Special Topic: Modern Poetry

This course takes a broad view of modern poetry. We begin with a selection of English and American poets identified with literary modernism, before widening our reading to encompass poets of other places and more recent eras who have responded in a variety of ways to modernist forms, techniques and preoccupations.

30 points

Any 30 points at 200 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

ENGL434

Sexualities in Culture

This course analyses representations and models of 'normal' and 'abnormal' sexuality as these occur in sexology, psychiatry, self-help psychology, cinema and popular culture, and queer activism.

30 points

Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

AMST332, CULT303, GEND307, GEND211

Crime Stories

The course addresses the usefulness and range of the crime genre as an appropriate focus for the acquisition of the skills (in research, critical analysis, and written expression) peculiar to English studies, as well as a form of social and political critique. It will particularly concentrate on the last two centuries of the representations of crime, detection, confession, and punishments, assaying major trends and preoccupations present in a range of texts and theories. Within a general contextual examination of engagements between these facets, the development of genre forms and concerns will be considered, especially because the genre often speculates the fears and desires of its time in ways that likewise shape wider perceptions of crime and punishment. Students will be expected to read a range of key material, including a small selection of novels, some short fiction, theoretical writings and visual texts that should represent differences and similarities in representation and subject choice that writers and directors negotiate.

30 points

Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

ENGL252; CULT252; CULT352

European Novels and Film Adaptations

A study of important European novels and their film adaptations.

30 points

Any 30 points at 200 level from CINE, ENGL, EURA, or RUSS, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

EULC204, EULC304, EURA204, EURA304, CINE214, RUSS215, RUSS216

The Contemporary Novel

The novelist and philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once described the experience of the contemporary as like looking out the back of a moving car: the present, glimpsed through the side windows, appears as a blur, but as one looks through the rear window the blur begins to take the forms we recognise as constituents of contemporary experience, now seen with the aid of perspective. To study the contemporary novel is to read for what the poet T.S. Eliot called the ‘pastness’ of the present, which involves reading for the ways in which the novel form has been, and will continue to be, used to question, critique, and imagine the contemporary.The course will look primarily at novels from the Twentieth Century, but will conclude with a look towards recent twenty-first century fiction.

30 points

Any 30 points at 200 level from ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

Animals in Culture

This course explores the role of imagery and narrative in producing historical and contemporary ideas about ‘animality’ and ‘speciesism’ across a range of texts and media (including mythology, fables and bestiaries; wildlife documentaries; contemporary art; graphic novels; animal biographies; online activism; social media). Students will also learn about intersectional theory and its use in the field of Critical Animal Studies.

30 points

Any 30 points at 200 level from CULT or ENGL, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

CULT335