This unit develops a critical history of modern drama from its roots in the nineteenth century and its legacy in a selection of contemporary play texts. The unit situates developments in dramatic theory and practice alongside dominant social and intellectual trends of the past century (political tyranny/liberation, class structure, women's emancipation, censorship, technological change, the rise of global capital). Students will critically evaluate dramatic texts and performance using a variety of theoretical frameworks.

This core unit introduces students to a variety of critical approaches to literature from the eighteenth century to the present. It asks a number of questions basic to the study and understanding of literature. What does it mean to read a text critically? What roles do critical and theoretical perspectives play in our understanding of literary texts? In addition to developing critical and theoretical literacy, the unit will examine how such strategies may be brought to bear on reading literary texts and whether they are effective and/or appropriate in specific cases.

How do literary texts relate to history? When we divide time into different periods, what are the implications for interpretation? Focusing on one or two literary periods, this unit introduces students to historicist literary criticism, developing skills in relating literature to historical context. We read key texts from the designated period(s), conduct research into appropriate archives (including online databases), and identify the theoretical questions that underpin those investigations.

Students will familiarise themselves with critical approaches to a range of literary works written throughout the world in the English language, and they will critically examine ways in which theories of globalization and place have come to inflect paradigms of local and national identity.

In this unit students will critically examine significant theoretical definitions of and debates about genre through time. They will apply an advanced understanding of genres (or 'kinds' or 'forms') to representative and problematic texts in order to develop a deep appreciation of the function, limitations and transformations of genre in literature. The complex relationship between formal properties, creativity and historical context will be explored.

In addition to writing distinctive short stories and novels, Henry James was a voluminous critic whose writings on the art of fiction have shaped modern approaches to the novel. In this unit, we take a chronological approach, reading selections from James's critical writings alongside his novels and tales to compare the author's evolving theory of fiction with his practice of it. Matters of special interest include Anglo-American literary culture; strategies of characterisation and narration; experiments in literary style; the purpose of criticism; and the ethics of representation.

The unit explores important works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the contexts of late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century England. The unit will analyse the texts and authors in relation to one another to uncover key discourses of the period relating to politics, humanism, drama, poetry, gender and genre. Students will gain valuable insights into the literary and cultural richness of the period and come to a deeper understanding of Shakespeare's relevance and significance in his day.

The English novel emerged as a distinct genre in the eighteenth century. This unit investigates its development and circulation, analysing novels that have since been canonised as well as material usually excluded from the story of the novel's rise. We aim at a more complex understanding of the novel as a historical genre as well as the roots of its contemporary appeal.

This unit will further develop your understanding of how creative writing connects with major scholarly and critical debates in literary and cultural theory. Focusing in particular on writers whose work is both creative and theoretical, the unit will examine: theories of authorship; the history of the book; the ethics and politics of writing; aesthetic hierarchy and value; close and distant reading; form, genre and style; writing, sex and embodiment.

This unit explores selected works of Shakespeare in the historical context of the 20th and 21st centuries. It provides an introduction to the modern Shakespeare industry with particular focus on recent developments in theatrical performance, film, and other adaptations, and theoretical approaches. Detailed attention will be paid to both the texts of the plays and to their modern manifestations.

The American South is frequently conceived as the Problem South defined by its experiences of military defeat and occupation economic backwardness and a brutal slave legacy In this unit we will investigate the idea of the South in a range of literary and visual texts by examining its most compelling tropes the southern belle poor whites the plantation to contemplate the regions fundamental importance to conceptions of the nation itself and the value of thinking regionally

Old English - the ancestor of Modern English - was the language of England from the fifth century until the twelfth. Literature written in Old English includes the epic Beowulf beside a rich variety of other poetry, as well as historical texts. This unit introduces students to the language of the Anglo-Saxons through the study of Old English texts.

This course explores twentieth century attempts to understand the relation of language and linguistic meaning to the individual subject. We will consider two traditions: a 'naturalistic' approach centred around Chomsky's 'generative enterprise', and the phenomenological/hermeneutic tradition in Merleau-Ponty and Gadamer. Students will familiarise themselves with various putatively scientific attempts to understand the place of language in the world and will explore some general features of the relation between meaning and experience. No prior acquaintance with these fields is assumed.

This unit involves research towards and preliminary writing of an Honours thesis of 15000 words, in collaboration with a supervisor approved by the English Honours Coordinator.

In this unit you complete your substantial, independent research project in English. Regular meetings with a supervisor approved by the English Honours Coordinator will guide your progress. You will continue to submit drafts at agreed times and develop your expertise in relevant research methods and analytical skills as well as in the subject matter of your specialist topic.