BA (Hons) English Bachelor's degree at the University of Derby

This module aims to introduce some of the fundamental concepts of literary criticism, enabling you to put these into practice in the analysis of texts. It will encourage the critical examination of seemingly ‘natural’ assumptions about the nature of language, of meaning, and of interpretation. It will also acquaint you with the methodology and terminology which underpins current critical practices while building your analytical skills. Through this focus on skills the module will encourage you to reflect on your personal development, and to begin the process of linking your academic studies to your future goals. Assessment is by two pieces of coursework.

Assessment: Coursework

This module builds a critical understanding of literature from the Enlightenment era. You will examine a selection of English and European texts that will allow you to explore the major narrative genres of poetry, drama, fiction, and prose. In the course of the module, you will study the modes of narrative transmission of the period and identify a range of formal features, such as point of view, characterisation, and setting. You will also study some of the major literary trends, for example, epistolary writing, neoclassicism, sensibility, and satire, as well as literary representations of the period’s concerns and issues, such as education, science, industrial progression, and feminism. You

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The English Literary Renaissance, in the context of the spiritual and cultural upheaval of the Reformation and the development of Humanism, produced some of the most significant achievements in English literature. This module will introduce you to a range of drama, poetry and prose from this critical and tumultuous period. We will study the sonnet form as well as the dramatic innovations of late Elizabethan comedy and tragedy. In this way, some key works by Shakespeare will be considered alongside those of other influential poets, dramatists and prose stylists of his age. Assessment is by two coursework essays.

Assessment: Coursework

Focusing on the genres of the gothic, horror and science fiction, this module will explore representations of nonhuman ‘others’ in the literature and cinema of the fantastic. In examining this perennially popular area of culture, we will consider the ways in which cultural anxieties concerning the mind, the body, gender, race and technology are articulated in fantasy; we will also investigate the ways in which ideas of what constitutes the human have continually changed, and the ways in which these changes have been represented in fiction. From ghosts and vampires to cyborgs and aliens, we will consider a range of texts in the light of theoretical models drawn from such fields as psychoanaly

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

World Literatures in English is a transnational and cross-period module that will introduce you to important works of fiction, poetry and drama from across the globe, including texts written originally in English and some in translation. In addition to literature of the Americas, a range of writings by authors of formerly colonised and enslaved communities in areas such as Africa, Australia, India, and the Caribbean will be examined in relation to colonisation, slavery and the changing historical and cultural context of migration. We will also consider the effects of postmodernism and globalisation with reference to contemporary fictions, including potentially those of the far East. The stud

Assessment: Coursework

This module introduces key analytical models and methods in linguistics, providing you with the concepts and terminology for describing language from the smallest sound segments through word formation, to phrase structure and sentence structure. You will learn to use this terminology with precision, as well as looking at examples of language which present difficulties for analysis. This will enable you to practise a key research procedure in linguistics, which is to hypothesise, test and look for counter examples as a way of improving on existing models and theories of language. In addition to learning to describe the phonology and syntax of English, you will learn about approaches to word m

Assessment: Coursework

This module will introduce you to some of the key figures and concepts which inform current critical practice, and acquaint you with the terminology and discourses which constitute that practice. The focus is upon poststructuralist approaches to literature and culture, and we will thus be discussing ideas which have developed from linguistics, psychoanalysis, Marxism, postmodernism, gender studies and post-colonialism, in relation to specific textual examples. We will also consider subsequent developments ‘post-Theory’. Assessment is by two coursework essays.

Assessment: Coursework

This module is an exploration of the British and European realist novel in the nineteenth century. You will study a selection of key texts and consider their wider cultural and socio/historical themes and issues. In the course of the module, you will also examine the narrative modes and generic conventions relating to realism. Assessment is by coursework and seminar participation, including a presentation and engagement in discussion.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This module will enable you to undertake a piece of collaborative research, culminating in the writing and delivery of a conference paper. You will contribute to the publicity for the conference through a variety of formats, which may include posters, leaflets, and websites. The module will develop your research skills as well as highlighting other essential transferable skills, such as team work and public speaking ability, thus enhancing your employability. The module will also require you to reflect on your own personal development.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This module is designed to develop your research skills and to apply them to different contexts. It will provide an advanced understanding of research methodologies and to consider different ways in which scholars undertake research. It will then enable you to put these skills into practice into two different contexts. The first of these is a short, group, applied research project, based upon a brief from an external partner. You will then produce an extended piece of academic writing based upon an individually devised research question. The module will encourage you to think about how research skills are transferable beyond university and prepare you for the greater emphasis on independent

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This module will address the seismic cultural changes which have been drawn together under the umbrella term of ‘Modernism’. Roughly corresponding to the period from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War, Modernism embodied a decisive change in approaches to literature: modernist novelists such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce moved away from realist narrative conventions and experimented with form; Modernist poets such as T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound introduced a fragmented and allusive style of poetry whose impact remains significant today. In the course of this module, you will study some significant modernist writings in their intellectual and historical contexts; we will al

Assessment: Coursework

The Romantic era in British Literature – approximately the half century between 1780 and 1830 – was an especially rich one in the history of British poetry as well as being a period of great historical change and artistic innovation. This module aims to familiarise you with the key achievements of a number of important late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century British poets. The period was one of social and political upheaval, as a consequence of (for example) the impact of the French Revolution and the long war with revolutionary, and then Napoleonic, France; the agitation for Parliamentary reform and political rights; the movement to abolish the slave trade and slavery in the British co

Assessment: Coursework

On this module, you will be introduced to the theories and models of variationist linguistics. You will consider the factors that influence language variation, and you will learn to use the methodologies that have been developed to observe, analyse and interpret it. There will be a particular focus on regional and social variation as well as contemporary varieties of English.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This module will introduce you to a body of work which argues that that language and discourse interact with ideology, shaping our experiences and identities, representing events in certain ways, empowering certain groups and disempowering others, and reflecting, constituting and reinforcing existing hierarchies. On the module, you will be shown how these approaches work by applying theoretical material and analytical models to examples of language in use in interpersonal, social, media and institutional settings.

Assessment: Coursework

This module forms part of the placement year typically completed between the second and final stage of a degree programme. The module provides a framework for the development of reflective skills appropriate to all areas of professional practice including for example aspects of problem solving such as objective setting, planning, negotiating, demonstrating, and reflecting. The emphasis in this module is on the analysis and evaluation of work completed within the organisation and future employability planning. During the module students will develop a reflective portfolio where they record the skills, knowledge and experience developed during the placement experience and evaluate how this wil

Assessment: Coursework

This double module, extending over two semesters, aims to facilitate your undertaking a piece of independently researched work, on a subject area generated by you in negotiation with a designated supervisor. The topic will be theoretically-based, in depth, and will extend your understanding, skills, and analyses developed through the first two years of the programme. Your approach in terms of research methodology, theoretical basis and level of engagement will reflect the increased intellectual sophistication of the subject at Level Six. The varying skills accrued in this module will prove essential to your future employability and personal development, as well as providing an excellent fram

Assessment: Coursework

This module provides you with an opportunity to experience working in a cultural, creative, arts, heritage or related organisation and to develop valuable academic and transferable skills. The main focus is to negotiate and conduct a work-based project with an employer or other outside body. This might be a museum or gallery, a cinema or theatre, a radio or TV station, or an educational establishment, for example. It allows you to bring your academic skills to an organisation, to complete a project that would be useful to them (and, in many cases, the wider community), and gives you the opportunity to gain valuable work experience relevant to your chosen career path.

Assessment: Coursework

This module will examine the legacies of modernism, with particular reference to the French philosophical and literary movement known as Existentialism and the subsequent development of postmodernism. In relation to a diverse range of innovative and subversive works of literature, we will consider in depth existentialist notions of responsibility, bad faith, freedom and the absurd as well as postmodern ideas concerning the fictional nature of ‘reality’. Therefore, as well as engaging with major British, European and American writers of the twentieth century, we will consider concurrent developments in film, visual art, theory and philosophy. Assessment is by coursework and seminar participat

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The module aims to explore the effects of colonialism and independence on both the coloniser and the colonised through the study of literary texts and post-colonial theoretical debate. It will concentrate on modes of representation, and will concern itself with the interdependent images of the colonial encounter at moments on both sides of the advent of independence. A range of concepts including the colonial encounter, creolisation, and hybridity will be discussed. Attention will be paid primarily o the British colonial (ad-venture) in India, Africa,and the Caribbean. The broad historical-geographical base is intended to enable you to examine and apply theories concerning representation and

Assessment: Coursework

The Eighteenth Century was a crucial era in the development of ‘modern’ ideas about society, politics, literature, and the self. This module gives you the opportunity to study in depth one aspect of the literary culture of the eighteenth century. The narrow focus will allow you to become familiar with the historical contexts and generic conventions relevant to the topic of the module. Through the detailed study of one topic or issue, we will aim to gain critical insight into eighteenth-century intellectual life more broadly. To broaden your perspective of the era, you will also engage with the analysis and evaluation of the visual image in terms of art and of cultural documents. Assessment i

Assessment: Coursework

This module aims to introduce you to a selection of contemporary texts dealing with the complex problematics of identity and, more specifically, its unique relationship to gender. You will also study key developments in form and current critical and theoretical and contextual debates surrounding the subject. Assessment is by coursework and seminar participation, including a presentation and engagement in discussion.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

In this module, you will read widely in modern and contemporary poetry in order to gain some understanding and appreciation of the range of poetry currently practised in the English speaking world. We will consider the way in which poetry evolves out of a conversation with other poems (tradition) out of a dialogue with other media, and out of a response to contemporary life and its philosophical traditions. The module emphasises the close link between a careful and attuned reading and appreciative critical writing, and you will have opportunity through seminar discussions to familiarise yourself with the poetic techniques and formal effects that underpin modern experimental poetry. At the sa

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The module aims to nurture your ability to read a wide range of contemporary dramatic texts more pleasurably and critically. It is organised around issues of intercultural performance, self-awareness, self-determination, resistance, and identity through the study of South African theatre in the apartheid era, West European, African and Caribbean theatre. Your study will include the analysis of wide ranging performances, dramatic texts and film/video/dvd recordings of African, Western European and Caribbean theatre. You will consider aesthetic, historical and socio-political contexts which produce this theatre, and the role of the dramatist as a voice of the community. The module also looks a

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This interdisciplinary module will engage with a number of literary and cinematic representations of crime and transgressive behaviour, in the context of a range of historical factors and critical-theoretical perspectives. Beginning with Thomas de Quincey’s mischievous plea for murder to be considered as one of the fine arts, we will discuss texts chosen from a range of genres, chiefly drawing on British, European and American writings. As well as examining the origins of the detective story and the significance of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, emphasis will be placed on the figure of the criminal as existential (anti-) hero and the separation of aesthetics from morality. Assessment is

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

Often regarded as the most profound of literary genres, tragedy stages conflicts between desire and law, individuals and institutions, human beings and inhuman demands. Beginning in Ancient Greece, the form evolved significantly during the Renaissance and is synonymous with Shakespeare’s greatest works. This module will examine tragedy and the tragic in plays from Classical Greece and Renaissance England, taking in some of Shakespeare’s major tragedies as well as the bloody revenge dramas of the Jacobean age. It will address, too, the rich critical and theoretical heritage which has grown out of a recurrent and widespread fascination with this bleak, often grim, but compelling and cathartic

Assessment: Coursework

The module will introduce and develop your understanding of a range of current approaches in the area of psycholinguistics. The module covers a range of psycholinguistic theories and models, and you will learn how these theories and models are developed and refined through evidence and experimental methodologies.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This module will introduce you to the diversity of varieties of English across the world. You will consider these varieties from a sociolinguistic perspective as well as learning about their histories and political and practical implications.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical