to analyse literary and cultural texts at a high level. In
addition, it aims to enhance your awareness of, and ability to engage with, constructions of deviancy (and their
ideological and aesthetic implications) as well as relevant debates circulating around gender and representation. In the
course of the module, we will explore a diverse range of canonical and popular texts written by both men and women
and you will have the opportunity to relate their fictional strategies to a range of contextual and conceptual
frameworks. At the same time, the module aims to equip students with a range of key employability and personal
development skills.
This module builds upon material covered in Victorian Literature and, while not a pre-requisite, students who did not
take this module may feel themselves to be at a disadvantage.
Primary texts:
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847) (Penguin)
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860) (Penguin)
Ellen Wood, East Lynne (1861) (Broadview Literary Editions)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Aurora Floyd (1862-3) (Broadview Literary Editions)
Materials relating to the Road Murder of 1860 (provided on Blackboard)
Assessment: This module has three forms of assessment:
1) Seminar Contribution (10%). N.B. In order to contribute to our seminars, you will need to be present and a
register will be taken at both lectures and seminars. Please note that your contribution does not have to be brilliant
or even ‘right’ in order to count. If you have attended the lecture and read the set texts, you are in a position to
make a meaningful contribution to our discussions.
2) A 15 minute Oral Group Presentation (30%).
3) A 3,000-word assessed essay (60%).
DRAMA OPTION MODULES
PLAYWRITING (29645) CAPPED AT 15 STUDENTS
Dr Jennifer Tuckett
Level 6, semester 1
Students taking Playwriting next year will have the chance to develop short plays with the BBC as part of the joint
BBC Writersroom North and University of Salford Salford Plays Media City creative writing competition. These
plays will be directed by Elizabeth Newman, head of new writing at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton and one of the
UK’s leading young directors, and will be performed at Media City for an audience of BBC staff.
Students will also be able to choose whether to develop a short theatre play with the BBC and/or a develop a longer
play for the theatre if they prefer.
Students will work with the course tutor to develop their work from idea to scene outline to first draft stage in class.
Much of the work on the development of student’s plays will take place in class, enabling students to be guided by the
tutor on the techniques used by professional writers to develop their work and to receive feedback on and discuss their
work with the tutor and other class mates if they wish to do so. Respect will be paid to individual writing preferences
and students will also have a chance to learn about rewriting techniques, advanced techniques in playwriting craft,
study and discuss some of the best play texts today, and learn more about the playwriting industry, with the
opportunity to meet and work with some of the leading theatres in the UK today. Students will finish the course with a
completed play ready to send out to theatres and have the opportunity to receive one to one feedback on their work.
Previous students taking the Playwriting module have gone on to work with theatres and the BBC.
Indicative reading:
Kelly, Dennis, Plays One, (Oberon, 2008)
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Neilson, Antony, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Methuen, 2007)
Owen, Gary, The Shadow of a Boy and The Drowned World (Methuen, 2005)
Stenham, Polly, That Face (Faber and Faber, 2007)
Stephens, Simon, Plays One (Methuen, 2005)
Thorne, Jack, When You Cure Me (Nick Hern Books, 2005)
Wade, Laura, Colder Than Here (Oberon, 2005)
Assessment: Scene outline or essay outline (20%) one act play or extract of longer play or critical essay (60%) and a
1,000-word writer’s reflection (20%).
BODY & PERFORMANCE (MMP)
Level 6, Semester 1
The Body has become a site of cultural contestation. This module is particularly concerned with questions of gender
and identity and the ways that these questions have been explored in relation to the body “in performance”. Given the
audience and performers’ focus on the live (and sometimes recorded) body of the performer, Theatre and Performance
Art have become appropriate fields of study for key questions around the body, gender and identity.
Students will analyse a range of theatrical and performance artists and apply theoretical approaches of appropriate
theorists of body, gender and identity (e.g. Michel Foucault and Judith Butler)
ASSESSMENT TBC (NO EXAMS)
BRITISH TV DRAMA: TEXTS AND CONTEXTS (MMP)
Level 6, Semester 1
This module will consider British Television drama in a range of different forms. It will place television drama
production into its wider cultural and historical contexts and investigate their influences upon it. The variety of forms
in which 'drama' is produced, such as the single play, soaps, costume drama, will be analysed alongside the place of
television drama within wider debates about quality, representation, realism and genre.
The module will also analyse the place of drama within the schedules of the major broadcasters, and the ways in
which audiences may use television drama.
Assessment TBC (NO EXAMS)
COMEDY & THEATRE (MMP)
Level 6, Semester 1
The module provides an opportunity to study of the following theatrical comedic forms – Social Realist
Comedy, Theatre of Wit, Theatre of the Absurd, and Black Comedy and Satire. The nature and the
impact of the comic forms will be analysed, as well as their contribution to theatrical writing. Key plays
will be studied and placed in a historical and comedic context. How we laugh, why we laugh, and how playwrights
use laughter to devastating effect are the key questions in this module.
ASSESSMENT TBC (NO EXAMS)
Feminism in Performance (MMP)
Level 6, Semester 1
The module begins by tracing the emergence of the modern feminist movement and its relationship to the radical
social realist theatre articulated by women playwrights of the time. It goes on to trace developments within the British
theatre and other performance forms such as live art and cabaret from the late 1970s, discussing how the political
context of performance has evolved.
In discussing the second wave of feminism, students will examine the inter-relationship between feminist ideology
and performance genres and techniques, e.g. Churchill’s use of Brechtian techniques, the use of devising and scripting
in the work of Monstrous Regiment and a post modern examination of feminism in the work of a performance artist
like Orlan.
The module begins by tracing the emergence of the modern feminist movement and its relationship to the radical
social realist theatre articulated by women playwrights of the time. It goes on to trace developments within the British
theatre and other performance forms such as live art and cabaret from the late 1970s, discussing how the political
context of performance has evolved.
ASSSESSMENT TBC (NO EXAMS)
SCRIPTWRITING FOR TV AND FILM (WREN, EDPS students only) (12884)
(MMP)
Level 6, Semester 1
The aim of this module is to examine theme, structural models for linear narrative, plot progression, conflict and
paradigmatic opposition, and the use of image and action within television and film script forms. You will learn to
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relate themes to narrative action and characterisation, to apply appropriate structural models of narrative to their
scripting work and to develop a visual realisation of character and narrative. Workshops are also used as a sounding
board for the development of story ideas, characters and themes. One to one tutorials are used at a later stage of the
script development process. NOTE: There is a prerequisite for this module: you must have done (and passed)
Introduction to Scriptwriting at Level 2.
Indicative reading:
Goldman, W. Adventures in the Screentrade, Futura, 1985
Paice, E. The Way to Write for Television, Elm Tree Books, 1987
Swann, D. V. Film Scriptwriting, Focal Press, 1988
Assessment: a complete screenplay of at least sixty minutes (worth 100% of the course mark).
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Semester 2, 2011-12
ENGLISH OPTION MODULES
BRITISH THEATRE POST-1950 (23475) CAPPED AT 40 STUDENTS
Frances Piper
Level 6, Semester 2
A series of introductory lecture/seminar sessions will contextualise post-war British theatre in terms of naturalism, the
avant-garde and the epic mode. Thereafter, a range of play texts will be explored in terms of dramatic considerations,
such as form, narrative, action and character whilst exploring the ways in which they engage with issues of class,
sexuality, gender and national identity. The module groups the plays for study into three areas as follows:
i) social realism which emphasises ‘human drama’ in the context of contemporary society.
ii) feminist drama in terms of the ways in which particular theatre forms and genres are used to respond to and
intervene in contemporary debates around sexual identity, femininity, masculinity.
iii) innovative and experimental theatre writers whose works are characterised by personal aesthetic agendas.
Thus, the module does not necessarily deal with the plays chronologically!
Plays to be studied MAY include:
Social Realism
Bond, Edward Saved
Cartwright, Jim The Rise and Fall of Little Voice
Osborne, John Look Back in Anger
Harvey, Jonathan Babies
Innovation
Barker, Howard Wounds to the Face
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Kane, Sarah Blasted or Cleansed
Pinter, Harold The Dumb Waiter and Mountain Language
Feminist Theatre
Churchill, Caryl A Mouthful of Birds (with David Lan) and/or Top Girls
Daniels, Sarah Beside Herself
Stephenson, Shelagh The Memory of Water
Wertenbaker, Timberlake The Love of the Nightingale
Assessment: One diagnostic essay (1,500 words) worth 25% and one examination (2 hours) worth 75%.
READING THE PAGE (29642)
Dr Glyn White
Level 6, Semester 2
This module focuses on the appearance of text (and illustration) on a page to consider how it impacts upon the
understanding and interpretation of literary texts. By exploring the significance of the form of the book and examining
a range of different genres the aim is to extend the number of ways in which literary texts can be studied. Through the
lectures and seminars and engagement with primary and secondary texts, students will be required to consider how the
page may be most effectively used to carry both narrative and argument.
Issues discussed are likely to include: Page Design, Typography and Meaning in Literary texts; The Book as Artefact;
Experiments with Literary Form; Illustrations and the Novelist as a Maker of Books; The Graphic Novel; The Book as
Labyrinth.
Indicative primary texts:
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent. by Laurence Sterne,
The B. S. Johnson Omnibus (Albert Angelo, Trawl, House Mother Normal), by B. S. Johnson,
Lanark: A Life in 4 Books by Alasdair Gray,
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons,
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielweski,
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Indicative secondary texts:
Bray, Joe, Handley, Miriam & Henry, Anne C. (eds) (2000) Ma(r)king the Text: The presentation of meaning on the
literary page, Aldershot: Ashgate
McHale, Brian (1987) Postmodernist Fiction, New York: Methuen
Tew, Philip & White, Glyn (eds) (2007) Re-reading B. S. Johnson, Houndmills: Palgrave
Waugh, Patricia (1984) Metafiction: A Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction, London: Methuen
White, Glyn (2005) Reading the Graphic Surface: The Presence of the Book in Prose Fiction, Manchester:
Manchester University Press
Assessment: Diagnostic essay (1,500 words) 25%, Assessed essay (3,000 words) 75%.
REPRESENTING THE HOLOCAUST (24402) Note: This module is open to all students across the
School CAPPED AT 60 STUDENTS
Dr Jane Kilby/Professor Antony Rowland
Level 6, Semester 2
Many critics have argued that the Holocaust is beyond representation. Despite this, imaginative responses to the
Holocaust have proliferated during the post-war period. This module will explore this paradox across a variety of
artistic genres, including the novel, testimony and film. It will help students to understand the connections between
literary and non-literary cultural forms in relation to Holocaust representation. It will ask the question as to whether
representing the Holocaust produces different narrative strategies for survivors of the camps, as opposed to more
recent, ‘postmemory’ and post-Holocaust writers. Key problems encountered by the various writers and artists will
also be discussed, such as the difficulties of representing traumatic history, the dangers of appropriation, and the
repercussions for traditional generic forms when engaging with the Holocaust.
Primary reading/Viewing list
Primo Levi, If This is a Man (Abacus)
Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz and After (Yale University Press)
Claude Lanzmann (dir.), Shoah
Tim Blake Nelson (dir.), The Grey Zone
Joanathan Littell, The Kindly Ones (Vintage)
Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Penguin)
Assessment: 3,000-word project (75%) and a presentation (25%).
SHAKESPEARE AND THE PLAY OF THOUGHT (CRN TBC)
Dr Carson Bergstrom
Level 6, Semester 2
In this module, students will study how a Shakespeare play constructs complex representations of thought processes
and emotional states as a means to achieving its specific dramatic aims. Students will explore how Shakespeare
creates dramatic characters through both a range of linguistic and rhetorical strategies: for example, students will need
to explore how metaphor functions as a means to construct characterization. Equally important, students will explore
how Shakespeare’s linguistic and rhetorical strategies combine with his use of genre and generic experimentation to
represent the implications and consequences of social, political, and religious ideologies (or discourses). In the
examination of a range of Shakespeare’s plays, students will come to appreciate the various ways in which cultural
intertextuality informs and shapes his approach to character and action. To gain a broader understanding of how
Shakespearean drama can be seen as “the play of thought,” students will be expected to show an ability to an analyse
Shakespeare’s work in terms of literary theories such as New Historicism, Cognitive Linguistics, Gender Studies, and
Semiotics.
Indicative texts and/or other learning materials/resources:
Students may choose to buy the following text for this module:
Greenblatt, Stephen, et al., eds. The Norton Shakespeare. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
They may, however, wish to purchase the plays individually. There are many editions of Shakespeare’s work, but
students should purchase texts which provide a reasonable critical commentary and textual apparatus: popular editions
are by Macmillan Press, The Arden Shakespeare, Penguin Books, Cambridge University, and Oxford University.
The following plays will be studied:
Hamlet
Othello
Julius Caesar
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The Winter’s Tale
Romeo and Juliet
King Lear
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Henry IV, Part I
Assessment: One essay worth 40% of the module mark; one essay worth 60% of the module mark. As part of the
essay worth 60% of the module mark, students will be required to read one play not listed above.
THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH WORKING-CLASS NOVEL (27424)
Dr Ben Harker
Level 6, Semester 2
This module tracks working-class fiction across the changing landscape of twentieth-century Britain. We will begin
by discussing the complexities of the terms ‘working-class’ and ‘working-class fiction’ and by sampling nineteenth
and early twentieth-century influences on novels by and about the working-class; we will conclude with the
fragmented forms and apocalyptic visions of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting (1993), and debate what, if anything, it
means to talk of the ‘working-class novel’ in the context of contemporary British society. En-route the module will
explore how British working-class writers have brought new perspectives and accents to the novel, a cultural form
linked historically with the rise of the middle-class. We will consider how ‘the British working-class novel’ has
reflected shifting demographics in narrating the experiences of migrant communities. We will analyse how workingclass novels have engaged with questions of gender, sexuality and national identity in twentieth-century Britain.
Indicative texts:
If at all possible, please buy the specified editions.
D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928; London: Penguin, 2006)
Walter Greenwood, Love on the Dole (1932; London: Vintage, 1993)
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (1956; London: Penguin, 2006)
John Braine, Room at the Top (1957; London: Arrow, 1989)
Nell Dunn, Up the Junction (1963; London: Virago, 1988)
Buchi Emecheta, Second-Class Citizen (1974; London: Heinemann, 1994)
Pat Barker, Union Street (London: Virago, 1982)
Agnes Owens, Gentlemen of the West (1984) in The Complete Short Stories (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2008)
Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting (1993; London: Vintage, 1994)
Assessment: One 1,500-word essay mid-semester (25%) and one 3,000-word essay at the end of the semester (75%).
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WOMEN’S FICTION (27551)
Professor Lucie Armitt
Level 6, Semester 2
This module will look at a questions of feminism, post-feminism and third wave feminism, as explored in a range of
fictional texts (novels and short stories) written by women and published since the year 2000. Some of the key themes
to be explored will include the impact of virtual realities on questions of body politics, representations of violence and
death in contemporary women’s fiction, futurist landscapes and how new feminist utopias and dystopias feed into
established traditions of the form, the role of the souvenir in women’s sense of self, how we reread male and female
literary characters through neo-Victorian literary narratives and tropes. The module will be informed by a range of
feminist theories, and will also draw on psychoanalysis and identity politics.
This module is taught through a two hour seminar format.
Primary texts may include some or all of the following:
Ali, Monica Brick Lane
Atwood, Margaret Oryx and Crake (Virago, 2003)
Byatt, A.S. The Little Black Book of Stories (Vintage, 2005)
Morrison, Toni Love (Vintage, 2003)
O’Farrell, Maggie The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Review, 2006)
Smith, Zadie On Beauty (Penguin, 2006)
Warner, Marina The Leto Bundle (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2002)
Waters, Sarah The Little Stranger (Virago, 2009)
Assessment: One 1,500-word diagnostic essay (40%) and one 3,000-word essay (60%).
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WRITING IRELAND (10394)
Scott Brewster
Level 6, Semester 2
This module explores constructions of Ireland and Irishness in literary and cultural texts across the last century,
tracing how ideas of nationhood, gender and ethnicity, tradition and modernity have been negotiated in often turbulent
historical conditions. The module first examines the Irish Revival and the relationship between Anglo-Irish and IrishIrish cultural nationalism, through to the establishment of the Free State and the De Valera period. The final section of
the module concentrates on the 1960s to the present in both the Republic and Northern Ireland, dealing with issues
such as the changing family unit, the challenges and opportunities for a globalised Ireland, the Celtic Tiger myth, the
question of multiculturalism, and Northern culture during the Troubles and into the post-conflict period. Throughout,
classes will consider literature alongside films such as The Quiet Man and Michael Collins, Seán Hillen’s Irelantis
collages, the Riverdance phenomenon, and tourist marketing material, in order to demonstrate how the terms Ireland
and Irish are subject to ceaseless and sometimes playful interrogation.
Primary texts:
Doyle, Roddy. The Commitments. [1988.] London: Vintage, 1998.
Enright, Anne. The Gathering. [2007.] London: Vintage, 2008.
Heaney, Seamus. Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996. London: Faber, 1998.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. [1916.] Penguin.
Muldoon, Paul ed. The Faber Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry. London: Faber, 1986.
Synge, J. M. The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008.
Tóibín, Colm. The Heather Blazing. London: Picador, 1992.
Yeats, W. B. Collected Poems.
Assessment: The module will be assessed by a 1,500-word essay mid-semester (30%) and a 3,500 essay at the end of
semester (70%).
DRAMA OPTION MODULES
DIRECTORS’ WORKSHOP
LEVEL 6, Semester 2.
Frances Piper.
This module is designed to give students the opportunity to explore a small number of drama texts in terms of both
their literary context and their performance possibilities. In short, we will study the drama text from page to stage.
Students will join the Level 4 Performance Workshop module in order to gain first hand experience of observing and
undertaking directorial practice. Group tutorials will enable students to explore and experiment with the dramatic text
as it translates to a performance context. This will be facilitated through working closely with first year
Drama/Performance students under the guidance of the module tutor.
As their final assessment, students will have the opportunity to work with a small group of first year students in the
creation of a short piece of performance (‘work in progress’). Alternatively, students who are more interested in the
production history or the literary or cultural analysis of any of the texts studied on the module will be able to be
assessed via a project logbook (dramaturgical assessment) rather than via the ‘directing’ assessment. The logbook
may take the form of straightforward written analysis, or combine the latter with visual and/or design and/or historical
research.
All students who opt for this module should, however, be aware that they will be expected to undertake
additional directorial practice and/or rehearsal observation during the last three weeks of the module. This will
amount to around 12 hours per week during this 4-week period.
Play texts will be selected from the following:
Barker, Howard (1995) Wounds to the Face
Buffini, Moira (2003) Loveplay
Koltes, Bernard-Marie (1988) Roberto Zucco
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la Bute, Neil (1999) Bash: 3 Latterday Plays
Levy, Deborah (1992) Pushing the Prince into Denmark
Shakespeare, William (1603) Hamlet
Stoppard, Tom Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Webster, John (1614) The Duchess of Malfi
Wedekind, Frank (1891) Spring Awakening
Stimulus Material
Etchells, Tim, Mary Agnes Krell & David Jennings (2004) Imaginary Evidence (CD Rom)
Forced Entertainment (2002) Making Performance (Video)
Staniewski, Wlodek (2006) Hidden Territories: The Theatre of Gardzienice Routledge (rehearsal notes and CD Rom
rehearsal/performance)
Assessment :
1 Directing strategy analysis: based on an analysis of one text (1500 words)
2 Practical directing project (approx 15 mins in performance)
OR
Project logbook (combining rehearsal observation AND/OR literary analysis of text/production
history of text) (2500 words or equivalent)
AND
3 Self-evaluation (500 words)
DRAMA/PERFORMANCE RESEARCH PROJECT
LEVEL 3, Semester 2. OPTION. EDPS ONLY.
This is an INDEPENDENT PROJECT: you will be allocated a supervisor and will be entitled to 5 one-hour tutorials,
AND 2-3 rehearsal observations/feedbacks (of up to an hour in each case). Prior to the tutorials, there will be two
group meetings to discuss ideas and assessment methods.
The module allows you to identify, and to focus upon in depth, an area of interest related to drama/performance
studies. You may choose to work individually or, should the work be largely practical in its nature, in a small group
(maximum 3). In this context you may choose to devise a piece of performance work, to work on the staging of a
short play text (or scenes from a longer text) or on a performance installation. Alternatively you may present a
research portfolio exploring a particular writer or practitioner. The practical work will be backed up by a detailed
research portfolio, charting the course of your project and containing clear ideas about the rehearsal methods and
process.
The project proposal must identify whether you have selected option (a) practical/written combination, and whether
group or individual or (b) individual written submission only.
Assessment:
1. Practical performance (20 - 40mins dependent upon group size) OR research seminar presentation (30 mins)
(50%)
2. Process portfolio OR Research portfolio (3000 words) (50%)
Reading lists will be formulated together with your supervisor on the basis of individual projects. A useful guide
which might inform your early thinking is :
Thomas, M ed.(2004) Practice-based research/practice as research Taylor and Francis
WRITING/PERFORMING THE CITY
(English, Drama and Performance Studies; English & Creative Writing)
Kate Adams
Level 6, Semester 2 (capped at 18)
In Writing/Performing the City, we will investigate a range of artistic material which responds to the city as an
environment, community and cultural concept and explore our experiences and perceptions of the cityscape through
creative praxis. You will have the opportunity to try new approaches and further develop your style as a writer or
performance practitioner. Some of the themes that run through the module include urban alienation, growth, decline
and decay, community and diversity, the tourist gaze, capitalism and counterculture.
You will also have the opportunity to develop techniques for presenting creative writing integrated into installation
and/or performance or to work on creating visual and experiential responses to the cityscape. The differences and
tensions between visual, oral, written and exploratory responses to the city will be considered through practical
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exploration of these approaches in focused workshops and discussion. After this series of workshops you will be
asked to work on an individual creative project which explores some aspect of the city or our experience of it.
Assessment is through a combination of essay (30%), final creative project (40%), and artist’s reflection (30%)
Sample Reading (Indicative)
Primary texts
Ballard J.G. (1975) High Rise
Banksy (2005) Wall and Piece
Forced Entertainment (1995) Nights in this City
Lang, Fritz (1927) Metropolis (film screening)
Sinclair, Ian (1991) Downriver
Secondary material
Augé M. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. London: Verso, 1995.
Blazwick, I (ed.) Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis. London: Tate Gallery, 2001.
Clarke, D. Consumer Society and the Postmodern City. London: Routledge, 2003.
De Oliveira, N. et al, Installation Art, Thames & Hudson, 1994.
Kaye, N. Site Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation, Routledge, 2000.
Mai, M Writing : urban calligraphy and beyond. Berlin: Gestalten Verlag, 2004.
Storey, J. Cultural Consumption and Everyday Life. London: Arnold, 1999.
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University-wide Language Programme
English Literature students in Level 5 and Level 6 may wish to take a foreign language module in place of one of
their usual options (excluding core modules). There is no extra fee involved for students. A language module will
carry the full twenty credits and the mark obtained will contribute (as is the case with all other modules) towards your
Level mark and, finally, your degree classification.
Some languages are taught from complete beginner’s level; others will develop students from GCSE or ‘AS’ level
standard. All will involve two hours of teaching per week.
NOTE: Because each language module has previously run as a ‘long, thin’ module across both semesters of the
academic year with assessments falling in both semesters. To accommodate this module, you must drop one of your
usual ESPaCH modules in one semester. This would mean that in one semester you will be effectively taking 2.5
modules, and in the other, 3.5 modules. It may be that the University disallows such imbalances and that no
UWLP programmes will run, so students selecting this option must be prepared for disappointment.
If you nevertheless wish to take a language option the process is simple: you should number your ESPaCH
modules, according to your preference, on your module option form in the usual way. Then, enter the name of
the language module you wish to take (including the stage) in the appropriate box on your form. You must also
specify in which semester you wish to drop an ESPaCH module in order to take the language. Provided there
are no timetabling clashes, you will take the language module in place of your least preferred ESPaCH option module
in that semester (this may not include core modules).
What language can I study?
y French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese at various levels (called “Stages”) depending on
your previous experience in the language. Or you can study English if you are a non-native speaker.
How will I learn?
y The module content is very practical, preparing you for using the language in your future career. The lower
Stages will help you cope with everyday situations abroad or when dealing with visitors to this country; the
higher Stages aim to develop your ability to use the language more widely in professional contexts.
y Class contact is 2 hours a week, plus a further hour each week of directed self study in the Language Resource
Centre (Maxwell Building).
y Assessment is by means of short, practical tests based on your coursework.
Which Stage should I join?
That will depend on what experience you already have (if any) of learning the language. As a general rule, even if you
last studied the language a long time ago, you should join the Stage that matches any qualifications you have.
For further advice, please contact us or come and visit us in Maxwell Building.
Contact Jill Aldred
University-wide Language Programme
Room 837, 8th Floor, Maxwell Building
Telephone: +44 (0)161 295 3143 (with 24 hour voicemail) / Fax: +44 (0)161 295 5335
Email Enquiries : [email protected]
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