SScchhooooll ooff HHuummaanniittiieess,, LLaanngguuaaggeess aanndd SSoocciiaall SScciieenncceess MODULE OPTION BOOKLET ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing LEVEL 5 ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ Academic Year 2012‐2013 1 Contents NOTES ON THE BOOKLET .......................................................................... 2 MODULES: SEMESTER 1 ............................................................................ 3 MODULES: SEMESTER 2…………. ................................................................. 9 UNIVERSITY WIDE LANGUAGE PROGRAMME .......................................... 15 Notes on the Booklet All undergraduate students currently in Level 4 and Level 5 must now choose their module options for next year. This booklet gives you a brief description of the modules which are given in level, semester and then alphabetical order. The list of modules available to your particular programme of study is given on the particular programme option form. Please make sure that you use the correct form. Hand in your completed option form to the HULSS School office by the time stipulated. 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, 27 APRIL 2012 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 2012‐13 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. Students select three creative writing modules and three literature module over the two semesters. Students must select one core English literature module during the course of Level 5 and 6. They can also select other core English literature modules as options. 2 SEMESTER ONE CREATIVE WRITING MODULES WRITING FOR PERFORMANCE (30654) Jennifer Tuckett Level 5, Semester 1 CAPPED at 40 This module offers the opportunity to explore writing for the BBC, particularly in terms of radio writing this year. You will work with your professional scriptwriting tutor and your peers to produce a radio play, ready to be submitted for potential professional production to the BBC. Radio is a form that is very open to new writers ‐ around 50% of all radio plays produced by the BBC are by writers new to radio and many writers begin working with the BBC in radio prior to moving on to film and television. This module builds on last year’s Write by the Quays project via which 6 University of Salford students saw their work produced by the BBC. Texts discussed on this module include: Examples of radio plays can be found on the BBC Writersroom website – www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom Assessment: The module will be assessed by a scene outline (30%); creative piece of work (70%) PLAYWRITING (33067) Jennifer Tuckett Level 5, Semester 1 CAPPED at 20 This module offers a unique opportunity to work with one of the UK's leading theatres, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, via their new playwriting programme Repwrites. You will have a chance to work with a professional playwright as your tutor and explore how to write a brilliant full length play, working with your peers, the theatre industry, and your tutor on this project, which will potentially lead to a professional production. Playwriting is an industry that is very open to new writers and has begun the careers of many of today's leading writers in theatre, television, film, radio and fiction ‐ students on this module have gone on to work with some of the UK's leading theatres, including the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, the Octagon Theatre in Bolton and the BBC. Assessment: The module will be assessed by a scene outline (20%); creative piece of work (80%) WRITING FICTION: CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE (25151) Ursula Hurley Level 5, Semester 1 CAPPED at 20 This module aims to equip you with an overview of the state of contemporary fiction, exploring the opportunities and choices available to emerging writers. We will survey a broad range of contemporary practice, from literary fiction to experimental fiction and genre fiction, including ‘chick lit’, historical fiction, crime/thrillers, science fiction, and supernatural/fantasy fiction. Via this survey we will continue to develop your ‘writer’s tool‐kit’, adding to the skill and sophistication with which you employ techniques such as point of view, narrative drive, setting, character and dialogue. You will also receive tuition in how the publishing industry works, and the skills that a professional writer needs to acquire. Work submitted for assessment may vary in form. You may choose to develop a series of shorter pieces, 3 or to submit an extract from a longer piece. The possibilities of multi‐media presentation will be explored, so submissions may not necessarily be paper based. Students are encouraged to present their own selection of texts for workshop discussion, but the following texts are indicative of what we will cover: Writing Craft Burroway, Janet and Stuckey‐French, Elizabeth. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (7th Edition) (Pearson Longman: London, 2006). Graham, Robert (ed.). How to Write Fiction (and Think About It )(Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2007). Smith, Hazel .The Writing Experiment : strategies for innovative creative writing, 2005 (Allen & Unwin). Contemporary novels Atwood, Margaret. The Year of the Flood, 2009 (Bloomsbury: London) Auster, Paul. Invisible, 2010 (Faber & Faber: London) Winterson, Jeanette. The PowerBook, 2001 (London: Vintage) Assessment: The module will be assessed by a 1000 word Reflection on Drafting Process (inc annotated bibliography) (25%) and a 2500 word piece of short fiction, a series of shorter fictions, or a novel extract (inc 3 pieces of evidence documenting engagement with contemporary practice e.g. drafts, journal excerpt, visiting writer review, field trip report) (75%). Submissions will depend upon the interests of the individual student, and are subject to negotiation with the module tutor. ENGLISH MODULES THE ROMANTIC PERIOD ((18677) Dr Deaglán O'Donghaile Level 5, Semester 1 The Romantic period (c. 1780‐1820) was a time of revolution when radical writers began to argue for the natural rights of mankind. Following the American and French Revolutions, there were debates in print over the rights of man, woman, slaves, religious dissenters, Catholics, and animals. It was a time when poets experimented with new literary forms and styles, the novel began to emerge as a recognisable genre, and plays were popular. The ‘spirit of the age’ newly discovered nature, the sublime, childhood, nationhood, empire, the self, and the gothic. This module will consider these themes within their historical and cultural context, paying close attention to the language of the texts themselves. Primary Reading List: Duncan Wu, ed. Romanticism: An Anthology, 3rd edn. (Blackwell, 2006) William Godwin, Caleb Williams (1794), ed. Gary Handwerk & Arnold Markley (Broadview Press, 2000) Joanna Baillie, De Monfort (1798), ed. Peter Duthie (Broadview Press, 2000) Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811), ed. Ros Ballaster (Penguin, 2005) Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, ed. Douglas Grant (OUP, 2008) James Hogg, Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, ed. Karl Miller (Penguin, 2006) 4 It is advisable that you read the novels on this module in advance of the module. The poetry is found in Romanticism: An Anthology. You may also find Sharon Ruston’s student guidebook useful: Romanticism: Introductions to British Literature and Culture (Continuum, 2007). Assessment: One 2000 word close reading essay, (40% of final mark), and a two‐hour examination (60% of final mark). BRITISH WRITERS AND POPULAR CULTURE from the 1930s to 1980s (27552) Dr Ben Harker Level 5, Semester 1 This module will explore some of the ways in which British writers and intellectuals have represented and engaged with popular culture over a fifty‐year period. We will be analysing the histories and meanings of terms such as ‘culture’, ‘popular culture’, ‘mass culture’, ‘highbrow’ and ‘literary’. These terms will be used to frame analysis of a wide range of texts including novels, essays, poems, television programmes, films and plays. Throughout the course we will be keeping a close eye on the period’s shifting historical and political contexts; questions around class, gender, sexuality and national identity will be at the forefront of our enquiries. Set texts (likely to include most of the following): Novels: Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932; London: Vintage, 2003) Graham Greene, Brighton Rock (1938; London: Vintage, 2004) Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts (1941: London: Penguin, 2000) Colin MacInnes, Absolute Beginners (1959; London: Allison and Busby, 2001).