Dr Sally Barnden

• "I am not what I am”: Transness in English Literary Discourse, 1350-1650 (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Roberta Magnani

• A stage play exploring attitudes and prejudices towards ex-offenders. (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof David Britton

• EN-119 The Stage Play World

  The Stage Play World is an introductory module which combines an overview of performance history -- from classical Greek theatre to the present-day stage presentations -- with the development of reading and analytical skills. The module teaches students how to read and understand a stage script and then moves on to a consideration of how to analyse what is being read. The course also teaches students how to argue persuasively from that analysis. The module has been designed to emphasise the continuous development of drama, together with its links to social and historical events and to movements in other forms of art and literature. There are a number of set texts, with additional extracts that will be considered in lectures.

• 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.

• EN-241 Fragments of Union: The Cultural Making and Breaking of Britain

  The nationality question has been a persistent theme in British politics, most obviously in recent decades in relationship to questions of immigration and settlement, Britain¿s membership of Europe, the `troubles¿ and `peace process¿ in Ulster, and the resurgence of forms of devolution and nationalism in Wales and Scotland. This course explores the ways in which the diverse literatures of the British Isles have responded to, and shaped, debates around these issues. The questions asked on the course will include: How does a `four nations¿ approach, well-established in historical studies, function in literary studies? What are the key differences and similarities between the literatures produced in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales? To what extent does literature reflect social identities, and to what extent is it active in their creation? If all identities are in as sense `imagined¿, why have certain kinds of identities been significant in particular periods? Is an aesthetics informed by nationalism inevitably conservative and restrictive? Are linguistically experimental writers always skeptical of collective identities? Are we witnessing the `break up¿ of Britain in contemporary literature, or is Britishness being reconstructed anew?

• EN-242 Contentious Shakespeare

  Shakespeare is often figured as a universal writer who tells us something essential about the human condition; he has been imagined as both a national poet and the world¿s dramatist. But can Shakespeare really be universal? This module invites students to rethink many of the standard assumptions about Shakespeare. The writer Ben Jonson described as the `sweet swan of Avon¿ was also responsible for plays of horrifying violence and his drama reflects, in unsettling ways, on issues of gender, race, and class. Students will explore five controversial Shakespeare plays: The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Tempest. Lectures and seminars introduce the plays in their disturbing complexity: Shakespeare emerges as a deeply equivocal presence in literary and theatrical history. Taking into account the important work of feminist and postcolonial criticism, this module addresses both the radical potential and the frequently conservative application of Shakespeare¿s plays.

• 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.

• EN-M80 Practising Ideas: Advanced Research Skills in English / Contemporary Writing / Welsh Writing in English

  This module is designed to introduce you to key practical and conceptual tools necessary for scholarship at Master¿s level and beyond. The aim is for you to gain the competencies and confidence to complete and enjoy the degree. In a seminar and occasional workshop format, you will practise a range of core professional research skills. You will be encouraged to reflect on your own learning and academic development to become a more independent and self-directed lifelong learner. You will produce a Portfolio of assessed work. These activities will support your work in other MA modules, particularly EN-M41 Research Practice and your EN-M31 Dissertation, while also equipping you with a set of transferable skills that are highly valued by many employers.

• 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.

• VC-100 Humanities Essentials

  This module introduces students to some key philosophical themes that unite Humanities subjects while also equipping students with the technical and critical expertise that is necessary for their academic journey in the Arts and Humanities. Through a series of weekly case studies specific to Film and Visual Culture students will explore issues of representation and ideology while also learning how to research, evidence, and persuasively articulate academically informed ideas.

• VC-101 Introduction to Visual Culture

  Now, more than ever, our world is saturated with images. We create, distribute, and consume images at an unprecedented scale and pace. This module introduces students to the discipline of Visual Culture and equips them with empowering skills of visual interpretation and contextualisation. We begin by thinking about what an image is and what role representations play in our understanding of ourselves and others. You will study a wide range of material including painting, prints, photography, film, video games, social media and architecture. In doing so you will consider how the discipline of Visual Culture connects with the related fields of Film Studies and Art History. Throughout, we question the relationship between looking, knowing, and dynamics of power.

• VC-102 Visuality and Embodiment

  In this module students explore the relationship between environment, embodiment, and vision. We study a range of different environments and think about how their visual design shapes experience. We begin by critiquing ingrained assumptions about what constitutes physiologically `normal¿ sight, and we work towards an understanding of visual diversity, visual impairments, and a problematic existence of a hierarchy of the senses. This foundation informs the rest of the module which is organised into three sections: landscapes, nightscapes, and cityscapes. From picturesque parks to apocalyptic spectacles, we explore examples of how the natural environment has been framed as a landscape for our visual consumption. Then we consider the relationship between light and sight as we think about the visuality of night, light pollution, and light festivals and lighting decorations. The module concludes by examining two contrasting modes of visuality in the city: the art gallery and street art. The former, an institution possessing a history of elite practices of visual consumption, and the latter, a counter-culture activity of rebellious creativity. Much of the learning on this module strives to be active and embodied and therefore occurs beyond the seminar room. For example, we walk, look, and learn in the setting of Swansea¿s beautiful Singleton Park as we think about the cultural history of public parks and botanical collecting. To help us understand and critique hierarchies of art we visit the Glynn Vivian Art gallery in Swansea, and we take a trip to see Bristol¿s internationally renowned murals created during the annual street art festival Upfest.

Sally’s recent public engagement activities include a public talk at Shakespeare’s Globe titled ‘What beast was’t then? A Macbeth bestiary’ for the Macbeth study day. As part of the ‘Shakespeare in the Royal Collection’ project she co-created a virtual exhibition and an open-access database.