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CHH200
Multidisciplinary Project
This module, which is compulsory for all Combined Honours students, aims to give you an introduction to the practice of independent critical and creative research. In line with the interdisciplinary nature of the degree, you will generate a research question which combines at least two humanities disciplines, then develop it into a finished project under the guidance of the module convenor.
The form that your final piece of work will take is up to you; a practice that is known as the `unessay¿. You will choose your topic and decide how you are going to present it, which means that you are free to draw on your own strengths and enthusiasms and engage in `out of the box¿ thinking that goes beyond the academic essay format. You may, for example, decide to produce a photography portfolio, write a short story, make a podcast or create an artwork. Anything and everything is acceptable so long as it engages with your research question, but must be formally agreed in advance (by Week 4 of teaching) with the module convenor. In the course of the module you will also critically reflect on the creative process of devising and completing an unessay.
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EN-112
Approaches to Gender in English Literature
The association of masculinity with the Word has dominated Western culture. In the Biblical story of Genesis, God creates Adam first, then Eve from Adam¿s rib. Women¿s ancillary role in the act of creation has persisted, leading to Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar to open their study of women and writing, The Madwoman in the Attic (1975), with the question: `Is the pen a metaphorical penis?¿. On this module, we will be looking at examples of writers who not only challenge the masculinisation of authorship, but also use their work to openly resist it. We will be reading a range of texts from a range of periods ¿ medieval, early modern, the fin de siecle and the contemporary - which open out spaces for female and queer voices within literature. In order to help them generate their own readings of these works, students will also be introduced to debates within contemporary gender theory, drawing on the work of key thinkers such as Virginia Woolf, Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler.
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EN-120
English Essentials
This is a skills-based module which will equip students with the technical and critical expertise that is necessary for their academic journey in English Literature and Creative Writing. It is designed to support the transition from post-16 study to undergraduate study and to show students *how* to become successful scholars of English. How should we read texts? How do we write essays? Focusing on an exciting anthology of texts selected by the English academics at Swansea, this team-taught module uncovers the power of written language. We will explore how writers inspire and challenge their readers, how to think critically, how to close-read, how to construct powerful arguments and how to produce written work that is rigorous, academic and convincing. This module empowers students to think, write, and persuade.
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EN-237
Exploring the Bloody Chamber: Medieval to Postmodern
This module will analyse narratives of female enclosure and gender conflict in a selection of texts from the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Our specific focus is the story of the serial wife-killer Bluebeard: we will begin by examining variants of this fairy-tale narrative before both tracing it back to its mediaeval antecedents and following its continuing presence as an influence on more contemporary texts. In the process, we will discuss theories of gender, race and class in order to account for the persistent presence of this story in Western culture.
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EN-3031
Dissertation - English Literature
The Dissertation is an optional, two-semester, 40-credit module designed to develop high-level academic skills and intellectual independence in the students. A first-semester skills-building programme will include: research skills, summary skills, bibliographic skills, ability to synthesise succinctly, planning and organisational skills, correct presentation of a thesis and bibliography, presentational skills and public speaking. Students conduct research on a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of the English literature staff. The topic will be devised to fall within staff research and teaching specialisms, broadly defined. Students attend group sessions on research skills in Semesters 1 and 2, and have individual meetings with supervisors in Semester 2.
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EN-3050
Written in Blood: Reading the Vampire
From Nosferatu to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Barney the Vampyre to the Twilight saga, the vampire is an enduring ¿ one might say persistently `un-dead¿ - presence within culture. This module builds on students¿ encounter with Bram Stoker¿s novel Dracula at Level One, and will take up the study of the literary vampire at a more advanced level. Students will be required to draw on a range of gender, cultural and critical theory in order to examine the changing face of the vampire within literature, and its apparently infinite ability to function as a vehicle for society¿s anxieties concerning sexuality, gender, race and class.
Students should note that this module has a heavy reading load, and requires participation in online as well as seminar discussion.
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EN-3053
The Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize Module
This module examines the hyper-contemporary literature longlisted on The Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize. Each week will be devoted to examining a different aspect of the shortlisting process, as well as exploring the 12 longlisted books--all of which will have been published in the previous year. In this module, students will have access to literary agents, publishers, marketers, and prize judges, all the while reading and critiquing brand new literature. These texts have not been read on a literature degree before, and this course changes year on year. It is an exciting module that differs with each cohort, and is driven by the books students like to read.
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EN-M31
Dissertation
Individual project devised and defined in discussion between supervisor and student.
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EN-M41
Research Practice in English / Contemporary Writing / Welsh Writing in English
Supervised project on research methodology in practice. Students build a detailed bibliographical plan for their MA dissertation project.
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EN-M67
Angela Carter
This module will examine the work of Angela Carter, one of the most inventive and controversial British writers of recent times. Although she was a twentieth-century author who participated fully in postmodernist debates, her texts habitually allude to fictional forms of the past, such as the fairy tale, medieval allegory and the Gothic. More problematically, her apparent admiration for the work and career of the Marquis de Sade- which motivated her to experiment with the Sadeian pornographic narrative in her own writing- seems incompatible with her claim that she was a feminist. In this module, students wil have an opportunity to study a selection of Carter's writing in depth alongside the critical debates it has initiated. Her body of work covers many different modes: accordingly, we will read a selection of novels, short stories and her little known poetry in order to develop an understanding of Carter's use of literary allusion, her feminist and political views, and her portrayal of the self and sexuality.
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EN-M89
Publishing: Cultures and Contexts
This team-taught module introduces students to different cultures and contexts of the publishing industry and its history. Students will gain both practical and intellectual skills across a range of topics taught by staff from English Literature and Creative Writing. The module begins with focused seminars on book history and print culture, and then moves on to workshops in which students will gain a familiarity with industry terminology and the mechanisms of the book trade. Students will be able to choose from different methods of assessment that develop academic or industry-focused skills.
